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Activity and strategy

Let’s Play Math!

Ideas to make math more fun for students with visual impairments, using cards, dice, and other games

The tedious work of learning math facts and concepts can be made fun by taking common card and dice games and using them to drill many important math skills and concepts.

Materials

  • Braille in Nemeth Code a deck of cards using note cards with four sets of cards from 1 to 11 and three extra 10’s to replace the face cards.
  • Standard Braille playing cards to play with your sighted friends
  • Raised dots dice
  • Abacus

Procedure

The following common card and dice games are fun ways to practice math skills.

Variations of “War” (winner keeps the cards, most cards win)

  • High card wins
  • Low card wins
  • Add two cards, high total wins
  • Subtract two cards, low total wins
  • Odd card wins
  • Even card wins

Variations of Concentration

  • Number recognition in NemethRaised dot dice
  • Two numbers totaling a designated number area a match

Variations of Go Fish

  • Pairs are combinations that make a fixed amount when added

Dice

  • Each partner gets a roll, high, low, odd, even, can be used as winner.
  • Number line race, Braille two number lines to 20, move the number you roll with your turn with the dice, first to 20 wins.

Variations

  • These games can be played with home made note cards with nemeth code to help learn Nemeth numbers.  
  • Braille playing cards available from APH can be used to play with sighted friends who don’t know braille/Nemeth.  
  • Students can use an abacus to do computations if needed.
Let's Play Math collage


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