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This is a nice game that you can play with your child, or they can play with siblings or friends. It develops spelling ability and is a fun warm-up before other English work.
1. One player says a letter (for example A)
2. The next player decides whether they want to put a letter before the first letter or after. The letter placed must have the potential to lead to a word. Player Two chooses T, making AT (in this case a complete word already, but it doesn't have to be - AC would be fine, or AZ, so long as a word can be built from each move in the end). Player Two says 'Ghost T'. 'Ghost' means 'afterwards'.
3. The first player must add a letter, again leading to or making a word. Player One decides to put H before AT, making HAT. She says 'Superghost H'. 'Superghost' means 'before'.
The game continues - HAT could become HATE (ghost E) or THAT (superghost T) or CHAT (superghost C), which could become HATED or CHATS or CHATTING (over a number of turns).
The game can be played collaboratively, where you together try to make the longest word possible, or competitively, where the aim is to always be able to continue the word - if on your turn there is nowhere left to go, you lose a point or drop out of the game.
If you think the previous player has made a move that can't lead to a word (so, in our example, if HAT had been made into HATX), you can say 'Challenge', and that player must say the word they were thinking of, to prove it was a valid move. If playing competitively, you would lose a point for an incorrect challenge, or they would if the challenge was correct.
The game can be played with several players - just go round the circle, each taking a turn as above.
