How to Play the Coin War Game {Free Printable}

If your Wolf Cub Scouts are working on the Adventures in Coins adventure, you’ll want to print out this free Coin War game.

The Wolf elective adventure, Adventures in Coins, is a fun way to teach our Cub Scouts about coins—how much they’re worth, what kinds of markings they have on them, where they’re made, and how to add and subtract the value of them.

One of the best ways for kids to learn is by playing games. That's why I love that this adventure has them playing a game.

Wolf Elective Adventure Adventures in Coins Requirement 4: Play a game or create a game board with your den or family where you can practice adding and subtracting coins.

One great way to do this is by playing Coin War. It’s like the card game War, but the cards have coins on them instead of numbers.

How to Make the Coin War Game

I’ve created a free printable Coin War game for you. You can download it by entering your email address at the bottom of this post.

To make the game, start by printing the game.

I recommend that you print them on cardstock then laminate them to make them more durable.

Cut the coin card pages into fourths. You’ll have a total of 24 cards.

You’ll probably want to print several sets of cards so that more than one group of Scouts can play at a time.

How to Play the Coin War Game

Divide the kids into groups of 2 or 3. You could probably have a group of 4, but you would need more than one set of cards.

Give each group a coin values sheet and an instruction sheet. These are included in the printable below.

Split the cards evenly between the members of each group.

The Scouts keep their coin cards face down until it’s time to start playing the game.

To play the Coin War Game, each kid will turn over a coin card at the same time. Each Scout will add up their coin values, and whoever has the highest monetary value card gets all the cards.

Game play continues with children turning another coin card face up, adding the coins, and collecting all the cards if they have the highest monetary value.

After all coin cards have been played, the Cub Scouts count how many coin cards they have in their pile.

The child with the most coin cards at the end of game play wins the game.

What Happens When a Monetary Value is Equal?

Just like with the game of War, your child may end up having the same monetary value on their coin card as another player.

If the tied values are the highest, it is War!

The two players who are tied will each turn over another card. They again add up the monetary value of the face-up coin card, and the one with the higher monetary value gets to keep all of the coin cards for that hand.

Coin War Variation

You can adjust the Coin War rules to make the game more challenging. One way to do this is to have the Scouts add up the coin value on all their cards at the end of game play. The kid with the highest monetary value of coin cards wins the game.

Playing this version would be great for older kids in your pack. You can use it as a gathering activity for your den or pack meeting.

Why Play the Coin War Game?

There are several reasons to play the game.

First, it satisfies Requirement 4 of the Wolf elective adventure, Adventures in Coins.

Second, the game is perfect as a gathering activity or as a “hip pocket” activity. That’s what I call the games that we can pull out of our “hip pocket” when our planned activities don’t take as long as we think they will or when the Scouts just aren’t enjoying the planned activity.

Third, the game helps our Wolves learn how to identify coins and add up their values.

Fourth, the game encourages good sportsmanship.

Fifth, you can use this game for any kids who need practice adding up coins. Use it for extra practice when your kiddos are studying coins in class or as a homeschool assignment.

Get the Coin War Game

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What do you think? Will your Wolf Cub Scouts enjoy playing the Coin War game?

Yours in Scouting,
Sherry

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