Card games are excellent for helping with number skills and memory, or are simply a way to encourage a group to communicate and work together when they can’t be outside. A deck of cards has easily as much developmental potential for group work as outdoor and higher risk, more adventurous activities; physical ability is irrelevant when playing card games, so groups with a wide range of abilities can work together. Card games refine mental skills like logic, observation and memory, as well as encouraging players to communicate, strategise and make decisions.
If the group has visual issues (or just because you can!), you can get decks of large playing cards, which can make it easier for the group.
Card games represent psychological adventure, a different way of working with numbers and visual acuity, still involving decision-making and strategising.
Deal five cards to each player, then place the remainder of the cards face down in the middle. The players may look at their cards.
The dealer starts by putting down a card as a starting suit. Going clockwise, the next player has to follow suit, put down a card of the same denomination or put down one of the special cards in the list below, which affects the next person. If a person is unable to put any card down they must pick a card up from the remaining pile and play goes onto the next player:
Deal eight cards or less to each player, then place the remainder of the cards face down in the middle. The players may look at their cards.
The dealer starts by putting down a card as a starting suit. Going clockwise, the next player has to follow suit, put down a card of the same denomination or put down one of the special cards (below) which affects the next person. If a person is unable to put any card down they must pick a card up from the remaining pile and play goes onto the next player:
The object of the game is for a player to get rid of all the cards in their hand. Anyone with only one card left has to knock on the table or face a forfeit.
If a large number is playing, you may want to combine two or more packs of cards.
Deal out all the cards in the pack. The object of the game is for a player to get rid of all their cards, but in order to do so they have to discard cards face down into a central pile, in multiples of the same rank (that is two kings, four 10s, three 4s). However, each player chooses whether to be truthful or whether to cheat when they put their cards down (for example, they could say they are putting down three aces when they are putting down a random combination of cards, like a 2, a 3 and a 9). The other players must decide if they’re telling the truth or not and can call ‘cheat’ if they think that they are not putting down the cards they say.
If a player is caught cheating, they have to pick up the cards they have just put down and the rest of the pile. If someone calls ‘cheat’ and they were not cheating, they turn over the cards they just put down to prove it and the person who accused them of cheating has to pick up the pile of cards.
Play continues until one player gets rid of all their cards.
Spread a pack of cards face up on the floor or a table. One person is the caller and sits with their back to the cards and players. The caller, working through a separate pack, shouts out a card. The players scan the cards on the floor or table for it. The first player to spot it places a forefinger on it and begins dragging it back to their place. Of course, as soon as their finger lands on the card, many will join it, all determined to get it to their place.
The winner is the one who captures the most cards. Anyone using more than one finger or using elbows to defend their claim is instantly disqualified.
A more complex game, calling for inductive, rather than deductive, reasoning.
The dealer shuffles one or more packs of cards and deals them all out to the players. The last card dealt is placed face up in the middle of the table as the beginning of the starter pile.
The players pick up their cards and organise them into any order they choose.
The dealer invents a secret rule that determines which cards can be placed on the starter pile; they write the rule down in secret on a piece of paper and hide it until the game is over.
Players take turns to choose a card from their hand and place it face up on the middle pile. If the card complies with the dealer’s secret rule, the dealer says so and the card remains on the pile. If the card does not comply with the rule, the player places the card face up in a ‘mistake’ pile in front of them (each player creates their own mistake pile). Play continues until players have used all the cards in their hands, when they move on to use the cards from their ‘mistake’ pile. Play continues in the same way.
The game ends when a player has no cards left or when the dealer declares that it is impossible for anyone to play a card that conforms to the secret rule.
It is best for the dealer to keep the secret rule simple (for example, ‘alternate black and red cards’).
This game is complex to explain, but easy once you get the idea! Pontoon can be played by two or more players with a supply of betting tools (money, chips, matchsticks, marbles). The cards have the following values:
The aim is to build a hand with a total value as near as possible to 21, without going above it.
One player is designated as the banker, and each of the other players bets on having a better hand than the banker has.
]The banker deals one card face down to each player, starting with the player to dealer’s left, going round the table and ending with the dealer. All the players except the banker may look at their card.
Starting again with the player to dealer’s left and working clockwise, the players other than the banker place their initial bet (matchsticks or sweets are easier to use than money!).
The dealer deals a second card face down to each player and all the players (including the banker) look at their two cards. If the banker has a pontoon, they show it immediately and collect double the bet from each player.
If the banker does not have a pontoon, the players work clockwise from the dealer’s left to try to improve their hand with extra cards.
The possible options:
Whenever the total of a hand adds to more than 21, the player is out, loses their bet and the banker adds their cards to the bottom of the pack.
No player is allowed more than five cards.
The banker’s turn: when all the players except the banker have finished, the banker’s two cards are turned face up (the cards of the other players are still face down unless they have split, twisted, declared pontoons or gone bust). The banker may add more cards to the initial two by dealing them face up one at a time. At any point, the banker can stop dealing and play the cards.
The possible outcomes:
Deal out all the cards between the players, face down. Keeping their cards face down in front of them on the table, players take it in turn to turn over their top card and then place it in the middle onto a discard pile. Whenever a jack is turned up, the first player to slap it wins.
In the traditional way the game was played, players have to slap the jack card, but it may be more even if players only have to slap the discard pile on seeing the jack, otherwise the player holding it may have the advantage.
Three cards are dealt to each player. A player who holds any of these cards wins:
But if two players both have winning hands, three 3s or an ace beat the two or three cards of same suit or number, which in turn beat a king, queen or jack. If there is a tie between players, three cards are dealt again, but only to those who tied. The first person to win 20 times is the winner.