AGO Q & A Card Games (Levels 1-4)

About the Series / Levels

Level 1 (Aqua) is designed for grades 5 – 9.

Level 2 (Green) is designed for grades 5 – 10.

Level 3 (Orange) is designed for grades 6 – 12.

Level 4 (Purple) is designed for grades 7 – 12.

The AGO games’ aim is to develop fluency and conversation skills, and there are many ways to use it. For example:

1) Quiz Show – A teacher / quizmaster asks a selection of questions using Question cards. The player who answer a question correctly wins the card. The player with the most cards (or the most points – harder cards can be worth more than easier) wins the game.

2) Hunting – All the cards are spread on the table face down. The students take turns picking up one of the face down cards. Question cards are read aloud and answered by the next player. Instructions on action cards are followed. Play continues until all the cards are picked up, or the teacher calls time. The highest score wins.

3) Interview Game – Each student is given one question card. Players walk around the room, swapping their card with other players, asking and answering the questions on their cards as they do so. To make things more interesting, get players to collect signatures of the players they swapped cards with. The player with the most signatures or the one to get all the students’ signatures wins.

Additional suggestions for games include…

Easy, Warm-Up Games

1) Rock Scissors Paper – Spread a selection of AGO cards face down. Get students to mix them up. Pair up players (or put in groups of three). Groups each play rock scissors paper. The winner gets to choose a face down card. If it’s a question card, they ask their opponent the question. If it’s an action card (either version), the player keeps it, then picks up another card. The process repeats until all cards are picked up. Most cards wins!

Note: This game only works if the teacher actively makes sure students are kept honest, and fulfill the reading / interaction component properly. An easy way to ensure this is (after of course a pre game warning) the first time you catch a student cheating (i.e. they are just playing rock scissors paper as quickly as possible), pause the game, take all their cards and their opponents cards, and place them in the middle of the table again, resetting their score. They will quickly learn not to do this again.

2) Chit Chat – Spread a selection of cards face up on the table. Students take turns selecting cards and asking each other questions at their leisure until the teacher calls time.

Games for Small Groups
(2-6 or so players). Note: Larger classes can play these games with a few adaptations, or for example using multiple decks.

1) Last Card – A classic crazy 8’s style ‘shedding’ card game, with a few unique twists, and optimized for the EFL classroom! The basic goal is to be first to get rid of all the cards in your hand. Players do this by on their turn matching the color or number of the previously played card. (Go to the Downloads tab to download the full set of rules to this game on a nicely formatted, illustrated, easy to understand PDF).

2) Hunting – This game is easier and simpler than Last Card, but retains much of the excitement. Thus it’s better for younger / new players, as there are fewer rules and players don’t have to hold cards in their hand.

To set up, place a selection of shuffled cards face down on the table. Players take turns picking up cards, starting clockwise and follow the card’s instruction. The objective is to score as many points as possible, and cards are worth their point value. If a player gets a pick up 3 card, they pick up three more cards (adding all these points to their score). The Jump a Player card causes the next player up to miss their turn, and scores 5 points; the Change the direction card also scores 5 points, and changes the direction of play; a Change color card scores ten points. Most points at the end wins. (Go to the Downloads tab to download the full set of rules to this game).

3) AGO Fish – This game works along the same lines as the classic card game “Go Fish”, but with a few twists. This game is lots of fun, has a memory skill element, plus games take a standard length of time (unlike last card). It’s best with up to four players (up to 6 works ok, but the cards get exhausted pretty quickly unless you use two decks).

The objective is to pair up as many cards as possible. Any time a player forms a pair of cards, they can discard these onto the table in front of them. (Each player should collect their own pile of paired up cards). One point is scored for each pair collected, and the player with the most pairs at the end wins.

The player to the left of the dealer starts. On a player’s turn, they select a card from their hand and place it face up on the table. If a player plays a question card, the question is read out, addressed to the player of their choice, who must answer the question. If the answering player has a card of the same number in their hand, it is handed over after they reply, with the question asker scoring a point for making the pair. (After this success, the question asker gets to play again).

If the addressed player doesn’t have a card of the same rank, after answering the question, they call out ‘Go fish’, following which the question asker draws a card from the deck, then the player to their left takes their turn. The game continues in this fashion until the draw pile is exhausted, and all cards have been matched up.

If a player plays an action card, instead of asking a question, they ask another player if they have the same card (e.g. “Do you have a Jump card?”)

If a ‘pick up’, card is played, the player gets to pick up the number of cards specified, adding them to their hand (i.e. a pick up four card enables the player to add four extra cards to their hand). They also score half a point as they add the Pick Up card to their score pile. Following this, they take another turn.

If a player rids themselves of cards from their hand, they draw five new cards from the deck, or however many are left.

4) Double AGO Fish For 2-5 Players. This is essentially the same as AGO Fish, except players now pick up two cards when they ‘go fish’ – which speeds the game up (so you can play in less time, or with two decks).

5) Top Hand – This game works best with four – eight older, sensible yet energetic players. It’s lots of fun and gets all players interacting at the same time, so it is also good for larger groups. However, it is a little demanding to learn rule wise, especially the first time you play, and not always appropriate. First, remove all Jump, Pick up, and Change direction Cards, then deal each player five cards. From here, players move around the classroom swapping cards with one another, trying to form the best poker hand they can. Players must ask and answer the questions on the cards they wish to swap, and cannot request a card. Change Color is wild, and the values of the poker hands are included on the games’ instruction sheet. This game works best if you play several ’rounds’. The player with the highest cumulative score at the end, is the winner.

6) Splatter is for 2-5 players, and is based on the regular rules for AGO Last Card*, with these additions:

Splatter card (Green and Orange deck): This card causes all other players to pick up the number of Pick Up cards in play (e.g. if a Splatter card is played on top of a Pick Up 3, and a Pick Up 2 card, all other players would draw 5 cards). Splatter can be played on any card, and a new color is nominated after.
Double Play card (Orange deck, 1st edition only): This card allows a player to take two turns in a row. To use, a player first plays a question card (or cards if they are of the same rank). After their opponent has answered the question(s), the double play card can be played, along with a card (or cards) matching the color or rank preceding the double play card. If a player cannot match color or rank, they instead draw from the deck.
Note: If there are not enough cards in the draw pile after a ‘Splatter’, all available cards are shared evenly by those who must pick up.
Erase card: This card spares a player from picking up. It is playable on any card, including a ‘Splatter’. A new color is nominated after.
Optional Advanced Rule:
Once Pick Up cards are in play: Jump a Player, Change Direction and Pick Up cards become playable on top of each other. However, Change Direction and Jump a Player cards must also match color or rank to be played in this situation.

7) Speed Slap  – In this game, spread numbered AGO cards face up on a table (either phonic or Q&A cards). One player takes the role of leader. They select a card on the table, and read it out, without touching it, or indicating its location. The other players then race to locate this card. The first player to touch it, wins the card, then takes the role of leader. Most points at the end, wins.

8) AGO Solitaire – You can also play solitaire with the AGO deck (a good way for kids to practice reading the cards at home – though not much speaking practice involved, obviously!) Use only cards 1-9. Set it up the same way you would for Klondike solitaire – except use only 5 columns instead of seven. The 1 Card is the Ace, the 9 card is the king. As with Klondike, players first play cards of one rank lower on top of each other – eg. you must play a 6 on a 7, a 7 on an 8 etc. Unlike Klondike, players can play any color on top of each other. As with Klondike, the goal is eventually to place all suits in order 1-9.

9) AGO MONOPOLY® – Play Monopoly® with just the question cards.  The value of the card is used instead of the white dice.  The newer Monopoly games have a red dice to speed up the game and I keep using that.  If a student speaks Japanese they have to pay the bank $10 (they barely speak Japanese so I bumped it up to $20 or $50 to make it more entertaining).

10) With JENGA® blocks – Using only AGO question cards. A student takes a card and asks the person next to them the question.  The other student answers and then the student who asked the questions says “May I take a block?” and they take a block.  Meanwhile the next student takes a card.  Repeats until the tower falls.

11) AGO BINGO – Student picks up a card and asks the next student a question.  Then the student asks “May I take a bead?” and they pick up a bead and toss it on to the main BINGO sheet.  They call out the BINGO picture and everyone who has it says “May I take a bead?” and marks their sheet.