Take Four

You need a little bit of space to play this game. To play it you need to make a set of scrabble letters, number scores included, on regular (or half-sized) sheets of paper.
Spread the letters face down in the centre of the room. Divide the youth up into a number of groups. Have each group designate a ‘runner’ to go and get the letters each time. To begin the game, have the runners for each group come to the centre and grab four letters and bring them back to their group. The first group to make a word or words with those letters yells “take one!” and the runners for each of the groups have to run up and grab another letter and bring it back. The first group to use all five letters calls “take one!” and again the runners for each of the groups have to run up and grab another letter. This continues until the last letters are taken from the centre. Then, the first group to use all of their letters yells “stop!” All the groups must stop immediately and put their unused letters aside.
To determine who has won, take the total score of used letters minus the total score of unused letters. All the words must be connected (as in scrabble) and must be real, correctly-spelled words. The group with the highest score wins. This game can get a little crazy so it helps to have someone in the middle to re-shout “take one!” so that everyone can hear. You can take it outdoors as well, just make larger, sturdier scrabble letters and find a field. Our youth really get into it and ask for rematches.