Activity: Line Up According to the Number
Hello!
Sorry about the delay in posting. As much as I love where I live...there are consequences - like internet. For the last month I have not had internet in the afternoons or evenings. This makes life difficult and frustrating when I have come to rely on it for so much of my "normal" living routine. I think that's there's a very profound teachable moment wrapped up in there and when I come across it as I'm facilitating - I'll be sure to let you know about it...as long as I have internet access.
Today though I feel very excited about getting my "resource" gadget up. Now you can check out some of the resources that you would find in my office and in my home. It's very exciting...I'll soon even have a separate link for my American friends and one for Canadians as Amazon treats us like equals. Just follow the link straight to amazon to get them. I have often found that Amazon sells them cheaper than most other bookstores.
The activity today is another one of my go to activities. I love this one for all types of groups...young children, teens, young adults, and us old folks. It works for everyone as long as they understand numbers and face cards. But lucky for all of us - the props used in it are easily found and are cheap cheap CHEAP! You can find this activity in Michelle Cumming's "Playing with a Full Deck". There's a super story behind the writing of this book which I might touch on another day. I use jumbo cards - you can usually find them in a dollar store or one of those gimmick stores. Michelle also sells them on the Training Wheels website (the link is one the right hand of the screen).
Here's the activity:
Line Up According to the Greatest
Props: A deck of cards
Field of Play: You will want to pull out enough cards so that each participants has one card. You will want a solid mix of low to high numbers (including an ace and a 2), face cards, and even the joker. Hand the participants each a card, instructing them not to look at it. Most will anyways. Not looking at the cards is just good practice so that they listen to the instructions. You can always begin with a 3-Blind Swap (holding cards face down, each participant will swap their card with three people) to solve the problem of participants sneaking a peak.
Instructions: "Each of you has a card in your hand. In a minute but not right now, you (the whole group) will work together to put yourself in order according to least to greatest." That is all the information you will give them. Likely the group will ask you what worth the ace has or if it is the high card. Just smile and tell them that they have to figure out and they need to agree as a team.
Possible Outcomes: There are literally hundreds of outcomes to this activity. None are wrong within the context that the group decides is the order. Because the parameters of this activity are so wide open - there really can be no wrong answer. I most often see the cards ordered from lowest to highest with ace being the low card (this will almost always be contentious within your group) and the king card being the high card). There may be some discussions about suits or colours and stacking/grouping same cards within the line may occur.
Debriefing: When I debrief this activity I often ask the group members to explain how they came to their final outcome. What did they base their order on? Once you ask that question - some personalities will become defensive and blame you, the facilitator, for not giving more specific directions. You can choose to dive into the world of how group member performance can be affected by instructions or directions. It can affect motivation and cooperation.
The other way to take this depending on your group members' response is to ask them what game they were thinking of or could be reflected in their order. Allow them time to think and respond to that. Ask them if the low card would still be the low card if you were playing..." this " game. You can have them get into order based on a different playing game. Ask for other examples of card games that would change the order of least to greatest.
It's always amazing to me how many card games exist and how many kids know. Here are just a few that have very different low and high cards: War, Rage, Rummy, Crazy 8s, Old Maid/Mister, Go Fish, Peak, Memory, Bridge, Crib, Poker, Blackjack, Golf, etc... You'll have games thrown out that you've never heard before. When you bring up these card games - make sure that you also ask them which the least desired and greatest desired card. It will only take a couple games that do not agree with their original ordering of the cards for the group members to start looking at what they did and come to the conclusion that it is impossible to do what you as the facilitator asked them to do.
The conversation that usually follows is how we easily place importance on certain cards based on our own experience with games or a certain game that we play more than others. Where do we see this type of labeling outside of this game? Do we do it when we look at positions at a workplace...in a classroom? In our friendships? On our teams?
I'll finish here with a personal anecdote and one last question for you to muse on. I'll expand on the question more tomorrow. This activity has great spiritual application too. I have played rugby for twelve years now at the club, university, provincial, and national team level. It is a great sport for all kinds of athletes. If you think of athletes like vehicles - rugby has a role for all kinds. It needs the Ferrari's (flat out speed) on the wings, the Camaro/Mustangs (speed + power) in the centres, the BMW/Mercedes (precision/speed) at Fly Half and Full Back, SUVs in Flanker and 8 man, 4WD trucks in lock, and semi-trucks in the front row. I am a proud semi-truck. Forwards (SUVs and trucks) would always comment about how the backs (speedy ones) always got the glory while the forwards would fight the war out in the trenches. Props (my position) often got the gears for being slow and lazy. There will likely always be labeling that goes on in that sport. But almost everyone who has played at higher levels also knows that wingers can't do a prop's job (nor would they want to) and vise versa. You need the fast players but you also need the players who can scrum and ruck all game long to get those fast players the job. Labeling serves to only alienate and belittle another person's job...why are we always so quick to do it then? Are we reciprocating what has been done to us? Perpetuating this cycle of..."Well s/he did it to me first..." - that we won't feel vindicated until someone else suffers the same fate as us?
My finishing question is more of an activity segue from the Least to the Greatest...
What happens if we do the above activity again...this time without cards? So, taking back the cards from the group members - you ask them to do the activity again. "Place yourself in order from the least to the greatest."
Sorry about the delay in posting. As much as I love where I live...there are consequences - like internet. For the last month I have not had internet in the afternoons or evenings. This makes life difficult and frustrating when I have come to rely on it for so much of my "normal" living routine. I think that's there's a very profound teachable moment wrapped up in there and when I come across it as I'm facilitating - I'll be sure to let you know about it...as long as I have internet access.
Today though I feel very excited about getting my "resource" gadget up. Now you can check out some of the resources that you would find in my office and in my home. It's very exciting...I'll soon even have a separate link for my American friends and one for Canadians as Amazon treats us like equals. Just follow the link straight to amazon to get them. I have often found that Amazon sells them cheaper than most other bookstores.
The activity today is another one of my go to activities. I love this one for all types of groups...young children, teens, young adults, and us old folks. It works for everyone as long as they understand numbers and face cards. But lucky for all of us - the props used in it are easily found and are cheap cheap CHEAP! You can find this activity in Michelle Cumming's "Playing with a Full Deck". There's a super story behind the writing of this book which I might touch on another day. I use jumbo cards - you can usually find them in a dollar store or one of those gimmick stores. Michelle also sells them on the Training Wheels website (the link is one the right hand of the screen).
Here's the activity:
Line Up According to the Greatest
Props: A deck of cards
Field of Play: You will want to pull out enough cards so that each participants has one card. You will want a solid mix of low to high numbers (including an ace and a 2), face cards, and even the joker. Hand the participants each a card, instructing them not to look at it. Most will anyways. Not looking at the cards is just good practice so that they listen to the instructions. You can always begin with a 3-Blind Swap (holding cards face down, each participant will swap their card with three people) to solve the problem of participants sneaking a peak.
Instructions: "Each of you has a card in your hand. In a minute but not right now, you (the whole group) will work together to put yourself in order according to least to greatest." That is all the information you will give them. Likely the group will ask you what worth the ace has or if it is the high card. Just smile and tell them that they have to figure out and they need to agree as a team.
Possible Outcomes: There are literally hundreds of outcomes to this activity. None are wrong within the context that the group decides is the order. Because the parameters of this activity are so wide open - there really can be no wrong answer. I most often see the cards ordered from lowest to highest with ace being the low card (this will almost always be contentious within your group) and the king card being the high card). There may be some discussions about suits or colours and stacking/grouping same cards within the line may occur.
Debriefing: When I debrief this activity I often ask the group members to explain how they came to their final outcome. What did they base their order on? Once you ask that question - some personalities will become defensive and blame you, the facilitator, for not giving more specific directions. You can choose to dive into the world of how group member performance can be affected by instructions or directions. It can affect motivation and cooperation.
The other way to take this depending on your group members' response is to ask them what game they were thinking of or could be reflected in their order. Allow them time to think and respond to that. Ask them if the low card would still be the low card if you were playing..." this " game. You can have them get into order based on a different playing game. Ask for other examples of card games that would change the order of least to greatest.
It's always amazing to me how many card games exist and how many kids know. Here are just a few that have very different low and high cards: War, Rage, Rummy, Crazy 8s, Old Maid/Mister, Go Fish, Peak, Memory, Bridge, Crib, Poker, Blackjack, Golf, etc... You'll have games thrown out that you've never heard before. When you bring up these card games - make sure that you also ask them which the least desired and greatest desired card. It will only take a couple games that do not agree with their original ordering of the cards for the group members to start looking at what they did and come to the conclusion that it is impossible to do what you as the facilitator asked them to do.
The conversation that usually follows is how we easily place importance on certain cards based on our own experience with games or a certain game that we play more than others. Where do we see this type of labeling outside of this game? Do we do it when we look at positions at a workplace...in a classroom? In our friendships? On our teams?
I'll finish here with a personal anecdote and one last question for you to muse on. I'll expand on the question more tomorrow. This activity has great spiritual application too. I have played rugby for twelve years now at the club, university, provincial, and national team level. It is a great sport for all kinds of athletes. If you think of athletes like vehicles - rugby has a role for all kinds. It needs the Ferrari's (flat out speed) on the wings, the Camaro/Mustangs (speed + power) in the centres, the BMW/Mercedes (precision/speed) at Fly Half and Full Back, SUVs in Flanker and 8 man, 4WD trucks in lock, and semi-trucks in the front row. I am a proud semi-truck. Forwards (SUVs and trucks) would always comment about how the backs (speedy ones) always got the glory while the forwards would fight the war out in the trenches. Props (my position) often got the gears for being slow and lazy. There will likely always be labeling that goes on in that sport. But almost everyone who has played at higher levels also knows that wingers can't do a prop's job (nor would they want to) and vise versa. You need the fast players but you also need the players who can scrum and ruck all game long to get those fast players the job. Labeling serves to only alienate and belittle another person's job...why are we always so quick to do it then? Are we reciprocating what has been done to us? Perpetuating this cycle of..."Well s/he did it to me first..." - that we won't feel vindicated until someone else suffers the same fate as us?
My finishing question is more of an activity segue from the Least to the Greatest...
What happens if we do the above activity again...this time without cards? So, taking back the cards from the group members - you ask them to do the activity again. "Place yourself in order from the least to the greatest."
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