Go Fish

Age group

Early Years (Age 3 to 6)
Primary (Age 6 to 9)

Curriculum Goal

Kindergarten: Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviour

Demonstrate an understanding of numbers, using concrete materials to explore and investigate counting, quantity, and number relationships.

Primary: Number Sense

Compose, decompose and compare whole numbers up to and including 50, using a variety of tools and strategies, in various contexts.

Related Links

Print Lesson

Context

Two to four students sit together on the carpet or at a desk.
Primary students should have prior experience with adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing under 50.

Materials

One standard 52-card deck with jokers

Lesson

The teacher or group select a target number and deals five cards to each player.
- Early years students may want to target a number that is 12 or lower.
- Primary students may want to target a number upwards of 10 to 50.
Players identify and place any pairs that can reach the target number.
- Early years students may want to attempt addition.
- Primary students may use all arithmetic operations (addition, substruction, multiplication, division).
Players take turns asking others for specific cards that will help them create more pairs with their remaining cards.
If the asked player doesn’t have the card, they say “go fish”, prompting the asker to draw from the deck.
Players replenish their hand with five new cards once they run out.
The game continues until the deck is exhausted.
The player with the most pairs wins.

Look Fors

What operation do students use to combine the cards and reach the target number?
What strategies students use to determine which card to ask for?