This is a game, but compelling stuff.  A small group of ‘store detectives’ are asked to leave the room.  The remaining group agree on a ‘rule’ for what their ‘department store’ can sell – for example – the rule could be they could ‘sell’ anything:

red

plastic

beginning with the first letter of their first name

to a person of their sex, nothing to the opposite

edible

The store detectives can work together and anyone of the detectives who guesses correctly wins the round.  ‘Rules’ can be increasingly difficult as the game progresses.

Tell Me

This simple game was around in the 1960s and is still available in good charity shops everywhere.  The game consists of a simple spinner and a set of cards.  A player spins the wheel until it stops, revealing a letter of the alphabet.  A card is turned which specifies a topic, for example: a capital city, an animal, a hobby etc.  Instead of a spinner another set of alphabet cards could be used but get hold of the game if you can, I bought mine for next to nothing.  The game can be played straight but I offer a number of variations.  Instead of using the cards, after a player has been chosen, he or she must spin a letter and:

• start a story which begins with that letter.  Successive players must continue, sentence by sentence beginning with a letter chosen at random.

• talk about a subject beginning with that letter for thirty seconds (as in the BBC radio programme 'Just a Minute'.)   

• select an adjective and explain why or why not that word applies to themselves.

Vocabulary Game

Below are list of words which are not normally in everyday use.  These, or other similarly difficult words should be printed out on cards which are then given out, face down, as are numbered cards, one for each person in the group. The person with card one reads out their word and attempts to put it in a sentence. If they fail the correct use is given. Player number two is next, who tries to do the same thing.  If they can they keep the card, if they fail player 1 can try.  This continues until all cards are won.  The last player is given the opportunity to try player 1's word again, if he or she has failed.