Last night the two youngest girls we at their pantomime rehearsals for a few hours so we were left alone with the teenagers. Rather than skulking off to their rooms (as teenagers, I have learnt, seem to like to do) they actually showed an interest in hanging around us. So, Helen suggested we play a very simple game that we used to play with her family all the time – FISH ANIMAL BIRD.
If you’ve never heard of this game then here are the very simple instructions. You have a list of categories starting with fish, animal, bird on a piece of paper for each player. Our categories were:
- fish
- animal
- bird
- boys name
- girls name
- town/city
- country
- river/sea
- flower
- vegtable
- tree
- fruit
- sweet
- sport
- colour
Kick it off with one of the players picking a letter, then each person has to come up with a word beginning with that letter for each category. You can set a time limit if you want but we don’t bother and we soon know when we’ve had enough. Scoring works like this:
- 2 points for a unique answer
- 1 point if you have the same answer as somebody else
Add up your score and the winner picks the next letter….repeat.
You can add your own categories to make it more fun – the more obscure the better.
We spent two hours playing this with 14 and 13 year old girls. Not phones, tablets, TV, radio – nothing. The only time MY phone came out was to ask Google to check someones answer (usually mine!).
It was so much fun and I know the girls will come home tonight wanting to play again. And why not?
When was the last time you played such a simple, basic game with kids and realised they loved it?
