Division Card Games for Kids

Father playing card game with daughters
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Once your child starts to get a handle on her multiplication facts, it’s time to start looking at the inverse function of multiplication--division.

If your child is confident in knowing her times tables, then division may come a little bit easier to her, but she’ll still need to practice. The same card games you play to practice multiplication can be modified to practice division as well.

What Your Child Will Learn (or Practice)

Your child will be practicing equal division, division with remainders, and number comparison.

Materials Needed

You will need a deck of cards with or without the face cards removed

Card Game: Two-Player Division War

This game is a variation of the classic card game War, although, for the purpose of this learning activity, you will deviate a little bit from the original rules of the game.

For instance, instead of asking your child to remember the number value of the face cards, it’s easier to place a small piece of removable tape (masking tape or painter’s tape works well) in the top corner of the card with the number value written on it. The values should be assigned as follows: Ace = 1, King = 12, Queen = 12, and Jack = 11.

  • Insert the face cards back into the deck, shuffle and then deal the cards evenly and face down between the players.
  • On a "Ready, set, go!" count, each player turns over two cards.
  • Both players can use any of the four visible cards to try to find a fact family with which they can then place in sequential order to make a division problem. For example, if Player One revealed a 5 and a 3, and Player Two turned over a King (12) and a 4, either player could snatch up the 4, 3, and King to create the division sentences: King ÷ 4 = 3 or King ÷ 3 = 4.
  • The winner of the hand is the first player who is able to recognize and lay out a division problem. Of course, the other player can check the math first!
  • Each player should take back his unplayed cards and start an "unused" pile. As the game continues, each player turns up two new cards and the cards in his unused pile. This provides more opportunity for players to create division problems. If both players can create a problem using different cards, they both win the hand.
  • The game is over when there are no more cards left, or the players are unable to make any more division problems.

Card Game: Division Go Fish

The Division Go Fish card game is played almost exactly the same way as the Multiplication Go Fish card game is played. The difference is that instead of creating a multiplication problem to give a card’s value, players have to come up with a division problem.

For example, a player who wants to find a match for his 8 could say "Do you have any 16s divided by 2s?" or "I’m looking for a card that is a 24 divided by 3."

  • Deal six cards to each player and place the rest of the deck in the middle as a draw pile.
  • When the first player says his math sentence, the player who is being asked for the card has to do the division, come up with the correct answer and hand over any matching cards. If there are no matches, the first player draws a card from the deck.
  • When a player runs out of cards or the draw pile is gone, the game is over. The winner is the player with the most matches.
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Your Citation
Morin, Amanda. "Division Card Games for Kids." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/division-card-games-for-kids-2086552. Morin, Amanda. (2020, August 27). Division Card Games for Kids. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/division-card-games-for-kids-2086552 Morin, Amanda. "Division Card Games for Kids." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/division-card-games-for-kids-2086552 (accessed March 19, 2024).