Rummy with Speed! Cards

Playing Rummy with Speed! cards is a fun way to work on number sense and multiplication skills.

A variety of combinations of Speed! cards can be selected to provide primary focus on different numbers in the multiplication tables. Since the above deck contains a majority of Four-Speed! cards, it focuses on the fours.

The above photo shows the cards included in the deck. To create a deck which focuses on a certain number, begin with the focus deck. Select at least two cards of each number in the deck and four cards of the lower multiples. Next select four cards from other decks of each of the lower numbers. For example, if focusing on the fours, get all four threes, sixes and nines from the Three Speed! deck. Get all four five cards from the Five-Speed deck, and get all four sevens from the Seven-Speed! deck.

Next deal ten cards to each player.

For the first few rounds, play with the cards visible.

The goal is to get all the cards into groups with less than 10 left over. The first person to achieve this is the winner.

Groups are made of multiplication fact families. For example, in the above photo the first group works because 3x4=12 and the second group works because 4x6=24.

This group also works because 3x3x4=36.

It does take some effort to put the decks together and make sense of the rules, but once that is accomplished, the fun starts. In general, kids don't enjoy multiplication drills, but they do enjoy games. The challenge of this activity provides both!