First Grade: Math Skills

Play War to practice comparing numbers. 

The card game War relies on numerical comparison skills. As you review the rules, use the vocabulary terms greater than, less than, and equal to. “When your card is greater than mine, you keep the cards. When your card is less than mine, I keep the cards. When your card is equal to mine, we have a ‘war’ to see who wins the stack of cards.” As you play, continue to use the math terms: “9 is greater than 7, so you win the hand!”  

How to play War: 

• Divide the deck evenly, giving each player twenty-six cards. 
• Each player places their stack of cards facedown in front of them. 
• To play a hand, each player flips their top card faceup at the same time. Whoever has the card with the greater value takes both cards and places them in their pile. 
• If both players flip over a card with the same value (such as a two and a two, or a jack and a jack), it’s time for a ‘war.’ Each player places three cards facedown and one card faceup. The player with the card showing the greatest value takes all of the cards played in that hand. 
• During a ‘war,’ if the faceup cards are the same again, the players place another three cards facedown and one card faceup. Whoever’s card is of greater value wins the battle. Repeat until someone has a higher card. 
• The game ends when someone wins all fifty-two cards in the deck. 

If your child is not familiar with the cards in a standard deck, explain the values of the face cards or else remove them from the deck and play with only the numbered cards.