Archived from Englipedia.
Originally submitted by Patrick Bickford on May 01, 2008.
DETAILED EXPLANATION:
- Before class, arrange the 13 cards as follows: 3, 8, 7, A, Q, 6, 4, 2, J, K, 10, 9, 5. A good story to help me remember the arrangement is: "387 Aces ago, there lived a Queen who was 64 years old. She had 2 sons, Jack and King. Jack was 10 and king was 9. They were both in grade 5."
- Card tricks are all about presentation so instead of just bringing the 13 cards to class, throw them on top of the rest of the cards you aren't going to use. When you start the trick, do a 'fake shuffle'. A 'fake shuffle' is basically shuffling the deck but making sure the top chunk of cards don't get separated in the shuffle.
- After the shuffle, show fan through the deck so the students can see the cards aren't in any particular. Also, before class ask the JTE to secretly choose a student they know is 13 years old. After shuffling the deck, ask that particular student their age...then pull off the top 13 cards of the deck. This 'age question' should mask the point that you already pre-arranged the deck.
- Next, write the words 'Ace, Jack, Queen and King' on the chalkboard. The students should be expected to know the spellings of numbers so if you choose to write the numbers on the board, too, don't write the spellings, only their numerical values.
- This card trick is very simple. Starting with 'Ace', tell the students tell you the spelling of this word. For every letter they say, take a card off the top of the deck and move it to the bottom of the deck. So, for the word 'Ace', three cards should be rotated. Then, simply flip the next card faceup and it will be the ACE. Next, move to the spelling of '2', which also has 3 card rotations. Flip the next card faceup and it will be a '2'. Keep going through all the spellings until you finish with the 'Queen'.
- Bribe your students to show them the trick after class if they study hard for the entire period. This trick will ensure your students memorize the spellings of numbers 1-10 and possibly the other card spellings because they will want to show their friends the cool English spelling card trick.
VARIATIONS:
- If flip the Q and J in the order, you can spell out 'eleven' and 'twelve.'