Word Games Plaza: Anagrams

Anagrams is one of the simplest word games. It is one of my old time favourites, as you might correctly deduce from being the first word game described here.

Number of Players:

3 - 30

Age:

A minimum age of about 7 or 8 seems advisable.

Materials:

Pencil & paper for every player.

Time:

to be determined in advance, and depending on the number of players, but 3 to 20 minutes seems reasonable.

Object of the Game:

To score as many points as possible by coming up with the most extensive list of words.

To start:

One player, it does not matter who, writes down a word. This word is called the master word. The master word should be visible to all players. The master word should not be too short. Longer words make longer games. A time limit is agreed upon.

How to Play:

• Every player writes down as many words as he can think of by mixing the letters of the master word. The derived words may  but need not include all letters of the master word.
• Example: The master word is 'Beast'. Tom writes down: East, seat, best, eat, set, beat, beta. He can not think of a 5 letter anagram of beast, if he could, that would have been allright.
  

The end:

When the time is over, all players mention the words they have thought off.

Winning:

Points are awarded for word found. In the above example, Tome would score:

Word	Points
east	4
seat	4
best	4
eat	3
set	3
beat	4
beta	4
	26

The player with the most points wins the game.

Variations:

• For easier gaming, count each word as 1 point.
• Play without time limit, and wait untill no-one has thought up a new word.
• Players do not write down words all simultaneously, but mention new words one by one. This might work very well in a class room.

Kids Fun Rating

our four kids rated the fun of this game (1 is awfull, 10 means 'play this always')

Piet-Jan (11)	5
Margreet (10)	10
Klaas (9)	5
Joella (7)	2