Card games are a fun way of making numbers relevant. They encourage learners to develop an awareness of patterns (the four suits) as well as giving a need to sequence numbers. There are several classic games which I love to play with my children at home.
Beat your neighbour is a simple game which depends on luck and allows players to familiarize themselves with the cards in a pack.
All of the cards are dealt fairly evenly to all players. Players pick them up face down. A player then starts by laying the uppermost card down. Play then passes to the person on the left. If a 2-10 card is appears, nothing special happens, however if a court card (Jack,Queen,King or Ace) is played, the next player must pay a forfeit: If the turned-over card is an ace, the second player must turn over four cards one by one onto the pile; if the card is a king, he has to pay three cards; if a queen, two cards; and if a jack, one card.
If all the forfeit cards the player turns over are between 2 and 10, then the player who turned over the court card takes up the whole pile and puts it under his own cards. But if the player turns over another court card during the course of the forfeit, then the debt is deemed paid off, and that player doesn’t have to turn over any more cards. Instead, the next player must pay the forfeit dictated by the second court card and hope to turn over a court card in the process or concede the whole central pile to that player.
When a player has no more cards left, she is out, and the game continues without her. The last player in the game, who accumulates the whole deck, wins.
Palace is another family favourite. It is a little more complicated than Beat your neighbour, but the instructions are here at wikihow.