My residents absolutely love to play word games and could play them all the time. So my staff and I had to search for various ways to keep it fresh and interesting. This is a great cognitive activity.
We have a whiteboard in our activities room which makes it easy to write on and for everyone to see in order to play these games.
1. Fill in the Blank –provide a word or phrase using blanks and fill in with each resident providing a letter {think Wheel of Fortune or Hangman}
2. Words from a word—take one word and see how many words you can get from that word
3. Word Adds—use a word such as “what” or “un-“ and see how many words you can make adding other words {ex. Whatever, unfinished, etc.}
4. Anonyms—share a word and have residents give all the words which are different
5. Synonym– share a word and have residents give all the words which are similar
6. Scrabble—put up a series of letters {often we’ll have each resident give us a letter} and then see how many words you can make from those letters
7. What goes with it—provide a word {ocean, spring, water, etc.} and have residents give words that match that category
8. Compound Words—build words upon other words ex. Doorway; Classroom; etc.
9. String them together—take a series of words and create a story from them {this can be interesting, hilarious and fun}. Often we’ll go around the room and each resident takes a word to add onto the story.
10. Build a word—take short and simple words and try to use as many of these fragments as possible to create a longer word {the longer the better} ex. Whatsoever
What are some other word games your residents enjoy?
