Word on the Street - Tips & Strategies

When playing with my middle schoolers I allow the kids to come up with as many words that fit the category as possible. It makes the game play a little more fast and exciting. It also makes them think of more words, as opposed to stopping after the first word they discover.

Word On The Street is a great family game – basically anyone who can spell can play the game. There is another version for children that is easier (it has all the letters of the alphabet, I believe).

Think of Word on the Street as a tug-of-war with words. Two teams take turns trying to “pull” the letters off their side of the board. On their turn, a team gets a category and must pick a word to spell… trying to come up with one that has the most letters on the board. Once the team decides on a word they then move letters toward their side of the board in the order that the word is spelled. If they get a letter all the way off the board it is theirs and scores at the end of the game.

The challenge comes in when your opponents have the majority of the letters on their side of the board or have scored them. Once all of the letters are off the board the game is over and whatever team has the most wins. I recommend that a different member of each team moves the letters each turn.

Not only is Word On The Street a fun table-top game, but if you have enough space it can be a great crowd pleaser too.

1. Get some boxes that are about 2’x2’x4″ tall(two large pizza boxes stacked on top of each other work well).
2. Wrap the boxes with paper and tape them. Plain brown paper works very well or paper grocery bags.
3. Either draw the letter on the covered boxes or cut them out with construction paper. With children add in the vowels to make the game easier.
4. Find a place big enough for a life-sized game of Word on the Street. A gym works well, but any lawn will do (as long as it’s dry). You can use smaller boxes if you have a smaller area.
5. You will need to mark off the gym/lawn appropriately to indicate where boxes need to be moved during game play. Tape, plastic cones, ropes, etc.
6. If you are playing with adults you may need to get a timer that gives extra time. We don’t want anyone falling over, passing out, or worse…
7. Now when a team comes up with their word the person whose turn it is will need to run back and forth to move as many letters as they can towards their side of the gym/lawn. They must move them in the correct order – according to the spelling of the word.
8. Gather a crowd to cheer (or laugh) for their favorite team… their turns will come soon enough.