Another way to practice combinations of 5, 10 and 20

Last week, I wrote about how I use 10 or 20 frame playing cards to play a go fish game that helps kids practice combinations of 10 and 20.

Here are the 20 frame decks that I made.  You can grab them for free here!

Here is another quick and easy way to use the same cards to practice the same skill.  It is similar to Pyramid 13 solitaire which you may have played when you were a kid.

I make 2 copies of each of the pages of my 20 frame deck for this game.

Set up a pyramid with 4-7 rows.  The last row should have all cards facing up.  Check the last row for pairs.  I play any 2 cards that make 20 are a pair. 

Remove any pairs and flip over any cards that you "unlock."  A card is unlocked when there are no cards covering any part of it.

Use the remaining cards that did not go into the pyramid to try to match to ones in the pyramid.  As you remove pairs, flip over cards that have been unlocked.

Your goal is to get to the top of the pyramid!

We end up losing this round!  The 8 that we need to go with the 12 to make 20 is the very top card!

Looking for other ways to practice combinations of numbers?  Check out these ideas

     Here is a game where you just need 2 color counters or pennies.  NO PREP!
     Here is how to extend the last game for combinations of 20
     Here is a bunch of quick and easy ways I work on combinations of 100
     Here is how to make 100 bead strings that will really help your students with combinations of 100

Do you have any good ideas for practicing combinations of numbers?  Please feel free to share ideas or links in the comment section below!