Child counting game
Counting Games for Kids Online
Interactive Counting Games OnlineThe concept of counting refers to the enumeration using digits 0 to 9. The numbers formed by the digits are used to count numerous things. These things can be objects such as crayons, pins, beads as well as days, months and years or any other measurable attribute or quantity.
Few examples of counting are:
- Each calendar has 12 months
- A week has 7 days
The mathematical techniques and strategies used to learn counting lay the basis for comprehending number sense and place-value pertaining to numbers. The earliest interaction that kids have with counting is by learning to count their body parts such as eyes, fingers, toes, ears, and others.
With each grade in the educational curriculum, counting methods are nurtured by employing various math tools and procedures. Counting games for kids are wonderful tools to learn and practice the various types of counting techniques.
Counting math games like counting objects within 3 games, counting objects within 5 games, counting objects within 10 games, and counting objects within 20 games help kids to practice different counting skills with fun characters, exciting visuals and colorful backdrops.
Some other math games that you can explore are: multiplication games, division games, fraction games, decimal games, money games, algebra games, etc.
How Do We Introduce Counting to Kids?We can introduce counting to kids by looking at the things and objects in our surroundings and asking them "how many objects are there"? Kids learn to count by using their fingers. They may also use counters to count all the objects. Once they can easily count things up to 5, they can be gradually taught to count larger quantities using other counting techniques. Math counting games can also be used to introduce this concept in a fun way.
How Can We Make Counting Fun for Kids?Number counting games online can be employed into your child’s learning practice and routine to make counting fun.
Children learn best when they are interested in the topic they are studying and practicing. This natural inclination and want of understanding can be achieved with tremendous ease by playing interactive counting games for kids.
Counting math games incorporate different learning strategies like counting the dots, hopping to count, matching numbers, recognizing patterns, understanding number sequences, etc. that help children to better understand counting. They are able to practice and develop counting skills successfully which also enhances their mathematical literacy. Number counting games online also help children to build a relationship with math operations through skip counting.
Suggested Counting Worksheets
View all 158 Worksheets
Frequently Asked Questions
- How can kids practice counting?
Kids can practice counting skills by playing fun counting games for kids.
These games provide children with math exposure using visual learning tools to build strong observation and reasoning skills from an early age. - How to teach counting?
A lot of different strategies can be used to teach counting numbers. Students can use pictures to count. They can also learn to count on fingers or by using counters. Kids can learn counting numbers by playing games online or by using fun drawing and coloring activities and worksheets. Furthermore, they can also learn to count forward or backward to practice counting numbers. Math counting games can also be used to teach the concept of counting to children.
- How can I help my child understand counting?
Counting skills acquired in each grade is essential for learning the concepts associated with basic math operations, geometry, measurement, and the number-sense. You can use number counting games to impart these skills to your child.
These fun counting games facilitate learning by helping children fluently solve math problems with a strong sense of confidence. - How can kids play games on counting?
Online games based on counting are fun, engaging and easy to play. You can channel the power of math games based on counting online through different math apps and math websites.
- What are the best fun counting activities for kids?
Some exciting counting activities for kids are: counting using playing blocks or any other objects available, singing number songs aloud, using dominoes, counting cars in a parking lot, etc.
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19 Fun Counting Games & Activities for Kids
ByKerry Flatley, Certified Parent Educator
The first math activities kids learn are number recognition and how to count.
But how to make it fun? Here are 19 fun counting activities and games for kids.
One of the very first math skills kids acquire is how to count. One, two, three…
This is the backbone of math fluency and more advanced math like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
To most kids learning how to count is fun. Many kids will just do it naturally on their own – counting objects they see outside or toys they’re playing with at home.
Then, in preschool and kindergarten, number sense and counting skills are learned and further solidified in each successive grade.
Introducing a few counting math games can solidify the learning process even further.
The following are nineteen simple counting games and activities you can do with your kids to help them learn how to count:
This activity helps kids make the connection between written numbers and quantities. Kids cover the empty circles inside the written number with plastic discs:
From Buggy and Buddy:
Roll the dice and determine who loses all their “teeth” (mini-marshmallows) first with this counting game:
From Toddler Approved:
This is a fun counting game: Each player rolls the die and then adds that many cubes to their cup.
The first one to fill the cup wins!
From Frugal Fun 4 Boys:
Help kids number recognition with this paper airplane game:
From The Educator’s Spin on It:
For kids who do better outside, here’s a fun number maze. Parents say the number and kids try to find it in the chalk frame:
From Hands On As We Grow:
This daisy craft lets young children count how many petals each flower needs:
From No Time for Flashcards:
Have preschoolers trace numbers and also determine how many Cheerios represents that number with this math activity:
From Schooling a Monkey:
Help kids understand one to one correspondence with this colored cereal activity:
From Stay at Home Educator:
Do your kids like cars? This is the perfect game for them. It’s extremely simple – Roll the dice and move your car that number of squares. The first one to the finish line wins!
From Frugal Fun 4 Boys:
Use pom poms, cupcake holders, and tongs to have children determine the correct number of pom poms that correspond to the number written in each cupcake holder:
From Laughing Kids Learn:
Do you have a kid who likes working with their hands? This egg cracking counting activity is just the thing for them:
From Modern Preschool:
What kid doesn’t love Goldfish crackers? Here’s a great way to help preschoolers learn their numbers during snack time:
From Life over C’s:
Roll the dice and smack the corresponding number – perfect for active preschoolers!
From Mom Inspired Life:
Help kids practice skip counting with this paper plate/sewing activity:
From 123 Homeschool 4 Me:
This number game uses beads, a 100s board, and dice to help kids learn to count to 100.
Whoever reaches 100 first wins!
From Kitchen Floor Crafts:
Create bead manipulatives to represent the number on a given card:
From There’s Just One Mommy:
For kids who are visual learners, these clay number manipulates can help to make abstract concepts more concrete. Plus, they’re fun to make!
From Schooling a Money:
Print out these free sheets, roll the dice, and determine how many bugs should move into the jar:
From The Measured Mom:
You may also like:
17 Fun Money Activities for Kids
Your Child CAN Memorize Multiplication Math Facts with this Fun & Easy Method
6 of the Best (& Fun!) Counting Money Games for Kids
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Board games and mathematics: learning to count and think!
Author: Natalya Akimova
“Mathematics should be taught later,
that it puts the mind in order”
M.
V. Lomonosov
“Mom, I want to study!” - these words are a joy for every mother's heart. After all, while studying with a child, we set the task not only to instill in him the necessary skills, but first of all - to interest and captivate. What do kids love the most? Of course, play! Educational board games are designed specifically for this!
Today Igroved will talk about games that help to introduce a child to the queen of all sciences - mathematics!
Very often mathematics is identified exclusively with arithmetic, forgetting about logic, combinatorics, geometry and other areas. Children's board games allow you to develop a variety of mathematical skills.
- Counting board games
- Board games for the development of mindfulness and the ability to find similar
- Board games and more-less-equals
- Games for the development of logic and the ability to highlight signs
- Board games and spatial thinking
- Board games that introduce the concept of "combination"
Counting Board Games
Among the counting board games you will find suitable for all ages.
Strawberry paths (from 3 years old)
Bear cubs picking a sweet forest berry, and the players get acquainted with the basics of mathematics. Opening a card with a teddy bear, the child counts the berries in his paws and looks at the number indicating this number. But the most interesting thing is that in the game Strawberry Paths, kids can feel the math with their hands. After all, the resulting number of berries must be taken from the common basket and strung on your cord! Clear, fun and very kind! This is a children's counting game where everyone wins. The main goal of the players is to help both grandma and grandpa bake two delicious strawberry pies! Who has more berries in the pie? Let's count!
Halli-gully (from 5 years old)
Halli-gully's sonorous fruit game teaches you to see 5 in any combination. Participants take turns opening their cards. As soon as someone notices that there are exactly 5 fruits of the same type on the open cards, he must ring the bell as quickly as possible.
The one who hits the bell first will take all the open cards. With younger children, you can play by house rules, gradually complicating the game. First, the baby rings the bell if he sees 1 any fruit, then 2 fruits. Such young players in a year or two will easily beat any adult!
10 Pigs (from 6 years old)
In the first grade, teachers like to set such a task: memorize the composition of all numbers up to 10. Several tables that are completely uninteresting to the child. But you have to learn... We remove the textbook away and get the game 10 pigs! Funny pigs dressed up as fairy-tale characters will help you remember what you need in a completely relaxed way!
Players take turns revealing one card at a time, adding its value to the value of the open deck. The participant earns all open cards if, as a result of his turn, the value of these cards is equal to TEN ... but not a bit more! Otherwise, the previous player will be happy with the cards received.
"10" for the control on the topic! And let the teacher not be surprised that when writing the work, the child grunts with pleasure!
Sleeping Queens (from 7 years old)
Sometimes there are children who do not like counting so much that they categorically refuse even any counting games. For such a case, the Gamemaster has a secret weapon - Sleeping Queens. Yes Yes! Lovely royal persons are able to arouse interest in the account completely imperceptibly. Participants play kings, jesters, dragons, use magic wands and sleeping potions ... and where is the score ?! There is one nuance in this game: in order to discard "useless" cards from your hand, it is advantageous to make an example out of them. Absolutely any: 1=1, 2+3=5 or harder. Of course, you can fold cards without any mathematics, but only one at a time, and in the heat of battle you always want more. What if someone else wakes up the Queen of Roses?!
Zeus on vacation (from 8 years old)
Educational board game Zeus on vacation invites everyone to a mathematical competition.
Here, players will hone addition and subtraction within 100. Who will climb to the top of Olympus the fastest?! Players take turns adding cards to the middle of the table, counting a new height with each card laid out. The top is the beautifully round number 100. But it is not enough to be the first to conquer the top, it is important to do it with the passing figure of Zeus in your hands. The cards of other Olympic gods help to get the Thunderer. Practicing mental counting in the game is great. Let the holidays of the child be fun and useful!
Monopoly (from 4 years old, from 8 years old)
What is the most pleasant thing to count? Of course, money! The goal of the children's board game Monopoly is to use the starting capital, buying, selling and renting real estate to remain the only player who does not go bankrupt. You will have to constantly count: the cost of streets, spending on the construction of hotels, revenue from rich guests. Depending on the skills of addition and subtraction, you can choose either a children's version of the game, where each money is equal to one, and the value of real estate does not exceed 5, or Monopoly from 8 years, in which the child has to operate with large sums.
Monopoly is a very popular game all over the world to develop both mathematical skills and business sense :).
All board games with numbers can be viewed in this section.
Board games for the development of mindfulness and the ability to find similar
The question of how to develop concentration of attention worries many scientists, research is being done on this topic and dissertations are being defended. And fun people like to play! Play Dobble, Shuffle, Wild Jungle and other educational board games.
Dobble (from 6 years old)
Open cards, compare and find something similar! Who will find the same pattern first?! Dobble shines with positive: bright pictures, a cheerful palm on the cards, a funny round box, and most importantly - a simple and exciting process! Joyful mood is transmitted to all players!
The smallest (from 3 years old) can be offered to look for similarities in turn, so that there are no losers!
Shuffle (from 5 years old)
In full accordance with the name of the game, cards with funny pictures are shuffled on the table.
The call is placed in the center. Start! All players simultaneously try to assemble a row so that every 2 adjacent cards have a common picture. As soon as 7 cards are collected - call! Shuffle is a very dynamic mindfulness game! Perfect for young fidgets.
Wild Jungle (from 7 years old)
Wild Jungle is a real riot of emotions! The main idea of this board game is to match figures by shape (and in some cases by color!) The authors have prepared a lot of "traps", so you will need serious concentration! But the ancient totem will get to you!
When players reach the highest skill, 80 more cards from the Wild Jungle expansion will come into play! It won't be easy, but it will be very funny!
Speed caps (from 6 years old)
Right-left, top-bottom is the most interesting thing to study with the children's board game Speed caps. Funny wagons, balloons, holiday flags or funny birds lined up on the cards in a certain order. They can be placed both horizontally and vertically.
The task of the players is to repeat the sequence using multi-colored caps.
Toddlers take turns doing this task, memorizing colors and mastering spatial concepts, while older children and adults put a bell in the middle of the table and arrange a real peaceful battle! One, two, three - turn over a new card!
Board games and more-less-equals
Place your bets! Who has more? Who has less? In board games with numbers, the concepts of more or less are quite common, so this topic does not cause difficulties for children playing at school.
Cow 006 Deluxe (from 8 years old)
Don't be the sixth! - this is the essence of the rules of the developing board game Cow 006. This game with numbers from 1 to 104 perfectly helps children in situations where addition and subtraction within 10 is already familiar, but then the child feels insecure. In these cases, we advise you to join Cow 006 spy games and master double digit numbers effortlessly.
Each turn, players choose one card from their hand and turn over those cards at the same time.
The fun begins: the cards are laid out in rows so that the cow numbers are as close as possible. The one whose card is the sixth in any row must take the entire row for himself (and these are potential penalty points!). Fine calculation and excellent intuition are the true companions of a good spy!
Nullern (from 8 years old)
Great game for those who like to count! In Nullern, the winner is the one who manages to correctly predict the number of his tricks. The most prudent carefully write down victory points for themselves, and those who made a mistake catch penalty grasshoppers! The game involves cards of four colors with a value from 1 to 20. So Nullern can suit even 6-year-old players.
Development of logic and the ability to identify signs
Parents often say that my child is a humanist, and therefore mathematics is alien to him. However, the ability to think logically is useful in absolutely any science. But still, let's not torment children with logical puzzles.
Better offer them to play, for example, Barabashka!
Barabashka (from 6 years old)
A cheerful ghost decided to take a picture of his interior, but out of harm he mixed up all the colors in the photographs. However, you can't fool our players on the chaff! They easily identify the desired item. How is this possible? According to the rules, you need to grab an object that completely matches the open picture, or one that has neither an image nor a color on the card. While the adults are staring at the picture, the children “see” the answer right away and win! Yes Yes!
Set (from 3 years old, from 6 years old)
Set is one of the best and most popular logic board games. Each card has four characteristics: color, symbol, number of symbols, fill. Players are trying to find a set of three cards on the table, each of which has the same or different characteristics for the entire set. Participants try to discover the set at the same time, so not only attentiveness is important in the Set, but also speed.
It is very convenient that this game is for any number of participants: you can train alone or play together, three, even ten.
Yotta (from 8 years old)
The box is slightly larger than a matchbox, and it contains a game with great "thinking" potential. Players need to keep in mind three signs of cards at the same time, and also see the whole picture on the gaming table as a whole. After all, finding a good place for your card is not easy. You need to lay it out in such a way as to get a chain of cards, the signs of which are either the same, or all are different.
Yetta is compact, cute and develops logical thinking.
Chocolate set (from 8 years old)
It's time to drink tea with sweets, because sweets are good for the brain! And the Chocolate set is especially useful! This is one of a whole series of puzzles that train the skills of deduction, logic and spatial thinking. Based on hints and discarding false options, players find the only correct location of candies in the box!
Chocolate set looks very appetizing!
Board games and spatial thinking
There are a lot of children's board games for the development of spatial thinking.
Most often these are puzzles for 1 person, but there are games for 2-4 participants.
Katamino (from 3 years old)
How to place pieces on a small field that do not want to lie neatly side by side? Either one does not fit, then the other does not fit in any way. Katamino is a lot of puzzles in one game. The number of tasks in it is almost endless: from the simplest, which can be offered to children from 3 years old, to very complex ones. Play - do not overplay! And if you do not want to solve tasks alone, then the option for playing together is at your service. To do this, you can split the field of the classic Katamino in half or take a special version of Katamino Duo. Introduce kids to the basics of geometry without distracting them from the game!
Tangram (from 6 years old)
How to turn 7 geometric shapes into one picture? The desired figure of a person (animal, household item, letter or number, etc.) is given by a silhouette, and the task of the players is to fold it using 7 simple “boards”.
Great job for young minds!
Such tasks are often found in the school curriculum, so a magnetic Tangos or a wooden Tangram will be great gifts for the whole class by September 1 (and parents do not have to cut these figures out of wrinkled cardboard!).
Board games that introduce the concept of "combination"
Collecting combinations by planning your actions in advance and calculating the opponent's possibilities is quite difficult for children. You can practice this skill in board games.
Harvest (from 8 years old)
For those who do not like abstract tasks, the game Harvest was invented. Fruits ripened in the garden, sweet and juicy, eager harvesters prepared ladders and baskets. Start, attention, stop! We will collect fruit not for speed, and not even for quantity. Whoever can make the best combination wins! Sometimes a collection of empty baskets can be more profitable than a gourmet fruit salad! A very dynamic and fun game for all fruit and math lovers!
Rummikub (from 8 years old)
Collecting combinations of numbers is extremely exciting! And all because pleasant work with gray cells and pride in a beautiful solution always inspires! Having learned to think and build combinations, the child will never give up before a difficult task right away, because he will know for sure: there is a solution and I can find it.
Rummikub is one of the favorite family games that everyone can do: kids will start with simple combinations, and adults will build incredibly tricky chains! Rummikub really brings people together.
Want to teach your child mental arithmetic or the basics of probability? Develop logical thinking? Learn to analyze the situation and look for a winning strategy? Communicate with peers and adults? Grab the educational board game box and play!
If you are interested in the development of a certain parameter, then you can watch board games:
- for memory,
- Attention,
- for imagination,
- for dexterity,
- for logic ,
- educational ,
- words and speech,
- numbers and score.
Word games • Arzamas
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Children's room ArzamasMaterialsMaterials
Arzamas for classes with schoolchildren! A selection of materials for teachers and parents
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How children's rhymes work "and other games that require almost nothing but company and the desire to have a good time
Author Lev Gankin
Primer “A. B. C. Trim, alphabet enchanté. Illustrations by Bertal. France, 1861 Wikimedia CommonsOral games
Associations
Game for a big company.
The host briefly leaves the room, during which time the rest decide which of those present they will guess (this may be the host himself). Upon returning, the player asks the others questions - what flower do you associate this person with, what vehicle, what part of the body, what kitchen utensils, etc. - in order to understand who is hidden. Questions can be very different - this is not limited by anything other than the imagination of the players. Since associations are an individual matter and an exact match may not happen here, it is customary to give the guesser two or three attempts. If the company is small, you can expand the circle of mutual acquaintances who are not present at that moment in the room, although the classic version of "associations" is still a hermetic game.
Game of P
A game for a company of four people, an interesting variation on the "hat" theme (see below), but does not require any special accessories. One player guesses a word to another, which he must explain to the others, but he can only use words starting with the letter "p" (any, except for the same root).
That is, the word "house" will have to be explained, for example, as follows: "I built - I live." If you couldn’t guess right away, you can throw up additional associations: “building, premises, space, the simplest concept ...” And at the end add, for example, “Perignon” - by association with Dom Perignon champagne. If the guessers are close to winning, then the facilitator will need comments like “about”, “approximately”, “almost right” - or, in the opposite situation: “bad, wait!”. Usually, after the word is guessed, the explainer comes up with a new word and whispers it into the ear of the guesser - he becomes the next leader.
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Primer "A.
B. C. Trim, alphabet enchanté. Illustrations by Bertal. France, 1861 Wikimedia Commons Say the Same Thing
An upbeat and fast-paced game for two, named after a video clip by the inventive rock band OK Go, from which many people learned about it (the musicians even developed a mobile application that helps to play it from a distance, although it is currently unavailable). The meaning of the game is that on the count of one-two-three each of the players pronounces a randomly chosen word. Further, the goal of the players is, with the help of successive associations, to come to a common denominator: for the next time, two or three, both pronounce a word that is somehow connected with the previous two, and so on until the desired coincidence occurs. Suppose the first player said the word "house" and the second player said the word "sausage"; in theory, they can coincide very soon, if on the second move after one-two-three both say "store". But if one says “shop”, and the other says “refrigerator” (why not a sausage house?), then the game can drag on, especially since it’s impossible to repeat - neither the store nor the refrigerator will fit, and you will have to think, say, before "refrigerator" or "IKEI".
If the original words are far from each other (for example, "curb" and "weightlessness"), then the gameplay becomes completely unpredictable.
Characters
A game for the company (the ideal number of players is from four to ten), which requires from the participants not only a good imagination, but also, preferably, a little bit of acting skills. As usual, one of the players briefly leaves the room, and while he is gone, the rest come up with a word, the number of letters in which matches the number of participants remaining in the room. Next, the letters are distributed among the players, and a character is invented for each of them (therefore, words that contain "b", "s" or "b" do not fit). Until the word is guessed, the players behave in accordance with the chosen character - the leader's task is to understand exactly what characters his partners portray and restore the hidden word. Imagine, for example, that a company consists of seven people. One leaves, the rest come up with a six-letter word "old man" and distribute roles among themselves: the first, say, will be with indoor, the second - t erpel, the third - a secondary, the fourth - p asylum, the fifth - and mane and sixth - to ovary.
The returning player is greeted by a cacophony of voices - the company "lives" their roles until they are unraveled, and the host asks the players questions that help reveal their image. The only condition is that as soon as the presenter pronounces the correct character - for example, guesses the insidious one - he must admit that his incognito has been revealed and announce the number of his letter (in the word "old man" - the sixth).
Recognize the song
A game for a company of four to five people. The host leaves, and the remaining players choose a well-known song and distribute its words among themselves - each word. For example, the song “Let there always be sun” is guessed: one player gets the word “let”, the second - “always”, the third - “will be”, the fourth - “sun”. The host returns and begins to ask questions - the most varied and unexpected: "What is your favorite city?", "Where does the Volga flow?", "What to do and who is to blame?".
The task of the respondents is to use their own word in the answer and try to do it in such a way that it does not stand out too much; you need to answer quickly and not very extensively, but not necessarily truthfully. Answers to questions in this case can be, for example, “It’s hard for me to choose one city, but let today it will be Rio de Janeiro" or "Volga - into the Caspian, but this does not happen always , every third year it flows into the Black". The presenter must catch which word is superfluous in the answer and guess the song. They often play with lines from poetry rather than from songs.
Pickup
A game for four people divided into pairs (in principle, there can be three or four pairs). The mechanics is extremely simple: the first player from the first pair whispers a word (a common noun in the singular) into the ear of the first player from the second pair, then they must take turns calling their associations with this word (in the same form - common nouns; cognate words cannot be used ).
After each association, the teammate of the player who voiced it calls out his word, trying to guess if it was originally guessed - and so on, until the problem is solved by someone; at the same time, all associations already sounded in the game can be used in the future, adding one new one at each move. For example, suppose there are players A and B on one team, and C and D on the other. Player A whispers the word "old man" into player C's ear. Player C says aloud to his partner D: "age". If D immediately answers "old man", then the pair of C and D scores a point, but if he says, for example, "youth", then the move goes to player A, who, using the word "age" suggested by C (but discarding the irrelevant to the case "youth" from D), says to his partner B: "age, man." Now B will probably guess the old man - and his team with A will already earn a point. But if he says "teenager" (thinking that it is about the age when boys turn into men), then C, to whom the move suddenly returned, will say " age, man, eightieth birthday”, and here, probably, “old man” will be guessed.
In one of the variants of the game, it is also allowed to "shout": this means that, having suddenly guessed what was meant, the player can shout out the option not on his turn. If he guessed right, his team will get a point, but if he rushed to conclusions, the team will lose a point. They usually play up to five points.
IPU
Game for a big company. Here we are forced to warn readers that, having seen this text in full, you will never be able to drive again - the game is one-time.
Spoiler →
First, the player who gets to drive leaves the room. When he returns, he must find out what MPS means - all that is known in advance is that the bearer of this mysterious abbreviation is present in the room right now. To find out the correct answer, the driver can ask other players questions, the answers to which should be formulated as “yes” or “no”: “Does he have blond hair?”, “Does he have blue eyes?”, “Is this a man?”, “He in jeans?", "Does he have a beard?"; moreover, each question is asked to a specific player, and not to all at once.
Most likely, it will quickly become clear that there is simply no person in the room who meets all the criteria; Accordingly, the question arises, according to what principle the players give answers. "Opening" this principle will help answer the main question - what is MPS. The Ministry of Railways is not the Ministry of Communications at all, but m oh p right s seated (that is, each player always describes the person sitting to his right). Another option is COP, to then to answered to last (that is, everyone talks about who answered the previous question).
Contact
A simple game that can be played with a group of three or more people. One thinks of a word (noun, common noun, singular) and calls its first letter aloud, the task of the others is to guess the word, remembering other words with this letter, asking questions about them and checking if the presenter guessed.
The facilitator's task is not to reveal the next letters in the word to the players for as long as possible. For example, a word with the letter "d" is guessed. One of the players asks the question: “Is this by chance not the place where we live?” This is where the fun begins: the host must figure out as quickly as possible what the player means and say “No, this is not“ house ”” (well, or, if it was a“ house ”, honestly admit it). But in parallel, other players also think the same thing, and if they understand what “house” means before the leader, then they say: “contact” or “there is contact”, and start counting up to ten in chorus (while the count is going on, the presenter still has a chance to escape and guess what it is about!), and then they call the word. If at least two matched, that is, at the expense of ten they said “house” in chorus, the presenter must reveal the next letter, and the new guesser version will already begin with the now known letters “d” + the next one. If it was not possible to beat the host on this question, then the guessers offer a new option.
Of course, it makes sense to complicate the definitions, and not ask everything directly - so the question about "home" would sound better like "Is this not where the sun rises?" (with a reference to the famous song "House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals). Usually, the one who eventually gets to the searched word (names it or asks a question leading to victory) becomes the next leader.
Writing Games
Encyclopedia
Not the fastest, but extremely exciting game for a company of four people - you will need pens, paper and some kind of encyclopedic dictionary (preferably not limited thematically - that is, TSB is better than a conditional "biological encyclopedia"). The host finds a word in the encyclopedia that is unknown to anyone present (here it remains to rely on their honesty - but cheating in this game is uninteresting and unproductive).
The task of each of the players is to write an encyclopedic definition of this word, inventing its meaning from the head and, if possible, disguising the text as a real small encyclopedic article. The presenter, meanwhile, carefully rewrites the real definition from the encyclopedia. After that, the “articles” are shuffled and read out by the presenter in random order, including the real one, and the players vote for which option seems most convincing to them. In the end, the votes are counted and points are distributed. Any player receives a point for correctly guessing the real definition and one more point for each vote given by other participants to his own version. After that, the sheets are distributed back and a new word is played out - there should be about 6-10 of them in total. You can also play this game in teams: come up with imaginary definitions collectively. The game "poems" is arranged in a similar way - but instead of a compound word, the host selects two lines from some little-known poem in advance and invites the participants to add quatrains.
Game from Inglourious Basterds
A game for a company of any size that many knew before the Quentin Tarantino film, but it does not have a single name. Each player invents a role for his neighbor (usually it is some famous person), writes it on a piece of paper and sticks the piece of paper on his neighbor's forehead: accordingly, everyone sees what role someone has, but does not know who they are. The task of the participants is, with the help of leading questions, the answers to which are formulated as “yes” or “no” (“Am I a historical figure?”, “Am I a cultural figure?”, “Am I a famous athlete?”), to find out who exactly they are. In this form, however, the game exhausts itself rather quickly, so you can come up with completely different themes and instead of famous people play, for example, in professions (including exotic ones - "carousel", "taxidermist"), in film and literary heroes (you can mix them with real celebrities, but it’s better to agree on this in advance), food (one player will be risotto, and the other, say, green cabbage soup) and even just items.
Bulls and cows
A game for two: one participant thinks of a word, and it is agreed in advance how many letters should be in it (usually 4-5). The task of the second is to guess this word by naming other four- or five-letter words; if some letters of the named word are in the hidden one, they are called cows, and if they have the same place inside the word, then these are bulls. Let's imagine that the word "eccentric" is conceived. If the guesser says “dot”, then he receives an answer from the second player: “three cows” (that is, the letters “h”, “k” and “a”, which are in both “eccentric” and “dot”, but in different places). If he then says "head of head", he will no longer get three cows, but two cows and one bull - since the letter "a" in both "eccentric" and "head" is in the fourth position. As a result, sooner or later, it is possible to guess the word, and the players can change places: now the first one will guess the word and count the bulls and cows, and the second one will name his options and track the extent to which they coincide with the one guessed.
You can also complicate the process by simultaneously guessing your own word and guessing the opponent's word.
Intellect
Writing game for the company (but you can also play together), consisting of three rounds, each for five minutes. In the first, players randomly type thirteen letters (for example, blindly poking a book page with their finger) and then form words from them, and only long ones - from five letters. In the second round, you need to choose a syllable and remember as many words as possible that begin with it, you can use single-root ones (for example, if the syllable "house" is selected, then the words "house", "domra", "domain", "domain", "brownie", "housewife", etc.). Finally, in the third round, the syllable is taken again, but now you need to remember not ordinary words, but the names of famous people of the past and present in which it appears, and not necessarily at the beginning - that is, both Karamzin and McCartney will fit the syllable "kar" , and, for example, Hamilcar.
An important detail: since this round provokes the most disputes and scams, game participants can ask each other to prove that this person is really a celebrity, and here you need to remember at least the profession and country. Typical dialogue: "What, you don't know Hamilcar? But this is a Carthaginian commander!” After each round, points are counted: if a particular word is the same for all players, it is simply crossed out, in other cases, players are awarded as many points for it as the opponents could not remember it. In the first round, you can still add points for especially long words. Based on the results of the rounds, it is necessary to determine who took the first, second, third and other places, and add up these places at the end of the game. The goal is to get the smallest number at the output (for example, if you were the winners of all three rounds, then you will get the number 3 - 1 + 1 + 1, and you are the champion; less cannot be purely mathematical).
B. C. Trim, alphabet enchanté. Illustrations by Bertal. France, 1861 Wikimedia Commons Frame
A game for any number of people, which was invented by one of the creators of the Kaissa chess program and the author of the anagram search program Alexander Bitman. First, the players choose several consonants - this will be the frame, the skeleton of the word. Then the time is recorded (two or three minutes), and the players begin to “stretch” vowels (as well as “й”, “ь”, “ъ”) onto the frame to make existing words. Consonants can be used in any order, but only once, and vowels can be added in any number. For example, players choose the letters "t", "m", "n" - then the words "fog", "cloak", "mantle", "coin", "darkness", "ataman", "dumbness" and other. The winner is the one who can come up with more words (as usual, these should be common nouns in the singular). The game can be played even with one letter, for example, "l". The words “silt”, “lay”, “yula”, “aloe”, “spruce” are formed around it, and if we agree that the letter can be doubled, “alley” and “lily”.
If the standard "framework" is mastered, then the task may be to compose a whole phrase with one consonant: a textbook example from the book by Evgeny Gik - "Bobby, kill the boy and beat the woman at the baobab."
Chain of words
Game for any number of players. Many people know it under the name "How to make an elephant out of a fly", and it was invented by the writer and mathematician Lewis Carroll, the author of "Alice". The “chain” is based on metagram words, that is, words that differ by only one letter. The task of the players is to turn one word into another with the least number of intermediate links. For example, let's make a "goat" from a "fox": FOX - LINDE - PAW - KAPA - KARA - KORA - GOAT. It is interesting to give tasks with a plot: so that the “day” turns into “night”, the “river” becomes the “sea”. The well-known chain, where the "elephant" grows out of the "fly", is obtained in 16 moves: FLY - MURA - TURA - TARA - KARA - KARE - CAFE - KAFR - MURDER - KAYUK - HOOK - URIK - LESSON - TERM - DRAIN - STON - ELEPHANT (example of Evgeny Gik).
For training, you can compete in the search for metagrams for any word. For example, the word "tone" gives "sleep", "background", "current", "tom", "tan" and so on - whoever scores more options wins.
Hat
A game for a company of four people, requiring simple equipment: pens, paper and a “hat” (an ordinary plastic bag will do). Sheets of paper need to be torn into small pieces and distributed to the players, the number of pieces depends on how many people are playing: the larger the company, the less for each. Players write words on pieces of paper (one for each piece of paper) and throw them into the "hat". There are also options here - you can play just with words (noun, common noun, singular), or you can play with famous people or literary characters. Then the participants are divided into teams - two or more people each; the task of each - in 20 seconds (or 30, or a minute - the timing can be set at your own choice) to explain to your teammates the largest number of words arbitrarily pulled out of the "hat", without using the same root.
If the driver could not explain a word, it returns to the hat and will be played by the other team. At the end of the game, the words guessed by different representatives of the same team are summed up, their number is counted, and the team that has more pieces of paper is awarded the victory. A popular version of the game: everything is the same, but in the first round the players explain the words (or describe the characters) orally, in the second round they show in pantomime, in the third round they explain the same words in one word. And recently a board game has appeared, where you need not only to explain and show, but also to draw.
Telegrams
Game for any number of players. The players choose a word, for each letter of which they will need to come up with a part of the telegram - the first letter will be the beginning of the first word, the second - the second, and so on. For example, the word "fork" is selected. Then the following message can become a telegram: “The camel is healed.
I'm flying a crocodile. Aibolit". Another round of the game is the addition of genres. Each player gets the task to write not one, but several telegrams from the same word - business, congratulatory, romantic (the types of messages are agreed in advance). Telegrams are read aloud, the next word is chosen.
even more different games for one or a company
Home games
Shadow theater, crafts and paper dolls from children's books and magazines of the XIX-XX centuries Ring and other games
Games from classic books
What do the heroes of the works of Nabokov, Lindgren and Milne play
A children's course on where games, anecdotes, horror stories and memes come from and why we need them
Children's room
Special project
Children's room Arzamas
Sources
