Math Game Monday: Math Model War

This game helps children develop a strong foundation for understanding multiplication and fractions. Play it frequently until your students become so familiar with the pictures that they can use them to model any problem they encounter.

Many parents remember struggling to learn math. We hope to provide a better experience for our children.

And one of the best ways for children to enjoy learning is through hands-on play.

Math Model War

Math Concepts: math models, less than or greater than.

Players: two or more.

Equipment: one or more decks of math model cards.

Set-Up

The free 44-page PDF Multiplication & Fraction Printables file features two decks of mathematical model playing cards, plus hundred charts and all the game boards for the Math You Can Play: Multiplication & Fractions book.

Get Your Printables File

Print either the Multiplication Models or Fraction Models card deck for this game. Shuffle the math model cards and share them as evenly as possible among all players, or provide one deck per player.

If players each get an individual deck, have them mark the back of each card with their initials or a personal symbol. This makes it easy for them to reclaim their deck after the game.

How to Play

Players stack their cards face down on the table or floor. Then everyone flips their top card face up. The player with the greatest number wins the skirmish, capturing all the cards showing. Each player keeps a pile of prisoner cards.

If there is a tie for greatest card, all the players battle:

• Each player lays three cards face down, then turns a new card face up.
• The greatest of these new cards will capture everything played in that turn, including the face-down cards.

Because all players join in, someone who had a low card in the initial skirmish may win the battle. If there is no greatest card this time, repeat the three-down-one-up battle pattern until someone breaks the tie. The player who wins the battle captures everything.

Then the players go on to the next skirmish, again turning up the top card from each deck.

When the players have fought their way through the entire deck, count the prisoners (or compare the height of the stacks). Whoever has captured the most cards wins the game. Or shuffle the prisoner piles and play on until one player captures all the cards, or until all the other players concede.

Variation

You can also play Multiplication War or Fraction War with regular playing cards. See my blog post The Game That’s Worth 1,000 Worksheets.

Math War Trumps

The biggest problem with Math War is that it’s really just a worksheet in disguise. Children enjoy it more than a worksheet because of the social interaction, but there’s no choice or strategy to the game.

But you can introduce strategic thinking into your number practice by playing Math War Trumps:

• Players draw three cards from their deck and look at them.
• The player whose turn it is calls the trump: whether the low or high value will take the trick.
• Then all players choose a card from their hand to play.

This variation turns a basic math drill into a true game.