Literacy Activities Handbook - Saskatchewan Association of Rehabilitation Centres

Activity: Overhead Hangman

The traditional game of Hangman can be a fun vocabulary-building exercise for learners. A “Mystery Word” is chosen, and learners have a fixed number of guesses to pick letters that appear in the word. If the learner can fill in enough of the letter blanks before running out of turns, she may be able to solve the “Mystery Word” and earn a point.

A template for this activity, shown on the right, appears in Section 10 of this Handbook.

The template can be photocopied onto a blank overhead transparency, and the game can be played with a group of learners. The “Mystery Word” letters can be written in with non-permanent overhead markers. Pennies can be used to cover the appropriate squares on the template:

For the “Mystery Word,” the unused blanks can be covered before starting the game. If the word is boat, as in the example, three spaces will be covered.
After each “Guess,” a number can be covered. If you want the game to be harder, you can cover the later guess numbers prior to starting play.
The “Used Letters” can be covered as the learner chooses them.
For each win, a number in the “Words Solved” section can be covered.

The game can also be played on paper, using a pencil to write the chosen letters. The letters can be erased for the next game. Scrabble® tiles can be used to cover spaces and fill in the letter blanks in the “Mystery Word.”