The Ultimate Parent’s Guide to Playing Scrabble Junior
Today, there are a plethora of board games available in the market. These games can be fun and educational, but the seemingly endless options do not make choosing a board game for your kids easier. This is true as most kids’ games have an educational element… Enter scrabble junior!
It’s said that playing scrabble promotes learning in children, teaches kids to use long words and much more. This is because the words that kids come across when playing scrabble sparks interest in learning what the words actually mean.
Want to learn more about junior scrabble? Grab your Thesaurus and read on!
What is Scrabble Junior?
Scrabble Junior is a letter-matching word game for your little one and their friends. As the ultimate crossword game for kids, players use lettered tiles to build words by placing them on an illustrated board.
The game includes a 2 sided game board with 101 letter tiles and 44 scoring chips. In this version of Scrabble junior, kids spell out the names of the items on the bright and colourful pictures.
By using the lettered tiles to spell out the pictures, kids gain confidence with reading and spelling. In fact, they do so in a fun and friendly way. Besides gaining confidence with spelling and reading, it helps kids develop their vocabulary as they grow.
What Age is Scrabble Junior for?
Scrabble Junior is for ages 6 years and over. The board game encourages conversation between kids as they discuss the meaning of the words. As such, the kids gain the ability to explain their words and even find new words to use in place of common words!
Not only that. They get to make friends with similar interests and also learn how to communicate. Since it’s easy to learn, the game creates memories through sharing knowledge about vocabulary and spelling. All this happens through laughter, a slight competitive element and the discovery of new words.
What Is the Difference Between Scrabble and Scrabble Junior?
Designed for 2 or more players, Scrabble and Scrabble Junior have lots of differences. First, Scrabble is an advanced version of Scrabble Junior. The former has 120 letter tiles where 118 of these tiles contain letters while two are blank. Scrabble Junior has 101 letter tiles, 19 less than Scrabble, changing some of the lesser used tiles to help kids find more words with the available tiles.
Second, both Scrabble and Scrabble Junior have a scoring system. But the former’s tiles and board have varying numbers and values which makes it easy to compute the points and determine the winner. Also, it makes the game competitive. With Scrabble Junior, players take one scoring chip out of the 44 chips from the kitty for every word they complete.
Lastly, Scrabble comes with four racks, while Scrabble Junior does not. However, they both come with a letter bag and instructions for the players.
What Are the Rules for Scrabble Junior?
If you’re the first player, play any two of your tiles either on the first letter of two different words or on the first and second letters of the same word. Each player will follow by playing each tile on an open first letter of any word or the next open letter of any word already started on the board.
Players must cover the letters of a word in the correct spelling order. For each word you complete correctly, you take one scoring chip from the kitty. If you complete two words using one tile, you collect two scoring chips from the kitty.
The illustrated board gives pictures for the kids to identify and then select tiles that will spell out their chosen word. The reverse side is played the same as regular Scrabble. You draw a set of letter tiles, place them down to formulate words and then score the word. The game ends when no new words can be spelt or all the tiles have been used up.
You can block another player from completing a word. Also called the blocking strategy, all you need to do is hold a certain tile(s). This prevents another player from completing a word(s) on the game board.
If there are no more tiles left in the pool, players must keep playing until all 101 tiles are on the board. The player with the most scoring chips wins.
Players have the option of flipping the double-sided game board for an advanced game. In this version, players create their own words and place the tiles on the board. The winner is the player with the most scoring chips.
How Many Pieces Are in Scrabble Junior?
As aforementioned, Scrabble Junior comes with 44 scoring chips, 101 letter tiles and a 2-sided game board. Inside the box, you’ll find beginner and advanced rules that will help you learn how to play the game but it is essentially the same. The illustrated board gives pictures for the kids to identify and then select tiles that will spell out their chosen word. The reverse side is played the same as regular Scrabble. You draw a set of letter tiles, place them down to formulate words and then score the word. The game ends when no new words can be spelt or all the tiles have been used up.
Overview…
Scrabble Junior is an easy word game for family gameplay. With loads of fun to play and great for learning, all you need to do is match letters to the illustrated game board. By doing so, you build words which help to improve your vocabulary and memory recall. Once your children have reached a level of understanding of spelling and word play, you can move on to the regular board. This game evolves with the players and it’s incredibly easy to set up, play and enjoy. Definitely worth picking up as an introduction to childrens board gaming!
Further Reading…
