Make my number - Choosing and using operations / Equations

Thanks to Michael Ymer for this game best suited to students from year 4 onwards.

Students can play in pairs or groups of four.

Deck of cards with Jokers included but all picture cards removed. All cards have face value with the Ace representing 1. The Joker is wild and can represent any number from 1 to 10.

Six cards are dealt face up between two or more students. The seventh card or the next card on the deck is the target number. Students are challenged to make as many equations as possible using combinations of the six cards displayed to equal the target number. They must write the equations down. Encourage students to begin using simple equations to make the target number and then extend to using more than one operation, brackets, order of operations, negative numbers, square root , decimal notation etc. A scoring system can be used earning extra points for using more cards in the eqations or using operations other than addition and subtraction. Place a time limit of perhaps 3 or 4 minutes per game. Students tally their points to see how they went. Discard these cards and play again using the next seven numbers. It may be worth modelling this activity with the whole class from the front and everybody using the same set of numbers.