The Card Talk Activity

Card Talk is a simple icebreaker that invites people to share things about themselves in an entertaining way to get to know each other more.

Start by laying a deck of regular playing cards on a table or floor, face-up, so that all of the various values and pictures can be viewed by your group.

Invite each person to select one card from the deck on the basis of how brave they are feeling. If they are feeling brave, they may choose a high-value, such as an Eight, Ten or a picture card card, or if they would prefer to play it safe, they may choose a low-value card.

This won’t mean much to anybody just yet. Once every person has taken a card, invite them to find a partner.

Instruct each person to share as many things about themselves according to the value of their card, ie a person with a Two will share two things while their partner holding a Jack will share ten things. All picture cards are valued as ten.

For purposes of interaction, the activity does not stop once the first pairs have shared. Invite each person to interact with as many different partners as they can within the allotted time frame, eg 10 minutes.

Moment of Reflection

• When you first learned what the cards meant, what did you think? Why?
• What factors did you consider before choosing your card?
• Did it really matter what card you chose? Why?
• Did you struggle to share the required number of ‘things’ about yourself? What was stopping you?
• Did you learn something new about another person? Can you give an example?

The topics of this publication: integration, interactions, ,active listening, foster relationships, adaptation