Playing With a Full Deck

52 Team Activities Using a Deck of Playing Cards

by Michelle Cummings, M.S.

Sometimes, the simplest prop can be the most valuable item in your bag of tricks. This book is jam packed with the best experiential activities out there using a simple deck of playing cards. All activities are engaging and hands-on in nature.

Throughout this book, I used theories and work around multiple intelligences and the 7 Kinds of Smart work done by Thomas Armstrong and Howard Gardner. It is important that you examine the learning styles of your participants and choose activities that will match their strengths. If you select a wide variety of activities from multiple learning styles, each participant in your group will be engaged at different levels at different times. At the bottom of each activity, the learning style that is relevant for each activity will be noted.

A simple deck of cards can cover so much ground with any group that you work with. Everything from mixers and icebreaker activities to problem-solving initiatives, powerful diversity activities, and great debriefing activities can all be done with a deck of cards. Most of the team activities in this book are geared towards groups of 10 or more, but there are some great ones you can do with small groups as well.

Card games engage players in classifying, ordering, reasoning, deducing, and devising strategies to solve a problem. These same skills help in team development, science, math, and other studies. They help us concentrate, focus attention, hone motor skills, and become more sociable.

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