OH NUTS! is one of our favorite games to play. We use it for so many skills. All of the children, regardless of age, enjoy OH NUTS!
The Cards:
Using a bulletin board border strip, I covered the front side with clear Contact paper to make the cards more durable. I then cut the sections apart. I have used some of these cards for other activities like counting, addition, and patterns. The backsides were left plain and uncovered so they were already to be used to make this game.
Wesley and Diana are both working on these types of blends. We use ABeka for phonics. The Handbook and their Letters and Sounds books have them reading these type blends. They both will benefit from more practice with these.
Of course, to really make this a fun game we needed to add OH NUTS! cards.
For some of the other OH NUTS! games I made, I drew a cute little peanut around the words. But I was making this game up quickly while they were doing some of their other work. I make about 1/3 of the cards in the deck be OH NUTS! cards. This amount has made the games work well for us.
To Play:
The cards were shuffled and placed in the center of the table. In turn, players draw cards and read the blends.
Wesley correctly reads his first draw. Now he has a choice to make. He can keep this card and move it to his SAFE pile and end his turn or he may draw again. IF he draws again and gets an OH NUTS! card he forfeits all the cards he has collected on this turn. (Once cards are placed in the SAFE pile, they are protected for the rest of the game.)
Wesley decides to draw again and gets another blend card which he correctly reads. If he had incorrectly read the card his turn would also end and he would have to return all the cards collected on this turn. However, we play with a little help allowed since Wesley is struggling a little with identifying the long and short vowels. So for today, as this was our first time playing, if they made a mistake, I pointed out the correct vowel sound and let them try again without penalty. One of the greatest things about games is the way rules may be bent. We bend rules for younger children, new skills being learned, or just because...just because we want to try something different.
After Wesley reads his card, he decides to go again. He is lucky and drew another blend card.
Even though I cautioned him that an OH NUTS! card was likely coming up soon, he decides to draw again.
He was lucky and got another good card which he read. He then decided to move all his cards to his SAFE pile. It was then Diana's turn. The very first card she turned up was an OH NUTS! card. Wesley had made a good choice. Diana collected no cards on this turn and Wesley got to play again.
Now it is later in the game....
Diana already has a few cards in her SAFE pile, but she doesn't like to quit as this group of pictures will show.
After her first draw and correct reading, she decides to go again....
and again...
and again...
OOOOPS!.... OH NUTS! Turn over. Cards lost.
But we had lots of fun and laughs. AND...the kids got lots of practice reading their blends. They wanted to play again even though neither one of them had collected many cards. I think they missed a bit of the idea of the game. Their older brothers were watching and kept encouraging them to quit after getting a couple cards, but they just kept wanting to draw again.
Oh well. They had fun and the REAL purpose of the game was accomplished ....they drilled their blends.
Storage:
I store card games I make in Ziplock baggies. Some of these are kept in boxes on a shelf - for current skills. Others are hung on a pegboard in a nearby closet.
To see other OH NUTS! card games we enjoy.
