Making Ten

Supriya and I have been playing this game occasionally over the past week. It is from "Games for Math" by Peggy Kaye. You start by removing the tens and all the picture-cards from a regular deck. Then each person gets 5 random cards and the goal to make as many distinct combinations to get to 10. For example, (9 + 1) does it, as does (9 + 2 - 1). Supriya is getting really good at making complicated combinations.

Here are the details of a game (of three) we played today:

• Supriya got (1, 4, 5, 7, 7, 9) [she gets 6 cards because she is 6 years old!] and made 7 combinations: (9 + 1), (4 + 5 + 1), (7 + 4 -1), (7 + 7 - 4), (7 + 9 - 5 - 1), (9 + 5 - 4) and (9 + 5 + 4 - 7 - 1). [I helped her with the last three.]
• I got (1, 3, 3, 5, 8) and could make only 4: (8 + 3 - 1), (5 + 3 + 3 - 1), (8 + 5 - 3) and (8 + 3 + 3 + 1 - 5).

So Supriya won, which pleased her greatly.