Before a holiday break, I love to play Scattegories with my students. I base our classroom game on the original. 

Before game day, I create six to eight different lists of ten categories. Sometimes, I use the same lists as the original game, and other times I create my own with more educational items such as English terms, book titles, famous authors, famous protagonists, etc. 

Playing the game is easy. Simply divide the class into four to six groups. Give each group a piece of paper and make one member the secretary. Have a student pick a letter of the alphabet. The teams will have five minutes to think of one item for each category on the list that begins with that letter. Adjectives do not count! The teams receive points if you deem their word accurate and if no other team has the same word listed. If more than one team uses the word, they cancel each other out. The teams can earn bonus points for using the letter twice. For instance, if the category is US President and a team writes “Ronald Reagan,” they will earn two points as long as no other teams had him listed.

If you give it a try, get ready for a lot of laughs and friendly competition! What are your favorite games to play with students? Let us know in the eMediaVA Facebook group for teachers.

Heidi Speece is an ELA teacher with Virtual Virginia and an eMediaVA Ambassador.