[Rescued from my old blog.]
Math concepts: greater-than/less-than, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, negative numbers, absolute value, and multi-step problem solving.
Have you and your children been struggling to learn the math facts? The game of Math Card War is worth more than a thousand math drill worksheets, letting you build your children’s calculating speed in a no-stress, no-test way.
You will need several decks of math cards. Don’t rush to look for these at your school supply store or try to order them through your favorite catalog. Math cards are normal, poker-style playing cards with the jack, queen, king, and jokers removed. Make one deck of math cards per player. A math deck contains 40 cards, so a single game of Addition War lets a child work 20 problems, and he hears his opponent work 20 more—and if your children are like mine, they will rarely want to stop at just once through the deck.
As my students learn their math facts, they need extra practice on the hard-to-remember ones like 6 × 8. With a normal deck of cards, however, I find they turn up far too many problems like 1 × 9 or 2 × 7. To give a greater challenge to older children, I make each player a double deck of math cards, but I remove the aces, deuces, and tens. This gives each player a 56-card deck full of the toughest problems to calculate.
How to play
Basic War—Each player turns one card face up. The player with the greatest number wins the skirmish, placing his own and all captured cards into his prisoner pile. Whenever there is a tie for greatest card, all the players battle: each player lays three cards face down, then a new card face up. The greatest of these new cards will capture everything on the table. Because all players join in, someone who had a low card in the initial skirmish may ultimately win the battle. If there is no greatest card this time, repeat the 3-down-1-up battle pattern until someone breaks the tie. The player who wins the battle captures all the cards played in that turn.
[This is an old, classic children's game. I've often been amazed how such a simple thing can keep my kids occupied for hours. In our variations, because the math card decks are only 4/5 the size of a regular card deck, we give each player his own pack of cards. We don't shuffle the decks together at the beginning, although I suppose you could---that would be more like the traditional game, which (at least in our house) is usually played with a single deck shuffled and split between the players.]
Endgame
When the players have fought their way through the entire deck, count the prisoners. Whoever has captured the most cards wins the game. Or shuffle the prisoner piles and play on until someone collects such a huge pile of cards that the others concede.
Variations
For most variations, the basic 3-down-1-up battle pattern becomes 2-down-2-up. For advanced games, however, the battle pattern is different: in case of a tie, the cards are placed in a center pile. The next hand is played normally, with no cards turned down, and the winner of that skirmish takes the center pile as well.
Addition War—Players turn up two cards for each skirmish. The highest sum wins.
Advanced Addition War—Turn up three (or four) cards for each skirmish and add them together.
Subtraction War—Players turn up two cards and subtract the smaller number from the larger. This time, the greatest difference wins the skirmish.
Product War—Turn up two cards and multiply.
Advanced Product War—Turn up three (or four) cards and multiply.
Fraction War—Players turn up two cards and make a fraction, using the smaller card as the numerator. Greatest fraction wins the skirmish.
Improper Fraction War—Turn up two cards and make a fraction, using the larger card as the numerator. Greatest fraction wins.
Integer Addition War—Black cards are positive numbers; red cards are negative. The greatest sum wins. Remember that -2 is greater than -7.
Integer Product War—Black cards are positive numbers; red cards are negative. The greatest product wins. Remember that two negative numbers make a positive product.
Wild War—Players turn up three cards and may do whatever math manipulation they wish with the numbers. The greatest answer wins the skirmish.
Advanced Wild War—Black cards are positive numbers; red cards are negative numbers. Players turn up four cards (or five) and may do whatever math manipulation they wish with the numbers. The greatest answer wins the skirmish.
Reverse Wild War—Players turn up three cards (or four, or five) and may do whatever math manipulation they wish with the numbers. The answer with the lowest absolute value (closest to zero) wins the skirmish.
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Have more fun on Let’s Play Math! blog:
19 responses so far ↓
Amy // December 29, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Ooooh. I’ve been looking for some more fun ways to drill math facts with my son. I like this. I especially like that it’s not going to cost me an arm and a leg. We’ve also found that he enjoys Timez attack (www.bigbrainz.com), which is a free computer game that drills multiplication facts, and Totally Tut, a math game from Discovery Toys (http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Totally-Math-Operations/dp/B00004TDKR)
But I’m always on the lookout for a new way of helping him learn these things.
Denise // December 30, 2006 at 11:46 am
Hi, Amy!
We also enjoyed Totally Tut. One of my dd’s is a maniac for anything Egyptian, so we had to have that game. We downloaded Timez Attack, but my kids found it too repetitive, though it does have cool graphics. We’ve had more fun with Multiflyer. It only costs a few dollars for home use—you might want to check it out.
Annette // January 2, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Thanks for updating that link for me. Very much appreciated.
Lara // January 3, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Oh, what a great idea! My son is forever wanting to play cards, so he’ll love this.
Amy // January 3, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Thanks, I’ll definitely check it out. Today I picked up some playing cards while at the store, and was just checking back to remind myself which cards to remove….
(And Timez Attack is getting a bit boring around here too now. Very glad I didn’t pay for the full version.)
cathy // January 12, 2007 at 5:39 am
I just read your post! We’ve played this game (we called it “factor war”
after learning it from an Uncle. One great variation for more advanced players is to play one card at a time, and then on the second, decide whether to add or multiply (you would keep in aces and deuces for this) thereby requiring two calculations at times….. Thanks for all the great ideas on your blog!
AmaniS // January 17, 2007 at 1:45 am
Thanks,
This will be great for decks that don’t have all the cards.
Emily // January 18, 2007 at 1:44 pm
This is fabulous! My kids love to play War, and I didn’t even think of altering it to work on our math facts. Thanks!!!!
jd2718 // January 29, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Very nice! Where does it come from?
I will experiment with my niece and nephew.
Btw, in my family we “replay” the prisoners until the winner has all the cards. Games can continue for days. With my sister’s kids, I reduce the deck to 9 - A or 2 - 10 or whatever, (keeps changing, depending on their age and the time we have), and I also sometimes strip out one suit. Playing until total victory with a short deck takes 10 - 20 minutes.
Jonathan
Denise // January 30, 2007 at 9:22 am
Do you mean, where does the game come from? I have no idea! It’s possible I read something like this somewhere once upon a time, but I don’t remember. We have played traditional War since forever (we replay the prisoners, too, but I wear out and give up long before anyone has all the cards). One day, I was looking for a warm-up game for my younger math club kids, and I thought of the simpler variations. From there, it wasn’t very hard to expand the game to fit older students, too.
sarah // May 23, 2007 at 11:01 am
Just looking for math drill ideas and got your site from the 4real boards. This is great. Can’t wait to try it.
Math Game: Factor War « The Elementary Educator // May 29, 2007 at 5:45 pm
[...] the complete post (I particularly like the multiplication versions suggested): Factor War. First through fifth grade math teachers are advised to read [...]
HowToMe // August 4, 2007 at 8:27 am
Yay! This is great!
Kathy // November 17, 2007 at 8:56 am
I love these ideas. Teaching my children the automaticity and the cognitive understanding of basic skills has been my challenge. I will certainly use these ideas.
I noticed that some of the responders were looking for computer programs to teach math facts. The best one I’ve found is http://www.AMatterofFacts.com
It is web-based with arcade games that motivate children to practice. It also tracks their work and prints out a list of trouble facts and flash cards specific each child. You kids will want to work on their math facts all the time.
Marni // January 8, 2008 at 4:35 pm
I can’t believe it, but we also play one variation you don’t have. My 9 year old didn’t come with a math gene, and even early math concepts are hard for him. Basic War is just greater than/less than, and we’ve played War turning 2 or 3 cards over just to help him get that down further. Also helps with place values.
Denise // January 8, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Hi, Marni,
That sounds like a great variation! How do you tell which card goes in the tens or hundreds column? Or do you just each make the biggest number you can? Or for a change, you could arrange them to make the smallest possible number, and then have whichever is less win.
I do have a few place value games (based on some they used to play on the old Square One TV show — showing my age!), but I haven’t posted any of them yet. Someday…
Amber // March 2, 2008 at 10:51 pm
How about using Uno cards? Instead of the Wild card changing the color, it could be used for any number the player wants it to be.
Linda F // May 15, 2008 at 9:32 am
How about using red cards as positive #s, and black cards as negative numbers? (because red electrical terminals are positive, black are negative). Then you can add another dimension to the game - you can have them break ties using the absolute number, or as +/-
Denise // May 15, 2008 at 9:39 am
Good idea, Linda! We also do this in my kids’ favorite math game — “Hit Me,” which is described near the end of my post on teaching negative numbers. One of these days, I should make that game into a post of its own…
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