Go Boom, A Family "Trick-Taking" Card Game

 

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The Build-the-Alphabet Game

This worked wonderfully on bad weather days when we couldn't go outside to run off that extra energy. 

Begin with dividing your class into two teams.

You'll need two decks of alphabet cards. It's important the two decks are different from each other, so that they're not accidentally mixed up. For a quick, inexpensive deck, you can print off Alex's Alphabet Cards on two different colored cardstocks.

Dump both decks in a box. Mix them up. Tell each team what their color is (ex: red deck for Team A, blue deck for Team B)

The first child in line grabs a card, runs to a table (I used the gutter underneath the white board), and sets up the card. That child runs back, grabs another card, hands it to the second child, who runs up to place it in "alphabetical order" next to the first card. Child 2 then runs back, grabs a third card to hand to the third child, etc. 

The children keep advancing to place a card in order on the gutter. As more cards are added, they'll have to move cards to fit theirs where it belongs.

The team that finishes correctly first wins!

Self-Explanatory

It's always a good thing to keep an eye on their "answers".

Create a Card Game

Go to the dollar store and buy a card game. Any game will do as long as there are brightly colored pictures on it (like Old Maid or Crazy Eights). Also, try to pick one they may not know or have heard of.

Take away the original directions. Give them the game and challenge them to come up with a way to play. Have them teach it to you. You can always teach them the actual way to play later, which will then give them two ways to play!

One More, One Less Memory

Besides WAR, another game the students love to play is MEMORY.  To change things up a bit, since we've been doing "One More, One Less" in math (addition, subtraction), I changed the rules to MEMORY to incorporate our study. So if a child picks a 4, they can match to either One More (5) or One Less (3).

Another neat thing about using regular playing cards in Kindergarten is that if you lose one, it really doesn't matter.

Make Your Own Memory Game

Let them make their own memory game. You can use tag board, stickers, index cards, or even cut out pictures from a catalog. I've also taken a deck of cards and separated the red from the black (red diamond/heart and black club/spade), which gives you two full sets, with two of each suite.

New Life for an Old Deck of Cards

Got an old deck of cards that you're thinking of throwing away because it's missing a card or two?  Give it new life by letting your kids play WAR.  But not the usual version of the game. I've simplified it to make it easier for them to remember and play.

1. Shuffle deck.
2. Place deck face down in middle of table.
3. Each child takes a card off the top.
4. Child with "highest number" card gets all the other children's cards. (Have them put those cards to the side in a pile.)
5. Jack is "Junior", the prince, and the King and Queen's son. The King is over the Queen, who is over Junior.  A is for the Angel, who is over Everyone!
6. If there is a tie for the highest cards, just those children who tie pick one more card off the top of the pile.
7. Game ends when there aren't enough cards left for everyone to draw.
8. Winner is the person who has the most cards in their "put aside" pile.

Note: If the children want to use the Joker, the person who draws him loses all their cards in their "put aside" pile. (Those cards don't go back in the center pile.)