The learner will:

• deal cards according to game playing etiquette.
• organize a hand of playing cards in a usable way.
• use mental arithmetic to count points for a hand.
• practice interpersonal communication and collaboration following game rules.
• estimate and predict a “winning” bid.
• learn and play Mini-Bridge.
  

Anticipatory Set:
Briefly review with the learners what they have already learned about rules and etiquette, and why they are important in playing games as well as in the “game of life.”  Ask the learners to recall words from earlier lessons that pertain to playing cards and game strategy: deck, shuffle, rank/value, Kings, Queens, Jacks, suits, Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, trump, trick, etc.

Day One:

• Tell the learners that they will soon be able to play Mini-Bridge. Learning to play this game will help them more easily learn to play the more advanced game of Bridge. Assure them that they know much of the vocabulary and skills of Bridge, already. Remind the students that they discovered during the last class period, how easy it was to take tricks if they had a lot of Aces, Kings, Queens and Jacks, or if they had a lot of trumps.
  
  
• Explain that the objective of Mini-Bridge is for partners to win as many tricks as possible during the play of the hand. (Ask the learners to recall the meaning of the word trick from Lesson Four).
  
  
• Arrange the class into groups of four and assign East/West and North/ South partnerships.
  
  
• Review how to count the points in their hand (Lesson Three). The entire deck of cards has 40 high card points.  So, with four players, an “average” individual hand would hold 10 “high card” points.

Ace:         4 points
King:        3 points
Queen:     2 points
Jack:         1 point

The entire deck of cards has 40 high card points.  So, with four players, an “average” individual hand would hold 10 “high card” points.

Teacher Note:  In this section, learners will learn how the declarer is determined, placement of the dummy hand and declaring a contract.

• Explain to the learners that they will learn how to determine who is in control of each hand or the “declarer.” (Declarer: The player who, for his/her side, first names the suit or "no trump" as the final bid and who will lead play the hand)
  
  
• Ask the learners to deal the cards. Players count the points in their hand. Starting with the dealer, each player announces the number of points in their hand, going around the group in a clockwise direction.  Remind learners that the total points of all four hands should be 40. If not, they should recount. The partnership with the most total points is in control and the player with the most points in that partnership becomes the “declarer.” If both sides have 20 points, the dealer collects the cards and deals again. If both partners have the same number of points, the partner who announced their points first is the declarer.
  
  
• Write the word "dummy" on the display board. Anticipating that this word might result in some negative group responses, take a minute to have the learners share how this word is often used, i.e someone who is not smart or a puppet. Following this discussion, ask the students how they think the word "dummy" might apply to a game governed by rules and etiquette.  Lead them to realize that etiquette would never allow a player to call another player a name, so ‘dummy’ in this context must be more closely related to "a puppet."  Write the word “hand” after the word “dummy” already on the display board.  Ask the learners to share what role a hand plays in manipulating a "dummy".  Lead the students to an understanding that "dummy" in this game refer to a "dummy hand" which is the hand that will be played or manipulated by the declarer not by the partner of declarer. This will become clearer as the learners actually observe a "dummy hand" being played.
  
  
• The declarer’s partner’s hand is the “dummy hand”. (Dummy Hand: the hand that belongs to the partner of the declarer.)
   
  
• The “dummy hand” is displayed neatly on the table, face up and in rank order, overlapped, with the rank of each card separated by suits and clearly visible for all to see.  (If there is a trump suit, it is placed on the dummy’s right as viewed by declarer, trumps are on the left.  In this example below, spades are trump.) The declarer must play both the dummy hand and his own hand, each in proper turn.  The player who held the dummy hand does not participate in the play.  Example:                  
  
  
  
  
• The declarer decides the “contract” (Contract: The trump suit or no trump, and the number of tricks he/she will take.) Trump suit is the one in which the partners hold the greatest number of cards.  Tell them to look for the suit between their two hands in which they have the most cards, not the best/strongest cards, but the most cards. This would usually be eight or more cards of the same suit between the two hands.  If there are less than eight cards of the same suit, the declarer will determine that there is No Trump for this hand. No Trump means that the first card played in each trick becomes trump for that trick (as in the game of Trick from Lesson Four). The object is to take at least half the tricks (13 possible tricks, half of which is 6 ½, and rounds up to seven tricks). Six tricks is called “book” (Book: The assumption is that the declarer (bidder) will take at least six tricks, so the declarer (bidder) only earns points after he/she has taken six tricks or “made book”.)
  
  

• The declarer states the contract as the number of tricks over "book," or over six tricks. So the declarer would state, "Trump is hearts and I will take 2 tricks." which indicates book plus an additional two (or eight tricks total.) Encourage declarer to state that they will take at least eight tricks. After they state the number of tricks they are going to take, ask the opponents how many tricks they will need to "set" (keep declarer from fulfilling his contract) the declarer. i.e. Tom says that he can take 3 tricks. 6+3=9, there are 13 total tricks, you need 5 tricks to set him. Have the learners do a mental calculation to come to this determination.

  
  
• Ask the groups to deal their cards, and practice declaring a suit and winning tricks.  Allow the groups to practice through two hands.  Monitor the groups to be sure they are playing the hands (declarer and dummy), and determining the winner of the tricks correctly.
  
  

Day Two:

• At the start of this class, have the learners continue to play the mini-bridge game they were introduced to during the last class period.
  
  
• After one or two refresher hands, tell the learners that today they will learn how to score the game of Mini-Bridge.
  
  
• Distribute Scoring Mini Bridge (Attachment One).  Read and discuss the scoring criteria with the learners.
  
  
• Ask each group of learners to take turns playing one hand of Mini Bridge, while the other groups observe.  Assist them in counting scores at the end of each hand.  When it appears that the learners understand scoring, allow all the groups to play.
  
  
• Encourage them to hold themselves, as well as their partner and opponents, accountable for rules and etiquette in all the games they play as well as in their classroom school, family, and community. 
  
  
  

• For additional Web Sites that feature children’s games using playing cards: 
  http://www.usplayingcard.com/gamerules/childrenscardgames.html
  
  http://thehouseofcards.com/
  
  
• For websites that feature Bridge resources:
  http://www.Bridgeworld.com/default.asp?d=intro_to_Bridge&f=introtoBridgemainpage.html
  
  http://www.fifthchair.org/school/
  
  
• http://www.jazclass.aust.com/Bridge/br0.htm
  
  
• http://www.acbl.org/learn/ltpb.htm
  
  
• http://www.acbl.org/documentlibrary/news/statisticallyspeaking.pdf
  
  
• http://www.iglou.com/baronbarclay/RUBBSCOR.html (Free information)
  
  
• http://www.baronbarclay.com/ (Bridge supplies)
  
  
• http://www.kardwell.com/Bridge-access.htm (Bidding helper)
  
  
• http://www.kittycooper.com/Bridge/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=search&query
  
  
• http://www.bridgeiscool.com/teachlearn.html