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Game Ideas:
Go Fish
Shuffle the deck and deal each player five cards (if there are only two players, deal seven cards each). Put the rest of the cards face down in a “pond” in the middle. Choose a player to go first. When it is a player’s turn they ask someone else for a specific card rank of which they already hold at least one. If the player who is asked has any of the requested cards they must read the card(s) out loud and give it/them to the player who asks, who should respond to the question, quote, or activity on the card. As long as the player requesting cards gets a card, they continue asking. If the player they ask doesn’t have the requested card, they say, “Go fish!” and the player requesting draws a card from the pond. If they happen to draw a card they asked for, they show it to the other players and get another turn. Otherwise, the turn passes to the next player. When a player collects all four cards of the same rank, they show them to the other players and place the cards face up in front of themselves. When all the cards are out of the pond, the person with the most sets of four wins.
Theme and Variation
Shuffle the deck and deal each player five cards. Pick a judge for the first round. The judge picks one of their five cards to read aloud to the group and indicates the kind of response they would like. For example, they can ask for other cards “most like” their card or “opposite” their card. If the judge is asking for matching cards, each person should read their card aloud and explain why they chose it. The judge might also ask for everyone to complete the activity instructions (Be Present, Get Social, Get Creative, Tell a Story) on the judge’s card. In that case, players do not contribute cards. The judge chooses their favorite response and that player receives the judge’s card as a point. If other cards were played they go in a discard pile and players draw back up to five cards. If no other cards were played, the game simply continues with the next judge. The number of cards accumulated at the end of the game determines the winner. To end the game, players can either go through the deck until no more cards are available to play, or choose to compete for a certain number of cards (first player to win five cards, for instance).
Memory
Shuffle the cards and lay them out face down in the center of the players. Take turns turning over two cards at a time. Read the cards aloud and follow any instructions for activities. If the cards are a matching pair the player keeps the pair and gets to go again. If not, the next person takes a turn. The goal is to find all the matching pairs.