Words in Words Game

I am an Activity Director at a long term care nursing home. WIth the COVID-19 hitting all of us hard, nursing home specially, my aides and I are having a really tough time being able to do activities with the residents. Being stuck in their rooms, or having to wear a mask is NOT fun at all. We do video chats every morning with the ones who are set up to do so, but for the rest of them, it sucks. They are bored and need something to do. We are able to take up to 8 residents in the dining room to do activities with them, but they have to be at their own table. We can play some games using our large whiteboard but it's still very challenging. If anyone has any fun ideas that we can do with the social distancing, much would be greatly appreciated!!

We do this activity at work but called word.Spaghetti instead

Woow. Thanks so much for all the fun tips. Will incorporate them into the care of the elderly hear. Kindly post more activities. I'm new in this area but the passion is massive.

What a great idea Janice
This way you can get staff and residents involved and can work together

This is a great game, the residents love it. I leave the board out so that anyone can go back to add words.

I am an a activity director in the United States. In the state of Kansas. And I had a few residents come to this activity this morning and they made a total of 130 words from this word Pedestrian. They had lots of fun. Enjoy looking at this site. They have great activities. Melanie

Hi all...
Just come across this site some fantastic ideas. Started my new position as activities and wellbeing coordinator a month ago although I was senior carer before for 3 years so I know all my residents really well.i will definitely be doing lots of these fab ideas
Thanks you

Love your ideas! I’m new at activities and am wondering about seasonal or holiday crafts with residents who have very different ability levels with scissors, etc. Help please! :)

our residents on the residential side love these word search games, but the residents on the EMI unit not so, but we plod along

I use lists of words that are commonly used every day and ask the residents to make a sentence using the two words.
Words like went and saw are good for dementia residents and on our residential floor I make it a little harder for them with words like hedge and balloon or pardon and shout. It is very funny. I go around the room asking each resident in turn but they often help each other which is brilliant team and friendship building between them.
I also made a grab bag of giant laminated words, like place, laugh, believe, cheese, angry, singer, pets, season. I have around 40 in my bag and all of them can be conversation starters. I have endless fun with "words".

Do you allow two and three letter words. My residents like to start with 4 letter words and
don't allow two and three.

I've been playing this game for yrs with my residents. We call it search a word. And usually use sayings, like Beautiful Spring Day or Memorial Day Today... Resident love covering the board
with words. I also started a game where we just make words. I give the first 3 letters like cha or shi and they make word in a row down on board. Usually 5-6 each. Chair, chalk, chase etc The Next row down chi or Che .. They love this. Says it get them thinking and most can come up with words. Then I'll go harder with whi words whe, wha etc

Our residents really love the words in a word game. They also enjoy picking up my spelling mistakes. They look forward to so much we have it on the program every week. This is a good game for high and low care residents. Our residents also enjoy hang - man.

hangman and words in words are great ideas!!! I usually use them, is a lot of fun!!! and give opportunity to everyone, especially during hangman, as each participant get the opportunity to say a letter, even if the cognitively is not there a 100%,
thank you for posting such a great help this website.
Regards
Rosa

Good Morning Every One,
I am new to this site and I am enjoying reading every thing.
I am a memory care coordinator and I am always looking for ways to engage our residence through words.
I love this idea using the white board and making words out of other words.
We also play a game called Name That Letter. We have all the letters of the alphabet each printed on a card. A resident draws a card and we try to make as many words with that letter as possible. In memory care it takes a little time and encouragement but we come up with some great words. Example Name that letter "A" what is a word that starts with an "A". Most every one can name a word with "A" I also look for the person who's name starts with the letter. This game is fun, engaging and our guest can join in.
Thanks and have a Happy Day

Hi Roslyn, thank you for your feedback, it is much appreciated. Here are other words that have possibly 100 plus words: Unbelievable - Entertainment - Promotion – Distraction - Amusement.
All the best!

Hello, just letting everyone know that this is a GREAT activity.I work at Trangie MPHS & the residents came up with 149 words from PEDISTRIAN. We put the word on a white board in dining area. This was the discussion at meal times over several days. Thank you so much for the idea.
Ros

Our lastest game using the whiteboard is Going around the room each resident gives me a letter of the alphabet and I write it up on the board. They then have to make a sentence using each letter. Works really well for us.

Can you all give me some starter words that you use for the word in a word game please - I'm new to this!

Hi I am looking for some great activities for my clients for a day centre I need 10 any ideas?

Hi there is so much to choose from I'm printing things every night love the sound of this game so off tomorrow to buy a white board only been doing activities for one and half months it seemed so easy when I was cleaner to play odd game or quiz but full time a different matter the golden carers are brilliant.

Excellent for residents!!!! Thay enjoyed and got 122 on pedestrian, not bad l will add this to my calendar twice a month, thank you

Another sucessful word game we play is..beat the alphabet. List the alphabet ..leaving room to add on the found word. Provide a theme to work within...Names...Countries, famous people , diseases, etc..and then work thru the alphabet..If we get stuck on a letter we leave it and move on ...asking staff family and residents through out the morning to problem solve too.

Excellent entertainment Kathy, variety keeps them going!

Other than finding words in words, our game afternoon includes:
- Brain Teasers and picture riddles on board to start (to keep residents entertained while I am preparing)
- hang man (people's names, sayings, phrases like Merry Christmas)
- scatergories (having a list of items like food, profession, etc and picking a letter they have to start with. e.g. 'S')
- writing a four letter word on the board and having each resident change one letter to make a new word
- words unscramble
- memory (putting ten items out on display, briefly, and having them name them all at the end of the activity)
- find words with a certain word in. e.g. cat, a word meaning to throw around - sCATter
- Just a few we use. I always try to change it up and use a theme, if relevant. For New Year's I will decorate with streamers and balloons, and have word games relating to it. I also try to be mindful of those who have limited sight, so activities where you don't have to write anything down or read is good.

Hi Margaret, I experienced the same thing. When we played 'Word Game' everyone was interested: management, gardener, kitchen staff, nurses, and cleaners! It was so much fun!

we play similar to this regularly as our 'whiteboard Quiz'. I will particularly use "special events" as the header..... mother's/ father's day; Melbourne cup ,Christmas, happy new year, Easter hat parade, football finals/teams; Remembrance day, ANZAC Day, St Patrick's Day etc.....possibilities are endless and the residents, staff and even visiting relatives get involved.

We also play this game, and to make it more interesting, we put the word on a piece of paper in the staff lunch room for the staff to try and outdo the residents with the number of words! makes for very interesting lunches! :)

Congratulations Colleen! That's fantastic!

We play this game in our facility on a regular basis, our residents all love the challenge. Today we used the word "pedestrian" to see if we could better your scores and achieved a score of 244. We are all so proud of ourselves!!

We have played this game for years. To make it more personal I use the full name of residents playing the game. eg Jonathon Micheal Smith

Geraldine
For my spring theme, I used the word springtime for my word in word game and we got a least seventy words. Springtime is also great for an activity for reminisce, it lifts the clients spirits.
Cheers Ger

We play a game called boy,girl animal,country,flower it can be played with residents who are able ,give them a pen and paper and write these titles at the top of the page ,someone says a letter in the alphabet and they write the name of a boy , girl ,animal ,country, flower starting with that letter If they have the same name as someone else they get 5 points and if they have an original answer they get 10 points.For those who can not write or poor vision we use a white board and they call out and Iwrite the names . It creates a lot of fun and it makes everyone think some of the answers are funny and questionable thats part of the fun....Jean

Thanks Paula for sharing,what a great idea. Looks like I have my next project for work.

We play word mat in our dementia facility, we have a old piece of curtain and on the backing its divided up into squares each with 1 letter from the alphabet then we ask a resident to throw a quoits hoop or bean bag on to the mat and then what ever letter it lands on they have to come up with as many words as they can with that letter or sometimes I just give them a letter to use.

Ok the challenge is on to beat 155 for PEDESTRIAN. (we allow a proper name IF he/she is in the room!). We do this every week along with a selection of other word games such as anagrams which can be adapted to suit - 3 letter ones up to 8 letter ones. Sue

Thanks for the idea ladies. I have a mixed bag program this afternoon, which is unfortunately going stale due to a turn over of residents. I think this one might be the shot.
Have a good day. :)

Kathy, exactly what I have been doing, with great success. Sometimes giving them the first letter to help find the word. Although I find myself more in the dementia unit now, I will try with small words and any amount will be an absolute bonus. Cheers.

I do this every week with my residents, and they never seem to tire of it. Our goal is usually 100 words. On the internet you can get all the solutions for a word, so to make the activity a little more interesting, you can give clues for certain words they have to find. For example, one of the words might be lounge, so you could give them the clue that the word they have to find is a piece of furniture.

I put the word Pedestrian to my residents for a challenge to see if they could beat the original 122 word score and they managed to find 150 words which was amazing from just one word. Very good game - especially for the competitive sorts. Thanks.

Hi Ann, thank you for the feedback. I am also very successful with word games. Not long ago I had a session with early stages Alzheimer's residents and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

we call this activity Words in a word and we managed to get 201 words from uncopyrightable. I use words that have all the vowels in them. next time I will try pedestrian and see how we go. Another good word game is words that sound like Say. Words don't have to end in ay e.g. neigh, weigh etc.

I have that game on my monthly activity planner and call it whiteboard trivia, they have words in the sunday telegraph that I use we get the answers the next day and most times we get them all right.

H Nicole, you and your residents ought to be congratulated!

We played this game at our facility and found 155 words in pedestrian I was so proud of the residents

Hi. We play ward game
Rules: no less than four letter words,no plurals and no proper nouns
We will try PEDESTRIAN

Hi there,
We used the word PEDESTRIAN for a word game and I informed our clients that another place had found 122 words. Well the challenge was on and they found 169 words before we had to stop for lunch. Visiting relatives eagerly joined in and we had a great time.
Amanda.
Qld.

Hi Peter,
Welcome to Golden Carers. Yes , this is a very popular game and usually gets everybody involved; residents, staff and visitors.

This is a wonderfull game, we call it in in our famaly in Germany "Worte herausholen" (= Make words out of it). We played it after the last war(1945) in the time in wich it was not possible to buy other games. Today we like to play the game sitting in the train or waiting for the meal in a restaurant.

Super.We have used the same idea using song titles, this gets everyone involved. For the visualy impaired we have used shorter titles like the months of the year and it is amazing how many words they can give you verbally.

Great, another version is to do the same with the letters and then use boys/girls names, foods and animals that begin with that letter! This is successful in high care or low care - Cheers Sandi