When students are asked to think of new ideas, they often become stuck. When asked to classify items, they look for the most obvious ways to compare them often without thinking of more in-depth ways of making comparisons. When asked to associate words with letters they often become confused.
This easy to create deck of cards encourages fluency in thinking, brainstorming ideas, word and letter associations, and classifying. It can be played with the whole class, in a small group or by individual students. It works well with students from 1st grade (played orally) through high school.
Creating the Deck
Two sets of cards are created out of posterboard or lightweight cardboard. The cards all need to be the same size but of two different colors. The first set of cards has the letters of the alphabet on it, one letter per card.
The second set of cards has topics written on each card. Topics to include would be:
- Toys
- Animals
- TV shows
- Beverages
- Fruit
- Video Games
- Clothing
- Weather Terms
- Colors
- Birds
- Vegetables
- Costs More than $10
- Footwear
- Costs Less than $1
- Adjectives
- Shapes
- Nouns
- Cars
- Adverbs
- Supermarket Items
- Verbs
- Song Titles
- Measurements
- Flavors
- Book Titles
- Insects
- Furniture
- Body Parts
- Boys' Names
- Movies
- Girls' Names
- Cartoon Characters
A couple of cards could be left blank so that students can select their own categories. Teachers can also make categories based on whatever is being studied by the class at that time.
The cards should be laminated. This will add durability and make the cards useful from year to year.
Playing the Game
To play, have one student select a card from each set. The student then announces the letter and topic. Students have three minutes to think of as many items as they can that start with the letter and fit into the category. At the end of the three minutes, students share their answers with the group.
For a competitive game, teams are formed with a mixture of ability levels. Each team picks a category and letter. The timer is set for three minutes, and the teams work together to generate the list of items that fit the category and letter. At the end of the three minutes, the groups switch their lists and check that all items fit the category and letter. Points are awarded for each correct item.
Individuals can also play the game alone. The decks are placed in a learning center with paper for writing responses. If students have extra time at the end of a class they can go use the decks. If students needs extra help with categorizing they could visit the center as well.
SunDeck is a great game for reinforcing a variety of educational topics ranging from categorizing to word/ letter associations.
 |
