Hello!
Please consider using social distancing to enjoy some of these word games with your residents and staff. Please reach out to us with any questions, and feel free to share with others!
Best wishes,
Stay Sharp Volunteers
Would You Rather
Rules
Ask people to decide between two extreme/ridiculous results, starting each phrase with “would you rather…”.Examples:
- Would you rather have a tongue like a frog or eyes like an iguana?
- Would you rather have spaghetti for hair or a singing belly button?
- Would you rather only wear clothes made of orange nylon or yellow corduroy?
- Would you rather have arms that are 7 feet long or knees the size of footballs?
- Would you rather have one eye in the middle of your forehead or have eyes on the ends of your big toes?
- Would you rather travel from place to place by moonwalking or line dancing?
- Would you rather be itchy or thirsty?
- Would you rather look like a fish or smell like a fish?
- Would you rather be hot or cold?
- Would you rather not be able to stop dancing or not be able to stop singing?
- Would you rather live in the city or the country?
- Would you rather be a sumo wrestler or a rodeo clown?
- Would you rather have to sing a TV jingle (“We are Farmers, bum-ba-dum-da-dum-dum-dum”) every time you want to talk, or have toilet paper stuck on your shoes forever?
- Would you rather have a high pitched squeaky voice or always have to rhyme everything you say?
- Would you rather be covered in fish scales or fur?
- Would you rather have green skin or green hair?
- Would you rather have one real Get Out of Jail Free card, or a key that opens any door?
- Would you rather eat dessert first at every meal or never have to stand in line again?
Categories
Rules
- Choose a topic
- Name as many items as you can that fit that category
- For an added challenge, go through the alphabet in order as you name items in the category.
Topic suggestions, or come up with your own:
- Fruit
- Vegetables
- Types of animals (or specifically types of dogs, cats, etc)
- Holidays
- Things you eat for breakfast (or lunch or dinner)
- Occupations
- Car makes or models
- Sports teams
- Movie Stars/famous people
- Household items
- Stores and restaurants
- Cities or countries
GHOST
Rules
Each player, by turn, adds a letter to a growing string of letters, trying to avoid being the one to complete a word of at least three letters. However, at the end of every turn there must still be a potential word starting with the current string of letters (so you can’t just use random Q’s and J’s).
The player who completes a word loses the round, and gets a “letter” - “G,H,O,S,T”. The first player to reach “GHOST” loses.
If one player thinks that the other player created a string that doesn’t start any words, he can “challenge”. If the other player has a legitimate word then the challenger loses, and if not the player who was challenged loses
Example round:
- Player 1: “C”
- Player 2: “CH”
- Player 1: “CHA”
- Player 2: “CHAL”
- Player 1 (doesn’t want to say “CHALK”): “CHALL”
- Player 2: “CHALLE”
- Player 1: “CHALLEN”
- Player 2: “CHALLENG”
- Player 1: “CHALLENGI”
- Player 2: “CHALLENGIN”
- Player 1: “CHALLENGING”
- Player 1 loses!
Association
Rules
A word association game is a fun and fast paced way to keep the conversation flowing, and it’s super easy to do as well. Simply start with a word and then another person must say the first thing they think of associated with that word, and then you keep going around the room. If a person hesitates or says something too random, they lose!
Examples:
- Zoo - tiger - stripes - plaid - kilt - Scotland - bagpipes - music - piano - keys - locks - doors
- Telephone - ring - marriage - wedding dress - wife - husband - spouse - partner - couple - pair - shoes
- Banana - monkey - circus - peanuts - elephants - gray - color - rainbow - sunshine - rainstorm - weather
My name is Alice
In this conversation game each person takes turns adding items in alphabetical order. You could modify this to one or two or more items to be added each round.
Example (one item): Each person adds one item.
- My Aunt Annie went on vacation and brought back an axe.
- My Aunt Annie went on vacation and brought back an axe and a brick.
- My Aunt Annie went on vacation and brought back an axe and a brick and a chair.
Example (two items): each person adds a name and an item.
- My name is Alice and I like apples
- My name is Alice and I like Apples, My name is Bobby and I like bears
- My name is Alice and I like apples, my name is Bobby and I like bears, my name is Charlie and I like chicken
Rules
Name that Tune
Rules
Play various songs and have the residents chime in with their responses.
Look on YouTube for songs by artists such as:
- Frank Sinatra
- Buddy Holly
- Glenn Miller
- Bing Crosby
- Benny Goodman
- Perry Como
- Dean Martin
- Elvis Presley
- Chuck Berry
Tongue Twisters
Rules
See who can say them 5 times fast
Examples:
- She sells seashells by the seashore
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
- I saw Susie sitting in a shoeshine shop
- I wish to wash my Irish wristwatch
- Tom threw Tim three thumbtacks
- I’ve got a date at a quarter to eight; I’ll see you at the gate so don’t be late
- You know New York, you need New York, you know you need unique New York
- I saw a kitten eating chicken in the kitchen
- If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?
- He threw three free throws
- Four fine fresh fish for free
- Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better
I Spy
Rules
One person secretly chooses an item in the room and others have to guess what it is. Take turns on who chooses the item and let everyone have a guess.
For example if that person is looking at an apple, they would say "I spy with my little eye, something red"
20 Questions
Rules
One person secretly comes up with an item or object and everyone else has 20 questions to try to figure out what it is. One person should keep track of how many questions have been asked.
Some good questions to ask are:
- Is it smaller than a loaf of bread/football/etc
- Is it alive?
- Can you buy it at the store?
- Is it in this room?
- Is it a mode of transportation?
- Is it edible?
Think Pink
Rules
Think of a two-word rhyming phrase, then give a clue that should lead to the other person guessing your rhyming phrase.
- Overweight kitty = fat cat
- Seafood platter = fish dish
- Huge oinker = big pig
- A warm connection between two ropes = hot knot
- A puppy in the rain = wet pet
- A carpet owned by a beetle = bug rug
- A royal headpiece that’s the color of a tree = brown crown
- Cheddar in the freezer = freeze cheese
- old bread in the fridge = cold mold
- A wrinkly dog’s face = pug mug
- A vehicle in the distance = far car
- A large group of flying animals = bird herd
- Fake currency = funny money
- A tool for serpents to pick up leaves = snake rake
- A magical reptile = lizard wizard
- A drink for black and yellow insects = bee tea
- A tax on a door opener = key fee
- A chewy morning beverage = toffee coffee