Tiny Polka Dot - Games for Every Grade Level!

Ok, so you've bought or made your Tiny Polka Dot cards from yesterday's newsletter, and you're ready to play a game. Let's do it!

Below you will find a game recommendation for every grade level. But don't feel constrained by my recommendation - try out any game that sounds fun! And you can find a ton of other ideas at the Tiny Polka Dot site.

Pre-K: Garbage

Garbage is one of my favorite simple card games for little kids. All you need is a set of four "suits" of the numbers from 1-10.

You can find full instructions at my site, but essentially you and an opponent deal out two rows of five cards, face-down. You want to replace these cards with new ones so the numbers read in order from 1-10.

The first player draws a card, let's say a six. She counts to her sixth card, removes it and places the six face-up in its location. Then she looks at her new card and sees where she can place it. 

If the first player ever draws a number that she has already placed, her turn is over and she places that last card in the "garbage." pile. Then the next player draws from the draw pile. The first person who fills in her entire set of ten cards is the winner.

If you'd like to hear a couple of kids explain the rules, but with more adorableness, check out this video!

The game is a wonderful way to learn about the order of the numbers and their relationship to each other. Have fun!

Kindergarten: Dot Memory

If your child is in Kindergarten, they are likely learning a LOT about the first ten numbers. They're learning that "seven" can be seen as a numeral (7) or a quantity (seven dots, seven goldfish), and that certain representations, like a ten frame, can teach them a lot about the relationship between seven and ten.

So let's play a matching that helps your kid solidify these connections!

Dot Memory is a matching game, but with one major difference: Instead of matching two copies of the same superhero or character from Frozen, your child is matching two different representations of the same number. 

You can get either two or four "suits" of cards and deal them out face-down in a rectangle. Each player takes turns flipping two cards over to see if they match. If so, they keep the pair and get to go again!

It's a simple matching game, but if you've designed cards that represent your numbers in interesting and varied ways, your kids are going to do a lot of counting and comparing to make sure their pairs actually match.

Watch a video of Dot Memory here

First Grade: Memory Tens

For your first grader, we can play a matching game that is a bit more complicated - instead of matching two equivalent numbers, your child is matching two numbers that add to ten!

This game is most fun when you combine 2-4 "suits" of Tiny Polka Dot cards, since those varying representations are still really interesting to consider. 

Knowing your addends to 10 is a fundamental skill to develop in kindergarten and first grade, so it's great to have a fun, challenging way to practice those skills. Your child will flip over a 4 and then have to think "where did I see a 6 already?" That mental process is strengthening their fluency with addition.

Challenge: Draw groups of three cards that add to 12, or 13, or whatever number you want!

Second Grade: Close to 100

For this game, you'll need two "suits" of cards from 0-9. Leave out the 10s for this one.

Each player draws four cards from the deck. Each of those cards acts as a digit. You use your four digits to fill in the following blanks:   __ __ + __ __

The goal is to make two 2-digit numbers that add to 100. It's hard, of course, to get exactly 100, but you can probably get close! 

Let's say you draw 4, 5, 6, and 8. You could do the addition problem 48 + 56 and get 104, which isn't bad! 

Your score each round is the difference between your sum and 100. So in the example above, I you'd get a score of 4.

Play as many rounds as you want, then add up your scores. Lowest score is the winner!

Challenge: Draw six cards, and fill in __ __ __ + __ __ __ to get as close as possible to 1000!

Third Grade and up: 15 Supreme

Now we are really starting to get into strategy games, where the real fun is!

In this game, deal out two "suits" of cards from 0-10, facedown on the the table.

The first player starts flipping over cards, one by one, and adding them together. If the sum ever reaches 15, the player gets to keep all the cards! But if the sum rises above 15, the player must flip the cards back over.

Now it's the second player's turn. They will need to flip over cards as well, keeping in mind the information they learned from Player 1's turn. Again, they flip cards until they get to 15, or go bust by going over 15.

Play continues until there are no cards left, or no combinations that make 15. Then players count their cards. The person with the most cards is the winner!

Obviously, this gamer involves addition, but more importantly it involves using limited information to make strategic decisions. I think you'll be impressed with how challenging some of the strategy of this game can be! 

For an even more fun challenge, add another deck or two. Fill the table with Tiny Polka Dot cards and have fun!

Watch a video explanation of 15 Supreme here

That's Not All!

This is just a small slice of the games that you can play with the Tiny Polka Dot cards. You can find more at the Tiny Polka Dot site, of course, but get creative! Adapt your favorite playing card games to these cards. War, Solitaire, whatever you want - I bet you can make a version that works with the cards you've made.

One last request: If you have a particularly great time with one of these games, or adapt a new game successfully, let me know! I'd love to share some testimonials in future newsletters.