Guggenheim (pronounced "GOO gan hime") is a word game that requires nothing more than two pencils, two sheets of paper and a timer. It's a fun way to improve your memory, keep bored children occupied or help students study.
There are at least two ways to play Guggenheim, but
we'll focus on the more challenging method here. First,
create a grid on a sheet of paper. (See our visual
example below.)
On the left side of your paper, draw a vertical
line to create a thin column.
It should be just wide enough
to accomodate
a capital letter. Next, draw four more vertical lines
to create five columns of equal width. Don't worry...
Your lines can be less than perfect.
Now create the rows. Start at the top of the page.
The first row should be just big enough for one line
of writing. Draw four more horizontal lines to create
five rows of equal width. Your Guggenheim sheet is ready!
The players should choose a five letter word. The letters
of this word will be written in the thin column at the
left of the page, one per row. To avoid discouragement,
don't use "tough" letters like x and z. Next, the players
take turns choosing categories to go across the top,
one per column.
The categories are entirely up to the imaginations
of the players, but here's some ideas:
- Songs
- Athletes
- Movies
- Historical Figures
- Books
- Authors
- Musicians
- Actors
- Car Models
- TV Shows
- Sports Teams
- Animals
- Plants
- Cities
- States
- Countries
- Languages
- Artists
- Politicians
|
 |
If you were studying for a test on the Periodic Table,
you might have a category called "Elements". Likewise,
if you were about to go to a family reunion, you might
jog your memory with
a category called "Relatives".
After all the categories are chosen, the players decide
on a time limit. usually, this is 15 or 30 minutes.
The goal is to list as many items under each letter
of each category as possible.
For example, if your word is STRAP and your first category
is "Authors", the first box might have "Shakespeare,
Shelley", the second box might have "Tolstoy, Tolkien"
and so on. Handwriting is not graded. As long
as you know what it's supposed to say, you're ok.
Different players may mean different things by their
responses, so be specific. For example, there are
many
authors with the last name of "Anderson".
Give a first name or book title as well. There have
also been several hit songs with the
title "Superman". Specify which one
you're alluding to. You can list more than one as long
as you make it clear that each item is unique.
Guidelines for deciding if an item is acceptable or not are up to you. You can use group consensus, an encyclopedia, the Internet...whatever you agree is fair.
Scoring depends in part on the number of players. For
two players, each unique item counts as 10 points. If
both players have the item, for instance "Shakespeare",
it's scratched off. For three players, each unique item
gets a full 10 points, two players with the same item
get 5 points each and if everyone has the item, it's
scratched off.
You can adjust scoring accordingly, depending on how
many players you have. Of course, the more players,
the more complex the math, but that could be a benefit!
For four players, you might give unique items 10 points,
two players with the same item 5 points each and three
with the same item 3 points each.
In addition to being just plain fun, we can testify
that playing Guggenheim regularly can prevent nouns
from getting stuck to the tip of your tongue. So...exercise
your brain and save your pride!
