As a teacher and a vision therapist, I have spent the last 12 years developing fun and exciting ways to teach basic math skills to students of all ages. Here is one of my favorite games.

Partners of Ten

Our system of math is based on the number ten. Learning the "partners" of ten can dramatically affect a child's ability to do mental math without calculating or counting on their fingers.

1. Get a deck of playing cards and remove all the face cards.
2. Put the remaining cards face up in front of the student.
3. Explain that the goal of the game is to find "partners" that equal ten. For Example, (hold up the ten card) "How much do you have to add to ten to get ten?" The answer is zero, so  the ten card does not have a partner.
4. Hold up the nine card. "How much do you have to add to nine to get you to ten?" the answer is 1. (Explain that the ace will be the one) Now have the student help you find all of the nines and aces there will be four sets.
5. Continue on with the eights and the twos, the sevens and the threes and so on until all the cards have been removed.
6. Now repeat the process asking the student to find all the "partners" on their own.
7. The final step, is called "Flash Partners". Once you are sure that the student has a good visual memory of the partners of ten, now take the deck and turn the cards over one at a time.
8. During this portion of the game, the student's job is to call out the name of the card that is the "partner of ten" to the card you flipped over. For example, if you flip a six, they say "four". This portion of the game is meant to be fast, so if the student is not able to keep up, return to the matching portion of the game.

* Have Fun!!!