10 Interesting Word Games For Kids
In this Article
Word games build upon your child’s literacy skills and help in boosting their vocabulary. Your child will find it easier to understand the world around them, the more they comprehend what words mean. It’s also an entertaining and fun way to spend time with your kids during the weekends while teaching them how amazing word games can be.
Video: 7 Interesting and Fun Word Games for Kids
Benefits of Playing Word Games for Children
Wondering what word games do for your kids? Here are the benefits:
- Improves their working memory
- Boosts vocabulary and comprehension
- Develops a love for learning and reading
- Hones their problem-solving skills and creativity
- Works on their imagination and long-term memory
- A fun past time for entire families and competitive children
10 Cool Word Games for Your Kids
If you’re looking for the coolest word games for your kids, you’ve come to the right place. Enjoy browsing through our list and make sure you have a blast.
1. Hangman
Hangman is a fun game played between two players. It’s a word-guessing game where a stick-man is hung unless a player guesses the word right.
Suitable Age Group: For ages 6 to 8
No. of Players Can Play: 2 players
How to Play
You need two players for this game. Get a sheet of paper and draw a gallow. Let’s say you’re player 1 who is the puzzle giver. Think of a word and draw dashes to represent it. Proper nouns and slang words are not allowed. Let Player 2 guess each letter of that new word. Everytime they guess each letter wrong, you draw the arms, legs, and head of the stickman – bodypart by bodypart. When the stickman is complete, Player 2 loses – unless they guess the letters right and save him.
2. Word Rhyming
This is a fun game that can be played by toddlers and kids. It involves saying words that rhyme and is an easy way to build vocabulary.
Suitable Age Group: For ages 3 and up
No. of Players Can Play: 2 to 4 players
How to Play
You start the game with a word and player 2 has to say words that rhyme with the same name. For example, if you say cat, they should say hat, mat, bat, etc. Player 2 keeps going until they run out of words and then you proceed to the next player.
3. Unscramble My Words
Unscramble My Words lets your child put on their thinking cap and put their problem-solving skills to the test.
Suitable Age Group: For ages 5 and up
No. of Players Can Play: 2 to 3 players
How to Play
You think of a word and write down each letter on paper. Except there’s a twist – your scramble the ordering of the letters and your kids will have to unscramble it and get the word right.
4. I Spy
I Spy is one of the best word games for kindergarten as it’s fun, simple, and requires nothing but your imagination and creativity.
Suitable Age Group: For ages 3 to 8
No. of Players Can Play: 2 players
How to Play
Player 1 has to say the sentence – “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with E____” and Player 2 has to guess the missing word from the given first letter.
5. The Story Game
This is a great game that encourages building new worlds with words. We’ll tell you how it works so get your creativity pumping.
Suitable Age Group: For ages 5 and up
No. of Players Can Play: 3 or more players
How to Play
You start a sentence and player 2 has to continue the story.
For example, Jack went to the Farmer’s market. Player 2: And a fire brigade appeared out of nowhere. Player 3: Then a wild dog jumped across the tree.
You get the idea. The ideas are wacky and the way stories pan out is hilarious.
6. Words Within a Word
Words within a word has been hailed by parents as one of the top word-building games out there for kids. It really teaches little ones how to spell while building up their vocabulary as well.
Suitable Age Group: For ages 4 and up
No. of Players Can Play: 2 to 3 players or more
How to Play
Think of a really long word. For example – COMPUTER. Your kid will have to coin a list of words starting with every letter of your given word (cot, mike, ox, tan etc), except they must be shorter than your word’s length.
7. I’m Going on a Picnic
I’m Going on a Picnic is a word game that challenges your child’s ability to recall while testing the limits of their vocabulary. It’s truly fun and unique.
Suitable Age Group: For ages 5 and up
No. of Players Can Play: 2 to 3 players
How to Play
The first person begins with I’m going on a picnic and I will bring a candy bar. The second person adds on to the sentence by saying – I’m going on a picnic and I will bring a candy bar and sandwiches. The sentence gets expanded this way turn by turn until the final player is unable to recall the list of items added to it.
8. Scategories
Scategories is a cool word game designed for older kids. It challenges their vocabulary and really flexes their creative muscles.
Suitable Age Group: For ages 7 and up
No. of Players Can Play: 2 to 4 players
How to Play
Take some paper and a pencil and write down 15 categories such as – actor, movies, country, food item etc. Player 1 will start by writing a bunch of random letters on paper. Player 2 will close his eyes and use the pencil to point to a random letter out of those. The remaining players need to guess as many words as they can using that letter for each of the 15 categories.
9. Crosswords
Crosswords is a game that has black and white squares. It has words written based on clues provided inside the squares until the white ones are completely filled up.
Suitable Age Group: For ages 6 and up
No. of Players Can Play: 1 player
How to Play
The instructions on how to play crosswords will be at the bottom of the game. Crosswords are usually found on newspaper pamphlets and at the back of magazines and are excellent brainteasers for kids.
10. Word Quest
Word Quest is a fun word game that involves searching for words using individual letters. It’s also one of the best word puzzle games for kids with an added twist.
Suitable Age Group: For ages 5 and up
No. of Players Can Play: 2 to 5 players
How to Play
Draw a 10 X 10 grid and divide it into boxes on a sheet of paper. On the bottom and side of the page outside the grid, fill up various words until you run out of space. Write down random letters in each of the boxes and ask your kids to fill them up using the words lying on the bottom/side of the page.
If you’re looking for fun word games for kids, these are guaranteed to stretch their creative muscles. They will definitely have a blast working on these and it’ll hone their literacy skills. By the time they enter preschool or junior high, they’ll be talking like a pro in no time.
Also Read:
Memory Enhancing Games for Kids
Innovative and Fun Brain Games for Children
Adaptive Listening Activities, Games and Exercises for Kids
