Zigity Cards: Repurposed

I had the pleasure of spending three hours on a Sunday morning with a group of over 40 "gamers" from around the world. They all joined my Affordable Portables post-conference workshop at the 2012 AEE (www.aee.org) Conference in Madison Wisconsin.  

At long last I had the opportunity to try out Zigity Cards as an affordable low-prop mix-and-mingle activity. (Zigity is a table top card game played with friends and family.) These plastic cards have been calling out for a place at the team building table. 

Each of the 60 playable cards have a letter, a number, an instrument, and a piece to a three-piece puzzle printed on them. 

Letters: A wide variety, more vowel choices than consonants.
Numbers: 12 ones, 12 twos, 11 threes, 11 fours, 7 fives, & 6 sixes
Instruments: Horns, Pianos, Guitars & Drums - about 15 of each
Puzzle Pieces: 18 possible puzzles (since the cards are see-through three people can complete a puzzle by over-laying a left side, center, and right side of the puzzle. 

The overall idea I had for these cards was to group people in different ways in order for them to get to know each other a little better - a.k.a., an ice breaker. After each player receives a card, here are some of the ideas that surfaced in the workshop (and after the workshop):

• Introduce yourself to people in the group with the same number that you have.
• Introduce yourself to people in the group with a different number than yours. 
• Create groups with 5 or 6 different numbers in them (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and find as many things in common with each other in the next 2 minutes. 
• Get together with all the people that have the same number as you and find as many things in common with each other in the next three minutes.  
• Get together with at least two other people who have a different instrument than yours and share stories from your lives that are related to music - keep sharing until time is called. 
• Get together with those who have the same instrument as yours only by making the sound (or motion) of the instrument. Once together, find as many things in common with each other in the next three minutes. 
• Move around the room connecting with others to complete the three-peice puzzle. Introduce yourselves to one another (maybe share a "puzzling" story) and then move on to create another puzzle with new people. Be a part of as many puzzles as you can until time is called. 
• All like puzzle pieces get together (three groups) - find out as many things you have in common with each in the next three minutes. 
• Using the letter on your card, be a part of as many words (three letters or more), as you can in the next four minutes. 

GROUP CHALLENGES 

• Can you get all the letters you have throughout the group into words - no left-over letters (you could give the group a few trades up front if you think they need them).  
• Using the number on the card, get everyone into a small group where the cards add up to at least 10 and no more than 12 (or whatever combination works for you).  
• Do a group shuffle (everyone exchanging cards without looking at the face) - on "GO" get everyone into a three-piece puzzles as fast as you can (this might only work if your group is divisible by 3 - or, maybe there is an alternative solution??)

Lots of fun to be had with these durable cards (and playing Zigity at home is fun too!!) Get your deck on Amazon or at a big box store near you. 

Please share other activity ideas for Zigity cards in the Comments. 

All the best, 

Chris Cavert, Ed.D. 

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