Adapting an old fashioned game to help your child with maths

Creative Resources for primary children| Education

June 14, 2024•2 min read

Transform 'Guess Who' into a fun math game! We replaced faces with numbers up to 100, including primes and squares. Guess the number by asking about multiples, odds, evens, and more to make it fun and educational. Here's how:

A game I love that I often play was one that J and I created last Christmas. As a kid we used to have friends that we would often go on holiday with at Easter and then in between times go to each other’s house for dinner. One that was a firm favourite was ‘Guess Who’.

Last Christmas we brought a game of ‘Guess Who’ and took out all the faces and replaced the bits of card with new pieces that had numbers on up to 100.

The numbers we chose were deliberately square, prime, double digits, odd, even, etc.

I then created the new cards that you pick from the box that dictates the number you have, and the other person has to guess.

Now in order to guess the number the other person has, you need to ask questions such as:

Is it a multiple of 3 (you can tell as if you add the numbers together and they make 3 or a multiple of 3, it will be. An example might be 81 (8+1=9), 9 is in the 3 times table so it is a multiple of 3. Another example might be 201: 2+0+1=3. 67x3= 201).

You might ask if it is odd, even, square. Would it round up or down? The game is actually quite addictive. It’s also a good way of getting to grips with number facts such as odd, even, square numbers, etc.

I think I spend about £5 on buying the game in the sale, then maybe 30-45 minutes making the cards, so it was only a tiny investment in time and money, and it’s really paid off.

If you give it a go, I hope you enjoy it.

How to convert 'Guess Who' into a game to support maths

Dawn Strachan

For the past 20+ years I have been a firm believer that learning should be an enjoyable experience. I appreciate that traditionally education has revolved around worksheets, textbooks, listening to teachers. But a grounding in early years and working with children who had a variety of learning styles from I learned that it is an individual activity that is personal to all of us. We don’t all learn in the same way. Our influences, our experiences, our capabilities all influence how we retain information. But through it all, I believe that if we can make it enjoyable and engaging, they will want to participate. With participation comes practice which in turn boosts skill and confidence. With an increase in skill and confidence comes a willingness to have a go. This in turn leads to more practice which leads to a positive spiral of success. The moral, we need to make learning fun, engaging, use a range of techniques.

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