Game card instructions
Now that you have these colorfully illustrated cards, try your hand at these 3 games that put a twist on the old fashioned ones. Keep playing and over time, you will see how we are all just a thought away from changing our day.
Matching Game
Players: 2 or more
Goal: The player with the most pairs of exact matches wins
- Hand out the list of Iffy and Witty Thoughts printout
- Playing only with Iffy Thought cards, separate the 13 Iffy cards along with their duplicates for a total of 26 Iffy cards.
- Shuffle the cards
- Lay all the 26 cards face down on the table
- Taking turns, each player will turn a card face up and try to find a second card that matches it
- That player will read each card and it’s definition out loud
- If it’s a match, the player holds on to the pair
- If it’s not a match, the player turns both cards back to the face down position
- Players continue in this fashion until all the pairs are found
- The player with the most pairs wins
- Repeat the above using the Witty Thought cards
- Play the matching game again. This time, use 7 pair of Iffy Thought cards and 7 pair of Witty Thought cards from the deck
- For the next round, add one additional pair to the deck of cards and place them on the table.
- Continue this at the beginning of each round, until you have used all 46 cards from the deck
Challenging Pairs
Players: 2 or more
Goal: The player with the most amount of “challenging” pairs wins
- Hand out the Go Challenge printout
- Shuffle all of the cards and hand out 7 cards for 2 players and 5 cards for more than 2 players
- Place the deck of cards on the table and turn the top card face up
- All players look at the cards in their hands and at the printout
- Now, Players will decide if they have any challenging pairs in their hands. If so, they place these pairs aside.
- The player to the left of the dealer (the requestor) begins the game by looking at the face up card on the table, the printout and to the cards in his/her hand
- If “the requestor” already has the challenging thought card in his/her hand, he/she has a “challenging” pair and places the two card to the side
- If “the requestor” doesn’t have the challenging thought card, he/she asks another player for that card.
- If the other player has the card, he/she must hand it over to the requestor
- If the other player doesn’t have the card, “the requestor” has to pick a card from the deck
- If the card picked challenges the face up card then the requestor sets aside the “challenging” pair. If not, the requestor adds the card to his hand
- The turn moves to the next player
- Continue in this fashion until there are no more cards in the deck.
- The person with the most “challenging” pairs wins
Be carefull Sometimes two Iffy Thoughts share one Witty Thought answer and other times, one Iffy Thought has more than one possible Witty Thought answer
Guessing Game
Players: 2 or more
Goal: To collect the most thought cards
- Hand out to all players, the Guessing Game print
- Start by separating the Iffy from the Witty Thought cards.
- Shuffle the 13 Iffy Thought cards (excluding duplicates)
- Place the deck on the table
- Each player will take a card and place it face down in front of him/her
- The first player, without looking at his/her card, holds up his/her card and shows it to the other players
- While holding up the card for other players to see, player 1 has a chance to ask up to 3 questions from the “Do I” column (on the printout) before taking a final guess from the “Am I” column (on the printout)
- If the player guesses his/her card, he/she places the card to the side and picks a new card. All the players can all now cross that title off of their list (since there is only one set of cards in this round).
- If the player doesn’t guess his/her card, he/she places the card in front of him (face down) and on his/her next turn he/she will ask 3 new questions and take a final guess.
- The player with the most cards at the end of the game wins
- Repeat the above with one set of the Witty Thought cards
Variations of the Guessing Game
- Play the guessing game again. This time, shuffle both the Iffy and Witty Thought cards together. Then randomly deal out a total of 30 cards from the deck for a more challenging round.
- For each round add on 2 cards at a time until you use all 46 cards
Considerations with the Guessing Game
*** Only for when you are using both the Iffy and Witty Thought cards together, you’re first question for a new card will be,“Am I Iffy or Witty”? Consider that one question and proceed to ask 2 more questions from the “Do I” column and a final guess from the “Am I” column. You’re following questions/guess for that card will continue as previously described.
Card Game Sheets
Matching Game
List of Iffy and Witty Thoughts
| Iffy Thoughts | Witty Thoughts |
| Play Up | Come to One’s Senses |
| Play Down | Earn Brownie Points |
| Twist Someone’s Words | Collect One’s Thoughts |
| Jump Off the Deep End | Go On a Fishing Expedition |
| Read Someone Like a Book | Put Yourself in Someone’s Else’s Shoes |
| Paint Everyone With the Same Brush | Tip the Scales |
| On Someone’s Back | Strike a Balance |
| The Handwriting is On the Wall | Cut Someone Some Slack |
| One Track Mind | Burning Questions |
| Do a 180 | It Takes Two to Tango |
| Lumping Everyone Together | |
| Pass the Buck | |
| Left Holding the Bag |
Challenging Pairs
| List of Iffy Thoughts | Witty Thoughts that challenge them |
| Play Up | Come to One’s Senses |
| Play Down | Come to One’s Senses |
| Twist Someone’s Words | Earn Brownie Points |
| Jump Off the Deep End | Collect Your Thoughts |
| Paint Everyone With the Same Brush | Go On a Fishing Expedition
Strike a Balance |
| Read Someone Like a Book | Put Yourself in Someone Else’s Shoes |
| The Handwriting is On the Wall | Tip the Scales Go On a Fishing Expedition |
| One Track Mind | Come to One’s Senses
Tip the Scales Go On a Fishing Expedition |
| Do a 180 | Strike a Balance |
| On Someone’s Back | Cut Someone Some Slack |
| Lumping Everyone Together | Burning Questions
Come to One’s Senses |
| Pass the Buck | It Takes Two to Tango |
| Left Holding the Bag | It Takes Two to Tango |
Guessing Game
Iffy Thoughts
| Do I . . . | Am I the Iffy Thought. . . |
| think that my problem is worse than it really is? | Play Up |
| think that my achievements are no big deal? | Play Down |
| deny myself praise from others | Twist Someone’s Words |
| base my thinking on negative feelings | Jump Off the Deep End |
| with little information, use words like all, always or never to form an opinion | Paint Everyone With the Same Brush |
| believe that someone is thinking negatively about me | Read Someone Like a Book |
| think the outcome will be negative | The Handwriting is On the Wall |
| think over and over about a negative thought | One Track Mind |
| think with extreme words | Do a 180 |
| use demanding words on myself and/or others | On Someone’s Back |
| attach a negative label to myself and/or others based on an experience | Lumping Everyone Together |
| pass the blame on to someone else | Pass the Buck |
| take all of the blame | Left Holding the Bag |
Witty Thoughts
| Do I . . . | Am I the Witty Thought. . . |
| use my senses to think more clearly about a situation | Come to One’s Senses |
| give myself credit for my efforts | Earn Brownie Points |
| ask myself, “What am I thinking?” | Collect One’s Thoughts |
| believe that more evidence leads to wittier thinking | Go On a Fishing Expedition |
| ask myself what someone else might think about a situation | Put Yourself in Someone Else’s Shoes |
| believe that my behavior influences the outcome | Tip the Scales |
| use less extreme words | Strike a Balance |
| use less demanding words such as maybe and perhaps | Cut Someone Some Slack |
| ask the questions, who, what, when and where to determine why | Burning Questions |
| believe that in any given situation, at least 2 people share responsibility | It Takes Two to Tango |