Word Chain

Opening Discussion

Tell your students that you’ll be playing a game using just words. Ask them if they have ever played a game like that before. Explain the rules of this game to them (see “Make it Happen”).

The Challenge

Build the longest “word chain” you can!

Doing the Activity

1. Choose a category for the word chain. Give your students a few options, like Movies, Actors, Foods, Animals, Countries, Singers, Sports Teams, etc. You might want to limit it to 3-4 choices.
2. Once a category has been chosen, the first player should choose a word that fits the category. For example, if the category is “Foods”, the first child might pick “banana”. This word is the first link in the “chain”.
3. The 2nd player must then think of a new word that starts with the same letter that the 1st word ended with. Banana ends with an “a”, so the 2nd player could say “avocado”, or “asparagus” or “Apple Jacks”, etc.
4. Play continues around the group (when it gets back to the first player, she should continue play) until a student can’t think of a word.  That student is “out”. The student who said the last successful word begins the next round of play and gets to choose a new category (or use the same one). Keep playing until only one student is left.

Let’s Talk About It

After your students have played once, bring them together to have a quick discussion. Was it easy or hard to come up with the words? What are some other categories they might try?

Build On What They Talked About

Play it again with a new category.