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12 Writing Games To Help Kids Learn To Write And Have Fun Doing It

Writing can feel daunting to young learners — there are so many letters to memorize, sounds to recall, and words to spell! You might be wondering what the best writing games are to help your child learn to write.

HOMER has got you covered with these simple and engaging writing games! With minimal equipment required, these activities can be set up within minutes and provide unlimited fun.

Before we dive into our favorite writing games, let’s discover why writing is important in child development.

Why Writing Is Crucial To Development

From their early scribbles to drawing recognizable letters, writing is a useful form of self-expression for children and allows their ideas to flow more easily.

What’s more, the alphabetic code is reversible, so children who use sounds to determine words for writing are simultaneously advancing their ability to sound out words and read coherently. Win-win!

This is a lifelong skill that your child will use every day, so it’s important to know how to best nurture and develop these emergent literacy skills from a young age.

By playing the writing games outlined below and taking the time to practice, your young writer will be an expert in no time!

Why Games Are Important For Learning

You know that it’s important for your child to develop writing skills, but you may be wondering why you should incorporate games into their learning.

Why can’t your child just sit down with a pen and paper to practice writing?

Less Stressful Learning

Here’s the stitch: Being asked to sit down and practice writing skills can be daunting for some kids. It can also be frustrating when they come across letters or words they struggle with.

Games, on the other hand, decrease stress levels and get children excited about learning.

While playing learning games, your child will not only be practicing their writing skills, but they’ll also be more focused on completing the fun activity than on getting frustrated that they can’t write the uppercase Q, Z, or J.

When children see that learning doesn’t have to be tense or highly stressful, it can also change their perception of educational activities. In fact, they may be more willing to participate in future educational games.

Motivation

Motivation is one of the biggest advantages of playing writing games.

Kids are more likely to pay attention to the instructions and participate when they see the activity is fun. This is much more effective for teaching writing (and other) skills than simply handing them a worksheet.

Some educational games also allow children to play in pairs or groups. Interacting with peers or family members in this way is an excellent opportunity to develop critical social skills, such as listening to others, communicating effectively, and taking turns.

Friendly Competition

Kids can be very competitive — with their friends, siblings, and sometimes even with mom and dad. Playing writing games can foster a spirit of fun, healthy competition.

If you involve multiple children in these activities, the child who wins can learn to congratulate their fellow competitors and not just brag about their accomplishment. And the one who loses can learn to celebrate another person’s win and try harder next time.

Problem-Solving Skills

By nature, most games require participants to incorporate problem-solving skills, planning, and creativity. That’s a lot of mental work!

Playing writing — and other types of educational — games can help your child develop these essential life skills.

Now that we’re clear on why writing games are important, let’s get into the activities you can introduce to your child today.

We’ve divided these into three sections — writing games for preschoolers and kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders. So, feel free to scroll to the relevant section for your child (or children), and let the games begin!

Writing Games For Preschoolers And Kindergarteners

1) Disappearing Letters

What You’ll Need

• A chalkboard
• Chalk
• A paintbrush
• A cup of water

What To Do

Start this activity by writing a repeated letter, a word, or your child’s name on the chalkboard using your chalk. If you’re writing a single letter, start by writing it five times in a row.

Dip the paintbrush in the cup of water and have your child trace over each of the letters, erasing them one by one.

Once your child has mastered one letter, move on to multiple letters until they’re comfortable using this activity to “write” their name and short consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words such as dog and cat.

This activity is great for working on developing your little one’s fine motor skills as well as their spelling abilities, which will aid them as they take pencil to paper!

2) Hands-On Writing

What You’ll Need

• A tray or bin
• A fun material such as sand, flour, or shaving cream — anything that can hold a shape
• A pen and piece of paper (optional)

What To Do

To start this activity, grab a tray or bin that’s deep enough to hold your chosen material.

Fill your tray and bin with sand, flour, shaving cream, or anything else that can be used to form a shape. This is what your child will use to develop their writing skills!

Say a letter to your child (or write the letter on a piece of paper for them to copy, if needed) and have them write the letter into the sand, flour, or shaving cream with their finger.

Eventually, you can work your way up to having your child write whole words, like their name or things they love (the names of their friends and family or even their favorite foods or toys).

Don’t worry too much about what the letters look like — even scribbles are OK! Whatever your child writes to produce a letter or word is great progress.

This activity lets you make writing a fun, sensory experience! Try using different materials to keep your child engaged and to learn more about the world around them while they practice their writing skills.

You could also use a fingerpainting method for this game for some colorful fun — enjoy getting creative with this writing game!

3) Yarn Letters

What You’ll Need

• Blank sheets of paper
• Pencils
• Yarn
• Child-safe scissors
• Glue

What To Do

Grab the blank sheet of paper and help your child draw a letter of the alphabet with a pencil. Then, hand them the yarn, scissors, and glue, and help them trace the letter by cutting and gluing the string onto its shape.

Performing this task is an effective way for your child to develop their fine motor skills, a key component of writing. In addition, this hands-on activity allows children to continue learning their letters.

Writing Games For First Graders

4) Roll The Dice

What You’ll Need

• A piece of paper
• A pen or pencil
• A dice

What To Do

This writing game is all about creating a fun story with your child using dice to determine how many words you get to add each turn!

Start by having your child choose a main character, a setting, and a problem. For example, your character might be a cat, your setting might be a garden, and the problem might be that the cat needs to find some food.

Write the first sentence of your story based on the character, setting, and problem you’ve chosen with your child. Using our example above, the first sentence might be, “Once, there was a cat in a garden who couldn’t find any food.”

After you write the first sentence, have your child roll the dice. Whatever number the dice lands on is the number of words they’ll add to the story — not one word more or less!

You can assist your child by sounding out tricky words and helping them write if needed. Once they’ve added their words, it’s your turn to roll the dice and write your next round of words based on the dice number.

Take up to five turns each before finishing your story together by choosing an ending. Then read your story aloud to see how it all flows!

5) Speech Bubbles

What You’ll Need

• A piece of paper for drawing or a printed cartoon
• A pen or pencil

What To Do

For this activity, start by having your child draw a picture with a character or two. You could draw this scene together or even print off some characters from the internet to color and decorate together.

Once you’ve finished drawing and decorating your characters, it’s time for each of you to draw and fill in a speech bubble to create thoughts for your character (or a conversation if you drew more than one character).

For example, if your character is a dog, maybe he’s standing by an empty bowl. What might a hungry dog say? Some options could be, “Where’s my food?” or “I hope they bring pizza!”.

Let your child’s imagination run wild with possibilities for filling in the speech bubbles and enjoy this writing activity together by writing down the silly suggestions, too!

Speech bubbles are one of the most fun options for writing games as they’re quick, easy, and short for young writers.

This may help your child feel less intimidated as they explore more words to add to their vocabulary and practice forming their letters correctly.

6) Birthday Cards

What You’ll Need

• Colored pens or crayons
• Pencils
• Blank birthday card

What To Do

Birthdays are a day most people look forward to. For kids, this day usually means lots of gifts, games, a birthday cake, and, of course, a birthday card.

Help your child create a unique birthday card for their friend, neighbor, cousin, sibling, mom, or dad — whoever they want! Once they select the recipient, get the supplies you need and help them write a sweet message for their loved one.

This is a wonderful activity for your child to practice putting their thoughts on paper. They can also add flowers, hearts, and anything else that will help to make the card extra special.

Note: This activity can be used for any occasion, not just birthdays. Is it the holidays? Has the family been invited to a graduation party? Do you have a family member who’s not feeling well?

All of these are excellent opportunities to create a special card for a loved one.

7) Map Out The Story

What You’ll Need

• A blank sheet of paper
• Colored pencils (or crayons)

What To Do

The aim of this writing game is simple: create a setting for a story.

Children love when a storybook they’re reading includes some pictures and a map to bring the story to life. With this activity, they get to create their own!

All your child needs to do is draw a map of the story setting of their choosing, labeling the different areas. This can be a story they’ve read or one that’s just popped into their head. It really doesn’t matter as long as they’re excited about it.

To help them get started, you can ask prompting questions, like:

• Does your story take place on land or in water?
• If it’s on land, what and who lives on that land?
• If it takes place in water, what types of interesting creatures are there?
• What’s the weather like?
• How many characters are there?
• Where do these characters live?
• What do the characters do?
• Are there any landmarks?

Once your child is clear about the world of the story, it’s time to draw and create it. Now you can also help your child write a story that takes place in their invented world.

For this activity, we’re not expecting incredible artwork or penmanship. Instead, the main focus is to have kids practice gripping pens or pencils and writing.

Writing Games For Second Graders

8) Grocery List Writing

What You’ll Need

• A piece of paper for making your list
• A pen or pencil

What To Do

Make the task of writing your grocery list into a game!

You can do this as part of a make-believe or role-playing game with your child, or you can create a real grocery list together before the shopping gets done.

Try planning out some meals for the week ahead, and then make a list with your child for each of the ingredients needed. Explain that writing a list helps us to remember all the things we need to buy, and discuss what items you might need to purchase.

Keep it simple and help your child by sounding out words as they write. Once the list is written, your child can enjoy checking off each item one by one after it’s been put in the cart!

9) Household I-Spy

What You’ll Need

• Two pieces of paper, one for you and one for your child
• Two pens or pencils, one for you and one for your child
• A timer or timer app

What To Do

One of our favorite writing games is this version of I-Spy with a twist!

Grab your paper and write each letter of the alphabet down the left-hand side. Once you and your child have both written the alphabet on your paper, set your timer for 10 minutes.

You’ll then race from room to room to find and write down as many objects as possible that begin with each letter of the alphabet. Write each object next to its corresponding letter and fill in as many as you can within the time limit.

You could also set a handicap for this writing game to raise the stakes! For example, if your child’s time limit is 10 minutes, cut yours in half so that you have to find as many objects as possible in five minutes.

10) Accordion Storytelling

What You’ll Need

• A sheet of paper
• Pen
• Ruler

What To Do

The first player will start the story at the top of your clean sheet of paper by writing two sentences on separate lines. They can write about any topic they want.

When they’re done writing, they’ll need to fold the paper over the first sentence and pass the paper on to the next player. This means that the first sentence won’t be seen. The next writer will only be able to see the second sentence on the page.

This player will need to write their own two sentences based on the line they can see. After that, they’ll fold down the first line of what they wrote and pass it on to the next player, too. The paper will continue to be passed around and folded like an accordion.

The round ends once all the paper has been folded up, and there’s no space left to write. Once you’ve reached this stage, open it up and read the story aloud together.

What interesting story did you come up with? Get ready to have a good laugh!

Note: You can take turns reading one sentence each, or you can nominate one person to read the whole story to everyone.

This is a great game to play with the whole family or even just two people, although it is the most fun with at least three people. And it will encourage creativity and writing skills.

11) Pen Pal Writing

What You’ll Need

• Paper
• Pens or pencils
• A pen pal

What To Do

Writing letters to pen pals is very traditional. In a nutshell, it involves two people in a long-distance friendship who communicate by writing letters to each other.

Now, with the advancement of technology, very few people still do this via snail mail. But it can be a great way to encourage children to write.

Who can your child write to? They can choose a friend who’s moved schools, a cousin who lives in another state, or their grandparents. It can be anyone they’d like to send a message to!

This is a fun way to help children learn about mailing letters and how the postal system works. They also get to create memories and can keep the letters their pen pal writes to reflect on for years to come!

12) Rewrite The Ending

What You’ll Need

• Paper
• Pen or pencils
• Storybook

What To Do

Children will need to exercise their imaginations to play this game.

To get started, read a book aloud to your child. (This can be an old favorite or a new story.) Once you’ve finished reading, encourage them to create their own version of the ending.

It can be challenging for children to imagine their favorite stories in a different way, so you might need to help your child think outside the box:

• What if the frog never turned into a prince but into a big elephant instead?
• What if the three little pigs learned karate and decided to fight the wolf?
• Could the little mermaid have a twin sister she just discovered?

This activity lets your child exercise their imagination while also practicing their writing skills. If this is done with multiple children, it will be fun to see what exciting versions of the script each child comes up with.

Enjoy Learning To Write With HOMER!

We hope you’ve found some new favorite writing games from our activities in this guide!

From creating sensory play activities with sand and fingerpaints to writing a grocery list together, there are so many ways to get creative with your child and make writing a fun shared activity.

For even more writing fun, unbox a learning adventure with our Explore Letters Kit. Watch your child build their literacy skills, using their imagination to lead them through a variety of writing and spelling activities!

Author

8 Excellent Writing Games for Students • JournalBuddies.com

Discover fresh, fun, new writing games and use them to help students improve their writing skills while also enjoying themselves! (Psst… Scroll down the page for the two free writing game printable!)

Writing Games for Students

Writing games can be incorporated into just about any subject or course, making them a versatile tool for teachers in every type of classroom. By integrating writing fun and games into your teaching strategy, you can help students develop and hone their writing skills in playful and enjoyable ways.

Best of all…

Once you get your students going with these fun writing games, you will certainly hook their interest in their writing practice which is one of the most powerful outcomes of using games to teach writing skills to kids.

From the First Sentence to the Last Line

Writing games make writing, well… fun! This is why we are thrilled to share with you 8 fun writing games that you can use in your classroom or with your homeschool kids.

Not only are the writing games outlined below ones that students will enjoy, but each game also consists of different elements that will enhance the learning process.

Table of Contents

1. Writing Games Idea #1 — Interview and Report
2. Writing Games Idea #2 — Telephone Pictionary
3. Idea #3 — Write a Communal Story
4. Idea #4 — Word Drawing Writing Game
5. Idea #5 — Focus on the Details
6. Idea #6 — Re-Write the Ending Writing Game
7. Idea #7 — Draw What You Hear
8. Idea #8 — Write a Secret Letter

For example, in the “Interview and Report” writing game, your students will learn about the importance of who, what, where, when, and why while also learning how to transform interview dialogue into an objective report. So while playing games, they are also practicing their writing skills. How’s that’s for a fabulous win-win? That’s really awesome if you ask us.

These writing games are perfect for 4^th – 6^th grade students although they may certainly be used with younger elementary kids as well as with older middle school students. We hope you and your students enjoy these writing game ideas.

8 Excellent Writing Games

In Interview and Report, your students will become full-fledged reporters. Explain to them that the journalists who write articles for news publications or who create broadcasts for TV have to conduct interviews with sources prior to completing their assignments. For their school assignment, each student should interview at least one person about an event and then subsequently write a report about it.

For instance, a student could interview the school principal about the upcoming school charity fun run. They could ask important questions about the event and then create a report to provide other students with the information that they need to know. This game helps keep students engaged in their school community while learning about a practical way to apply their writing skills.

Telephone Pictionary is a great game to play as an entire class and can complement any curriculum topic that you are currently covering.

To play this game, every student in the class needs to start with a blank sheet of paper. At the top of their sheet, they write a phrase or word of their choice.

Once they have written their first word or phrase, they pass their sheet to the player at their left. That player is required to draw a picture that matches the phrase. Then, they fold the paper down so that only the picture shows.

Again, they pass the paper to the left. The next player looks at the picture and writes a phrase to describe it. They fold the paper down so that only the new phrase shows, and once again pass the paper.

At the end of the game, the class will see how quickly the written word can transform.

This game is fun for students to work on in small groups or as a class. Use a notebook, large sheet of paper, or the chalkboard and have students take turns writing sentences. (A student writers the first line, another the second line and so on through to the bottom of the page or the end of the story).

You can do this activity during a set period of time in class, or keep the story out in a common area where students can add sentences during free times.

The collaborative effort is fun and engaging for kids and promotes creativity by allowing students to draw inspiration from one another. For students who have trouble writing stories on their own, the game is also a low-pressure way to get more comfortable with creative story writing.

Word Drawing is a fun writing game that allows teachers to blend art curriculum with writing curriculum. Best of all, the game is great for writers in kindergarten all the way through High school. You see…

In this game, every student is assigned a word. They then have to take that word and transform it into a work of art.

For example, the world colorful could be drawn in bubble letters where each letter was a different color. Other popular words for the Word Drawing game include:

• Sparkle
• Rainbow
• Rugged
• Peaceful
• Electrifying

Students will have fun getting creative as they learn the context of each word that they are playing with while doing this activity.

===> Writing Game #4 Printable <===

===> Writing Game #4 Printable <===

Students sometimes take the easy way out when describing characters or objects in their writing by using simple, one-word descriptions. In this game, you’ll use a common object and ask students to begin by describing it in one word—“basketball.” Next, students need to use two words to describe the object—“orange basketball.” Then, students will use three words—“new orange basketball.”

Continue until the students have a short list of six or seven adjectives in front of the noun and then have them create a sentence using the description. You’ll get silly answers like, “The athlete tossed the new, round, bouncy, noisy, orange, leathery basketball into the hoop with three seconds left on the clock.”

The idea with this writing game isn’t to inspire students to write purple prose—but rather, to encourage them to come up with creative new ways to describe common objects. Take turns reading the sentences aloud and award prizes for the most unique descriptions.

Sometimes other books provide us with the greatest sources of inspiration. In this game, have students select a favorite short story or scene from a book and re-write it.

They can try writing the story from another character’s perspective or perhaps tell what would have happened if the main character made a different choice. Students can even change the story so that it takes place in a different setting or time period. The possibilities are endless and kids will love the chance to get creative with their favorite books.

Ask your students to think of a family member or a favorite character from a book or movie and have them write a brief, paragraph-long description of that person.

Next, students will take turns reading their descriptions aloud. As each student reads their character description, the rest of the class should draw a picture based on what the student has written.

Give each student the drawn responses to their paragraph. When students receive the varied responses and interpretations to their paragraphs, they’ll quickly begin to see the importance of descriptive writing.

===> Writing Game #7 Printable <===

===> Writing Game #7 Printable <===

This game is a popular choice around Valentine’s Day when there are letters circulating around the entire school. In this game, each student is assigned another student in the class to write a secret letter to.

To help facilitate this writing game, students should be given instruction as to how to address letters and sign them properly. This an ideal way to introduce both the formal and informal style of letter writing. After they have written their letter to a classmate, they have to find a way to secretly deliver it. In the end, everyone gets a pleasant surprise!

Writing is a life skill that children have to master regardless of the field or career that they choose to pursue. Since writing will play a critical role throughout their educational journey and well into their personal and professional lives, it’s important to have your students practice writing as frequently as possible.

While writing is an important activity for students to practice on a regular basis, it should not become a tiresome task for them. Yet, helping kids get inspired to write can sometimes be a quite the challenge. When your students are fatigued or experiencing a bit of writer’s block, we suggest implementing writing games into your classroom or homeschool curriculum to reignite your students’ interest in learning to write. No doubt they will be glad you did.

Interested in more writing games? You’ll love sharing Writing Bingo Games for Students in your classroom!

Until next time, write on…

If you enjoyed these Writing Games for Students,
please share them on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Pinterest.
I appreciate it!

Sincerely,
Jill
journalbuddies.com
creator and curator

Writing Game Resources

• Writing Games and Activities for Kids
• Writing Poetry and Poem Prompts and Ideas
• Free Printable Story Maps

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Content

1. Simple games on a sheet of paper
2. DRISSISS
3. Treasure Map
4. CLASS
5. 9000
6. Cross-tanks
9000
7. Balda
8. Silent artist
9. Bulls and cows
10. Capturing the field
11. Strategy games on paper for two or more
12. Sea battle
13. Scrabble
14. Code of
15. bridges
16. Scessions
18. Snake
19. Tromino
20. Games on a piece of paper with letters
22. Games on paper - a selection of books
23. National games on paper

Games on paper: For children and adults, simple and complex, creative and strategic, fun and educational. New games from around the world that you have not heard of!

Life with children can be boring or fun, and it does not depend on any external circumstances! nine0003

Zhenya Katz "Games for Beginner Moms"

Simple games on a sheet of paper

Drawings

The player thinks of a picture and draws part of it, and then passes it on to another player.

Treasure map

You need to draw a schematic plan of the apartment - a treasure map and indicate the place where the treasure is hidden.

Chain

Enrich vocabulary, develop imagination and laugh a lot! We take a word of 3-4 letters and, changing 1 letter at a time, we turn it into others, and so on, until it turns out. The chain can turn out from 3-5 to 50 words. And then, according to the recorded words, we compose a story. Impossible not to laugh, checked! nine0003

Many words

Choose 1 long word and use its letters to make many short words. Whoever has more - he won!

Tic-tac-toe

An old unforgotten game. To make it more interesting, play on a large field - 4*4 or 5*5 cells.

Doodles

The game stimulates the imagination. One draws any squiggle with his own color, and the second turns it into anything with the help of fantasy.

Troika

Tic-tac-toe game, only with letters. On the 3 * 3 field, two players put any one letter each, and the one who, by the end of the game (when all the fields are filled), will be able to write diagonally, vertically or horizontally more well-known words of 3 letters wins. nine0003

Balda

A square playing field is drawn on a piece of paper with 5*5 cells for the word BALDA or another number of cells corresponding to the number of letters in another word. Write a word in the middle row. Players take turns making moves. In one move, a letter is entered into a free cell in such a way that a new word is formed each time.

Words can be read in any direction. For each word, the player receives as many points as there are letters in the word. The game ends when all the cells are filled with letters or none of the players can come up with a new word. nine0003

Silent artist

Develop imagination and associative thinking! Non-reading children receive an oral task from their mother: how would you depict a holiday (lake, mirror, mother cat, stars)? The drawing needs a schematic, only a contour, the main thing is figurative thinking.

The older the child, the less specific the words are - not “pan”, but “dinner”, not “five in the diary”, but “end of the quarter”. You will be surprised how interesting children's thinking works!

We prepare leaflets with an arbitrary number of words (difficulty by age) and draw, and then guess. nine0003

A game without competition, the main thing is to convey the meaning.

Bulls and cows

The player thinks of a four-digit number. All digits in the number must be different. His opponent must guess the number. Each time he also calls a four-digit number with different digits. If the figure from the named number is in the guessed number - this is a cow. If the figure from the named number is in the guessed number and stands in the same place - this is a bull.

Capturing the field

In addition to a piece of paper and a pen, this game will require a dice or two (to speed up the game and develop quick addition skills in children). The first player rolls the dice(s), adds up the numbers that have fallen (if there are 2 dice) and paints as many squares on his playing field as he received as a result. nine0003

The first person to color all the squares wins. You can also play 3 dice! Those already familiar with the multiplication table can play with multiplication instead of addition!

Paper strategy games for two or more

Naval battle

The goal of the game is to sink all enemy ships. We arrange the ships and "shoot" in turn.

Ships are placed on a field of 10*10 cells. The letters and numbers along the sides of the square are the coordinates. Each player has 10 ships: 4 one-deck (1 cell), 3 two-deck (2 cells), 2 three-deck (3 cells), 1 four-deck (4 cells). There must be at least 1 empty space between ships. nine0003

The second similar field is drawn for clarity of "shooting" at the enemy's field. The player names the coordinates, for example, "K5", the enemy honestly answers: "past", "wounded" or "killed". The victim shoots again. The one who misses passes the right to shoot to the enemy.

Scrabble

The game is widely known in the world under the name Scrabble. From separate letters it is necessary to make words and put them on the field. You can buy a field for playing Scrabble or play on a piece of paper.

Knight move

We work with logic and spatial thinking! We teach a child how a chess horse walks. We draw a small field of play on a sheet in a cage. We start the game from any cell: “we walk”, we take turns putting a cross in a cell one after another (older - numbers from 1 to ...), while it is possible to walk.

First, you can show the trajectory, then the child can already “draw” it in his mind. Task: fill the field as much as possible. With older children - who will have nowhere to go - lost.

Bridges

The players are trying to build a bridge from one side of their bank to the other. Red has red shores and crosses as stones, Green has green shores and zeroes. The game can start anywhere on the field.

In one move, a player can connect two adjacent stones with a vertical or horizontal bridge. Red and green bridges must not intersect. The winner is the one who builds a continuous bridge from one of its banks to the other.

Lines

It is necessary to put several points on a sheet of paper (at least 8, the more the more interesting). Two players play by connecting any two points in turn with a line segment. You cannot capture the 3rd point, and each point can be the end of only one segment. The segments must not intersect. The one who cannot make a move loses. nine0003

Dots

This is a paper strategy game for two or four people. The goal of the game is to connect the drawn lines into squares. The player who draws the most squares wins.

It is necessary to create a field of dots, 10*10 is enough to start with. But you can play with any field. Each player takes turns drawing lines by connecting 2 adjacent dots.

As soon as the player finishes the square, he fills the square with his color or puts his sign inside and can make one more move. nine0003

Snake

Two players must use different colored pens or pencils. A square of arbitrary size is drawn, for example, 9*9 cells. 2 sides of one color and 2 of another. Each player chooses points and begins to draw his snake, lengthening it alternately by 2 cells in one move. You cannot walk diagonally and cross your own or someone else's snake. You can lead the snake on the side of the opposite color. The one who cannot make a move will lose.

Tromino

This is a simple pen and paper puzzle that trains visual perception and spatial reasoning. The goal of the game is to be the last player to successfully place a tromino on the game board.

Tromino is a figure consisting of three squares connected by sides. You can either play straight pieces only, corner pieces only, or both versions at the same time.

The goal of the game is to be the last player to place a tromino on the board, thereby blocking the opponent's ability to play. nine0003

Read more about the tromino game in the next article.

Games on a sheet of paper with letters

Games on paper - a selection of books

Games on a sheet of paper published by Bely Gorod. A whole encyclopedia and almost a complete collection of such books! To the labyrinth

Games on paper. Tic-tac-toe, sea battle, dots and segments - a budget book by the Phoenix publishing house, in Chitai-gorod.

National games on paper

When these strategic games were played on the ground or sand with stones, sticks, flowers, etc. These days, playing has become easier, but no less interesting. nine0003

Dara is a cool match 3 game from North West Africa. The goal of the game is to capture your opponent's tokens so that he can no longer place his tokens at three in a row . Read more here.

Tiger and Leopards or Len Choa is a traditional game from Thailand in which a tiger (hunter) fights six leopards (victims). The tiger tries to catch the leopard by jumping over it (as in checkers).

The leopards are trying to surround the tiger and block it so that it cannot move. The game is dynamic, there is not enough pen and paper for it - chips are also needed (coins, buttons, scraps of paper - whatever). About the strategy of the game here. nine0003

Fox and Geese is a traditional board game from Northern Europe. This is a variation of Halatafl, a Viking board game mentioned in the early Icelandic sagas. Read more here.

Korean game Kono resembles Chinese checkers. Objective: Move quickly across the board and place all of your pieces on the dots previously owned by your opponent. Description of the game

What kind of paper games for children do you know? What games did you play as a child? nine0003

frolicking until the teacher sees!

Even the most diligent students are looking forward to the call from the lesson and the teacher's phrase: “The lesson is over. Write down your homework" . The second most popular phrase among schoolchildren, which is like a balm for the soul: “I'll go out for a couple of minutes. Sit quietly, mind your own business. The door is open - I can hear everything" .

 Earlier, at such moments, classmates acted according to a plan worked out to automatism: nine0003

1. One or two sheets of paper were carefully torn out of the notebook.
2. With lightning speed they uncovered pencil cases with pencils and pens.
3. We began to diligently draw the playing field. And even several at once.

 Children of the 21st century have radically different interests and completely different tactics for taking an unplanned break. As soon as the teacher leaves the classroom and there are 10-15 free minutes, smartphones are immediately in the hands.

 The phone is always on alert, and it is used for games, communication via instant messengers, checking your pages on social networks, watching cool videos and pictures, getting to know new tracks by Max Korzh, Scryptonite and Tima Belorussky.

Is this correct? More likely no than yes. Scientists have long proven that the constant presence in front of the screen for children is fraught with such negative moments:

• radiation affects up to 60-80% of brain structures; nine0006
• the reaction to various sound and light signals slows down;
• attention and semantic memory deteriorate by approximately 50%;
• myopia and other vision problems occur;
• increases fatigue, which sometimes reaches a critical point.

And yet, although not always, but often, this is a noticeable mental disorder, mood swings, biorhythm failures, insomnia. Not every parent and teacher understands that this should not be the case. nine0003

 Children's health is no joke. Leisure activities and even ten-minute breaks in study should be beneficial, not harmful. That is why the Igromag team decided to remember the old days and try to renew the children's interest in paper games.

 More than one generation grew up on them. Some games may seem ordinary and simple, but they do not become less interesting and useful.

 So, in front of you is the top ten games on the cards + a bonus from Igromag : Recommendations for board games that are similar in style, gameplay, and game mechanics. Go!

Use letters and numbers

 Balda is considered a classic among the many word games for 2-4 players. What is its essence and how to play? Everything is simple here. You draw a square field on a piece of paper in a box (the more, the better), write any word in the central line, and each player in turn adds one letter, forming new words. nine0003

 The longer the word is invented, the more points fall into the piggy bank. After all, each letter in the word = 1 point. The rules say that words can be located on a horizontal or vertical straight line, and also have a zigzag shape, but only at a right angle (this is a prerequisite). Another requirement is not to repeat words, but to invent new ones.

 Even if you didn't manage to win, it doesn't matter. In any case, you won, because you further developed skills such as memory and observation, expanded your vocabulary, and showed erudition. nine0003

“Executioner” or “Gallows” is a game for two or more participants in which you need to guess the word made by one of the players. Most often, words are nouns in the singular. Squares or lines are drawn on paper for each letter, the first and last letters can be indicated. The rest must be guessed.

 According to the rules, a gallows is drawn on the sheet, where for each mistake the player adds a part of the human body (head, torso, two arms and two legs). If the word is guessed before the whole little man is in the loop, this is a victory. If the last leg is drawn, but the word remains a mystery, then defeat. nine0003

 Now you know how to play Hangman, and you have a great opportunity to spend your free time to good use. At a minimum, learn new vocabulary words that are rarely used in daily communication.

Tired of letters? We turn to the numbers and proceed to the game "Palms" on paper. The preparation will take a few minutes. Step one: each of the two players must draw a palm on a piece of paper in a box. You can improvise, but it's better to circle your own. Step two: enter numbers in the drawing area - from 1 to ... (here, as you agree). The more chaotic the arrangement of numbers, the more difficult it is for the opponent. nine0003

 Next, you exchange prepared sheets and the game begins. One player calls a specific number, and the second quickly looks for it on his sheet. While the search process is in progress, the participant who guessed the number puts crosses in the cells around the palm. Stops only after the digit is found. After that, the turn passes to another player. The winner is the one who first fills all the free cells with crosses.

 Time flies by very quickly while playing. At the same time, it perfectly trains attention and concentration. And if the child is just starting to learn the basics of arithmetic, this is also an effective additional lesson in a playful way. nine0003

Recommendations of the Igromag team

 Continuing the theme of numbers, we recommend the deductive board game Break the Code . It is designed for 2-4 players and takes about 15 minutes. It's easy to win: it's enough to "crack" the opponent's code by asking him special questions from the cards. But answering questions does not guarantee victory. Here you need to connect intuition, and use the method of elimination, and do not forget about attentiveness. nine0003

 For a large company (from 3 to 8 people), the game "Imagination Geometry" is ideal, the purpose of which is to develop fantasy to the maximum limit. How to play? You need to make pictures from signs, patterns and diagrams, thus explaining the words. There are no words and phrases here: famous personalities, works of art, concepts from different sciences, names of musical compositions and much more.

 Another interesting card game "7 by 9" with very simple and clear rules. From 2 to 4 participants can play it, and the process itself lasts no more than 10-15 minutes. The main task of each player is to get rid of their cards. Everything is tied to numbers, and your best assistants are: lightning-fast reaction, the ability to add and subtract as accurately as possible, and, of course, a sincere desire to win.

It's time for tactical thinking

 It is difficult to find a student (regardless of age) who has not played Tic-Tac-Toe at least once in his life. You don’t even need paper for this game: you can draw a 3x3 field with your finger on a foggy window, with chalk on a blackboard, with a branch on the sand of a sports ground. There are really many options, but the rules are one.

 Before you play Tic-Tac-Toe, you decide who puts tic-tac-toe and who puts tic-tac-toe. Then, one by one, fill in the empty cells. If you managed to make a line of three crosses or zeroes, then you won. This line can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. nine0003

 To always win, you need to develop certain tactics and move correctly. The participant who makes the first move and immediately occupies the center of the field has more opportunities. You can play endlessly until you get bored.

 Tic-tac-toe for three is hardly possible, but no one forbids improving the playing field. For advanced players, there is a cross-shaped field, which is drawn on a notebook sheet in a box.

 The rules of the game are as follows: you alternately draw vertical and horizontal lines on the side faces of the cells, and as soon as a circled cell is formed as a result of your move, you put a cross or a zero in it. As a small bonus, you get the opportunity to walk again. To win, you need to capture as much space as possible.

 Such a game is not just sitting down and drawing lines. This is a manifestation of tactical skills and the ability not to make banal mistakes.

  If you are attentive, know how to quickly turn on logical thinking and easily anticipate the thoughts of other people, then the game "Dots" will definitely suit you. You just need to take a leaf in a box and draw a field of 20x20 or more on paper. Pens or felt-tip pens should be of different colors.

 Your task is to capture as many points of the opponent located in the corners of the cells as possible. The points are surrounded by lines, the length of which does not exceed one cell. The lines are drawn vertically, horizontally or diagonally. nine0003

 To play as efficiently as possible, it is important to adhere to the basic rules: capture only other people's points; it is impossible to conduct active actions inside the environment; whoever captured the dots walks again. The final is when there is no free space left on the field. Whoever captures the most points wins.

Recommendations from the Igromaga team

  Do you like simple and quick puzzles? We recommend the game "Yotta" , the rules of which are somewhat reminiscent of the classic dominoes. There are 66 cards in the deck with different images that differ in number, shape, color. The cards are connected to each other according to the same parameters. The end of the game comes as soon as the stack of cards is not on the table and one of the participants puts the last card on the field. Number of players: two to four. nine0003

 The card game Throw, Throw Burrito can be played with two, or better with six. It lasts about 15 minutes. The point is to exchange cards and collect the same images. But the real fun begins when the Burrito card is played. The battle is accompanied by excitement and enthusiasm, so you don’t have to look for another option for a party with friends.

Fight, fight, win

 As they say, war is the biggest mistake of mankind. But "Naval battle" on paper, this does not apply. Here you need to win, sparing no effort and using the professional skills of the admiral. All military operations take place on a 10x10 square sheet. Each side has certain coordinates that help to make aimed shots.

 Before playing Sea Battle, you need to arrange the ships in a smart way. By the way, there are four types of them: 1 four-deck, 2 three-deck, 3 two-deck, 4 single-deck. Everyone knows how many ships to deliver, but not many people use really working schemes. nine0003

  Players are still arguing about the only correct strategy: how many people - so many opinions. Although there are still some classic secrets. For example, large ships are best placed in one half of the field, and single-deck ships in the other. You can also draw the ships so that they are not hit by diagonal shots. The third way is the location near the coast, that is, the central part of the field remains free. If you have your own scheme, feel free to implement it.

 Tired of sea battles? Move on to ground battles - play Tanks on paper. Take a blank A4 sheet for this and fold it in half. The left half is one playing field, the right part is the second player's field. On each part of the sheet there should be 7-10 tanks, arranged in random order.

 The game involves hitting the enemy one by one. This is done with a ballpoint pen. The correct way is to make a fat dot on your field, bend the sheet and rub it with a pen or other object so that the dot is imprinted on the field of the opposing side's armed forces. A partial hit is a wound, an exact hit is a 100% elimination of the tank. The one who first shot down the opponent's army always wins. nine0003

 Now you know how to play Tanks. It remains to develop a strategy and fight. If you want to develop tactical thinking in yourself, this is the best option.

Recommendations of the Igromaga team

Among the mass of fun party games, pay attention to the board game "Lord of Tokyo" - with surprisingly simple rules. Each player is given a cardboard figure and a personal tablet. All actions occur as a result of rolling and re-rolling dice. The illustrations are made in the style of comics - bright, colorful, memorable. The table can be from 2 to 6 players, the game lasts 20-40 minutes. nine0003

 And for strategy lovers there is a cool board game "Small World" , where events take place among hills, forests, rivers and plains. Small World has simple rules: you control one of the fantasy races and capture new territories. The one with the most coins wins. From 2 to 5 participants can fight for wealth, races and territories. The average game time is 1-1.5 hours.

Exercise

 At one time, the legendary British football player Phil Woosnam said an interesting phrase: “The rules of football are extremely simple: if the ball moves, kick it; if it doesn't move, kick it to move. " But what if you love this sport, but there is no ball at hand or the opportunity to drop everything and run onto the field? You can play football on paper.

What is it and how to play it, you ask? We answer. You need to take a leaf in a box and draw a football field measuring 16 by 12 cells, placing a goal on 6 cells on each opposite side. The game starts in the center of the field. Each player takes turns "hitting the ball": draws a line on 3 sides of the cell along a straight line or along a curve (horizontally, vertically, diagonally). nine0003

 The second player starts his line where the first player's line ends. Lines cannot be crossed. If you have nowhere to go, get ready for a free kick: this is a straight line of 6 cells, for which there are no barriers. The aim of the game is obvious - to score a goal.

 Another game that develops both quick thinking and competitive spirit is "Snake" on paper. Make a square playing field measuring 7 by 7 cells. Draw two adjacent sides in one color, and the other two sides in a different color. To do this, you can use colored ballpoint pens, pencils or felt-tip pens. nine0003

 Game process consists of several stages. First, you need to put one point of your color in random places. Secondly, start drawing one-cell lines in turn. Thirdly, the line should turn out to be solid, broken, but not crossing the opponent's line. You can't move diagonally.

 The player who has nowhere else to go loses, and he ends up in a dead end. It is advisable to think over the snake's route in advance in order to capture more free space and harm the opponent. nine0003

Recommendations of the Igromaga team

Have you decided to arrange a real sports competition in a large company (up to 10 people)? Just put the game "UNO" on the table and several hours of fun and exciting leisure are guaranteed. Usually, there are no difficulties with the rules of the UNO game. At the start, each player receives 7 cards in his hand and tries to get rid of them as quickly as possible. You need to throw out cards by face value or by color. If there are no similarities, the deck will help you. Also in the game you will find surprises. How many cards are in the classic version? 108. What are the varieties of the game? "Kids", "Zoo", "h3O", "Junior", "Deluxe" and others. nine0003

There is another similar card game for the whole family - "Phase 10" . It suits lovers of abstract desktops perfectly. If in UNO you need to quickly discard all the cards, then here your goal is to get rid of unnecessary cards and collect the ones you need. You will have to go through 10 phases, collecting the correct combinations and earning a minimum of penalty points. The rules of the game "Phase 10" say that you can collect cards by numbers, color, face value. There are bonuses in the deck, and you will find out which ones at the gaming table.

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