Trick word games

How To Teach ‘Tricky’ Words? Twelve Games That Work – Early Impact Learning

Many of us often find that we have lots of exciting strategies to teach other skills in phonics, but when it comes to teach tricky words it’s just a case of getting out the flaschards again, and hope the children remember them.

How else can you teach tricky words in a more exciting way?

It is true that using flashcards is one of the best ways to teach tricky words, as learning to read these words is all about memory and recognition more than anything else. However, there are lots of fun games that can really bring the teaching of tricky words to life, and make it an exciting and more stimulating process.

Please read on, to find out more.

First, what are ‘tricky’ words?

Words become ‘tricky’ when they can’t be sounded out using normal phonic methods.

E.g. the word ‘dog’ is not tricky, because it can be segmented into its phonic sounds – d-o-g – and then blended correctly into the word. However, if you try to sound out the word ‘go’, you would get ‘g-o’ which sounds like ‘goh’.

The crucial thing is that tricky words cannot be sounded out, but must be recognised as a whole word. That is why fun games to help this recognition process are so important.

What order should the tricky words be taught in?

Tricky words are normally taught in an order. This is based upon a mixture of their relative simplicity (with easier words at the start of the list), and also of their frequency in the English language.

Children learning the most common words such as ‘I’ and ‘the’. Here is the order of the first few ‘tricky words’:

I , no, to, the, go, into

he, she, we, me, be, you, are, her, was, all, they, my

There are many more after this, but we will stop here. However, this blog post would be relevant for teaching tricky words throughout all the phases.

How to introduce the ‘tricky words’

The standard way to first introduce ‘tricky words’ is to show the children the word, and then try to sound it out.

By doing this you demonstrate why it is ‘tricky’ because it will make a silly word. They often find this bit quite funny!

Then you tell them what the word really says, and then give them an example of how to use it. So, if the word was ‘they’, you would say something like ‘they all went to the park’.

Then get the children to try to come up with a sentence with the word in (some children are better at that than others). When you have taught a few tricky words in this way, it is time to get started on the games using the words they have learned.

1. Ghost Game

In this game have lots of ‘tricky words’ in a bag or box.

A group of children sit in a circle.

You would, for example, have five words in the bag, and about three laminated flashcards of each one. You also have one flashcards that has the picture of a ghost on it.

The children take it in turns to pick a card out of the bag. They try to read it (e.g. ‘go’).

Then they pass the bag to the next child, who picks one out and reads it. When someone picks out the ghost they shout ‘Boo!’ and they are the winner.

Everyone else has to put their cards back in the bag, and you start again.

This can get a bit rowdy, but is great for nervous anticipation and heightening focus!

2. Magic Camera Game

This is a strategy to help develop visual memory. You show the children a flashcard of a tricky word, or have it up on a screen or board.

You get the children to physically take a ‘photo’ of it, using a pretend camera, and store the photo in their brains forever.

To find out 22 more games that are excellent for developing early memory skills then take a look at this.

3. Round the circle

I think success normally breeds success in phonics, and this next game is great for that. This game works even if you are not sure how to read the words, as long as you stay reasonably alert and can copy a bit off your friend.

Sit the children in a circle, and have lots of copies of flashcards of the words you are teaching (e. g. three lots of ‘go’, ‘to’, ‘no’, ‘the’, and ‘I’).

Then you give a child a flashcard and get them to read it (e.g. the word ‘no’). They read the word then pass it to the person next to them, who also reads the word. The children just continue passing the word and reading it.

Introduce more cards, so there are several going round the circle. This game is great for cooperation and focus. It is also good for both as practice for more skillful children, and an opportunity for less skillful children to join in without looking silly.

To find out my favorite 21 circle games, then take a look at this.

4. Beat the clock round the circle!

This is a version of the previous round the circle game, but with a timer. You say something like ‘Can we pass all of these words around the circle in two minutes?’

Then you let the children get on with it and have a go. Speed challenges are great for many children, as they introduce competition and engagement.

5. Quiz Quiz Swap

This is a classic cooperation game that can be used to teach many different skills.

Give the children one ‘tricky word’ flashcard each.

Get them to stand up and then go and find a partner. Read your partner’s ‘tricky word’ and then swap with them. Then go and find another partner and repeat.

Try to interact with as many partners as you can.

This is a good one for practice, and also you will hopefully find that more skillful children start to coach the less able in how to read the words.

6. Secret Spies!

This is a simple way to jazz up the process of showing flashcards to a group.

Get the children to sit in pairs. As you show the flashcards, get them to whisper what they are to the child next to them, just like a secret spy!

This is also a fantastic game for practising number recognition, and even rote counting.

7. Snap!

This is a ‘tricky word’ version of the classic card game. This is good played in a small group.

Have lots of flashcards of a few ‘tricky’ words, and get the children to deal out a pile to whoever is playing (or deal for them if necessary).

Then they take turns to put one card on the table and say what they think it is. Then the next player puts one on top, and says it.

Continue until you get two the same, and the winner is the person who puts their hand on them first and shouts ‘Snap!’

8. Tricky word domino game

Have some tricky words with domino spots on the back. One child rolls the dice, and then picks up a domino with that number of spots on. They try to read what the tricky word says.

9. Tricky word racetrack

Create a racetrack on a large piece of sugar paper, or card. It will have a track that is broken into square, each one with a tricky word on.

It is best at least twenty squares from start to finish. A small group of children each have a counter. The counters start on the start-line. Then they take turns to roll the dice and then jump that number of squares up the track.

Whatever word you land on you say the word.

The winner is the player that gets to the finish line first.

10. Tricky word bingo

This is a very popular game, that I see a lot in schools. In this game a group of up to about six children each have a bingo board with tricky words on.

There is then a pot of ‘tricky’ word flaschards in the middle of the table. They take it in turns to pick a flashcard out of the pot, try to read it and then see if they have it on their board.

If they do, then they place it on the word. If not, they put it back.

The winner is the first person to fill their board.

11. Jump the lily pads

This is just one of many great ‘tricky’ word games that you can play outside. Have hoops on the ground with ‘tricky’ words written in chalk inside them. There are many games you can play.

You can play a game like the ‘racetrack’ game described before. Roll a big dice and then jump down the hoops until you get to the correct pad and say the word.

The winner is the first person to get to the end.

Children find it quite good fun just jumping down the lily pads and saying the words. You can also throw things like beanbags into the hoops and try to say the word that you hit.

I have also played a game with balls that have ‘tricky’ words written on that children try to kick into a goal that they really love (take a look at the ultimate 30 ball games for kids here).

12. Against the clock!

Speed and fluency are very important when it comes to reading ‘tricky’ words, and this game is great for developing these qualities.

This is good in partners.

One child has an egg timer, the other has a pile of tricky words. You have a minute to read as many as you can, then your partner has a go.

Conclusion

I hope this blog post has given you some inspiration for some fun games to play to teach ‘tricky’ words. Most of these games require only minimal preparation, and just a set of flashcards will get you quickly started.

Also, these games can be played throughout the phonic phases. Some children will naturally recognise these words much more quickly than others, but if you just keep going and trying to make it fun, hopefully all children will make progress at a rate that is suitable for them.

If you’ve found this useful then take a look at Ten Terrific Alliteration Activities.

Tricky Words Activities for Home

by Katherine Wood

Tricky Words – also called irregular, high-frequency words – are hard-to-read words which often occur in early children’s books. Try sounding out these words with the standard basic sounds and you won’t get: ‘the’ and ‘was’ and ‘are’. If you want to further understand the science behind them, you can read more about their explicit, systematic teaching.

At home, my daughter and I use Phonics Hero’s tricky words games (parents can grab a free 7-day trial) but we’ve also invented lots of multi-sensory tricky word activities to practice them. In this blog post, I am going to share my top tips and favourite tricky words activities for teaching children to read these irregular words at home.

Tip 1: Make sure the adult knows them first!

If you’ve signed up for a 7-day trial and are in Australia or Hong Kong use this list; for the rest of the world, use this one. You need to do a mini assessment: show the sheet to your child and have them read the tricky words, stop when you have a ‘bank’ of 3-6 unknown tricky words.

My daughter didn’t know five, so I wrote them out on cards and we use them to play games and reinforce through the day.

Tip 2: Pepper Tricky Words Activities Throughout the Day

There isn’t a silver bullet to learning these words but exposure and repetition is key. You need to pepper them through your day – it helps your child instantly identify them. Some ideas:

Find them in books

As you read stories, point out the tricky words then progress to pausing and having your child read them.

Look for them in junk mail or magazines

Decorate your house with them

A teacher friend of mine sticks them all around the house so she can quiz her little boy throughout the day.

Tricky (Pass)words

My daughter’s love of passwords and, in particular, the password to my iPhone (cue her unlocking it to send random texts to people!) inspired one of her new favourite tricky words activities.

Here’s how it works: Instead of numbers, we wrote tricky words into our passcode template and stuck it to the inside of the living room door. In order to open the door, she has to ‘key in’ our passcode, or series of tricky words. Three days later, she still loves it (and scolds me for opening the door without putting in the passcode!) and has learned the tricky words ‘all’ and ‘her’.

Here’s a printable Tricky Word Passcode sheet for you to insert the target words into and fill up with known words for extra practice.

Supersoaker Phonics

Bath-time is great for a no-mess reading activity!

Before running the bath, write tricky words or phonemes on the tiles with a whiteboard marker and grab a water blaster (or large syringe from any pharmacy). Little ones say each word or sound aloud as they ‘shoot’ their target!

Play Phonics Hero

Practice tricky word reading and spelling with Phonics Hero. Each level will teach between 3-6 words and there are more than 130 games over 12 levels to practice with. The reading and spelling tricky words games are indicated by these icons:

Tip 3: Use Everyday Games With an Added Tricky Word Element

We’ve started using tricky words in games such as Noughts and Crosses (AKA Tic-Tac-Toe) or Hangman.

You can also double the sets of tricky words and play ‘Pairs’ or ‘Snap’.

Tip 4: Make Your Tricky Word Activities Multi-sensory!

Make some noise!

We broke out the pots and pans and my daughter started composing with the tricky words. If your ears can bear it, here’s a video:

Get your hands dirty (as you wash up)!

As you cook, clean or garden, you might use the bubbles, mud or flour to trace, land on or erase the words.

Tip 5: Play Teacher and Student

Kids love pointing out when the grown-ups have got it wrong and it’s a great test to see if they’ve learned the tricky words. As my teacher friend shows here, she and her son take turns reading the words and he awards them each a point for the correct answer (of course, mummy gets it wrong all the time – so your child gets double the practice).

Do you have a great tip or trick for teaching tricky words that you don’t see here? Share it in the comments!

Author: Katherine Wood

Katherine is the CEO and co-founder of Phonics Hero.

She has worked in synthetic phonics for over 15 years, working with hundreds of schools to support them in their implementation of synthetic phonics.

Top 10 word games with children • Ursa Major School of Parenthood

The game is for joy. And the game that pleases, in itself, often provokes the development of the child much more than a specially organized educational game. Zhenya Katz tells how to play with letters and words to make it fun.

Riddles

Very many games that develop verbal or sound thinking are oral. You can think of a certain object, but answer the question only “yes” or “no”. Let's say I guessed what is on my table. And the child starts asking:
− Is it big?
I say:
− No.
− Is it larger than a glass?
- No.
− Is it square?
- Almost.
− Is it iron?
- No.
− Is it wooden?
- No.
− Is it rubber?
− Yes.
− Is it black?
- No.
− Is it white?
− Yes.
− Is that an eraser?
− Yes, it's an eraser. You guessed it, well done. Now you tell me, and I'll ask.

You can guess some simple things and suddenly it turns out that it is not so easy to guess them even for an adult, although the hidden object is completely simple, everyday.

You can make word riddles. But not classical, folk, which everyone knows and which are printed in collections: a girl is sitting in a dungeon, and a scythe is on the street. Modern children have not seen how carrots grow, so they cannot guess what kind of scythe it is on the street, why the girl is sitting in a dungeon and why this has to do with carrots. That is, they are ready to learn both this text and this answer. But they cannot correlate, they did not see it, this is not an easy metaphor.

By riddles, I mean something completely different. You can describe an object by naming several of its features, giving a definition. For example, a beast that meows.
- I thought of a striped beast that eats grass.
Child says:
− Tiger?
- Not a tiger. The tiger does not eat grass. And this beast also has hooves and a mane.
− Aaah, a horse!
− Striped!
Or I can say:
− Yes, only the name of the beast begins with the letter "z".
- Striped horse on the "z" ... Aaah, a zebra!
Or I can say:
- Sour, yellow and oval.
Child:
− Oh, I know it's a fruit.
− Yes, fruit. Which one then? It is also put in tea.
− Yeah, yellow, lemon!
Or:
- Red, round, put in a salad.
I could mean a tomato, and the child says, "Radish." Great, that's fine too.

It is useful to come up with such riddles. Nothing less useful than guessing.

Tongue twisters and poems

It is not so easy for an adult to pronounce them. Therefore, if you play tongue twisters with your child, start with yourself. Try to say it yourself quickly and quickly and show the child how you practice, how you train, how you learn it.

You can play with some verses: you start, and the child remembers the right word at the end.
− Where did the sparrow have lunch? At the zoo,…
− … animals.
While the child remembers the right word, you can offer funny options.
- Stayed with a rhinoceros, ate bran ... the road.
- No, - says the child, - not the road.
− What is it? From the threshold.
− No-no, not from the threshold.
− What?
− Not much!

Extra word

You can also play - name some groups of words and guess who is extra. Significantly, there can be multiple correct answers in this game. You can play it on the go, invite your child to come up with such riddles. But it is important that he explains his decision. For example, I can say: "bus, tractor, trolley bus, tram." Which of these words is redundant? Someone can say that the bus, because it is on the "A", and all the others begin with the letter "T". Someone will say that the tram, because only he goes on rails, and everyone else does not. Someone will say that it is a tractor, because it is not public transport, but everyone else carries people. Do you understand? Any explanation is fine.

It is important that it is also useful for the child to come up with such problems. After all, only adults are always the bearers of the ultimate truth: first you guess, then the child. And this is not only a game, but also a process of communication. If you like to invent, then that's great.

Snowball

There is such a wonderful game "Snowball". It is both verbal and developing memory. One says:
- Cat.
Second:
− Cat, dog.
Third:
− Cat, dog, hare.
Fourth:
− Cat, dog, hare, tiger.
Any words can be spoken. There is also another version of this game. Let's say the first one says:
- I'm going camping and I'm taking a spoon with me.
Second:
− I am going camping and I am taking a spoon and a bowl with me.
And so on. Everyone adds their own. But at the end, not at the beginning. That is, initially he must remember all the words that were said before him, then add his own.
When we play with a group of children, I suggest not only naming the words, but also, if someone has forgotten, you can prompt, but only with gestures.
You can name the first letter in each word, and this is also not so easy for some children. But when you have already done it, then some riddles are all one letter. For example, we think of all the words with the letter "M". I say:
- It's so big, with wheels, you can ride on it.
− Machine.
− Okay, then I'll make another guess with the letter "M". It's so tasty, cold and comes in a waffle cup.
− Oh, that's ice cream!
− It's also so sweet and made by bees.
- Med.
− And now let's try to come up with something on "M".
And this is much more difficult: to come up with a word that begins with this letter, and then describe it - this is a serious job for a child.

Contact

This game is suitable if the child already knows what the first letter is and understands the definition: “this is such a beast that meows”. If he does not name the word itself, but pronounces the description, then after that it is already possible to play. I think many people know the rules, but I'll tell you again just in case.
Contact - a game for several people, you need at least 3-4 participants. The host thinks of a word and tells all the other players the first letter, for example "K". The rest of the players begin to come up with their own words that begin with "K", for example, one says:
- Isn't this the kind of animal that meows?
The host says:
− No, it's not a cat (if he really didn't think of a cat).
The other one says:
− Isn't he like that, Cheburashka's friend?
Host:
− Gena. No, wait, "K". It's not a crocodile.
And so all the players are trying to come up with such a definition that they understand, but the leader does not understand. And if suddenly they succeed, for example, one of the players says:
- She is sweet and is eaten boiled.
The host says:
- Porridge.
− No, she grows in the field, she is tall and has hairs inside her.
The host says:
− Oh, I don't know.
Then the rest of the players start counting: up to 3, up to 5 or up to 10, as you agree. And they say “Contact!”, And then they pronounce the guessed word in unison. If the one who gave the definition and the one who said “corn” agreed, then the driver should tell them the next letter.
− All right, then I'll tell you the second letter. The second letter is "O".

And then all the players who guessed come up with “Ko”. And then, say, they came up with some other definition that the driver did not guess, then they already have three letters. And so little by little they guess the word. And whoever guessed it in the end becomes the next driver.

This game is not as easy as it might seem - it can be difficult even for adults to play it. But if you are not in a hurry, do not try to beat the child without fail, then the game process will give everyone pleasure.

If you don't try to measure who won and who lost, then it works quite well. For example, it allows you to find out how words are spelled. It can be very funny to play with children, they come up with non-trivial spelling and do not always understand which letter is next in the hidden word.

Kuzovok

There is a similar game when it is not the beginning of the word that is important for us, but the end: everything starts with “-ok” - “Kuzovok”.
“Sasha walked into the woods, took a box truck with him.
What's on "-ok", puts everything in a box.
And we tell the child that a box is such a basket
− I found a fungus and put it in a box.
You can draw and sculpt everything you find.
− What else can be put in the container?
- Leaflet (put in box).
− What else?
- Boot.
− All right, that's fine.

Chain of words

Many people play cities when they think of a city with the last letter, but cities for young children are too difficult, they do not know so many names. Therefore, you can play with ordinary words. And I say, for example:
- Cat. What is its last letter? "T". So, now you need to come up with a "T". Come on.
- Tractor.
− Yeah, then I'll come up with an "R". I say "rukaV", come on, let's think about what his last letter is?
And here comes an interesting thing. The child says:
- "F"?
I say:
− You know, this can be checked. Let's think, the jacket has one sleeve, and if there are many? Two sleeves. We say "two arms" and not "two arms"
The child agrees:
− Of course, armVa.
- Great, now you know. The sleeve is the last letter "B". See, we checked it out.
It is absolutely not necessary to say that later you will learn this at school. And this is a great way to understand, to check which letter to write.

Hidden letters

I guess some letter, and then the children suggest words, and I say if this letter is there, and if so, how many times it occurs. For example, they say:
− Cat.
I answer:
− There is no such letter, none.
Children continue:
- Mountain.
I confirm.
- One.
They say:
- Pineapple.
Me:
None.
They say:
− Fish.
Me:
− One.
And then they can already guess what letter it could be. For example, now I thought of "R".
Or you can ask the child to think of a letter, and then it will be his turn to try to understand which letters are and which are not. And this is a pretty serious analysis.

Author: Zhenya Katz, educator, author of the method of playing teaching children
Series of online lectures "Play and Children"

Watch the free open lesson "Play and Children" with Zhenya Katz.

Word game for traveling with kids: 15 best options

In the summer we always go somewhere. To the cottage by car, on vacation by train or plane. If you have children with you, there must certainly be games at the ready that you can play right without getting out of your chair. How about word games? How much do you know?

Tatyana Kolobova

1. "Twins" (Doublets)

It is said that the game D oublets was invented by Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland. It is not difficult to play it, besides, this game perfectly trains the skills of recognizing vowels and consonants.

Rules: select a word (from three to five letters) and change only one letter in it. For example: t umba - r umba, m uk - r eka. Then we change the letter in the second word again, it turns out: t umba — r umba — z umba (dance), r uka — m ukamu r a. Next, we try to extend the chain. Whoever has the longer one wins!

Let's complicate: we take words of 6-8 letters and play by the same rules.

2. Cities

Everyone seems to know this game. What could be easier? But options are possible.

Rules : the first player revs the city, the next must match the name of the city with the last letter of the previous one: Moskv a - A shkhabad. The disadvantage of this game is that the cities with the letter A will end pretty soon. In this case, you can switch to the game "Cities and Countries" or "Cities and Rivers" . By the way, you can also play with an atlas in your hands, because children do not know so many geographical names. And with the atlas it is convenient, informative and useful!

3 Hidden word

The hidden word is the beginning of an exciting game that never ends.

Rule: take a word and come up with a code for it: there should be one sentence for each letter of the selected word, and the sentences must be connected in meaning. You can play in teams or each for yourself, the one whose cipher will be the most logical in meaning wins.

For example, choose the word "Potato". The cipher can be:

K each A R R recognizes T smart O fields Sh rokogo K upola A atmosphere

It is not so easy to come up with a coherent text for a random selection of letters. Sometimes the cipher texts turn out to be very funny, but in any case it is interesting to play!

4. Spy encryption

Come up with your own version of the letter cipher and write a secret message. Give the "key" of the cipher to the other players and offer to quickly decipher your message. The “key” can be, for example, as follows: each letter corresponds to the next letter of the alphabet in order: A=B, B=C, and so on. The word "hello" in this case will look like this: RSKGEU.

5. Guess who and what?

Depending on the complexity of the hidden word, the game can be suitable for any age.

Rules: the host thinks of a word. If you play "Guess it?", it can be a historical character, a fairy-tale hero, a mythical character, a cartoon or movie hero, one of the people everyone knows (family member, classmate). If you play "Guess who?", then you agree in advance what the hidden word refers to (a household item, an animal, a natural phenomenon, or something else). Next, the participants in the game ask leading questions to which the leader can only answer “yes” or “no”. The player who guesses the word first wins.

6. Who am I?

Variation on the theme of the game "Guess who and what?"

Rules: Each player writes a word on a self-adhesive piece of paper that can mean an object, phenomenon, person, character of a fairy tale, movie or cartoon, and sticks the piece of paper on the neighbor's forehead. Thus, the word is seen by all participants in the game, except for the one who has this word on his forehead. Each player, in turn, can ask those around him any questions about himself, the answer to which can only be “yes” and “no”. The winner of the game is the one who discovers "who am I" first. The game continues until all players have guessed themselves.

7. Crocodile

Good old game for a fun company of children and adults.

Rules : Players are divided into two or more teams. The host chooses (or the players themselves nominate) one candidate from the team, to whom, in secret, the host tells the word, which he must demonstrate to his team in any way. Pantomime, antics and jumping, waving arms and any grimaces are allowed. It is not allowed to pronounce and even articulate the hidden word without sound, write, draw, pronounce consonant words. The players themselves decide how much time is given for an explanation, usually 1 minute.

The older the players, the more difficult the host thinks of the word. How would you, for example, depict the word inflation?

8. Snowball

Great memory training game. Counselors in children's camps often use it to enable the guys to get to know each other and remember the names of everyone in the squad.

Rules : In clockwise order, everyone begins to give their names. When all the names have been sounded, on the second round, each participant calls his name and the name of the neighbor on the right, for example: Natasha, Slava. The next player says his name and the previous two, and so the snowball of names grows until someone makes a mistake. If the company of players is small (for example, a family is traveling in a car), you can add funny unusual nicknames to patronymic names that everyone comes up with.

9. Diagonal

Game with pen and notepad. It is possible - for a while.

Rules: draw a square of 7x7 cells on a notebook sheet or in a notebook. Diagonally write a 7-letter word, for example - CARABAS. Passing the notebook to each other, each participant must enter the word horizontally in such a way that the already existing letter becomes part of it.

10. Bag of associations

This game is good to play with family or close friends or relatives.

Rules: each player writes on a piece of paper a word with which he has some memory, association or story associated. The papers are folded and placed in a bag. Then each player pulls out their piece of paper, quickly remembers and tells their story associated with this word. It is very unexpected and interesting when there can be completely different responses to the same word. And how nice it is to remember something long forgotten or to hear a story rolled out by a child that you did not even suspect!

11.

Nonsense

Children aged 5-10 adore this game precisely because real nonsense comes out in the process and you can laugh heartily.

Rules: Each participant whispers any made-up word in the neighbor's ear. The host (preferably an adult) asks everyone a question, the answer to which will be the very word spoken in the ear. For example: - What did you eat for lunch today? — Cat. - Where do you live? - In car.

The next leader is the one whose answer turned out to be closest to reality - that is, NOT nonsense .

12. Edible-non-edible

An attention and reaction game for toddlers and younger teens.

Rule : do the guys stand or converge in a circle, the leader holds a small ball in his hands and throws it selectively by the players? Saying the word at the same time. The “edible” player must catch, the “inedible” should be discarded. There are many variations of this game. For example, about animals: "Flies, crawls or swims." We agreed that we catch everyone who flies, which means that there is no need to “catch” the rest. You can play different objects in the same way, classifying them according to some attribute.

13. Contact

A very gambling game in which, if you play with children, it is very easy to forget yourself and start pulling the blanket over yourself, preventing the children from understanding what's what.

Rules: the host thinks of a word and tells the rest of the players only the first letter. For example, this word is "zebra". Each of the players comes up with his own word with the letter Z called by the leader and tries to explain it to others using gestures and pantomime (without words!), what exactly he was thinking, without naming it. If one of the players understood what the word was intended by the one who explains, he says "There is a contact!" and both (the one who explained and the one who responded) start counting down aloud from 10, and then each say their own word at the same time. Matched - the host calls the players the second letter in his word and the game continues, only now the players need to invent and explain the word with the initial letters Z and E already set. In case the word does not match, the players continue the game.

14. The pile is small

A useful game for developing imagination. It is very good for children who have difficulty with presentations and essays. But - alas - it is not suitable for those who have not yet learned to read.

Rules: All players take turns throwing words that come to their mind - any, not just nouns. The facilitator writes them down on a piece of paper in a chaotic manner, trying to fill the entire sheet, while leaving “air” between the words. Then each of the players takes turns picking up a piece of paper and connecting 5-6 words with a line that can become the basis of a sentence, invent and voice it. The next player chooses his 5 words and the game continues until the last player has no words left for a coherent sentence.