Poodle Word Game: For Wordies & More

Word association games come bundled with so many benefits! Besides the fact that they’re a fun hobby and a terrific way to spend some time off, they are also educational and a means of personal development. Word association games are known for:

• Involving players in an active or passive learning process 
• Increasing vocabulary skills
• Improving spelling skills
• Enhancing cognitive skills
• Training focus skills
• Promoting constructive competition
• Improving memory
• Creating a social bond
• Relieving stress
• Boosting the mood

In conclusion, you must learn how to play the ‘Poodle’ word game! It’s such a fun and effective group game! Let’s teach you how to do it properly.

What is the ‘Poodle’ game?

The ‘Poodle’ word game is all about verbs, connections, and wild guesses. If the players are a bit too young to know what a verb is, you can explain it in terms of ‘the action within a sentence’. 

The word game ‘Poddle’ consists of replacing the verb within a sentence with the word ‘Poodle’. (And just like that, you’re smiling. Think of all the great contexts you can create! We told you this was gonna be lots of fun!) 

Is the ‘Poodle’ word game like Wordle?

No. The ‘Poodle’ word game and ‘Wordle’ are two different things.

‘Wordle’ is a game hosted by The New York Times, in which you have 6 shots at guessing a 5-letter word. The tiles of the letters have different colors, to show you if the letters you’ve picked are in the word, and in the right spot or not.

• Green = the letter is correct and in the right spot
• Yellow = the letter is correct, but in the wrong spot
• Black = the letter is not in the word

You may find the game here. 

Materials and equipment

To play the ‘Poodle’ word game, you don’t need anything. That’s what makes it a great indoor game, as well as a camping activity for kids, a fun outdoor game for families, or a nice distraction for a backyard gathering. More than that, you can also play the ‘Poodle’ word game online. Turn it into a Facetime activity with your friends or into a quick icebreaker with your work colleagues, during your virtual coffee break! 

Players 

Anyone can play the word game ‘Poodle’, as long as they understand the verb’s meaning and role in a sentence. Ideally, you need at least 3 players to kick things off.

Skills and abilities

As we’ve mentioned in the introduction, the ‘Poddle’ word game tackles quite a few skills:

• Listening and concentration skills – pay attention to the others to figure out the verb behind ‘poodle’ 
• Memory – remember the previous sentences and clues uttered by the other players so far
• Logical thinking – discover a pattern in the sentences and clues given
• Vocabulary

How to play the ‘Poodle’ word game?

1. Ask one player to think of a verb and keep it a secret. Let’s say, John thinks of ‘dreaming’.
2. Next, the other players start asking John questions in order to try and guess the word.
3. Here’s the fun part: the secret word is always replaced with ‘poodle’. 
4. Here are some ideas of how the questions for this ‘Poodle’ word game might look like:

• How often do we poodle?
• Does it take a lot of effort to poodle?
• Can I poodle on my own or do I need help?
• Do we need special clothing to poodle?
• Do we poodle outside or inside?
• Do we poodle during daytime or nighttime?
• Is poodling painful or enjoyable?
• Who poodles the best among us?

5. When John answers the questions, he is also supposed to replace ‘dreaming’ with  ‘poodle’. He is also free to give more hints and info than required.
6. The player who guesses the verb is the next one to come up with a secret word of his own.

If you enjoy challenging your sharpness and vocabulary skills, you can find other great games from the same category, on eTeamBuilding:

• The ‘Password’ game
• ‘Fishbowl’
• The ‘Green Glass Door Game’