Multiplication tables - matching cards
Problem
The aim of this game is to match pairs of cards.
Click on a card in the interactivity below to turn it over. Then click on another one. If the two cards match, they will stay face-up. If the two cards do not match, they will return to being face-down.
The game ends when all the cards have been matched in pairs.
How do you know when a card matches another card?
Can you remember where particular cards are to help you match the pairs?
We would love to hear about the strategies you use as you play the game.
You may like to explore these alternative versions of the interactivity:
- Play with a scoring system - you start with 100 points, lose 10 points whenever you turn over cards that don't match, and add 50 points whenever they do match.
- Play against the clock - can you beat your personal best?
- Play with face-up cards - the cards are all face-up at the start so you can focus on the maths rather than the memory aspect of the game.
To download printable versions of this game (to play away from the computer) use the links to the PDFs below. If you print double-sided, the cards will each have an NRICH logo on the back. If you would prefer them to be blank on the back, please just print the first page.
Student Solutions
There were just a few responses to this task. First, this is from Dylan who is at G.P.S in Australia, and it was accompanied by a screen shot.
This is technically a mathematics memory game that you have to press any card and find the answer to the math question then find a matching answer until you got all the cards right.
Secondly this came from Luke at St Mary's Church of England Primary School in Woodbridge:
I chose one tile at a time. Then I selected another one to go with it. I always pick the same first tile until I get a match. Then I move to a different first tile and so on.
Thank you for these, others may feel encouraged to have a go now.
Teachers' Resources
Why do this problem?
This game is designed to help children become more familiar with their times tables facts in a motivating context.
Possible approach
Begin by introducing the class to the printable cards before the interactivity. Give out sets of cards to each pair of learners and encourage them to lay them all out, face-up. You could offer any of the following prompts to encourage them to engage with the representations on the cards:
- How might you group/sort the cards?
- How might you order the cards?
- What is the same about the cards? What is different?
- Take three or four cards. Which one doesn't belong? Why? Can you choose a different card which doesn't belong? Why?
- Create another pair for the set. Can you create a pair which you think would be relatively easy to match? Can you create a pair which is harder to match? How did you decide which was easy and which was difficult.
- Rather than giving out all the cards, you could just give out half the set of cards so that each card does not have a pair. Invite learners to create a pair for each card they have been given.
- Share the cards out in a group of four. Take it in turns to describe what is on one of your cards without showing it to anyone else. Who has a card which shows an equivalent amount?
Once learners have explored the cards in some of these ways, show them the interactivity. You may like to begin to play the game on the interactive whiteboard with the whole group. You could choose a card and, before turning over a second card, invite learners to talk in pairs about what might match. As more cards are revealed, trying to remember which cards have already been seen and what they have on them becomes important too.
As soon as the class has a flavour of the game, suggest that they work in pairs at a computer, laptop or tablet. (They could use the printable cards if this is not feasible.) As they play in pairs, watch and listen, and make a note of anything you overhear that you'd like to refer to during a mini plenary. It may be that you notice a misconception more than once, or that you'd like to spend a few minutes inviting learners to explain how they knew that two particular cards are a match.
You could return to the interactivity in subsequent lessons, perhaps as a starter or during a plenary, where appropriate.
Key questions
What might the matching pair for that card have on it?
How do you know those two cards match?
Have we already seen a card that might be a match for that one?
Possible support
Playing the game with all the cards face-up is a great way to focus on the mathematics if the memory aspect proves tricky for some children. You can do this in this version of the interactivity.
Possible extension
Some pairs may enjoy challenging themselves to get as many points as possible using this version of the interactive game and/or trying to complete the game as quickly as possible (this version of the interactivity has a timer). Some of the suggestions in the opening paragraph of the 'Possible approach' above would make good extension tasks.
There are also versions of the interactivity which include the 11-20 times tables and the 2-20 times tables.