Balancing Act

So, my teammate/friend's junior intern, Kristin Hatt, came to me today to show me this fabulous math idea! It uses playing cards - so of course, I thought to myself...DUH! Why didn't I think of this?? I use cards for EVERYTHING! lol. So, of course I had to run home and make my versions of it in addition AND subtraction...what can i say??? I LOVE cute clip art and cute font...lol.


What you'll need is a deck of cards for each student or group of students. If you don't have a plethora of decks of cards, let me tell you how I got all of mine....do you have a place that plays poker in your area??? We have a dog track and we have casino boats. ANYWAY, every so often (ok - VERY OFTEN), they have to discard their deck of cards...they can't use them anymore. They mark them and put them in a box (to do what with? I don't exactly know). But I DO know that if you call them and ask if they have any decks of cards that they have discarded that they can donate to you (a poor classroom teacher) to use for instructional purposes, they will most likely have some to donate to you (ok, when I did this, we got like 100 decks of cards!! Enough for our entire team!). 

How to play: Flip over 3 cards and put them in boxes 1-3 (if you are doing the subtraction one, you'll have to make sure to put the 2 biggest cards in the 1 and 3 box).  Then the students need to figure out what number would go in box #4 to "balance" the equation. Finding out what boxes 1 and 2 equal first *might* help them figure out what would go in box 4....might...you never know! lol!
Click {HERE} to get this page....

P.S....I would do this in centers and put these in plastic sleeves and then have the students use vis-a-vis markers. 

AND {HERE}is one in multiplication for you older grades :)



Let me know what you think - and I will surely pass it on to her! I'm sure, as an intern, she would LOVE to hear if teachers like her idea...I mean, don't we all like to hear that?? No matter how long we've been teaching?? lol

Click {HERE} to see more math activities from others!


Happy Teaching!

11 comments

Cindy said...

Love it!! ;) Tell her it's a GREAT idea!
And thanks for posting at Math Monday. :)
Cindy @ love2learn2day

Cindy said...

P.S. Cards are also at dollar stores.

P.P.S. And check out this idea for using cards to call on kids:

http://www.mathlearningcenter.org/resources/blog/201111/craft-sticks-playing-cards-and-student-participation

Unknown said...

Love these mats! I'm going to start using them during "game time" in my classroom. We play some games in my 8th grade class called Integer Flip and this would work well with them. Red cards are negative and black are positive so an extra little added step to make it even higher.

Delighted said...

I'm loving this idea! My kiddo's love playing with cards!

First Grade Delight
imgoingfirst@gmail.com

Deb said...

This is going into my math rotations this week! LOVE!!!!

Thanks!

Oh My Little Classity Class

Jen R said...

I'm so glad y'all like it! And how cool to use with positive and negative integers!
Deb - hope your kids like it next week! :)

Zina :: Let's Lasso the Moon said...

What a great idea. Love it. Thanks for sharing!

The girl who painted trees said...

Thank you for sharing!

Emily said...

I found this in a totally unrelated, random search for clip art. So glad I did! Love it! =)

Emily
Second Grade Silliness 

Kristin Engbrecht said...

Would you mind if I share your Balancing Act mats with 3rd grade teachers in my district? It would be a great supplement to add to our curriculum.
Kristin

Darren Demers said...

Would you mind if I share your Balancing Act mats with 3rd grade teachers in my district? It would be a great supplement to add to our curriculum. jaipur cotton bed sheets online , bridal bed sheets ,

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