Stop The Bus! is a fun word game that will help your child improve their vocabulary, general knowledge, and critical thinking skills. It involves selecting a letter of the alphabet and then trying to come up with unique answers starting with that letter for a set of pre-selected categories as quickly as possible. This is repeated five times, each time with a different letter, and the winner is the one with the highest score after all five rounds have been completed.
How Long Does It Take To Play? Each round of Stop The Bus! will take about two or three minutes to play, and all five rounds can generally be finished within fifteen minutes. If your children are having fun, you may want to play several games in a row, each with a different set of categories.
A simple score sheet for playing Stop The Bus! You can download a copy of this score sheet for free from here.
Ages: Six and older. The lower limit for playing this game is a basic understanding of what letters individual words start with, and a reasonable knowledge of vocabulary. However, the exact categories have to be chosen carefully to be age appropriate. For example, historical figures would probably not be an appropriate category to use for a game played with children at the youngest end of this age range.
Core Life Skills It Will Help Develop: Academic Skills – Vocabulary, General knowledge, Word choice.
What Do You Need To Play It? To play this game you will need a pen or pencil and a sheet of paper for each person that is playing it. If you wish to save paper, you can also use dry erase boards to play this game, but you will need one board per player. Alternatively, you can use pre-printed scoring sheets, such as the one you can download for free from here and laminate them to allow them to be re-used multiple times. If you are based in the UK, a set of re-useable laminated versions of this scoring sheet can be purchased from the link at the end of this post. If you are playing it against the clock (see variations below), you will also need a timer of some description.
Preparation: Other than providing pens/pencils and paper, dry erase board or a pre-printed score sheet for each participant, no preparation is required for this game.
How Do You Play It? This game is best played in groups, with adults playing alongside children as this helps the children learn new words and general knowledge. Each game consists of five rounds and the winner is the person with the highest score after all five rounds have been completed. If you are using plain paper, start by getting each person to draw out their own score sheet. If you are using pre-printed score sheets like the one you can download from here, then you can just pass this around. The first thing you need to do is decide on the categories which will be used during your game. You can choose six categories from the following list below, or you can select your own, just make sure that they are age-appropriate for all those playing the game:
Girl’s name, Boy’s name, Person’s name, Type of animal, Country, Capital city, Town or city, Place, Food, Band or musician, Song, Four letter word, Five letter word, Six letter word, Words ending in ‘ing’, Words ending in ‘er’, Fictional character, Historical figure, Film or book, Item in this house, Things you see in the street, Things you see every day, Things in the universe.
When choosing your categories, each person playing the game takes a turn to select a category until all six have been selected. Once you have selected your categories, fill them in on the front of this score sheet. To start the first round, one person starts by silently and repeatedly running through the letters of the alphabet in their head. The player to their left then shouts stop at a moment of their choosing and the person says what letter they were thinking of at that exact moment. This is the letter that will be used for the first round. Circle this letter in the alphabetical list of letters at the top of the front of this score sheet. It is now time to start playing the round. As quickly as possible, you must try to think of an answer for each category that has been selected which starts with the chosen letter. As soon as someone has an answer for every category, they shout Stop The Bus! At this point everyone must stop and score their answers. Hint: Any adults playing the game should refrain from shouting Stop The Bus! unless they are sure that none of the children playing will be able to complete the round in a reasonable time. If you want to get competitive with each other, you can play a game within the game where you nod to the other adults to indicate that you have completed your list and they should stop while the children carry on.
To score the round, you get five points for a correct answer if someone else playing the game also got the same answer, and ten points if no one else got a matching answer. You then fill in your total score for that round at the bottom of the front side of this score sheet. Next, clear your previous answers, letter choice and scores for each category. You are now ready to start round two. To do this, keep the same categories, and repeat steps three to five. This carries on until you have completed five rounds. The winner is the person with the highest score after all five rounds have been completed.
When And Where Can You Play It? This game can be played anywhere where there is space for each person playing to write down their answers.
Download: Score sheet for playing Stop The Bus! (rules included): You can either print out multiple copies of this sheet, or you can print out a set and get them laminated. This will effectively turn them into a dry-erase board, that can be used multiple times if filled in with a dry-erase pen (see links to useful products below). Alternatively, if you are based in the UK, you can purchase set of re-useable laminated versions of this score sheet from the link in the useful products section at the end of this article.
Variations: In the main version of Stop The Bus! each round is stopped when the first person has an answer for every category. However, you can also play it against a pre-selected time limit of three minutes. This is particularly useful if you are playing with kids with a range of ages and abilities, and some children are always finishing much faster or slower than others.
Links To Useful Products For This Game
Magnetic dry erase board: A magnetic dry erase board is one of my favourite tools for playing games with children to help them develop their core life skills, and it is perfect for drawing out a scoring sheet for this game. Of those available, the one found here is my preferred option as they come in a range of colours and are a great size. Dry erase pens: Dry erase pens can be used to write down your answers on a dry erase board, or on a laminated version of the score sheet which accompanies this post. If you don’t have any to hand, you can find a range of suitable set of pens here. Digital timer with magnet: If wish to play the timed variation of Stop The Bus!, you will find a digital timer very useful. If you don’t have a suitable timer already, you can find a range of digital timers here. Re-useable laminated scoring sheet: While you can download the scoring sheet which accompanies this post for free, we also offer the option for you to purchase a set of re-useable laminated versions for just £4.99, including free postage to any UK address (sorry, this option is not currently available for non-UK parents). For this price, you get a double-sided laminated score sheet, featuring the score sheet shown above on one side and a copy of the rules on the other, as well as a free dry erase pen for each score sheet, and cloth for wiping them clean.For Parents Based In The UK
Magnetic dry erase board: A magnetic dry erase board is one of my favourite tools for playing games with children to help them develop their core life skills, and it is perfect for drawing out a scoring sheet for this game. Of those available, the one found here is my preferred option as they come in a range of colours and are a great size. Dry erase pens: Dry erase pens can be used to write down your answers on a dry erase board, or on a laminated version of the score sheet which accompanies this post. If you don’t have any to hand, you can find a range of suitable set of pens here. Digital timer with magnet: If wish to play the timed variation of Stop The Bus!, you will find a digital timer very useful. If you don’t have a suitable timer already, you can find a range of digital timers here.For Parents Based In The
USA
About The Author: This post was written by Colin Drysdale, the creator of How To Raise A Happy Genius.
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