Ask Ollie
Addition War
Here's one to try together!
The classic card game, secretly doing math homework.
Reviewed by our team.
What you need
- Deck of cards
How to do it
Grown-up prep: Take out the face cards for younger kids, or count them as 10.
- Sit in a circle and pick a dealer.
- Here are the card values. An ace is 1, and picture cards are 10.
- Deal the whole deck out, face down.
- Each player flips two cards and adds them up. Ask: What's your total?
- Say your total out loud, and check each other's math.
- The biggest total wins all the cards. If there's a tie, flip two more.
- Count your cards at the end to find the winner.
- Challenge a new player, or play best of three! Ask: Who can you teach Addition War to?
Play it again
- Take-away war: the biggest difference between your two cards wins.
- Three card war: flip three cards and add them all.
- Closest to 15: flip two cards, and the total closest to 15 wins.
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