Winning Words

Add to My Folder

By Kay Clifford — Early Years Leader and adult tutor

This game, for two to four players, encourages children to think of alternative words or phrases which can be used to describe athletes. As they move round the track, they must try to swap the adjectives, verbs and phrases they land on for ones with similar meanings. They must also consider whether they think the words or phrases are positive or negative descriptions.

Playing the game

Decide who will run in each lane of the track and place the counters on the ‘Start’ in each of the four lanes. The lanes have an equal number of words and action spaces.
To decide who will start first, roll the dice and see who gets the highest number or, for fun, see who can do the most star jumps in 30 seconds. The person with the highest number begins!
The first player should roll the dice and move that number of spaces.
If the player lands on a word or phrase, they must decide what it means and try to think of other words that mean the same. Encourage them to use a thesaurus to find alternative words.
The rest of the group has to agree with their suggestion, or use a thesaurus to check if they disagree with the suggestion.