Class Who Borders Everybody: 10 to 50 Players

What You Should Know Before You Play

The object of the game is for your students to use what they know (or learn) of the border states of U.S. states to win the most GeoPlunge cards by guessing the states of the GeoPlunge cards their opponents have. Their goal is to guess the states of their opponent’s GeoPlunge cards before their opponent guesses their states.

Divide the students into two teams with an equal number of players on both teams (if you have an extra student, let that student be the referee). Use the GeoPlunge cards only, and do not shuffle the deck after the game begins.

How to Play

·        Have each team line up in a straight line, single file. The game is played one round at a time, until each player has had a turn.

·        In the first round, the first player on each team (i.e., the first player in each line) walks to the front of the room and gets a GeoPlunge card from the teacher, in the second round the second player on each team (i.e., the second player in each line) walks to the front of the room and gets a GeoPlunge card from the teacher, and so on until each student has had a turn.

·        Each round, the teams take turns trying to guess the state of the other team’s card and the team that guesses correctly first wins the round (except that if the team guessing first in a round guesses correctly on its first guess, the other team can still tie for that round by guessing correctly on its first guess).

·        The teacher chooses which team guesses first in the first round. Thereafter, each round the teams take turns guessing first.

·        The team whose turn it is to give clues (the non-guessing team) reads to the guessing team the name of the state and each of its border states for that card, in whatever order the clue-giving team wants to say them. But the clue-giving team doesn’t tell the guessing team which of the states read is the state of the card and which are all of the border states. The guessing team then tries to guess the state of the card.

·        When a team is dealt Hawaii or Alaska, that team may say that both Hawaii and Alaska are possible choices (even though they don’t border each other).

·        The player that gives the clue for a card is the player who is then in the front of the room holding the card. If the teacher believes the students are ready to be on their own in this game, the teacher may require that only the player in the front of the room can guess for his or her team. Otherwise, the teacher should allow the team to talk and make its choice as to who will be the guesser.

·        The teams take turns guessing until one team guesses correctly (and that team gets to take its opponents card), except that if both teams guess correctly on the first guess, it’s a tie for that round and they each keep their own card.

·        Whichever team has the most cards at the end of the game is the winner. The number of cards a team has equals the number of cards each player on that team has.