Card Games for Addition practice

♠️ 1. Addition War

You’ll need: A deck of cards (remove the face cards).

How to play:

• Deal the deck evenly between two players.

• Each player flips over two cards and adds them together.

• The player with the higher total wins all four cards.

• If it’s a tie, go to “war” — flip two more cards each!

💡 Variation:

Easier version: use only the cards ace, 2, 3, 4, 5

Moderate version: use the entire deck and make Jack=11, Queen=12, King=13

Extended versions: use two decks of cards. Each player turns 3 cards over, and makes a 2 digit number plus a 1 digit number, then adds them together. To extend further, each player turns 4 cards over and adds both two digit numbers.

🎯 Skills: Recall of addition facts, including over a ten, AND comparing sums.

♥️ 2. Blackjack (or “21”)

You’ll need: A deck of cards (Aces = 1 or 11, face cards = 10).

How to play:

• Each player starts with two cards.

• Take turns drawing more cards to get as close to 21 as possible without going over.

• Encourage your child to keep a running total aloud each time they draw a new card (“I had 12… now plus 7 makes 19”).

💡 Simplify it: Play to 15 or 20 for younger kids.

🎯 Skills: Mental addition, flexible thinking about number combinations, and strategy.

♦️ 3. Go Fish for Tens

You’ll need: A deck of cards with face cards removed (Ace=1).

How to play:

• Deal 5 cards to each player; the rest go in a draw pile.

• Instead of asking for matching ranks (“Do you have any 4s?”), players ask for a card that will make a ten with one of the cards in their hand.
  Example: If you have a 6, you ask, “Do you have a 4?”

• If they do, take the pair and set it aside. If not, “Go Fish!” i.e. take a new card from the draw pile and add it to your hand

💡 Variation: Play with an open hand for young children

🎯 Skills: Number bonds to 10, and turn-taking.

♣️ 4. Memory Pairs to Make 10

You’ll need: One deck of cards (face cards removed).

How to play:

• Lay all the cards face down in rows.

• Players take turns flipping over two cards at a time.

• If the pair adds up to 10, they keep it and take another turn.

• If not, flip them back and try to remember their positions.

🎯 Skills: Number bonds, memory, visual recall.

♠️ 5. Pyramid of Tens

You’ll need: A deck of cards, face cards removed.

How to play:

• Arrange cards in a pyramid: 1 card on top, then 2, then 3, up to 6 at the base (a total of 21 cards).

• You can only remove uncovered cards — those not supporting any others.

• The goal is to find and remove pairs that add to 10.

• If there are no uncovered pairs that add to ten, turn over a card from the deck. Keep turning cards from the deck, until you can use one to make a pair with an uncovered card in the pyramid

🎯 Skills: Addition to ten, and strategic thinking

♥️ 6. Cribbage (Simplified for Addition Practice)

You’ll need: A cribbage board (optional) and a deck of cards.

How to play (kid version):

• Deal each player 4 cards.

• Take turns laying down cards, saying the new total as you go (face cards all equal 10):
  “That’s 4… plus 7 makes 11… plus 5 makes 16.”

• You earn a point if playing your card makes a sum of 15.

• Continue until you reach 31. You cannot make a total greater than 31. The person who played the last card scores 1 point, or if they make a total of exactly 31, they receive two points.

• Turn over the cards that have already been played, and then start again from zero with any remaining cards in your hand

💡 Extension: Learn the rules of the full cribbage game

🎯 Skills: Running total addition, flexible number thinking, and strategy.

♣️ 7. Addition Snap

You’ll need: A regular deck of cards with face cards removed

How to play:

• Deal out the whole deck between the players

• Take it in turns to flip two cards over and add them together. If the two cards equal the sum of 10 (or another chosen target number), whoever shouts “snap!” first wins the pile.

• Additionally If the total is equal to the last player’s total, the first person who shouts “Snap!” wins the pile.

• If two players snap at once, they split it.

💡 Variation: Only snap if the total is ten (leave out the rule for if the total is equal to the last player’s total)

🎯 Skills: Fast addition recall, attention, and reaction time.