U Win Again - A Maths Strategy Game

Digit Card Game - mathematics strategies This is an effective strategy game for two players.

The game is seemingly simple to play, and easy to set up. However, the learning that comes out of the dialogue between the children, and between you and the children is immense.

Another plus is that you only need a set of 0-9 Digit Cards. The cards are shuffled and dealt face-up in the form of a letter ‘U’. The players then take it in turns to choose (and remove) a card from one of the two ends of the 'U'. At the end of the game the players determine who has won by working out the total of the cards they have collected.

This seems very simple, but children quickly see that each move they make affects the choices available to their opponent - and only by playing carefully can they win. The downloadable* 'instructions' offer full details of the game together with a number of alternative modes of play.

It has always worked well for me; let me know what you think.

* Login/register first to access the downloadable files.

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Comments

A great game that can be

Submitted by nomesfretwell on Mon, 05/14/2012 - 19:24.

A great game that can be used for my whole class with a little tweaking of number cards.

Great for paired discussion

Submitted by HelenaHuguenin on Sat, 02/04/2012 - 10:39.

Great for paired discussion and for less able group working with TA. Addition practice at the end for this group too!

Great idea. It could also be

Submitted by sheilamay on Thu, 10/27/2011 - 11:45.

Great idea. It could also be used with decimal cards to give practice with comparing and adding decimals.

A great game!

Submitted by maths on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 20:09.

A great game!

A great game for 'No Pens

Submitted by Shelagh on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 22:00.

A great game for 'No Pens Day'! Simple to set up and aids strategic thinking. Love the idea of different starting formations. Rather than just add their scores, children could use a combination of +, -, x and division to calculate the highest/nearest/ lowest score according to the target that you set them.

Thank you for the feedback.

Submitted by johdu on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 10:07.

Thank you for the feedback. Some great extension ideas there... and I love the idea of a "No Pens Day".

We have a few more digit-card games on their way, see our new 'Go!' game for example.

Am meeting my new maths group

Submitted by willnevie on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 21:14.

Am meeting my new maths group tomorrow - am looking forward to using this to 'break the ice.' Another great resource. Thank you

This looks like a really

Submitted by rhoneyman on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 11:25.

This looks like a really interesting game. I particularly like and am going to use, the use of coins in this game. I have been looking for something a little "different" when teaching the children about money and how we add the coins up. Can't wait to try it out with the children!

Thanks very much for the

Submitted by johdu on Fri, 07/22/2011 - 16:12.

Thanks very much for the comment. we have a host of money maths and coin recognition resources in preparation now... we should be rolling these games and maths ideas out shortly. ;-)

Simple but effective -

Submitted by maramaf on Tue, 05/24/2011 - 05:15.

Simple but effective - children at different stages were able to play against each other, got them all thinking hard!

We played this game again

Submitted by Steve Jubb on Mon, 03/14/2011 - 23:10.

We played this game again today, its a varied game, sometimes quick, but sometimes inspiring a lot of thought. Adding one more number, say 10, changes the strategy options. We usually play five or six rounds, alternating between who sets it up, and who goes first. Sometimes I preceed this game with the Higher and Lower Digit Card Game that uses the same pack of cards.