The children have really been enjoying the variety of activities I've been introducing during speech time. Their favorite so far has been
speech switcheroo so I went looking for another card game I could adapt. I found directions for a card game called
Sevens that looked like fun. It works on some elementary math number and sequencing skills as a bonus too.
The original game of Sevens is played by dealing an entire deck of cards out to all the players face down. The players then look at their cards and sort them by suit and place them in order by sequence. The player with the 7 of diamonds places their card down in the center and play proceeds clockwise. Each player adds a diamond to the left or right of the currently placed cards in sequence forming a row (the second player would need to play a 6 or 8 of diamonds). If they cannot play a diamond, but happen to have a seven of another suit they can start a new row. If they cannot play they forfeit their turn. Play continues until one player wins by playing the last card in their hand.
Adaptation: Speech Fours
Preparation of Speech Fours Card Deck
Print a
free card deck (or combination of decks) and choose 28 cards to be your game deck. Lay them out in four rows of seven cards each. Use
dot stickers (or add colored dots with markers) to make each row a different color. Then write the numbers one through seven on the colored dots in each row. (Use light colors so that your numbers will show.)
Direction for Playing Speech Fours Adaptation
Deal all 28 cards out face down to the players. With my children I then had them turn their cards over (rather than hold them so that the other players can't see). I helped them sort their cards by color and sequence. Then I told them that the card with the red four in the corner (choose whatever color you like) was the starting card. The player with that card puts it down in the middle (saying the word on the card as they play it). Play continues clockwise with each player adding to the sequence if possible saying the word on each card as played. (So player 2 would need the red 3 or 5.) If they cannot add to the sequence of the current color row, they can play a four of a new color. If they cannot do either they have to pass. The player to use all their cards first wins. Alternately, you can continue play until all four color sequences are complete.
The game addresses speech articulation, color identification and matching, identifying the numbers 1-7, number sequencing, and basic turn taking and good sportsmanship.
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