How to Make Your Own Scattergories Game

Make your own Scattegories-type game with just a few stationery supplies and some imagination. Scattegories is a fast-thinking game, played under a time limit, in which the players quickly fill out a category list with appropriate items that start with the same letter. Collect points for answers that other people haven't come up with. At the end of three rounds, each round with the same categories but with different letters, the player with the most points wins.

Measure six inches from one side of a sheet of the 12x12-inch card and make a mark with a pencil. Repeat this twice more from the same side of the card. Place a ruler across all three marks and draw a line with a pencil. This divides the card in half.

Place the card with the pencil line upwards. Score very lightly across the pencil line with a craft knife. Fold the card along the pencil line towards you, forming the folder.

Create six folders. Decorate the front of each folder with writing, drawings, collage, photos or any other type of art.

Create a table with three columns and 13 rows on the top half of an 8.5x11-inch sheet of paper. In the first row, write "one", "two" and "three" in the center of each column, for each of the rounds of the game. In column one, number the remaining rows from one to 12, and draw a line across the rest of the column. Repeat this for columns two and three. This creates the answer grid.

Draw an identical table on the bottom half of the sheet of paper. Make 30 copies of the answer sheet and cut them in half crosswise between the two tables. This creates 60 answer sheets.

Place 10 answer sheets together and staple them at the right-hand side, forming an answer book. Create six answer pads. Place each answer pad inside a folder, on the right-hand side, and tape the bottom answer sheet down to the folder.

Use the same table format as the answer sheet, including the column headings and row numbers. In the top table, on each numbered line of the first column, write a different category. Create different categories for columns two and three, ending up with 36 different categories.

In the bottom table on the sheet, change the columns headings to "four", "five" and "six". Write different categories on each of the numbered lines in the columns, ending up with another 36 categories. This forms the category sheet.

Make six copies of the category sheet. Glue each copy to an 8.5x11-inch piece of cardstock. Cut out each table, giving two category lists of three columns each from each sheet.

Place one of each category list in each folder. Stack the cards and place them under the answer pad so that list one is showing on the left-hand side.

Draw 24 one-inch squares on a sheet of paper. Print each letter of the alphabet in capital letters inside a square, leaving out Q and Z. Glue the paper to a sheet of card and cut out each letter around the square. Place the letters in an opaque bag.

Collect a kitchen timer. Ensure that it can time a three-minute period.

Clip a pen to each of the six folders.