A great card game to help children of 4 years old and up with number recognition, number concepts of higher/lower, and basic computation, 2 players can play ‘War” using just a deck of cards. The one that wins all the cards wins the war.
How To Play War
Each player gets an equal number of cards, dealt face down. The cards must stay facing down in a pile. When it’s their turn, the players all turn the top card to face up for everyone to see. The card with the highest face value wins the round and takes both cards, but if the cards’ values are the same, there is a ‘war.’
Once there’s a war, players place the next three cards from their pile in front of them, still facing down.
Then, all players turn over the next card on their pile to face up. The player with the highest value card wins the round and also gets all three cards from the other player/s. The game ends when one player has no more cards and the winner is the player with the most cards.
Variation: Computation War
To get practice in adding up (computing) numbers, two cards can be played at the same time. These cards can be added, subtracted, or multiplied to see whose number is higher on both cards combined.
Like with the basic game, the player with the highest number gets the cards and if the players’ answers are the same, then the players have a ‘war and the game continues until one player has no cards left and the player with the most cards is the winner of the round.