As I mentioned yesterday I am concentrating on drilling math facts with B7. In order to practice doubling  today, I made up a game. I often invent a game for B7 on the fly, sometimes they work, sometimes not. Today’s invention definitely worked, B7 even taught to A12 and played it outside of Math time!

This is how it worked:

• You need a full deck of cards(jokers removed), blank paper and pencil for each player.
• Deal each player 7 cards and place the rest in a pile in the centre, this is the pick up pile. The aim of the game is to end up with the most points. You receive points when you can lay down a double (two cards the same value Ace -10) If you have a picture card you can lay it down on your double and increase your points. A Jack means you can double your total again, a Queen entitles you to double twice and a King means you can double three times. For example, if you are holding two 6’s and a king, you can lay down the 6’s; this gives you 12 points. Placing the king on top means your score doubles three more times giving you 96 points.
• If you have no doubles in your hand you pick up from the centre pile. You cannot lay cards down straight away after picking up, you must wait until your next turn.
• Players add and record their score from each double they lay down and add them up at the end. The game ends when a player has laid down all their cards or when the pick up pile is finished. At the end if players have cards in their hand they add up their value and subtract it from their final score. Picture cards left in a players hand are all worth 10 points which must also be subtracted.

I was very happy with the amount of doubling B7 did and that he began to recognise patterns and calculations he had already done.  It’s nice when the learning and the playing are one and the same.