1. Poker Face
Set-Up
Hand out one playing card to each group member and tell him or her NOT to look
at what is on his or her card now or at any point during the game!
Play
Have your group mingle around the room, holding their cards up to their
foreheads so that the other group members can see them. The group members
should treat each other by the value of the cards they are seeing. The king has
the most value in the game and the ace has the least. The trick is not to tell
anyone what the value of his or her card is. The ideas is to associate with the
high character cards—ten and up—and stay away from the low level cards
without actually telling other players what their cards are.
For example, I’m holding a card on my foreword. (I don’t know what my card is,
but I can see all the cards of my group mates.) Now, I want to go hang out with
the high cards—go say things like, “hi!”, “how’s it going? Want to hang out?” As I
am trying to schmooze with the popular crowd, littlie do I know that I’m holding a
3 of clubs on my head. Needless to say, the high cards will not be speaking to
me, won’t give me the time of day, etc.
After sufficient mingling, ask the students to stand still, but still DO NOT look at
the card they are holding. Tell the group to line up in a circle in the order of the
card value they think they are. You can help with a starting and ending point, but
that’s it! When everyone is a circle, ask the group to look around the room at the
order of the cares on each player’s forehead and THEN look at their own card.
How did they do?
Now, process this activity with the following questions:
How were you aware of your position in relation to others?
How was the activity for you? How did you feel?
In what ways is this like the world? TI?
What can we do to prevent judgment based on appearances?
Did you seek out the high cards? Did others seek you out? How did this make
you feel?
Were you overwhelmed at any point during the activity? In what way?
Did anyone just want to quit and look at your card? Why?
Did this activity teach you anything? Why or why not? What?
