The Circle of Life

The Circle of Life

For this game, all the participants sit in a circle (usually a small group-10 and under). A person starts with a word like “tree,” and then the next person says the next word that comes to their mind, such as “wood”-a word that is connected with the previous one. The idea is to go around the circle until the group finally returns to the original word.

Expert players will use as many puns as possible, for example, “dirt. rock. guitar.” A player’s main goal is to pass on a word that is connected to the previous one and yet is as distant from it as possible. This game will not work if players stay within the same category; for example, “teacher. school. chalk. desk.” One needs to be creative and think outside the box. Also, one can make leaps in their head and still get credit; for example, “tree, computer.” The connection between the two is the word “apple,” but the participant already skipped over it in his genius mind.

Players are allowed to question a player on their word choice, and the one questioned must explain his/her thought process. One final rule which must be unflinchingly followed; I call it the Napoleon Dynamite Rule: one may only respond to the previous word, not groups of words. For example, if the 2 previous players said, “Napoleon.dynamite.” the next player could not say, “movie” or anything having to do with that film. The player must respond only to the previous word said, in this case, “dynamite.” An appropriate response would be “explosion.”