Printable magic trick cards

🃏 The Magic Mind Reader

Apprentice · 5 minutes · ages 5 to 11

You need: deck

1. Shuffle the deck, and as you square it up, tilt it and peek at the bottom card.
2. Spread the cards face down and let your friend take any one at all.
3. They look at it and show the audience.
4. Ask them to put their card on top of the deck.

…and 3 more on peabody.kids/magic/key-card-trick

Say: “Cards hold on to a little bit of your thoughts when you touch them. Think about your card. Think hard… I'm picking up a signal. It's faint. It's getting stronger…”

🔢 The 21 Card Trick

Apprentice · 10 minutes · ages 6 to 11

You need: deck

1. Count twenty-one cards off the deck and put the rest away.
2. Deal them face up into three columns, one card at a time, left to right.
3. Ask your friend to pick a card in their head and say which column it's in.
4. Gather the columns up with theirs in the middle of the other two.

…and 3 more on peabody.kids/magic/21-card-trick

Say: “Your card is shy. Every time I deal, it creeps a little closer to the middle, where it feels safe. There's only one word that can coax it out. A-B-R-A-C-A-D-A-B-R-A!”

🅰️ The Ace Finder

Apprentice · 5 minutes · ages 6 to 11

You need: deck

1. Ask your friend to cut the deck into four piles in a row.
2. Starting at the far left pile, they move three cards from its top to its bottom.
3. Then they deal one card off that pile onto each of the other three.
4. They do the same for the next pile, and the next: three under, one to each.

…and 2 more on peabody.kids/magic/four-aces-trick

Say: “Aces are the bosses of the deck. You can mix them, cut them, bury them, shuffle them — and when the dust settles, the bosses are back on top. Every time.”

🐝 The Spelling Bee

Conjurer · 15 minutes · ages 6 to 11

You need: thirteen cards

1. Hold the thirteen cards face down and tell everyone you taught them to spell.
2. Spell A-C-E out loud, moving one card from the top to the bottom for each letter.
3. Turn over the next card on top.
4. Spell T-W-O the same way, then turn over the next card.

…and 2 more on peabody.kids/magic/spelling-card-trick

Say: “These thirteen went to the Peabody School of Spelling. Most of them did their homework. Let's find out which ones were paying attention. A… C… E…”

🙃 The Upside-Down Card

Conjurer · 10 minutes · ages 6 to 11

You need: deck

1. Hold the deck out and fan it so somebody can take a card.
2. While they look at it, lower your hands and quietly turn the deck over.
3. Hold the deck out again and ask them to push their card back into the middle.
4. Put the deck behind your back, turn it over once more, and bring it out.

…and 1 more on peabody.kids/magic/upside-down-card-trick

Say: “Cards know things. Push yours back in anywhere you like, I won't look. Somewhere in there it's going to tell the others, and when a card tells a secret it goes red in the face and turns right over.”

🔮 The Crystal Ball Prediction

Apprentice · 3 minutes · ages 5 to 10

You need: deck, paper, marker

1. Pick up the deck and sneak a look at the bottom card.
2. Write that card on the paper with the marker and put it face down.
3. Put the deck on the table and ask somebody to cut it anywhere.
4. Pick up the bottom half and lay it across the half they lifted.

…and 2 more on peabody.kids/magic/crystal-ball-prediction-trick

Say: “I had a dream about this last night. I wrote it down so nobody could say I made it up afterwards. Cut the cards wherever you want. Anywhere. It won't help.”

🥪 The Card Sandwich

Conjurer · 15 minutes · ages 7 to 12

You need: deck

1. Show the two Jacks on top of the deck and leave them there, face up.
2. Fan the deck and let somebody take a card, then have them put it back on top.
3. Put the two Jacks back on top of their card, so it is already in the sandwich.
4. Cut the deck once, so all three disappear into the middle.

…and 1 more on peabody.kids/magic/card-sandwich-trick

Say: “These two are the bouncers. Nothing gets past them and nothing gets out. I'm going to lose your card in the deck, and they are going to go and fetch it.”

🔢 The Countdown Card

Apprentice · 5 minutes · ages 6 to 11

You need: deck

1. Count nine cards down in the deck before the show and remember the ninth.
2. Say the card out loud, so everybody hears you name it first.
3. Ask somebody for any number between ten and twenty.
4. Deal that many cards into a pile, one at a time.

…and 2 more on peabody.kids/magic/countdown-card-trick

Say: “Pick a number. Any number between ten and twenty, your choice, I'm not helping. Right. I already know where that's going to land you, and I knew before you opened your mouth.”

👯 Do As I Do

Conjurer · 10 minutes · ages 7 to 12

You need: deck

1. Give your friend one two deck and keep the other.
2. Shuffle, and sneak a look at the bottom card of your own two deck.
3. Both of you take a card from the middle, look at it, and put it on top.
4. Both cut two deck once, so the card is lost in the middle.

…and 2 more on peabody.kids/magic/do-as-i-do-trick

Say: “We're going to do exactly the same thing at exactly the same time, you and me. Same shuffle, same cut, same everything. And at the end we'll see how alike we really are.”

⬆️ The Rising Card

Apprentice · 5 minutes · ages 6 to 11

You need: deck

1. Get their card to the back of the deck, with the faces towards your audience.
2. Hold the deck upright in your fingers, little finger curled round the back.
3. Wave your other hand over the deck and say the magic word.
4. Straighten your little finger slowly.

…and 1 more on peabody.kids/magic/rising-card-trick

Say: “Cards are mostly lazy. Yours isn't. Yours has been trying to get my attention since the moment you put it back, and I think it's about to make a run for it.”

🪽 The Levitating Card

Apprentice · 5 minutes · ages 6 to 11

You need: deck

1. Lay one card flat on your open palm, fingers together.
2. Bend your middle finger back behind the card and press it to your palm.
3. Turn your hand upright.
4. Move your hand away from the card a little, as if it is floating free.

…and 1 more on peabody.kids/magic/levitating-card-trick

Say: “Watch. No strings, no glue, nothing up my sleeve, and before you ask, no, I can't do it with anything heavier. I've tried it with a sandwich and it was a disaster.”

🚔 The Four Burglars

Conjurer · 10 minutes · ages 6 to 11

You need: deck

1. Fan the top cards of the deck and show four Jacks, keeping the three behind them hidden.
2. Square them up and put all seven back on top of the deck face down.
3. Take the top card and push it into the bottom of the deck: the first burglar.
4. Push the next into the middle, and the next a bit higher up.

…and 2 more on peabody.kids/magic/four-burglars-trick

Say: “Four burglars. This deck is a tall building and they are going in. One in the basement, one on the second floor, one on the third, and this one stays on the roof to keep watch. Uh oh. Police.”

🃏 The Card That Keeps Coming Back

Wizard · 3 to 6 days · ages 10 to 13

You need: deck

1. Let your friend pick any card from the deck, show everyone, and put it back on top.
2. Openly put one more card on top of theirs.
3. Snap your fingers over the deck.
4. With your thumb, lift the top two cards together at the back, lined up exactly.

…and 4 more on peabody.kids/magic/ambitious-card-trick

Say: “Some cards are shy. This one is the opposite: it wants to be on top. I can put it in the middle, I can bury it, I can tell it off. Watch what it does.”

🃏 Three Friends, Three Cards

Apprentice · 5 minutes · ages 7 to 11

You need: deck

1. Shuffle the deck, then hold up the top three cards so only your first friend sees their faces.
2. Ask them to think of one of the three, and not to say which.
3. Lay those three face down in a row: now there are three spots on the table.
4. Show the next three cards to your second friend, then lay one on each spot.

…and 4 more on peabody.kids/magic/three-friends-card-trick

Say: “Three minds, nine cards, and I'm only allowed one question each. I won't even ask which card. Just tell me: is it in this pile?”

🔟 The Card That Counts

Conjurer · 15 minutes · ages 8 to 13

You need: deck

1. Take the Ace to 10 of any one suit out of the deck.
2. Put them face down in order, with the Ace on top and the 10 at the bottom.
3. Show your friend the rule: move one card at a time from the top to the bottom.
4. As you show them, move exactly three cards, counting "one, two, three".

…and 4 more on peabody.kids/magic/card-that-counts-trick

Say: “Cards are terrible at keeping secrets. While my back was turned, these ten were watching you. Let's ask the one who saw everything.”

👑 Gathering the Kings

Conjurer · 15 minutes · ages 7 to 13

You need: deck

1. Fan the six cards face up, with the two Jacks hidden exactly behind the second King.
2. Show the four Kings, square them up, and put all six face down on top of the deck.
3. Take the top card, let everyone see it is a King, and put it on the bottom.
4. Take the next card without showing it, and push it in a third of the way down.

…and 4 more on peabody.kids/magic/gathering-the-kings-trick

Say: “Kings hate being apart. Watch: one goes to the bottom, one gets lost in here, one in here, one on top. And with one cut… they find each other again.”