Family Game with No Name

Warning --> This post will be off topic. No math education stuff here. I comfort myself with the realization that since it's Christmas you are all at home with your families and not with your students, so you will want a game to play with your families and not your students.

Objective:

I wanted a game that would create a sense of togetherness, especially with my sons (ages 4 and 9). Those two are spending the break fighting and playing video games so far. I want them to work together and spend time with the rest of us.

Who Can Play:

Ages: 4+
Number of Players: 4

Materials:

108 cards. I used 27 large index cards, cut into quarters.
3 color pencils (red, green, and blue)
4 rubber bands
Container. I used an old granola container.
Something to keep score. I used bottle caps, but anything will do; coins, pretzels, buttons, etc)

The Cards:

Each player will play with their own deck of cards.

On the cards, draw the following:

1 red triangle

2 red triangles

3 red triangles

1 red circle

2 red circles

3 red circles

1 red square

2 red squares

3 red squares

Create the same shapes and quantities with two other colors, I used green and blue, for a total of 27 cards.

This makes one set of cards. You will need to do this three more times.

On each set of cards, I wrote our family members' names. On my 27 cards I wrote "Nora" on the back. This way if decks get mixed up, you can easily sort them. I thought about color index cards, but it may be distracting with the different color pencil shapes.

Game Play:

Create teams of two. Teammates sit across from each other.

Each player shuffles his deck and places it face down in front of himself. Take the top three cards from the deck and hold in your hand so no one else can see your cards.

The youngest player goes first.

Player 1 places one card in the middle of the table.

Player 2 places a card in the middle of the table like this.

The third player looks at the card his teammate played and tries to match as many things as he can with the cards in his hand. Cards can match by color, shape, and/or number of objects. He selects one of his cards and places that in the middle of the table.

The fourth player does the same thing, trying to match his teammate, player 2.

Each team counts how many categories they matched. Players 1 and 3 matched the shape only (circle), so they get one point, or in this case bottle cap. Players 2 and 4 matched the color (red) and the number (two objects), so they get two points (bottle caps).

Each player takes back his card and places it on a discard pile and picks a new card off their face down pile to have three in their hand again.

Player two starts the next round.

Game play continues in this manner until the end.