Do your early learners know how to play Garbage, a fun and engaging card game that helps young children—especially preschoolers and kindergartners—strengthen their early math skills?

A game of Garbage usually involves two players and a standard deck of cards with the jokers removed. For our youngest learners, we also remove the face cards (kings, queens, and jacks) Each player is dealt 10 cards. The cards are placed face down in front of each child in two rows of five. The rest of the cards are placed in the center of the table as a draw pile.

So let’s get a game of Garbage started!

Ask Player #1 to draw a card from the draw pile and look at it. Let’s say it is a FIVE. Player #1 will count to her fifth card, remove it,  and replace it with the five card, face up in its location. Then Player #1 will look at her new card and determine where she can play that card. 

If Player #1 draws a number card that has already been played, Player #1’s turn is over—and Player #2 takes a card from the draw pile. The first player to complete an entire set of 10 cards is the winner.

When, Maleah, a four-year-old in our group, plays this game, she tends to count one by one as she touches each card. For example, when she draws a five, she’ll count from one to five, placing the card down as she finds the fifth pile.

Six-year-old Jamanjae is already comfortable counting up to 10. He quickly identifies the position of the seven on the second card in the bottom row and places his card there.

It takes time and practice to master the skill of putting numbers in order. I can see Maleah’s number sense emerging as she becomes more familiar with this game. If a few cards have already been flipped over, she will use those to help her find where the next card goes. If she pulls an eight, she’ll spot the seven nearby and place her eight card next to it. This shift in understanding marks a key milestone in Maleah’s early math journey.

Number sense is all about recognizing patterns, making connections, and understanding the value of numbers, so this shift represents a step forward in those skills. As children play this simple game, they are also developing their number-recognition skills and beginning to grasp concepts such as number value, greater than, and less than.

I love this card game for so many reasons, but the main one is its resemblance to the design of a ten frame. Garbage—with its two rows of five cards—can be an incredibly effective way to strengthen early math skills because the cards are arranged in a pattern that children recognize from their ten-frame activities.

Children learn math at their own pace by using many different skill sets that don’t always develop at the same pace or in the same order. So we give them a lot of options that allow them to learn in their own unique ways. By keeping it playful and hands-on, we set them up for math success.

That small deck of playing cards contains a lot of math just waiting to be explored. As this game progresses, you’ll have many opportunities to observe and assess each player’s number sense. Can each child identify the numbers by name?

Card games such as Garbage, War, or Go Fish can help children visualize math concepts through play—and offer entertaining alternatives to worksheets and screen time in the process!

Ready to get started? Check out this How to Play Garbage  video for step-by-step instructions. Then grab a deck of cards and let the learning begin!

“One, two, three, flip!” 

“I win!” shouts Matif.

Remember playing War as a child? It’s simple and fun and it teaches young children how to win and lose without a lot of drama.

I love playing cards with young children because that little deck helps foster the development of early math and social-emotional skills in a big way.

When I play War with very young children, I often pull out the face cards and any card higher than a six. Depending on the ages and developmental levels of my students, I may even pull out the aces because it’s too difficult for young children to associate the letter “A” with the number “1.”

Start by dealing the cards evenly between all of the players, stacking the cards face down in front of each child. 

No peeking allowed!  On the count of three, each player will flip the top card over into the center of the table, face up.

“One, two, three, flip!”

A chorus of young voices chants in rhythm as our game continues.

“I have a five,” shouts Mable. “That’s bigger than your two, so I win!” 

Compare the cards played. The highest card wins the hand. The winner takes all of the cards played in the round and adds them to a new stack of “won” cards. 

One, two, three, flip!”

“Ah, you both have a six! War!”

When there’s a tie between the two highest players, you have a “duel.”

To play a duel, the two players each place three cards in the middle of the table, face down. Then they each lay down another card (the fifth card for this round). This card should be facing up. The highest card wins, and the winner takes all of the cards from this round and adds them to a new stack.

“One, two, three, flip!”

I watch as a four and a three get turned over by the players in the duel.

“Ah, you won all those cards!” says the child with the losing hand. “Lucky you!” 

When children are playing cards, this is a great time to observe their number sense. Can they identify the numbers by name? Can they determine which number is higher? Can they follow the rules?  When the cards match, can they count out the three additional cards that they will need for a duel?  

Play until your main stack is gone and then count up how many cards the players have in their stacks of “won” cards. The player with the most cards wins. Once the children have mastered the cards through the number six, I will add the sevens and eights back into the deck. Later, I will add in the nines and the tens.

Many children will be able to play a full game of War by the time they reach kindergarten—face cards included. Keeping it simple in the beginning is a great way to assess your students’ number recognition skills and value development.

As children play this deceptively simple game, they are developing their number-recognition skills and beginning to grasp concepts such as number value, greater than and less than.

They are also learning important life skills such as how to follow rules, take turns and take their turns quickly without making the other players wait too long. That’s a lot of learning for a game that fits in your pocket! 

We also want to teach children how to win and lose graciously. I love playing War because it’s a game of chance and everyone has an equal chance of winning. Because each round has a winner, we are practicing the win/lose concept over and over again in rapid succession. There isn’t time for the winners to jump up and do a victory dance or the losers to break down and get weepy. The same child will not win every round, which gives every child many opportunities to practice good sportsmanship.

There’s a reason that children have enjoyed playing War for generations. It’s fast and fun and a bit addictive. So grab a deck or two, play a few rounds with your early learners and call it your math curriculum for the week. You’ll be teaching invaluable life lessons along with those early math skills!