Games to Build Word Skills
All this talk of reading, writing, and words has us in the mood to play some word games! Check out
these 6 games, all designed to build word attack and reading skills.
1. Snatch-It
Snatch-It is a competitive and fast-paced word game that challenges players to think quickly while
putting their vocabulary skills to the test. Here’s how it works: Place 100 letter tiles face down and
then take turns flipping one tile over at a time until a word of three or more letters can be formed.
Spot a word and call it out. Or, snatch any word by changing it with one or more letters. This game
is demanding of your visuospatial and auditory memory as it stretches you to think beyond the
simple!
2. Smart Mouth
So you fancy yourself a word nerd, huh? Well here’s your chance to put your smarts where your
mouth is: a game of Smart Mouth. This quick-thinking word skills game reveals two tiles with letters
on them and challenges players to be the first to come up with a word that begins and ends with
the letters. So, say the first tile is a “C” and the second tile is an “E,” you could shout out “crate,”
“correlate” or “coelenterate.” Oh, and just in case you were wondering, coelenterate is any
invertebrate animal of the phylum Coelenterata, such as a jellyfish. This is a fantastically fun word
game for anyone able to read! Use the “Letter Getter” to choose the letters for the round, then use
the letters in a word to score points! A fun, challenging game for grown-ups and older kids, and with
a small rule adjustment, a great way to work on spelling and word-building for the younger crowd!
3. Rory’s Story Cubes
Rory’s Story Cubes contains nine cubes with 54 images. Just roll the cubes and come up with a story
that links together all nine face-up images. So, say you get images of a bumblebee, a turtle and a
crescent moon. Your story might go like this: Once upon a time, there was a bumblebee named
“Turtle,” which was a very unfortunate name for a bumblebee. However, his parents wished upon a
crescent moon for a turtle and got a bumblebee instead….
Hey, don’t laugh! There are no wrong answers here. Just hours of creative play that can serve as an
ice-breaker, literacy development, mental workout and more. This game requires you to think on
your feet to construct a creative, interesting story based on the images seen on the cubes. Broca’s
area, responsible for speech production, and the temporal lobe, important for visual shape
recognition, are activated when you play this game.
4. Trigger
Slap yourself silly in this ridiculously fun party game. Players answer “true” or “false” to statements
as quickly as possible by slapping the target. Right Hand = “TRUE”, Left Hand = “FALSE”. Sound
easy? Here are some sample statements :
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Groundhogs have teeth
You are wearing a ring on your left hand
There are 6 Olympic rings
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Cows drink milk
Do you have the fastest hand? You won’t believe how many laughs are packed into such a tiny
tin! Test your memory recall ability and attention to detail as you compete with others to slap the
target first. Trigger has the fun aspect of causing a war between your brain and your reflexes. The
ambiguous way in which the questions are phrased causes an instantaneous reaction while your
brain makes the connection of “Does she mean MY hair or hers?”
5. Splickety Lit
This game will wip your flig (flip your wig). Sometimes known as a spoonerism, this clever wordplay
exercise has been renamed by Marbles the Brain Store as “Splickety Lit”. Each question has words or
phrases that have their beginning fonsonants clipped (consonants flipped…you pet the gicture). The
challenge is to answer the Splickety Lit question correctly in the mame sanner. So, if asked who
Skuke Lywalker’s father was, you can confidently shout out (spoiler alert) “Varth Dader” Engaging
your memory, word skills, and comprehension speed, Splickety Lit is a winner that’ll keep everyone
guessing, from fart to stinish. Speech production and comprehension areas as well as memory
centers are thoroughly engaged as you listen to familiar, yet tricky words and phrases and recall
facts to answer the questions.
6. KerFlip
Fire up your brain’s language center and loosen your lips for a lightning-fast game of KerFlip. This
award-winning game rewards players for making words faster than their opponents. Here’s how it
works: each player takes three letter tiles and simultaneously places them cream side up on the
board. Spot a word, call it out first and then flip the tiles over to their orange sides. The first time a
tile is used, it’s worth 10 points. Once the tile has been used and flipped over, it’s only worth five
points to other players. The player with the most points wins, but everyone gets bigger brain cells as
a parting gift! Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, which function in speech production and
comprehension, are engaged when you recognize and blurt out words in this super fun word game.