Learning Game: Math War

In homeschooling my 4 year old, I've learned several things:

1. Everything is better with glitter.
2. M&Ms make a wonderful motivation to finish a lesson.
3. Fun games can be a very effective and inexpensive learning tool.

Since I still haven't gotten all the glitter out of our tile grout, and I may have finished off the M&Ms in a late hour last night, I'll focus on number 3.

I originally found the idea for Math War over on this website and decided to make just a few changes. I used the number cards from an Uno deck (the numbers are larger, and they contain 0-9 instead of 2-10 in a regular deck), and I added Legos as a visual manipulative to help my daughter add the numbers together.

Divide the cards into equal piles face-down. Each player lays the top two cards in their pile face up. Put together the proper amount of Legos and place them next to each card.

Stack the two Lego sets from your two cards together, and count the sum.

My daughter likes to put the two Lego stacks side-by-side to visualize which has more.

The person with the highest sum gets the pile. Continue playing until all cards have been dealt. Each player adds up their stack of cards. Whoever has the most is the winner!


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