Follow Me! Mental and Oral Card Games & BEAM Loop Cards
I was delighted to have the chance to try out these two different types of numeracy card games over the last half term in a variety of classrooms.
The Follow Me! photocopiable book is the first published in a set for each of KS2 Years 3 to 6. We are offered a variety of ideas on using the cards in the classroom, and teachers' notes giving advice on introductory work and extension cards that fit the same loops to give to the more able pupils.
There are some very nice sets that I wanted to use with special groups in years other than Y4. The first things I had to do before copying the pages was to tippex out ‘Yr 4’ from the bottom of each of the 46 cards. I found particularly useful with other years ‘Simplifying Fractions’, which I used with some Y7 students, and ‘Money Calculations’ offering 46 word problems involving money.
It is great to be able to make several sets of each game, so that smaller groups can use them simultaneously. However, I got in an incredible mess after copying them, making sure I’d got the right cards in each set. The spiral binding of the book means that it is difficult to duplicate the four pages so that the cards can be cut out at the same time. I did get better at this! Also if a card gets lost from the set, all that is needed is to photocopy the page again. When a keen student wanted to have a set at home to practise with, this was no problem.
Contrasting with this do-it-yourself approach, are the highly polished BEAM cards. We get five sets of loop cards in each pack, with a short guide on how to use them and diagrams showing the completed loops. All the children I used these with, without exception, were enthralled with the look and feel of their card. They are produced in five different colours, one for each loop, on durable plasticised paper, with two blank spares to replace losses. I feel there is no doubt that their aesthetic appeal added to the pleasure the children felt playing the games.
These sets are the second publication of the series. There are sets for Years 1 and 2, 3 and 4, and 5 and 6. For some reason, BEAM have decided to add the year group to the bottom of each card for this second series, which means again, there is a problem using them outside the target years. However this time I didn’t feel that was quite such a problem because the cards did seem to fit the two-year span pretty well.
With the 'Follow Me!' cards, I felt that some problems in the loop would take more than a few seconds to solve at Y4, slowing the game if used by a whole class, and losing the interest of some of the pupils. Using the BEAM cards with the whole class, I found that most children liked to work out each problem even if they knew their answer had already been used and so they wouldn’t ‘have’ the answer that time.
Over all, I think both publications are very successful in that children really enjoy practising their numeracy skills in this way. The choice seems to be between ready-made luxury of single sets and the possibility of almost unlimited sets with a bit more effort in producing them. I must admit, however, that I used the BEAM cards the most because they were readily available whenever an opportunity to use them arose.
Jill Russell works as a supply teacher in Kent.
Follow Me! Mental and Oral Card Games for Practising Numeracy
Year 4 - Adrian and Jeni Pinel
ISBN 0-7209-0012-3
A4 70pp
£14.99 (ex vat) £17.61 (inc vat)
BEAM Loop Cards Set B
£9.50 a set + vat (£1.66) plus handling/delivery charge £3.95 + vat (£1.66)
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