How to play hangman

Most kids love a guessing game and hangman not only keeps them occupied, but it will test their spelling too. Keep their minds busy by printing out this hangman game with ready-drawn gallow and the alphabet printed at the bottom for guessed letters.

What you need:

• computer with internet access
• printer
• pencil or pen

Number of players:

Activity:

Playing hangman is a great way to keep the kids guessing and learning without even knowing they are doing it!

Step 1. Print out the free Hangman game sheet.

Step 2. Choose who goes first.

Step 3. Player 1 suggsets a word without telling their opponents what that word is, but instead writes down a dash for each letter in the word. For instance, if the word was "cat" there would be three dashes.

Step 4. Other players take turns in guessing the letters in the word.

Step 5. Player 1 crosses each letter off the alphabet line on the printable sheet to indicate that letter has been chosen. If the letter IS in the word, player one is to write that letter on the dash in the word. If it is NOT in the word, a body part is drawn on the noose part of the gallow from the printable hangman sheet.

Step 6. If the word is guessed before all the body parts are drawn, the opponent wins. If the body parts are filled in before the word is guessed, player one wins.

Notes:

• Body parts include: head, body, 2 legs, 2 arms; you can also add eyes, nose, ears or even hair depending on the rules set at the start of the game.
• Winner has the next turn.
• Word lengths can be set in the rules at the start of the game depending on the age and ability of the children playing the game.

Click here to print the hangman game for kids.