War

Age group
  • Early Years (Age 3 to 6)
  • Primary (Age 6 to 9)
  • Junior/Intermediate (Age 9 to 12)

Curriculum Goal

Created by Yara Salloum. Adapted by The Robertson Program.

Kindergarten: Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviour

Demonstrate an understanding of numbers, using concrete materials to explore and investigate counting, quantity, and number relationships (#15).

Primary: Number Sense

Recall and demonstrate addition facts for numbers up to 10, and related subtraction facts.

Junior: Number Sense

Recall and demonstrate multiplication facts from 0 × 0 to 12 × 12, and related division facts.

Related Links
Context
  • Two to four students and the teacher will be sitting on the carpet in a circle or on a video conference chat.
  • Students should have previous experience with number magnitude (early years) or adding and subtracting (primary).
Materials
In-person version
  • One standard 52-card deck, number inclusion dependent on students’ level: i.e., A – 10 (early years) or A – 13 (primary)
Online version

Lesson

  • Deal out entire deck of cards equally among students.
  • Players simultaneously turn over the top card of their deck.
  • The player with the highest card takes all played cards and places them at the bottom of their deck.
  • When two players turn over the same highest number, a war is launched – each player puts down two more cards, face down, then turns up a third card. The person with the highest card takes all the cards in that round.
  • The game ends when one player has all the cards.

Look Fors

  • Do the children know the magnitude of their numbers on the cards (early years)?
  • Can children read symbolic numbers (early years)?
  • What strategies do the children implement to determine the number’s magnitude?
  • Can children quickly determine which number is larger (early years/primary)?
  • Can children add or subtract two single- or double-digit numbers (primary)?

Extension

  • Player with the smaller number wins each round.
  • Addition War, Subtraction War, Multiplication War, etc. Players turn up two cards each round. Player with the largest sum (or difference, or product) takes all.
  • Face cards can count as 11, 12, 13.
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