Body Boggle Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object
• Equipment
• Preparation
• Play
• Important
• Winning
• Variations

Object

Two players at a time use their hands and feet to spell out words on the letter mat. To win, a team must spell at least twenty words.

Equipment

Vinyl letter mat, a deck of 44 cards, and 2 guide cards (small replicas of the letter mat).

Preparation

1. Unfold the letter mat and place it on the floor so the letters are facing up. The mat contains 25 squares, each with a letter of the alphabet, except that the Q and the U are paired in one square. Vowels (a, e, i, o, u) are printed in red; consonants in black.

2. Decide upon the difficulty level of the words to be spelled. Each card in the deck has four words printed on each side, numbered from 1 (least difficult) to 4 (most difficult).

3. Divide the players into two teams. If there is an odd number of players, one team will have an additional member.

4. Each team chooses two of its members to be "Movers" who stretch across the mat to cover letters with their hands and feet, and one "Caller" who calls out and spells each word for his or her team's Movers. Any other team members provide moral support and guidance to their Movers. When playing with teams of 3 or more, new Movers and a new Caller can be chosen for each turn.

   If there is a two-player team, the two players are the Movers and a member of the opposing team acts as Caller.

5. Shuffle the deck of cards and deal them all out into two piles, one for each team.

6. Each team should have paper and pencil to keep track of how many words are spelled correctly by their team.

7. Decide which team goes first.

8. Take off your shoes.

Play

The two teams take turns playing in the following manner:

1. The two Movers stand anywhere next to the mat. The Caller takes the top card off the team's pile and reads aloud the word of the difficulty level agreed upon. Then the Caller spells the word.

2. The Movers move onto the letter mat and stretch to spell out the word using only their hands and feet. a. Only squares containing letters in the word can be occupied and these must stay occupied until the next word is spelled out. b. The Movers may use any hands or feet not being used to spell the word to help support and hold each other up, but they may not touch the floor or anything except each other.

   Example: If your team is spelling the word helium the two Movers will have a hand or foot on each of the six letters in that word, with two left over to provide support.

3. When a word is correctly spelled out, the Caller makes note of it on a score pad and places the card aside. Then the Caller picks up the next card from the top of the pile, reads aloud the appropriate word and spells it.

4. When the Caller spells out the next word the Movers move their hands and feet, one letter at a time, to occupy only the squares containing letters in the new word. Any hands and feet left on the mat from the previous word must be removed.

   Remember, the Movers cannot fall or touch anything other than the proper letters, but they may touch each other and help hold each other up.

   Example: Suppose your team is spelling the word helium and the new word to spell is hot-dog. You must remain on the H, move from the M to the O, from the E to the from the to the from the to the and from the to the

Important

1. If your team misses a word, that word must be respelled at the start of your next turn.

2. Letters which are repeated in a word must be occupied by hands and feet equal to the number of times they appear.

   Example: If your team is spelling the word bananas the two Movers must have three hands and/or feet on the A and two on the N.

3. The Q and the U are considered two separate letters, even though they are printed in the same square. If your team is spelling a word which contains qu the two Movers must have a hand or foot on the Q and another on the U.

4. The Caller or another member of the team should keep track of the number of words spelled correctly by his or her team.

5. When a team's Movers are taking their turn on the mat, the other members can help by indicating the location of letters on the mat and by cheering the Movers on; however, they cannot touch the Movers.

6. The opposing team is responsible for officiating and making sure that play progresses properly. This includes making sure foot and hand placement is proper and spelling is correct.

   • Proper Hand And Foot Placement: Hands and feet may overlap onto adjacent squares as long as the major portion of them is in the correct square.

Winning

The team to spell out at least twenty words wins. If the first team up reaches twenty words they should continue and spell as many words as they can until they fall or misspell a word or otherwise lose their turn. The second team then gets one more chance to try to spell more words than the first team. If they do, then the second team wins.

Variations

1. Each team, in secret and using the guide cards as a reference, thinks of twenty-five words of an agreed-upon length for the opposing team to spell. Try to think of words that will be difficult to spell because of the placement of the letters on the floor mat or because the same letters are used more than once in a word. Use these lists instead of the deck of cards.

2. Limit each turn to 3 minutes or until a word is misspelled, whichever comes first. If the Movers fall they must immediately get up and return to the edge of the mat and then respell that word. The winners are the team that spells the most words in the allotted time.

3. Pick out a category. Then, team members call out words in that category for their Movers to spell out. Keep going until the Movers miss a word or until time runs out. Words cannot be repeated by either team. Teams should write down the words as they are spelled to keep track of the score and to prevent repeating any words. The category can be whatever you wish.

   Here are a few to get you started:

   • animals
   • vegetables
   • minerals
   • cities
   • countries
   • cars
   • presidents' last names
   • words beginning with a certain letter
   • book titles
   • proper names

4. Think up your own variations!