Go fish!

Hi Barbara.

Hey Michelle.

How are you today?

I'm very well.

We're ready to play a game, 'Go fish.'

Great, I'll shuffle.

Well, that's good. 'cause you gotta shuffle the cards first.

That's some mad shuffling skills!

So we need to get 7, is that right?

Yes, seven cards each.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

And then that's our fishing pile here in the middle.

And we're trying to make pairs of the same card is that right?

Yes, you can play like that, but today we're looking for one or two away.

Oh ok.

So I'll show you.

I'll show you what I mean.

Oh I won't show you all my cards 'cause I've lost to you lots of times before, but for example, I could make 7 and 5 a combination.

Because it's 2 away, right.

Because there's a difference of 2 between them, like either 5 I need 2 more to get to 7.

Or from 7 I need 2 less to get to 5.

Or I could also have made a pair with 4 and 5.

Because it's 1 away.

A difference of 1.

But ones that are the same number, they can't be a pair. No.

So it's different to regular Fish in that way.

Yep.

Ok.

So.

I think I've got some pairs here.

So we can put them down to start.

I'll put it like that so that mathematicians watching can view, can see, Ok.

Ok, so now I've only got one card left.

What's the next thing, do we need to have cards in our hand all the time don't we?

Well just after you deal if you've only got one card left, pick up another two so we can get started.

Ok.

But you can't put them down.

Ok.

Alright, and since you are the most amazing shuffler on Earth, you can ask first.

Ok.

So you're asking me for a quantity that's one more or two more, or one less or two less than a card that you have.

Ok, that's great, but if I've pairs um now I can't use them yet.

Not yet.

Not yet.

You just picked up from a deal.

Ok, do you have a 2?

Go fish.

And so now, Barbara, I'm thinking why did you ask me about a 2?

Because you might have had a 4.

Or you might have had a 3, or you might have had an ace.

So so now.

Oh you know what I've got, ok.

So now I'm actually going to ask you, do you have a 3?

I do have a 3.

And the reason I asked that is 'cause I had an ace.

Do you know what, I was gonna make my pair and I didn't do it quickly enough and now I've missed my opportunity.

Watch out, hahaha.

Oh wow, now I think I need a 3 but you've just use yours, but I'm still gonna ask it.

Do you have a 3?

Go fish.

I feel like, it's very satisfying.

It is but now I can make a pair.

Rats.

Do you have a 6?

Go fish.

Oh, I should.

Do you know what, can I talk to the mathematicians at home?

I want to tell them I made a bad decision.

Because when I look at these cards, if I had of asked for, don't listen, an 8 or a 9, then then I would have been able to maybe get a 7, the 7 could match or the 10 could match.

I made a bad choice.

Ok, you can listen again now.

Did you tell me to go fish?

I did yes.

But I got lucky.

I like this game because, you know, there's a bit of luck.

You need to be skillful, but there's also luck in there, so that's what makes a good game.

Ok, my turn.

Oh, do you have a 3?

Go fish.

Do you have, oh now, we're not, ten is, the biggest card, so there's no jacks.

Oh we've taken the picture cards out.

So do you have a... 9?

Go fish.

Oh rats.

Do you have a... 4?

Yes.

Thank you very much.

Do you have an 8.

Go fish.

You know what's great is we can't cheat because the mathematicians are watching us, watching out cards.

I'm a bit of a cheater sometimes. You know strategic decision making.

Haha.

Do you have, I've already asked about 3 so I might ask for a 2?

Yes, I just picked it up.

Yes.

Um, do you have an 8?

Go fish.

Fish.

Do you have a 3?

Go fish.

Do you have a...4?

Go fish.

But I gotta pair. Ohh

Do you have...you didn't have any 2s, so I might go the other way.

Do you have a 10?

Yes.

Haha.

Oh I didn't win though, I've still got one card to go.

Well.

You've won though.

Well, yes, I suppose.

Well, here's how you can decide who wins.

Either by who runs out of their cards first.

So in that case I win.

But you could also win based on the number of pairs that you've collected.

So 5 and 6 is a pair for me because it's a difference of one.

7 and 6 is a pair because 7 is one more than 6.

7 and 6 is another pair, 'cause 6 is one less than 7.

4 and a 5 is a pair because there's one more than the other card, like 5 is one more than 4 and ace and 3 are a pair because ace is two less than 3, so I got five pairs but you got... 6, 7 pairs.

So we both won?

Technically we both won because I lost my cards first and you've got 7 pairs, so we will leave it to the mathematicians to decide who won.

But it's a good game, yeah?

I really like this game and you know what else we could do?

We could play this game, but we could play it as snap.

Oh yeah, so you're looking for speedy eyeballs when checking quantities.

Yeah the same way, plus or minus or minus one or two.

You could also do it as concentration.

Oh yes.

You know I call that game memory. Oh yeah you could call it memory too.

And you know what else Barbara is that we could change what we're looking for.

So here we were looking for plus or minus one or two, but you could say things like combinations that make 10. Oh like 4 and 6.

Aha so if I had a 7, I could say do you have a 3?

Right.

That's a really good idea.

Alright over to you mathematicians to have some fun.

Go fish.

Have fun.

I should have said have some fun fishing.

So what is the mathematics here when we play this game, being confident with knowing and using important mathematical relationships is critical for our learning in mathematics.

So knowing one more two more, one less and two less helps us with things like counting forwards and backwards, identifying and using the number before and after.

Using landmark numbers to solve problems, and many many more things too.

So over to you mathematicians to have fun fishing.

Enjoy!