{Brilliant!} An awesome math game, plus an extension idea for the classroom

On a whim, we picked up this card game at Target this weekend.

Last night the 4 of us (Grammy didn't want to play!) played more than a few games of Ratuki. 

This game is brilliant!

Number sequencing 1-5 using 4 "variations" of the number (numeral, dice, fingers, tally marks).

Directly from the game description:

Educational Value: Real-Time Play, Dexterity, Hand-Eye Coordination, Number Sequencing, Matching, Basic Strategy, Decision Making

The only downside that I saw was that the cards are only 1-5.  While this creates a super fast, crazy-fun game, in reality, it only practices number sequences 1-5.

So. . .last night I thought up what I wanted my firsties to practice and came up with a modification that will lend itself well to not only number sequencing, but also number word recognition, and basic place value.  Yay!

I've named this variation "ON BEYOND. . ."

The first "deck" of cards I will introduce to my class will be THE ONES . Three cards for each number 0-9.  One card is the numeral.  One card is the number word.  One card is the place value.  There are 5 sheets in the set.  To allow for optimal playtime, one full set should be run for each player.

The rules are simple.

1. Each player is dealt the same number of cards.

2. Each player may have ONLY 3 cards in his/her hand at a time.

3. The remaining cards are left, face down, in the draw pile in front of each player.

4. Players may place a card into a "play later" pile and take another card from his/her draw pile.

5. You may have up to one play pile per player (so if you have 5 players, you can have up to 5 piles in play at any given time).

6. Each play pile must start with the lowest available number (in this case, 0) in any form.

7.  Players do NOT take turns, they continue to build piles in sequence (up OR down), remembering to always keep THREE cards in their hand.

8. When a player places the highest available number (in this case, 9) on any pile, he/she shouts, "On Beyond 9!" and takes that pile.

9. Play continues until one player has used all of his/her cards or until no one has the ability to play the necessary card.

Want to play?  Image is linked to the pdf download of "THE ONES" card deck. 

You're welcome.  :)

I'm working on cards for the rest of the numbers (through 99) and hope to have those created within the week.  I plan to run each set on a different color of cardstock, have them laminated, allowing practice of sequencing and number recognition readily available in game form in my classroom.  Really so very excited about this!