GoFilte Fish

(A variation of Go Fish)

Recommended Ages: 5 and up
Number of Players: 3 or more

Goal: To be the player with the highest number of matching pairs at the end of the game.

Set-Up:
1. Decide how many Kindness Card Categories you will be using in your game.
[Note: With 3 categories (i.e. Give Tzedakah, Be a Friend, and Welcome Guests) and 3 players, the game will take approximately 10 minutes.]
2. Remove the Mensch Card from the deck
3. Shuffle cards
4. Deal 5 cards to each player
5. The remaining cards are placed in a pile between all players (This is the GoFilte Fish Pile).
6. All players look at their cards. Remove any matching pairs (Two cards displaying the same Kindness Category, illustration, and words) and place the pairs face-up in front of you. [specify face-up or face-down]

Play:
1. Player #1 begins by asking one specific player for one specific category of card. (For example, "Helen, do you have any Be a Friend cards?")
2. If asked, a player must hand over all of the cards from the requested category (i.e. Helen must give Player #1 all of her Be A Friend cards). Upon receiving the requested cards, Player #1 removes all matching pairs from his hand and places the pairs in front of him. Play then moves on to the next player.
3. If the player who was asked ( Helen) does not have any of the requested category in her hand, she replies: "GoFilte Fish". Player #1 then picks a card from the GoFilte Fish Pile. If the new card forms a matching pair, Player #1 places the pair in front of him. Play then moves on to the next player.
4. There are several different ways to end the game:

  • The game can end when one player is out of cards.
  • The game can end when there are no cards remaining in the GoFilte Fish Pile. (In this scenario, whenever a player finds that she no longer has any cards in her hand, she will need to choose one card from the GoFilte Fish Pile.)

5. At the end of the game, players count their matching pairs. The player with the most pairs is the winner.

Variation for Younger Children:
Allow children to ask for cards by color rather than by category. (For example, "Teddy, do you have any yellow cards?")