Keep kids entertained with nothing more than a pencil and pad of paper using these fun and challenging games.
Grid Games
These games need only a simple grid. Tic-Tac-Toe is played by taking a turn placing and X or O on the grid until one player has three in a row or diagonally. Expand the grid so each player needs to connect four, five or more. Have more than two players play and draw a grid that is at least 10 by 10. Each player still needs to make a row of four or five, but now it becomes more difficult as other players can block. This is kind of a paper version of Pente.
Letter Games
These games will require the players know how to spell. Hangman is familiar to most kids. One player thinks of a word and writes a line for each letter in the word. The other players take turns guessing letters until they know the word. If the word does not contain the letter they guess then a part a person is drawn. If a complete stick figure is drawn, the players who didn’t guess the word lose.
Another fun game that requires spelling is called Building Words. The first person writes a letter and passes the paper to the next player. That player thinks of a word that starts with that letter and writes the next letter in that word. That player passes the paper to the next player. That player thinks of a word that starts with those letters and adds another letter. Play continues until no more letters can be added to create a word.
Dots and Lines
There are two versions of this game. In the first version a grid of dots is created and two players take turns connecting dots. When a square is formed the player who added the last side marks that square as theirs. The winner is the player with the most squares when all the dots have been connected. The second version of this game has dots placed randomly on the paper. The first player connects two dots with a line and adds a dot in the center of the line just drawn. Lines cannot cross other lines, but they can curve around and only three lines can be drawn from any single dot. Play continues until no more lines can be drawn.
Categories
This game requires the players know how to write. Choose a category and each player must write down one word from that category for every letter of the alphabet. For example if the category is food a player may write Apple, Bannana, Carrot, Dumpling, Egg, Frosting, etc. through to the letter Z. The winner is the person who has the most letters filled for each category used.
Keeping kids busy and entertained can be a chore, but with these simple games it only requires paper, pencil and a little imagination.
Source:
- Today' Parent, Pencil and Paper Games, accessed May 2011
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