STAR TEN Cards

Students learn that 10 is the STAR of our number system as they play with a deck of STAR TEN © cards. Instead of hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds, these cards have Ten Frames, Tally Marks, Rainbow Numbers ©, and Dot Cards! No queens, kings, aces or jacks, only ALL the digits that make up our entire number system… 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and the STAR number 10! Every star has 10 sides, so the top of each card in the deck has a star and the number ten on it. Children can play war, go fish, and odd man out. In playing these games, they will build number sense. Skills in counting, identifying numbers, comparing numbers and ordering numbers will increase with these traditional games. Blank cards are included so children can use dry erase markers to draw a favorite digit to include in the deck.

Directions for STAR 10 Cards ©

Note: These STAR 10 Cards and Rainbow Numbers© are copyrighted and patent pending from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. You may make a set of your own for classroom use but may not sell them. You may contact Learning by Design if you are interested in purchasing sets of cards. www.playequals.com

There are four types of numbers in the STAR 10 Cards:

Rainbow Numbers (0-10)

Tally Marks (0-10)

Dot Cards (0-10)

Five and Ten Frames (0-10)

There is also a set of blank cards so that students can draw representations of their own and include them in the deck.

There is an “odd man out” card.

How to make a set:

The STAR with the 10 inside of it goes on the front of each card. On the back, each digit, including all four types of numbers (rainbow numbers, dot cards, five/ten frames, and tally marks) should be glued to the face card in the opposite direction and then laminated and cut out. 11 of the cards are blank on the back so that students can draw a representation of their own.

Activities and Games to Play:

Go Fish: Shuffle the deck and give each player 7 random cards. Place the remaining cards facedown in a deck. The players look at their cards privately. If they have any cards that match (represent the same number), they can show the group, remove the pair, and set them aside. The players take turns asking other players if they have a particular card. For example, a Cindy may say, “Joey, do you have any fives?” If Joey has a five, Joey would give Cindy the five. If not, Joey will say, “Go fish.” If Cindy has to “go fish” that means that Cindy will draw a card from the deck. Then the next player will take a turn. The first player to match up all the cards they have is the winner. (Vary the number of cards and/or the types of cards depending on the developmental level of the students.)

Skills addressed: Number recognition, equal to, counting, comparing and ordering numbers

Memory: Pick out 10-20 cards or more that match (represent the same number). Shuffle the cards and place them face down. Each player takes a turn by turning over 2 cards.   All the players may see the two cards that are chosen. If the player turns over matching cards (represent the same number), the player keeps those cards and takes another turn. If the cards do not match, the player turns the cards back over and the next person takes a turn. Continue until all the cards are matched up. The winner is the player with the most matches.

Skills addressed: Number recognition, equal to, and counting

War: Shuffle the deck and deal the cards so that they are all distributed as evenly as possible among all the players. Players may not look at the back of the cards in their stacks. All at once, each player reveals one card. The player with the highest number takes all the cards and places them at the bottom of their stack. If there is more than one player with the highest number, they will have “war.”   This means that the two players (or more than 2) who have war (the same number) will take out three more cards and put them face down. Then, on top of the three cards they have face down; they will place one card face up. The player with the highest value card that is face up wins all the cards. If there is another tie, they will have double war. The game continues until one person has all the cards.

Skills addressed: Number recognition, counting, comparing numbers, greater than, less than and equal to.

Odd Man Out: Include the “Odd Man Out” card in the deck. Shuffle the deck and deal the cards as evenly as possible among the players. If players have any matching cards (cards with the same number), they will show the group, remove the cards, and set them aside. The first player fans out the cards face up, so that the next player cannot see the back of the cards. The next player picks one card at random. If the player has any matches, they will show the group, remove the cards and set them aside. If not, the player adds that card to his or her cards. Play continues as one by one, they pick cards from the other players. As the players match up all their cards, they win one by one. The player left with the “Odd Man Out” card loses.