Playing Cards in School Continued

You can use cards for pretty much any lesson involving categories. They are great for unit reviews. It just takes a little bit of prep time. For example: Label cards with terms from a government unit (amendments, presidents, branches of government, court cases, etc.) you can then use this deck to play Go Fish. "Do you have a civil rights amendment?" "Do you have a Supreme Court Justice?" etc. You can also use the cards for a Poker Style game Straight = 5 amendments in a row, Full House = 2 Supreme Court Justices & 3 Presidents, etc. Or you can make a few decks and have students race in groups to see who can group the cards properly first (put all presidents together, all local representatives, all justices, all civil rights activists)

These same ideas can be used with any subject. I find that some decks have a plastic coating on it which is washable. I often use a washable marker to label the cards with the new terms and wipe it off with a damp cloth before i label it for the next unit.

Hopefully this will get the ball rolling for you and open the door o a bunch of other ideas for how you can use cards in any classroom. I know my students perk up anytime I bring in a card game. Try it, let me know how it goes.