Math Game for Kids: Tens Go Fish
One day my neighbor asked me to print out her son’s homework assignments (They get their homework via a school website! Does your school do this?) and Kiddo decided he needed copies of the math homework so he could do it to! It included this great game called “Tens Go Fish”.
How to Play:
You need:
A deck of cards with all face cards removed (so you have 4 cards each of numbers 1-10).
Rules:
- Each player is dealt 5 cards. The remaining cards are stacked, face down, as the “Go Fish” pile.
- Each player looks for pairs from his card with the sum of 10. They place pairs in front of them on the table and draw new cards to replace them.
- Players take turns asking each other for a card that will make 10 with a card in their own hands. For example, if I hold a 5, 3, 2, 4, 9, I might ask for a 5 so I can “make 10” and place the pair on the table.
- If a player gets the card he asked for, he puts the pair down on the table and picks a new card from the deck, but if he does not get the card the player must “Go Fish” and pick a new card from the deck. If the new card from the deck makes 10 with a card in the player’s hand, he or she puts the pair of cards down and takes another card.
- If a player runs out of cards, he picks two new cards. A player’s turn is over when no more pairs can be made that make 10.
- The game is over when there are no more cards, or no more pairs can be made.
Variations:
1. Designate 4 face cards as “wild cards” which when drawn can be any value the holder of the card decides to give it.
2. For extra math practice, have players record their pair combinations as they go along.
More fun math games:
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Raising a Happy Child says
June 12, 2012 at 9:53 pmNice game! I wish we could get homework like this. Is school still in in NYC? We are out for the summer already!
Jamie @ The Unlikely Homeschool says
June 21, 2012 at 2:46 amI am one of the co-hosts of the Weekly Kid's Co-op Linky. I have chosen this post as one of my Top 3 and will be featuring it at as the intro to my linky tomorrow. You can have a look at http://www.theunlikelyhomeschool.com.
Joan J says
February 22, 2013 at 4:13 pmI know you posted this awhile ago, but just saw it on Pinterest today. I do homework with my first grader grandson every afternoon, and have noticed that his math skills have actually gone down. This is going to be a fun way to re-enforce those skills he had at the beginning of the school year! Thanks for posting this.
MomandKiddo says
February 22, 2013 at 5:20 pmThanks, Joan. I always love comments, even on old posts! I hope you both have fun with this game.
Brandy says
June 5, 2013 at 7:38 pmWhat if you have a number 10 card in your hand? Then you don’t need a pair and you just lay down one card?
Erica MomandKiddo says
June 5, 2013 at 7:59 pmHa – good question, Brandy! That’s what we did, but you could also remove the 10s before playing.
Sarah says
February 15, 2018 at 9:11 amI’d love to know where you got, or what brand, the playing cards in the photo are. I have a 7 year old who would love them!
Erica says
February 16, 2018 at 4:42 pmI believe they were made by Mudpuppy, but I don’t think they make them anymore! Peaceable Kingdom makes a different style of solar system playing cards: http://amzn.to/2EztulB And these NASA ones are cool: http://amzn.to/2GkI7Wa
Sarah says
February 17, 2018 at 8:52 amThank you! I saw the Peaceable Kingdom ones on Amazon. I’m in Canada, and they are crazy expensive on the “.ca” Amazon site. I’ll keep my eyes open at our local toy/ games stores.