Card Games

Once again my trusty (colorful) paint sample cards come in handy. I am sure I am responsible for the badly predicted paint sales at Lowes and Walmart.  They just can't figure out how so many people get samples, but no gallons of paint are ever sold.  I hope it is not illegal to take these--but they are free, right?  Besides that I always take the colors that are the fullest because I think that those are the colors people would never use to paint the rooms in their houses.

These activities came from a variety of online sources over several years so I am sorry I do not have links to them.  Some of the are from FCRR and some are from the Third Grade Wiki.  Many of them I found simply by typing the topic into Google.  A googling tip that works well for me is to enter the topic and them add pdf.  That way I know I am not getting useless links.  Adding pdf usually outputs an activity rather than an article or lesson plan.

Author's Purpose

The cards have scenarios on them and students have to sort them based on the author's purpose. The correct answers are written on the back of the cards so that students can self-check.

For another center that features author's purpose check out Beanbag Toss

Cause and Effect

In this first activity, the students have to sort the cards to create a cause and effect relationship. The second activity is a little lower in level because there are choices to complete the cause-effect relationship rather than students creating their own. I only used one linking word, but you can also add in others to increase the complexity.

Fact and Opinion

In both activities students read a statement on the card and decide if it is a fact or an opinion.  In the activity on the left the cards are sorted and in the activity on the right the students give oral responses. 

Both sets of cards are coded on the back with the correct answers.

Synonyms and Antonyms

These card games are differentiated by reading ability. The first one is a higher level because the vocabulary is more academic than conversational.  The second activity, Dominoes, is more rigorous because it requires students to think ahead and anticipate future responses when linking the synonyms and antonyms together. The last two sets of cards are the same matching activity, but one set of cards has picture cues and one doesn't.