•War- (goals: recognizing numbers to 10, counting, comparing more/less/equal, turn-taking)All 52 cards are dealt to two players. (We don’t play with face cards.) Without looking at the cards, each player puts his pile face down in front of himself. The two players turn up their top card at the same time. The person who turned up the card with the larger number takes both. If there is a tie, this is called ‘War". Each player places the next card, face down, on top of the card that made the tie. Then each player turns over another card from his pile and places it face up on top of the other cards. The person who turns up the bigger number takes all 6 cards.The player who collects more cards than the other at the end is the winner. (1)
•Go Fish- (number recognition, perspective-taking, turn-taking)(with a deck of playing cards)If there are two players, each is dealt 7 cards. If there are three or four players, each receives 5 cards. The rest are spread out on the table, face down- this is the ‘fish pond’. Each player first makes all the pairs he can find in his own hand and puts them down in front of himself, face up. If he has 3 that are the same, he can put down only a pair and must keep the 3rd card. The dealer then begins by asking someone for a card to make a pair. If that person has that card, he must give it to her. If he does not, he says, ‘Go fish.’ The person asking then picks a card from the ‘fish pond’ and puts down a pair if she can. If not, she simply keeps that card, and the turn passes to the player on her left. Each player can keep asking for a card as long as he gets one that enables him to make a pair. Play continues until all the cards have been put down in pairs. The person who makes the most pairs is the winner. (1)
•Concentration- (visual memory of spatial arrangement, number recognition, turn-taking) Choose 10-15 pairs of cards. Arrange them face down in neat rows. Take turns turning up two cards, trying to make pairs. When a player succeeds in matching the second card to the first one, he can keep the pair and continue playing. When he fails, he must turn the two cards over, and the turn passes to the person on his left. The winner is the person who makes more pairs than anyone else. (1)
•Tic-Tac-Toe- (spatial reasoning, directionality, logical thinking, perspective-taking, turn-taking) Draw the traditional Tic-Tac-Toe matrix (two lines down, two lines across). One player uses X’s; the other uses O’s. In turn, each players writes his letter in one of the spaces. The object of the game is to get three of one letter in a row, either down, across or diagonally. (For young children, it’s a good idea to make a picture of each way a person could win. Also, young children typically play games cooperatively at first, so if they say, "We both won!" don’t correct them. As the child ‘decenters’ (learns to take his opponent’s point of view so that he can outwit him), this desire to ‘win’ will come.) (1)
•Double War- ( number recognition, addition, turn-taking) Double war is a modification of War played by two children. You will need two decks of cards to play. Use only 1-4 from each deck- this will give you 32 cards, eight each from "1" to "4". All cards are dealt into four piles, face down (each player will have two stacks). Without looking at the cards, each player turns up to top cards from both piles (four cards will be showing) and adds the two cards together. The person whose total is more takes all four cards. The player who has more cards at the end is the winner. If there is a "War" (a tie), each player takes the top card of each of his piles and places it, face down, on the cards that made the tie, and then turns up the next card from each of his piles face up. The player whose new total is greater takes all twelve cards.(1)
•Concentration with 2 decks- (visual memory of spatial arrangement, number recognition, addition, turn-taking) You will use 8 "1’s", 8 "2’s", 8 "3’s", 4 "4;s", 4 "5’s", and 2 "10’s". The players arrange all the cards face down in neat rows. They takes turns turning up two cards, trying to make pairs of the same numbers. When a player succeeds in making a pair, he can keep it and continue playing. When he fails, he must turn the two cards over so that they are face down again, and the turn passes to the person on his left. The winner can be determined in one of two ways: (1) by deciding who made more pairs than anyone else or (2) by finding out who got the highest total number of points. (1)
•Double Parcheesi(number recognition, counting, turn-taking) Play this with the traditional Parcheesi board and rules. The only difference is that the players double the number shown on the dice. (1)
•One to 10 (Card Dominoes) (number recognition, number sequencing/order, classification/sorting by shape and color, turn-taking) Using 40 cards 1-10 (pull out face cards), deal out all cards (any number may play). If the dealer has a ‘1’ (an ace), he lays it down and the turn passes to the next player. If he does not have a ‘1’ card, he passes and the turn passes to the next player. If an ace of hearts is played, for example, then the next player could lay down a 2 of hearts or an ace of any other suit. Cards laid down must be in order and suits must match. The game is over when everyone has used all of their cards. (2) (This game can be modified by beginning with all the 10’s and counting backwards. It can also be modified by beginning with all the 5’s (or any number) and going both up (6,7,8…) and down (4,3,2…)).
•Sevens (number recognition, recognizing number sets that equal 7, turn-taking) Twenty-four cards (ace through 6) are used. All the cards are stacked as a drawing pile except the top three cards, which are all turned up and placed on the table in a row. The object of the game is to find two cards that make a total of seven (1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4). When his turn comes, each player picks up two cards that equal 7, if possible, and replace them with two from the top of the drawing pile. If he cannot make 7, he passes. Each time a player cannot pick up two cards that make a total of 7, the next player takes the top card of the drawing pile and tries to make seven with it. If he cannot, he starts a discard pile. As soon as a player can take two cards, the discard pile is put back in the drawing pile at the bottom. The winner is the person who ends up with the most cards. (2)
•Crazy Eights (number recognition, classification considering two criteria, developing strategy, turn-taking) The dealer deals five cards to each player and stacks the remaining cards face down in a drawing pile. The top card is turned over and placed face up beside the pile. Each player tries to get rid of her cards by playing them in turn, one at a time. The player on the dealer’s left begins, and each person puts face up on the upturned card a card that matches either by number or by suit. (For example, a 2 of hearts can be matched with either a 2 or a heart.) All 8’s are ‘crazy’ (or wild) and may be played on any card. Whoever plays an 8 must tell the next player on her left what suit to play next. If a player cannot match the card or play an 8, she must draw from the pile until she finds a card she can play. When the pile is used up, she passes. The first person to get rid of her cards is the winner. (2)
Dot-to-Dot(decentering, spatial reasoning, turn-taking) The board is a square or rectangle in which parallel rows and columns of dots are printed as shown. The object of the game is to form squares by drawing a line from one dot to another. The players take turns connecting two dots. A player drawing the last line of the square puts his initial in it. The winner is the one who completed more squares than anyone else. (2)