Chain Reaction

Details

Chain Reaction is a team word game that rewards quick thinking, creative vocabulary, and enough strategy to keep things interesting. Teams attempt to build the longest unbroken chain before time runs out.

How It Works:
Each round, a category appears on screen along with a countdown timer. Teams race to write down the longest chain of words that fit the category, with one catch: the first letter of each new word must match the last letter of the previous word, and no repeats!

Example (category: Animals): Dog → Goat → Tiger → Rhino → Ostrich → Hamster → Rabbit…

When time runs out, the team with the longest chain reads it aloud. If every link holds up, they score the points. If their chain breaks, the next longest team gets their shot.

Setup:
• Divide students into teams (Groups of 3-5 work best).
• Give each team a whiteboard, notepad, or have them use the notes app on their phone.

Rules:
• Words must fit the category.
• Proper nouns ARE allowed.
• No repeating words within the same chain.
• A chain breaks the moment an invalid link is found; everything after that link is void.

Scoring:
• The team with the longest valid chain scores +2 points for that round.
• Each round has a Bonus word. Any team that used that word scores +1 point.
• The team with the most points after 12 rounds wins.

This resource includes: 

• Individual (12 rounds) game videos (mp4 files)
• 2 instruction slides (jpeg files)
• 12 bonus point slides (jpeg files)
• Title slide (jpeg file)