Crossing The Swamp!

I came across this game on Twitter this week and tried it with the kids at my school this week with amazing success.

Too good not to share, and many thanks to James Russo @surfmaths

Focuses on the part-whole idea and developing addition strategies. All you need are playing cards.

We were able to discuss and identify a number of strategies for adding numbers and methods for doing it with greater efficiency.

All in all, a great activity for all levels!!

Crossing The Swamp

Materials:

· Playing cards. K, Q, J removed. A = 1

To Play:

Remove the K, Q and J from the deck and set aside.

Place the 8, 9 and 10 cards in a pile and shuffle. This becomes the Target Pile.

Place 9 of the cards from the A - 7 pile into a 3 x 3 grid on the table face up as shown.

Place the remaining A – 7 cards face down in a pile beside the grid.

This is the Swap Pile

Player 1 turns over the top card from the Target Pile.

Player 1 has to find a pathway through the ‘Swamp’ to the other side. The cards must add up to the Target card (in this case, 9)

Player 1 must select 1 card from the top row, one from the middle, and one from the bottom row. Moves can be in straight lines or diagonal, but not side to side.

One card from each row is selected.

Eg 7 + 4 + A = 11 3 + 4 + 5 = 12 7 + A + A = 9 - Success!!

Player 1 has found a pathway through the Swamp, so collects the No.9 card.

Player 2 turns over a new Target Card from the pile. It will be an 8, 9, or 10

They now try and find a pathway through the swamp.

If successful, they collect the Target card, and it is back to Player 1.

If players cannot come up with any combination to make the Target card, they can take a card from the Swap Pile and place it face up on top of any of the cards in the grid. Eg They might pick up a 2 and place it on top of the 7

The play moves to the other Player after the new card is introduced.

Keep playing until all Target cards have been used.

Try to win as many Target cards as you can.

Other Options…

· Include the K, Q and J. Give them values eg J = 11, Q = 12, K = 13 etc)

· Give them values up to 20

· Rather than just addition, use other operations in conjunction with each other

eg 2 x 3 + 7 = 13

· Use a 4 x 4 grid

· If Player 1 feels they cannot see a path, and want to do a swap, but Player 2 can see a path, they can have their turn instead of the Swap card being introduced.

I found this game to be achievable by all of the children we had at school on this day. There was a mixture of kids from Gr 1 to Gr 6 and they could all play it as we were able to modify it to suit their ages and abilities.

Importantly, they came up with further suggestions for the game which were just brilliant.

By playing with them, rather than just observing them, it gave us greater insights into their thinking and evidence that can be used in their school reports and assessments.

I hope you have as much success with this activity as we did!!