The Cat in the Hat TM Comes Back

Instructions

The Cat in the Hat is back, and he is making a mess of the house. Dad’s shoes got dirty cleaning the walls, which got dirty cleaning Mother’s white dress. The white dress was stained cleaning the big long pink cat ring out of the bathtub. Can you clean up before Mother gets home?

OBJECT

To clean up the most spots by playing the most cards.

SET UP

Shuffle the deck and deal 3 cards to each player. Place the rest of the deck facedown in the center of the table. This is the draw pile. The youngest player goes first.

PLAYING CARDS

1. On each turn, a player draws a card from the deck then plays a card or discards a card (his option). Discarded cards are stacked to the left of the draw pile creating the discard pile. Players may take the top card on the discard pile on their turn rather than the top card of the draw pile.

2. To play a card, players place a card face-up in front of them. As play progresses, each player will play cards in two piles side by side. The left pile will allow players to play letters that come alphabetically after the top card on the pile; the right pile will allow players to play letters that come alphabetically before the top card on the pile. (For example, if a player starts his/her left pile with a “B,” the next card that he/she plays on this pile must come after B in the alphabet. If he/she starts his/her right pile with a “W,” then the next card that he/she plays must come before W in the alphabet.

3. On each turn, players may only play one card. If a player cannot play a card, the player must discard. Players may only play cards onto their own piles.

VOOM CARDS

When a “VOOM” card is played on a pile, the player may play a new starting letter on his/her next turn. (For example, if a player plays a VOOM card on his/her right pile, on that player’s next turn any card from the player’s hand may be played on their right pile.)

WINNING THE GAME

1. Once the last card from the deck is drawn, players play any remaining cards from their hands (if possible) and the game ends.

2. Players count the cards that they’ve played in both piles. The player with the most cards played has cleaned up the most spots, and wins the game!