Wordier’s vocabulary game, Fish!, contains sets of synonyms, each chosen for their relevance to 11+ students.
The game includes instructions for Go Fish and Snap, but did you know there are lots of other synonym games you can play with your set?
Read below to find a new game for the whole family to play.
For 2+ players
As you can tell from its title, the FISH! game was originally designed to be played as per the traditional card game, Go Fish.
I always recommend starting with this particular game as it encourages oral repetition of the words, thus helping the sets of synonyms to become engrained more quickly.
Full instructions for FISH! are included in your purchased pack.
Once you’ve played a few rounds of Go Fish, there are a few other games you can play to refresh your child’s memory. These games have the added bonus of developing short-term memory and processing skills, which help with all aspects of life, including test-taking.
For 2+ players
Spread the full deck of cards face down on the floor. Players take it in turns to turn over two cards at a time. If the overturned cards are synonyms, that player can keep both cards. If the cards do not form a pair of synonyms, they should be turned back over and the next player takes a turn. Play continues until all pairs have been collected.
This is a great game to improve short-term memory, too.
For 2+ players
Cards should be shuffled and distributed between the players so they have an equal number of cards.
Players should take turns to place cards in a central pile. When a word is placed on top of its synonym, the first player to shout “Snap!” and to place their hand on top of the pile gets to keep all of the cards. Play continues until one player has all of the cards.
For 3+ players
Deal all cards out to the players. Players sort the cards in their hands by synonym group (i.e. they will group infrequently, rarely, scarcely and seldom, if they have them). The object of the game is to get rid of all your cards.
The player to the left of the dealer starts by placing any card down on the table. The next player looks to see if they have a synonym. If they do, they place it down on top of the card, saying “Snip”. If they have a second synonym, they place that down too, saying “Snap”. If they don’t, play passes to the next player, and so on. Whoever places the final card of that rank says “Snorem” and wins the right to start the next round with the card of their choice.
As gameplay goes on, children will become more strategic and learn that it is best to lead with a card in which they have more than one of a kind.
Here’s a video demonstrating how to play:
For 3+ players
This game is meant to be played at high speed, which means it’s good for developing processing as well as short-term memory skills. Of course, the high speed also makes it more fun for most children.
The instructions and video below explain this game in detail. As the video mentions, you can place the spoons in another room, if you wish, so that players have to get up and race to the other room in order to grab their spoon.
https://www.considerable.com/entertainment/card-games/spoons/
