Integer card game

     My collaborative math class is currently working through our integer unit. Many of the students are having difficulty comparing and ordering integers and at the last minute I decided we to put together a game to help them practice. I knew my wonderful math teachers had everything that I needed. Julie had created decks of cards that had all of the numbers from -100 to 100, that had been copied, laminated and cut. She had 8 decks and each deck was a different color. That's a lot of cards! She let me borrow them. 

     Gina had large dice that she purchased from Dollar Tree that she let me borrow as well. Perfect, that's exactly what I needed.

     Then I quickly made  directions on my Smartboard.

     When the kids came into class they were divided into groups with an odd number of students. One group had an even number. I told them we were going to play the game, "WAR." I was amazed that most of the kids didn't know this game. Really, I was shocked. So I explained it to them. 

Here are the rules:

 1. Pass out all of the cards in your pile. Everyone should have the same number of cards. If there are any extra cards place them in the center of the table. Your cards should be face down so you can't see them .

2. Roll the die. 

3. All at once everyone take your top card and turn it face up on the table. 

• If you rolled a 1 or a two the person with the least number wins and gets all the cards on the table . 
• If you rolled a 3 or a 4 the person with the highest number wins. 
• If you rolled a 5 or 6 the person with the number in the middle wins. If they were in a group that had an even number of students, the person who had the number closest to zero wins. 

      I can't believe how much fun they had playing this game! I liked it when they rolled a 5 or 6 and had to place the numbers in order from least to greatest to find the number in the middle. It was fun to watch the light bulbs go off. Those moments when they make those connections make teaching so much fun.

   Downloads:

 Integer Cards (Thank you Julie for letting me share this!)

Notebook file -- dice rules for integer war

Til next time ...

Jan