Games for Educators

Math Concepts

Counting, small quantities

Materials

Deck of playing cards

Players

2+

Set up

Remove all face cards and any cards above the highest number your students are comfortable with. Use Number Card decks if you have them. If there are more than two players and you have restricted the numbers significantly, you may need to use several decks. Deal 5 cards to each player and put the remaining cards in a common draw pile.

Play

During a turn, a player “fishes” by asking any player if they have a card matching one of their cards– if they do, they hand over the card; if they don’t, they say “Go Fish!” and the player must pick a card from the draw pile. If the drawn card matches with a card they have, the player may have another turn; otherwise, the turn is over and play continues to the left.

When a player has a pair of matching cards, those cards are placed in a “book” in front of them. The game is over after all the cards have been put into books.

Goal

The player with the most books wins.