Making Therapy Fun

8/12/2019 Making Therapy Fun

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Making Therapy Fun:

Basic Games & Activities to Get You Started

I. Card Games

A. Concentration : Shuffle the cards and lay them out, face down, one at a time sothat no two cards overlap at the corners or touch one another. Each player inturn must turn over any two cards on the table, leaving the first face up until hehas turned the second. If the two cards form a pair, he takes them and turns uptwo more cards. Whenever the two cards he turns up do not form a pair, heturns both cards face down again, letting them remain in exactly the sameposition on the table they were in when he first turned them up. The turn to playnow goes to the player at his left. The player who takes in the greatest number ofpairs wins the game.

B. Crazy Eights, Uno : A game for two or more players, in which the object is to getrid of the cards in your hand onto a discard pile by matching the number or suit ofthe previous discard. The basic game uses a standard 52 card pack, or two suchpacks shuffled together if there are a lot of players. The dealer deals (singly) fivecards to each player (seven each if there are only two players). The undealtstock is placed face down on the table, and the top card of the stock is turnedface up and placed beside the stock to start the discard pile. Starting with theplayer to dealer's left, and continuing clockwise, each player in turn must eitherplay a legal card face up on top of the discard pile, or draw a card from theundealt stock. The following plays are legal:

1. If the top card of the discard pile is not an eight (or Wild), you may playany card which matches the rank/number or suit/color of the previouscard (for example if the top card was the king of hearts you could play anyking or any heart);

2. An eight (or Wild) may be played on any card, and the player of the eight(or Wild) must nominate a suit, which must be played next;

3. If an eight (or Wild) is on top of the pile, you may play any card of the suitnominated by the person who played the eight (or Wild).

4. The first player who gets rid of all their cards wins, and the other players

score penalty points according to the cards they have left in their hands -50 for an eight (or Wild), 10 for a picture, and spot cards at face value(one point for an ace, two for a two and so on).

5. Variations

Crazy Eights is one of the easiest games to elaborate by addingvariations, and is rarely played in its basic form. There are variations inthe number of cards dealt, the rules about drawing cards and the scoring


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Making Therapy Fun: Basic Games & Activities to Get You Started

2005 Ross Adams, M.S., CCC-SLP Page 2

system. Usually, special meanings are given to particular cards; whenplayed these cards affect the sequence of play, or have other effects.

a. Drawing Cards

1. In the normal game, you may always use your turn to drawa card. However, some people play that you may onlydraw if you are unable to play - if you can play you must.

2. Some allow the drawn card to be played immediately if it isa legal play.

3. Some allow more than one card to be drawn - either up toa fixed number of cards, after which if you still cannot (orwill not) play the turn passes to the next player. Othersrequire you to continue drawing until you can play.

b. Last Card: There may be a rule that you must alert the otherplayers when you have just one card left. If you fail to do so youmust draw cards (usually two) from the stock as a penalty.

c. Cards requiring special actions

1. Change suit: Traditionally an eight can be played at anytime and the player can nominate any suit. Some play thatyou can only play an eight that matches (either the samesuit or another eight). Some play that you can play an eightat any time but cannot nominate another suit - the nextplayer must match the suit of the eight you played or playanother eight. Szu Kay Wong suggests that you can play

an eight at any time, but can only nominate a different suitif the eight matches the rank or suit of the previous card.Some players use jacks or aces rather than eights as thecards which have the power to change suit.

2. Skip: Some play that when a queen (or some otherdesignated rank) is played, the next player in rotationmisses a turn, and the turn passes to the following player.

3. Reverse direction: Some play that when an ace (or someother designated rank) is played, the direction of playreverses, becoming anticlockwise if it had been clockwise,

or vice versa.

4. Draw cards: Some play that when a two is played the nextplayer must either draw two cards or play another two. Ifseveral consecutive twos have been played the next playermust either play another two or draw two cards for eachtwo in the sequence.


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C. Go Fish : This game is best for three-to-six players, but it is possible for two toplay. A standard 52 card deck is used. The dealer deals five cards to eachplayer (seven each for two players). The remaining cards are placed face downto form a stock. The player to dealer's left starts. A turn consists of asking aspecific player for a specific rank. For example, if it is my turn I might ask: Mary,do you have any jacks? The player who asks must already hold at least onecard of the requested rank, so I must hold at least one jack to say this. If theplayer who was asked (Mary) has cards of the named rank (jacks in this case),she must give all her cards of this rank to the player who asked for them. Thatplayer then gets another turn and may again ask any player for any rank alreadyheld by the asker. If the person asked does not have any cards of the namedrank, they say Go fish! The asker must then draw the top card of the undealtstock. If the drawn card is the rank asked for, the asker shows it and getsanother turn. If the drawn card is not the rank asked for, the asker keeps it, butthe turn now passes to the player who said Go fish! As soon as a playercollects a book of four cards of the same rank, this must be shown and discardedface down. The game continues until either someone has no cards left in theirhand or the stock runs out. The winner is the player who then has the mostbooks.

D. Old Maid : This game can be played by two or more players. From a standard52 card pack remove one queen leaving 51 cards. Deal and play are clockwise.The dealer deals out all the cards to the players (generally some will have onemore card than others - this does not matter). The players all look at their cardsand discard any pairs they have (a pair is two cards of equal rank, such as twosevens or two kings). The dealer begins. At your turn you must offer your cardsspread face down to the player to your left. That player selects a card from yourhand without seeing it, and adds it to her hand. If it makes a pair in her hand shediscards the pair. The player who just took a card then offers her hand to thenext player to her left, and so on. If you get rid of all your cards you are safe -

the turn passes to the next player and you take no further part. Eventually all thecards will have been discarded except one queen (the old maid) and the holderof this queen loses.

E. War : In the basic game there are two players, and you use a standard 52 cardpack. Cards rank as usual from high to low: A K Q J T 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. Suits areignored in this game. Deal out all the cards, so that each player has 26. Playersdo not look at their cards, but keep them in a packet face down. The object ofthe game is to win all the cards. Both players now turn their top card face up andput them on the table. Whoever turned the higher card takes both cards andadds them (face down) to the bottom of their packet. Then both players turn uptheir next card and so on. If the turned up cards are equal there is a war. The

tied cards stay on the table and both players play the next card of their pile facedown and then another card face-up. Whoever has the higher of the new face-up cards wins the war and adds all six cards face-down to the bottom of theirpacket. If the new face-up cards are equal as well, the war continues: eachplayer puts another card face-down and one face-up. The war goes on like thisas long as the face-up cards continue to be equal. As soon as they are differentthe player of the higher card wins all the cards in the war. The game continuesuntil one player has all the cards and wins. This can take a long time. Most


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descriptions of War are not clear about what happens if a player runs out ofcards during a war. There are at least two possibilities:

1. If you don't have enough cards to complete the war, you lose If neitherplayer has enough cards, the one who runs out first loses. If both run outsimultaneously, it's a draw. Example: Players A and B both play sevens,so there is a war. Each player plays a card face down, but this is playerB's last card. Player A wins, since player B does not have enough cardsto fight the war.

2. If you run out of cards during a war, your last card is turned face up and isused for all battles in that war. If this happens to both players in a warand their last cards are equal, the game is a draw. Example: Players Aand B both play sevens, so there is a war. Player A plays a card facedown, but player B has only one card, so it must be played face up. It is aqueen. Player A plays a card face up and it is also a queen, so the warmust continue. Player B's queen stays (B's last card) while player A playsa card face down and one face up, which is a nine. Player B wins the warand takes all these seven cards (the five cards that A played and the twocards that B played) and the game continues normally.

F. Other Card Games


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II. Pencil & Paper Games

A. Dots & Boxes : Players take turns connecting the dots, one line at a time. If youcomplete a box (one unit square), you put you initial in the box and get to moveagain.

B. Hangman : A single player attempts to determine a secret word by guessing thelettersone at a timethat might be in the word. In the beginning, oneunderscore is displayed for each letter in the word. For each letter guessed thatis contained in the word, the number and positions of all occurrences of the letterare revealed. For each letter guessed that is not contained in the word, a bodypart is drawn on a scaffold. If all letters in the word are guessed before acomplete body is drawn, you win the game. If not, you lose, and the word will isrevealed. In easy mode, you may be allowed nine incorrect guesses, and thegame ends after the tenth. (The body parts drawn are: head, body, left arm, lefthand, right arm, right hand, left leg, left foot, right leg, right foot.) In hard mode,the hands are drawn with the arms and the feet are drawn with the legs whichmeans you are only allowed five incorrect guesses, and the game ends after thesixth.

C. Tic-Tac-Toe : The object is to get three in a row. You play on a three by threegame board. The first player is known as X, and the second is O. Playersalternate placing Xs and Os on the game board until either opponent has three ina rowacross, up and down, or diagonallyor all nine squares are filled. Xalways goes first, and in the event that no one has three in a row, the stalemateis called a cat game.

D. Other Pencil & Paper Games


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III. Board Games

A. Candy Land :

1. The youngest player goes first. Play proceeds to the left.

2. On a turn, draw one card from the deck and then move your GingerbreadMan to the space on tile board that the card directs. After you move yourGingerbread Man, your turn is over. Place the card in a discard pile.Here's where the cards direct you to move:Cards with one color block. - when you draw a card with one color block,move your playing piece ahead on the path to the first matching colorspace on the path. Cards with two color blocks When you draw a cardwith two color blocks, move your playing piece ahead on the path to thesecond matching color space on the path. Picture cards - When youdraw a card with pictures on it. move your playing piece forward orbackward on the path to the PINK picture space on the board thatmatches the PINK picture square on the "drawn" card. For example, ifyou draw a card with a SNOWFLAKE QUEEN FROSTINE, move yourplaying piece to the pink space on the board that pictures the snowflake.

3. Some movement rules:

a. Always move in the direction of the signposts, unless directed tomove backward on the path by a picture card.

b. Two or more Gingerbread Men may be on the same space at thesame time.

c. Shortcuts: there are two shortcuts on the path - the Rainbow Trailand the Gumdrop Pass. If your Gingerbread Man lands by exactcount on the orange space below the Rainbow Trail or on thepurple space below the Gumdrop Pass, you can take the shortcutimmediately by moving your piece to the purple space above theRainbow Trail or on the purple space above the Gumdrop Pass.

d. Penalty spaces: There are three penalty spaces on the path.When you land on any of these spaces by exact count, yourplaying place is stuck there until you draw a certain color card onyour turn. IMPORTANT! You only draw one card per turn. Hereare the three spaces: Gooey Gumdrops - If stuck here, you mustremain on this space until you draw a card with one yellow blockor two yellow blocks. When you do, advance to that yellow spaceon the board. Lost in the Lollipop Woods - If stuck here, you mustremain on this space until you draw a card with one blue block ortwo blue blocks. When you do, advance to that blue apace on theboard Stuck In the Molasses Swamp If stuck here, you, mustremain on this space until you draw a card with a red block or twored blocks. When you do, advance to that red space on the board.


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4. Play as above until a player reaches the last purple space near the CandyCastle or until a player draws a color card that directs him or her past thelast purple space. If you're the first person to reach the last purple spaceor move beyond the last purple space, you've reached the Candy Castleand won the game.

B. Checkers : Checkers is a game for two players. It is played on an 8x8 checkeredboard, with a dark square in each player's lower left corner. In checkers, piecesmove only on dark squares. Each player controls its own pieces. The player whocontrols Red pieces moves first. The goal in the checkers game is either tocapture all of the opponent's pieces or to blockade them. If neither player canaccomplish the above, the game is a draw. Starting with Red, the players taketurns moving one of their own pieces. A 'piece' means either a 'man'--an ordinarysingle checker or a 'king,' which is what a man becomes if it reaches the lastrank. A man may move one square diagonally only forward--that is, toward theopponent--onto an empty square. Captures or 'jumps' are mandatory. If a squarediagonally in front of a man is occupied by an opponent's piece, and if the squarebeyond that piece in the same direction is empty, the man may 'jump' over theopponent's piece and land on the empty square. The opponent's piece iscaptured and removed from the board. If in the course of single or multiple

jumps, the man reaches the last rank, becoming a king, the turn shifts to theopponent. No further 'continuation' jump is possible. When a single piecereaches the last rank of the board by reason of a move, or as the completion of a'jump', it becomes a king; and that completes the move, or 'jump.' A King canmove in any direction and 'jump' in any direction one or more pieces, as the limitsof the board permit. The King can only jump diagonally over one adjacent pieceat a time, in any of the four diagonal directions. Multiple jumps are possible.

C. Chutes and Ladders : As kids travel along the game path in a game of rewardsand consequences, they encounter situations that reward them for good deeds

by letting them climb the ladders or punish them for misbehaving by sendingthem down chutes. All the while, they are learning to recognize numbers andcount to 100.

D. Connect Four : It's a vertical game of tic-tac-toe, but with a twist you have toget four in a row! Take turns dropping checkers into place, and try to get four ina row in any direction while preventing your opponent from doing it first!

E. Jenga : The tower consists of 54 wooden rectangular bricks, in layers of three,placed at right angles to each other. Each player in turn, removes one brick fromanywhere below the highest complete storey and places it on the top of thetower, at right angles to the blocks immediately below it. A complete three-block

storey must be completed before starting another. Only one hand may be usedat a time. The last player to stack a block without making the tower tumble overwins.


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F. Lotto, Bingo : Players cards with three pictures by three, four pictures by four,or five pictures by five, and corresponding drawing pictures can beprepackaged or custom-made to meet the speech-language needs of theindividual client. Each players card my be identical for younger children andturns drawing from the pile of draw pictures to cover up a picture on the carmay be taken separately or the clinician may do all the drawing and the playershave different cards with the same pictures but in different arrangements so it isa competition to see who will complete a row across, up and down, or diagonallyfirst.

G. Other Board Games


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IV. Activities

A. Hide & Seek : First you pick someone to be It (the person to seek) then he/sheturns around and counts with their eyes closed at the "base" while the rest of thepeople hide. Then "It" says, "ready or not, here I come," and rushes to findeveryone. Then the people try to get to base without getting tagged or else theyare "It." If the person who is "It" doesn't get someone in three tries, he gets topick a man to be it!

B. Hopscotch : You can play Hopscotch alone or with a group of friends. Createthe hopscotch board onto the ground using masking tape. The marker for thegame was traditionally a flat stone or a flat tin. The first player throws the markeronto the first square. He then hops over the square and lands on two feet. Ifthere are two squares side by side, he has a foot in each square. If it is a singlesquare, he hops onto the square. He then hops up to the top, turns, and hopsback down. When he comes to the square with the marker on it, he picks it up,then hops or jump onto that square. Then the next player has her turn and doesthe same thing. The first player then moves onto the next number, and so on. Ifyou throw your marker onto a square and it misses, the other person gets a shot.If you stand on a line or put both feet down, when you are meant to be hopping,the other person gets a shot, and you have to repeat that number. The winner isthe first player to complete the game.

C. I Spy : You pick a person to go first. That person secretly selects an object, suchas a red cup in the floor, only tells the color of the object, by saying, I spysomething with my little eye and the color of it is red. The other players thenstart guessing objects that are red until someone figures out what it is. When theobject has been guessed correctly, the player who guessed correctly becomes itfor the next round. He picks an object and tells the color by repeating the rhymeand so forth.

D. Jacks : Flip for who goes first. Then work your way up from onesies to tensiesand back down to onesies. Begin by throwing the jacks out on the floor. Then,taking a ball (you can use the little ones that come in the sets or we alwayspreferred the "Pinkies" (tennis-ball sized pink rubber balls) you throw the ball intothe air, pick up the correct number of jacks and letting the ball bounce once,catch the ball while still holding the jack(s). You can only use one hand. Yourturn continues until you miss the ball, miss the jacks, move a jack, or drop a jackyou've just picked up. Then you are out and it is the next person's turn.

For instance, on onesies, you'll pick up one jack at a time, until you've collectedall ten. (You may put the jacks you've collected into your other hand or on theground before you try to collect more.) On twosies, you pick them up two at atime.

On threesies, you pick them up three at a time, with one left over. You pick upthe leftover(s) by itself. If you pick up the leftover before you've picked up all theevenly grouped jacks, you are putting the horse before the cart and thereforemust call "cart" as you take the leftover jack(s). On Foursies, there are,


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obviously, two groups of four and two jacks in the "cart." Fivesies has no cart.Sixsies has one group of six and four in the "cart." And so on.

If you throw the jacks and two (or more) are touching it is Kissies and you havethe option of picking up the kissing jacks and dropping them to spread them out.This is sometimes advantageous; sometimes not.

FLIPPING: By flipping, we mean you take all the jacks in the palms of your twohands held together, throw them into the air as you turn your hands over so thatthe backs are now upwards with index fingers touching to form a surface ontowhich you will catch the jacks. Now, throw the jacks into the air again, this timereturning your hands to the palms up position at which you started. Catch all the

jacks? Good. When flipping for first, the player who drops the least goes first. Ifnone drop, the you take turns flipping until someone drops one, determining whogoes first.

You may also decide to flip at the beginning of a game.Flipping is done on yourfirst turn only, and only until you drop a jack. The level at which you drop the

jack(s) must be played from those dropped jacks. You continue from there. Thus,if you drop two jacks on your third flip (threesies), you would have to pick up thetwo jacks together (since at threesies you are taking them three at a time) andthen continue with foursies. How far you can flip is decided at the outset of agame:flip only to fivsies, flip to tensies, flip all the way, and no flipping.

The Winner: The first player to complete the agreed upon steps. In Basic Jacks,the first player to complete the challenge of going from Onsies to Tensies andback down again to Onsies.

E. Pick Up Sticks : Long, thin sticks are scattered on the table in a heap. The blackone is used as a tool to pick up the others. The player picks up sticks one at atime, until he causes any other stick to move besides the one he is attempting topick up. Score points based on the color retrieved.

F. Simon Says : One person is chosen to be "Simon." The others stand in astraight line. Simon then calls out an action for the children to follow. It can beanything like: touch your toes jump 10 times on one foot. When giving an action,Simon can simply state the action by it self, "touch your ears" and whoever doesit is out and has to sit down, or Simon can say "Simon says touch your ears," andthen everyone must follow the instruction. You can vary the actions according tothe age group of children you are playing with. The last person who is standingcan then become "Simon.

G. Other Activities

Documents

Making Therapy Fun