Fun game for hiking teens: Five-Letter Word

"Sally". "Three letters - one y and two l's."
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Generally, exploring and discovery is enough for kids, but sometimes even they can grow bored with that and become restless. Remember that they naturally have shorter attention spans than adults.

Fortunately, there are lots of tried and true activities you can do on the trail that’ll keep kids from getting bored. Among them is Five-Letter Word.

This is a challenging game that smart teens will enjoy; you may have to play at a rest break so that some can keep notes on paper! Have a “dealer” select a secret five-letter word. Each player in turn then gives a different five-letter word; as those words are spoken aloud, the player who selected the five-letter word tells how many letters they have in common. For example, suppose the secret word is “Billy”; a player might say “Sally”, and the dealer would respond “three letters – one y and two l’s.” The next player might say “above”, and the dealer would respond “one letter, b.” The first player to unscramble all of the letters and guess the correct word wins and becomes the dealer.

The game can be modified in a couple of different ways. To make it more difficult, the dealer can dispense with saying which letters the players’ words have in common with the secret word. To make it easier, reduce the number of letters in the words, so that this becomes “Four-Letter Word” or even “Three-Letter Word.”

Materials: None (though pen and paper may be used)

Ages: 14 and up

Learn about more than a hundred other hiking diversions for kids in Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities.