Roman Numeral Match

We introduced Diana,4, to Roman Numerals today. She caught on fairly quickly. Wesley needed the quick review and he remembered them all.

The Cards

The cards were made to be played for a Go Fish game, which is why the cute little fish is on each card. The deck consists of 24 cards: 1 - 12 in both Roman and Arabic numerals.

 First we set out the 1-12 cards. The Roman Numeral cards were shuffled and up in a stack. Diana drew cards and handed them to Wesley to place above the correct number.

 Wesley would state the number as he placed the Roman Numeral cards. He would also explain each card/number to Diana. This gave him good review and continued Diana's introduction to Roman Numerals.

 Activity finished...

Now Diana gets a turn.

 Wesley handed her one card at a time and she place the number below the correct Roman Numeral. This was quite easy, but it gave her some confidence.

Next we did the first activity again with both children taking turns.

 Diana was excited to get one she knew.

...and she knew right where to put it.

We had fun. Wesley got some good review and Diana got her first introduction to Roman Numerals.

Team Work - Working together to win!

The boys here are so competitive and hate to lose. So I had them working together. Here is what we did:

We used our deck of cards 1-12 (four of each). I appointed Charles, 6, the super hero in red, to be

the captain for the game. 

We were drilling addition. I shuffled the deck and then turned over two cards at a time. Charles would choose who would add the two numbers together. The only condition was that each child had to be the one giving the answer before a child got another turn.

If a 1 or 2 was one of the numbers, Charles appointed Wesley, 4, to be the one to give the response. If it was harder but Charles knew the answer right away, he would give the response. He counted on Douglas, 8, to give the answer for the team when he did not immediately know the answer.

This was the fun comraderie they showed all through the game!

Wesley, 4, was so excited that he was able to play along with the older brothers and be a real part of the team.

Acorns - A Variation of Oh Nuts! - a cooperative play game

My grandchildren and I go for frequent walks. They are always collecting things along the way. Some acorns have given me an idea for a variation of an old favorite...Oh Nuts! I decided to make it a cooperative play game. My grandchildren need games where they are working together. In fact, this week our Bible verse has been about unity.

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. Ps. 133:1.

I drew a quick picture of a tree and added some circles. Charles colored the picture. We will place an acorn in each of the spaces. The object will be to work together to get all 10 of the acorns off the tree. (These could be small picture cards of nuts, buttons, chips or other markers. They could be real acorns for fun!)

NOW...how to play the new cooperative play version...

I have many sets of Oh Nuts! skill cards. I will select the cards that we are going to work with. For example, let's select the State and Capital cards. The cards have the name of a state. When Douglas draws a card, he must name the capital of the state. Charles likes to play, too. He is just learning the location of all the states right now. So instead of naming the capital, he will locate it on the map. 

The deck for an Oh Nuts! game has some additional cards. About one-third of the deck are OH NUTS! cards. These cards simply have the words on them. For some decks I got creative and even drew a nut.


To Play

After the cards have been shuffled and placed in a draw pile, play begins. The first player draws a card and gives the correct response. If he is correct, his turn continues and he draws another card. He continues to draw cards and give responses until he draws an "Oh Nuts!" card. When he draws this card he gets to remove a nut from the tree and place it in our "basket" (just a small dish). Then his turn ends. If he should give an incorrect response, his turn ends without collecting a nut from the tree. Players take turns drawing cards, giving responses, and collecting "acorns."


I use care to take the focus off who has collected how many acorns but saying things like: "Wow! WE are collecting lots of acorns." "How many acorns have WE collected?" or "How many more acorns are still on the tree?"

Check out OH NUTS! Deluxe an over-sized version.

Here is how to make and play OH NUTS! includes a fun story of this game being used in a classroom.