This Math Card Game is Rubbish!

We have played the math card game Rubbish approximately one billion times, and I’ll play it 1 billion and one if it means our boys practice the skills this game sharpens.

My five-year-old loves it, my three-year-old wants in, and we all enjoy the time together.

It’s quick, and super simple, too!

The Rules

1.) Lay out two rows of five cards, horizontally for each player. The rest of the cards are for the draw pile.

2.) Choose the first player. We rock-paper-scissors for it. 🙂

3.) The first player chooses a card. Each of the cards you laid face down represent a number (left-to-right) Ace-5 in the top row; 6-10 on the bottom row.

4.) If the card drawn is Ace-10, pick up the face-down card in the corresponding spot, and replace it with the card drawn (lay it facing up).

5.) The face-down card you pulled to replace with the drawn card is now the next card you play. If it fits in to what’s left, you pick that spot’s card up and lay the one in your hand down in its place. Your turn continues until you don’t have any more spots available for the switch out.

Example: I draw a 5. I pick up the card face down that’s in the 5 spot (top row last card on the right) and lay the 5 I just drew where it was. The card that was face down was an Ace. I pick up the first card on the top row and lay the Ace down in its place…keep going until you run out of spots to fill.

The first to fill all his or her spots is the winner!

Other Handy Rules:

1.) If you pick up a Jack or Queen, you automatically discard into a discard pile next to the Rubbish draw pile.

2.) If you  pick up a number you already have face up, discard.

3.) If you pick up a King, it’s wild and can be used as any number Ace-10!

4.) When you run through the entire deck of draw cards, shuffle the discard into a new draw pile and keep going until you get a winner.

The Best Part

The best part about Rubbish is that it looks exactly like the ten-frames my oldest is learning in Kindergarten math!

He works with numbers, placement, and I was really surprised by how quickly he learned the numbers associated with the face-down cards.

For our three-year-old, this has been great to help drive home learning his numbers.

Final Thoughts

I love this silly game called Rubbish and how it helped the boys’ skills grow so quickly, how it’s teaching and reteaching number sense, and most of all how it always brings us together.

A bowl of popcorn, a game of Rubbish, and our two boys makes for a great time in our homeschool day!