Cards games are a cheap and accessible game for any community to try. You can pick up a pack of card for cheap at the dollar store, a giant sized deck, or a large print deck. The types of games I am recommending here are ideal for memory care residents.
High or Low
Shuffle the deck well. I like to have residents help shuffle them on the table.
Select a one card from the deck and present it to the first player.
Have the player guess if they think the next card will be higher or lower.
Pull out the next card from the deck. If they guess right they get to keep the first card pulled. If wrong, the card goes to the dealers deck.
If playing with multiple people, keep going using the second card pulled and ask the second player to guess if the third card will be higher or lower.
Continue until the deck is empty. The player with the most cards guessed right wins!
War
Players: 2
Divide the deck between two players, have the cards face down.
Each player turns their cards up at the same time. Whoever has the higher card takes both cards to put back into the stack.
If both cards are the same number, put down a second set and the player who wins that round gets all 4 cards.
Keep playing until one player has all the cards.
Deck of Cards Bingo
Players: 10 Max
Needs two decks of cards
Give each player at least 5 cards (5 at most for a group of 10, you can do more cards with smaller groups) out of the first deck of cards. Have the place the cards in front of them.
With the second deck of cards, pick cards one by one and read them out. Have residents flip over their card if they have a match.
Whoever is the first to have all their card flipped over should yell Bingo and they are the winner!
Add Em Up
Players: At least 2
Needs a board to write the scores on.
Before you start pull out all the face cards, keep the numbers.
Assign players to two teams
To start, have a player from team one pick one card to start. Write the number on the scoreboard.
Have a second player from team one pick the second card.
Add the number on the card to the number on the score board. Have the residents help with the math.
Follow steps 3-5 with the second team and repeat until the whole deck is used.
Whichever team with the highest score wins.
Sorting Cards
This isn't a game, but more just a card activity. You can have residents sort by number, color, suite, or even and odd numbers.
