Stacks & Storage

A card-based strategy activity that provides an opportunity to explore goals, planning, and flexibility.

Recommended Use

Best For

Counselors, educators, mentors, youth workers, and parents with youth ages 7+ who may benefit from more visual and tactile explanations for staying focused on tasks and thinking ahead.

Core Focus

A fun, tactile way to practice executive-function skills and create space to adapt when a plan needs to change.

Target Competencies

Working Memory: holding a goal, a sequence, and relevant available information in mind while considering a next move.
Inhibitory Control: pausing long enough to consider whether an immediate move serves the larger plan.
Cognitive Flexibility: adjusting when a new card, an earlier decision, or another player’s move changes what is possible.
Planning & Organization: considering order, access, and preparation rather than treating each choice as isolated.
Reflective Problem-Solving: considering what mistakes and successes may reveal for the next try or a future situation.

Founder's Note

Inside the design

“Stacks & Storage came from the card games I grew up playing as a kid. So many of those early games helped show me how to make choices and created space for connection with people who mattered to me. I wanted youth to have that same kind of experience.

We cannot just tell a child to think ahead and plan better; they need opportunities to see what that takes. The future will ask them to make decisions that no game can fully prepare them for, but Stacks & Storage was made to provide a fun starting point for practice, reflection, and conversation.”

Design Rationale

Decision-making often asks several things of a child at once: keep a goal in mind, notice what is available, decide what needs to happen first, and adjust when the plan changes. Stacks & Storage turns those demands into a shared, tactile challenge that makes planning, focus, and flexibility easier to see and discuss.

Its design brings goal maintenance, sequencing, future planning, and adaptation into one repeatable card-game experience. The activity is not an assessment or a stand-in for real-life decisions; it provides a manageable starting point for guided practice, reflection, and conversation.

Get Access

$15 One-time

Facilitator Webguide
Activity Reference
Connection at Home Caregiver Extension
Stacks & Storage Print & Play Pack

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Included Documents

Included Resources

Everything you need to confidently lead the activity. Your license includes the resources listed below, with downloadable files available from your account.

Early Access

Help Shape the Next Version

Keystone is preparing this activity for broader use and inviting candid feedback from early-access facilitators. Share what worked, what was unclear, and what should change.

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