You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em… And before you can even do that, you have to know how a deck of cards works. The kids learned about the 52 cards and their suits, and played some classic card games.
Not only did this make them the cool kids on the block, but it also gave them math practice. In Pyramid, kids peel off pairs that add to 13 (or 10 for the younger kids). The game Crazy 8s itself builds skills around pattern recognition. All of them build kids’ intuition about probability.
Now that you have a Crazy 8s Club deck, keep the fun going. Click here to play a few classic card games like a star!
Magic Card Trick
To take it a step further, you and your kid can learn this very mathy card magic trick. It’s a crowd-pleaser – no one can ever guess how the magician did it! Follow these 8 simple steps:
Pick your cards
Pick 24-30 cards from the deck. Any random cards work, but with just one Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10 of the same suit, with none of those from other suits.
Fan the cards
Fan the cards face up and show your spectators that it has just this royal flush, and that you will make that flush magically appear.
Shuffle the deck
Invite a spectator to shuffle your deck of cards. You can even dare a second person to shuffle – it makes no difference to you!
Shuffle even more
Now hold the deck face up and announce, “I’m now going to shuffle it even more by separating it into 2 random messy piles.” But it won’t be random.
Losers and Royals
Look at the cards 2 at a time. Place the left card in each pair in a left pile on the table, and the right card on the right pile. HOWEVER, follow the rule: “Losers on the left, Royals on the right.” If the right-side card is Royal, place it face up. Otherwise, place it face down. Do the opposite for the left. Place any Royal face DOWN, and everything else face UP.
As quick as you can!
Do this alternating deal as quickly as you can so it looks random! Practice will smooth you out.
Stack the piles
Once all cards are dealt, casually stack the two piles – BUT flip the right pile over as you place it on the left. Why? Because now all 5 target cards are facing down, and only those cards.
It's a royal flush!
Now when you spread the cards all over the table, all are facing up except those five. Invite your spectators to slide the 5 face-down cards off to the side, then flip them over. Voila – it’s the royal flush!
