ABC Picnic Game

The ABC Picnic game is designed to help kids recognize letters of the alphabet in words that they use everyday. It also enforces spelling and quick thinking.

To begin, have kids sit in a circle. You stand in the middle of the circle and ask the questions expecting each child to fill in the blank with words that begin with the letters of the alphabet that is the same as the answer given by the 1st child.

Give kids only a few seconds to think of an answer before moving to the next person or question.

For example, you would start by asking the 1st question:

"We're going on a picnic and we're going to take _________? "

The blank must be filled in by the person you point to, with the appropriate word.

If the 1st answer is "blankets", the next person must answer the same question with a different word that begins with the letter 'B'.

After you have received a sufficient number of answers to the 1st question, you will lead off with another question:

"We're going on a picnic and we're going to eat ________? "

Again the blank must be filled in by the person you point to, and each person answering the same question must give an answer that begins with the same letter.

If the 1st answer is "cookies", each answer following must begin with the letter 'C'.

Additional questions that can be asked are:

...we're going to play _______ ?

...we're going to see _______ ?

...we're going to ride _______ ?

...we're going to read _______ ?

ABC Picnic Game Variations:

1. You could lead off with the 1st answer using the alphabet of your choice to give the kids an idea of what you're looking for.

2. You could also go in alphabetical order and see how many words the group can come up with for each letter of the alphabet. For example, answers to the 1st question would look like this:

"we're going to take Apples, Books, Crayons, Dolls ....

3. The word picnic can be replaced with other words such as vacation, airplane, safari, or boat.

This game sounds pretty simple, but you'd be surprised how kids of all ages are challenged by the quick thinking skills required to come up with different answers.

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