Going Up Stairs
Math Concepts
Counting and order to 20
Materials
Paper, deck of playing cards
Players
2+
Set up
Each player draws a staircase with 6 steps.
Play
Create a number using Number Cards numbered from 0 to 9 (queens can be 0). The first selection will be from the cards 0 to 1, and this is the tens digit. Then randomly select a card from all the cards for the ones digit. The two digits together form a number from 0 to 19. If possible, the player must place this number on their steps.
Goal
The first player to fill their steps in increasing order from bottom to top wins.
Example move
For the example above, if 15 is the random number, this player would not be able to use it. If 11 is the random number, then it would go between 4 and 13.
Discussion and Traits
Discuss good strategies for placing numbers. In the given example, putting 4 on the second step may have been a mistake- the player might end up waiting a while to get 0, 1, 2, or 3.
Variations
Use fewer steps for younger children, more steps for older children.
Use a larger range of numbers, such as 0 to 39 or even 0 to 99, for older children. For younger children, you could even use 0 to 9 with three or four steps.
Make it easier by allowing neighboring steps to have the same value.
Make this a Kindergarten activity by using the numbers from 1 to 10 and perhaps using ten-frame cards.