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Do you remember playing the game Hangman when you were a child? It was a lot of fun trying to figure out those words before you had built a complete figure. This is a game that you can play on President’s day to help your children learn a few important facts as to why this day has become a special day to celebrate.

How to Play

Give each child playing a piece of paper and a pencil. Show them how to make their hangman’s gallows on the paper.

On separate pieces of paper you will make the words or phrases the children will need to guess. For instance one of them may be a President’s name such as Abraham Lincoln. On your piece of paper you will need to place seven dashes a space and then seven more dashes. Always be sure that these words and phrases are ones that your children can figure out and know how to spell. A dictionary can be useful in a game like this if the children think they may know what the word is but are not sure exactly how it is spelled.

Start with the youngest child. Have them guess a letter. If they guess a letter in the word or phrase place that letter on the appropriate dashes. Then that child because they guessed a letter correctly doesn’t have to add any body parts to the noose.

Play continues to the player on the right. If someone fails to guess a letter in the word or phrase they must start to build their body on the hangman’s noose. A body consists of head, eyes, nose, mouth, body, arms and legs.

If someone wants to try to guess what the word or phrase is on their turn they can. If they guess correctly they win the game if they don’t they must add a part to their body. After the word or phrase is guessed correctly you can move on to a new one.

If a person gets a complete body built on their noose they lose and are out the rest of the game. Play continues with the others until only one person is left or someone guesses correctly.

Submitted by Nicole