Students collect cards with equivalent mathematical or verbal expressions on them to make books of cards. A book is a group of 3 or 4 cards with either equivalent mathematical expressions or equivalent verbal expressions on them. When a player has at least 3 matching cards, he/she may lay down the book of cards. The object of the game is to be the first to get rid of all the cards in your hand.
Preparation: The teacher should print enough decks of cards so that one deck per group of 4 students can be distributed.
Shuffle the cards and deal out 7 cards to each player. Place the remaining cards in a pile (the draw pile) in the center of the table. Turn one card over to create the discard pile.
On his/her turn, each player will:
Either draw a card from the draw pile OR pick up the top card of the discard pile. (A player may only pick up the top card of the discard pile if by doing so it creates a book that the player can lay down immediately or it is a card that can be added to an existing book on the table.)
The player then examines his/her hand to see if there are any sets of three or four that can be laid down. If so, the cards are laid down on the table face up.
If the player does not have any groups to lay down, he/she may lay down a single card if that card can be added to another player’s book that has been laid on the table previously.
If the player can not put down a book or a single card to add to an existing book, then the player’s turn is over.
At the end of each turn the player must place a card on the discard pile. If this is the last card in his/her hand, then he/she is the winner!
Play moves to the left in a similar fashion until all the cars have been played or no other cards remain to be drawn and no player can go out. At that point, the player with the least number of cards in his/her hand is the winner.
Variation:
Students collect cards to make books but can only add a card to a book they have placed on the table themselves. At the end of the game, the player with the most books is the winner.
