Decimal cards

Required materials

• a deck of cards with the face cards and Jokers removed (aces count as 1s and 10s count as 0s)

See Materials that come with this resource to download:

• Decimal cards activity (.pdf)

What to do

Choose a target decimal number, for example, 4.825.

Deal each player 6 cards (two more cards than the number of digits in the target number).

Each player has to construct a number as close as possible to the target number. For example, if a player is dealt 3, 4, 4, 5, 7, 9, the closest number they can make is 4.795.

The player whose number is closest wins a point.

The winning player chooses the number for the next round.

You can play either that the first player to get 5 points wins, or whoever wins the most out of 10.

What to expect your child to do

• Use place value to decide which cards to use, and in which order.
• Be able to tell you how many ones, tenths, hundredths etc in the number.
• Understand that the cards in the higher ‘places’ make more difference to the overall size of the number than those in the smaller "places".

Variations

• Change the number of decimal places in the target number.
• Require that the number be the closest possible number "less than" the target number.
• Require that the number be the closest possible number "more than" the target number.
• Include the Jokers and allow them to be used as a wild card (any digit).

He kupu Māori

He whakawhitinga kōrero

• Māku e tuhi tētahi tau ā-ira. He tau matiwhā, e toru ngā mati ā-ira. (I’ll write down a 4-digit number, it’s got 3 decimal digits.)
• Ko te (rima ira rua whitu ono) te tau ā-ira. E tohu ana te mati (whitu) i te aha? (The number is (5.276). What does the (7) digit represent?)
• E tohu ana te [whitu] i te [whitu haurau]. E noho ana te (whitu) ki te uara tū o ngā (haurau). (The (7) represents (7 hundredths). The (7) is sitting in the (hundredths) place value.)
• Riwhiriwhia ngā kāri. Tohaina kia ono ngā kāri ki ia kaitākaro. (Shuffle the cards. Deal 6 cards to each player.)
• Whakamahia ō kāri hei hanga i tētahi tau ā-ira e tino pātata ana ki te tau i tuhia e au. (Use your cards to make a decimal number that is very close to the number I wrote down.)
• E hia ngā mati ā-ira kei roto te tau i hangaia e koe? (How many decimal digits are in the number you made?)
• Kei a wai te tau e tino pātata ana ki te tau nāku nei i tuhi? (Who has got the number that is closest to the number which I wrote down?)
• He pātata ake tāku i tāu nā te mea ko te whitu te mati haurau i tāku, ā, ko te toru te mati haurau i tāu. (Mine is closer than yours because 7 is the hundredths digit in mine and 3 is the hundredths digit in yours.)

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