Mad libs for kids are a great way to teach them about story creation, parts of speech, all while playing and having a great time.

Enjoy!

To The Moon!: An Outdoor, Mad Lib Adventure

By Jean Oram

The other day I was playing a video game when it started to act all _________________ (ADVERB). I decided to go outside

where it was ___________________ (WEATHER). I put on my _________________ (PIECE OF CLOTHING) and went

out. To my surprise it was really ___________________ (ADJECTIVE).

I wandered around, a little bit _____________________ (MOOD), before finding a ________________________

(NOUN) in the _____________________ (NOUN). I carried it around with me before putting it on a

______________________ (NOUN). I stared at it. I knew it would make something really ____________________

(ADJECTIVE) but I couldn’t figure out what. My friend, ____________________ (NAME)

__________________________ (NOUN) with my new found thing. All afternoon we worked. We used a

_______________________ (NOUN) a lot. But then I banged my ________________________ (BODY PART) with it

so we decided to use ________________________________ (NOUN PLURAL) instead. That worked and before long we

had a ________________________ (ADJECTIVE) ______________________ (NOUN) that looked like it had been

______________________ (VERB PAST TENSE) through a ____________________ (NOUN).

By now we were getting really hungry and so when a ________________________ (ANIMAL) _____________________

(VERB PAST TENSE) by, my friend tried to eat it. He said it tasted like _________________________ (FLAVOUR) when he

licked it. He likes _______________________ (SAME FLAVOUR) but sometimes it gives him the

_________________________ (VERB PAST TENSE). That’s not as fun as it sounds.

After my friend’s snack, we looked at our creation for awhile and realized if we moved the ____________________ (NOUN)

on our project to the __________________ (DIRECTION) it would look just like a space ship. Maybe we could go to the moon!

When our ship was ready, we _________________________ (VERB PAST TENSE) in and breathed in the

______________________ (ADJECTIVE) outdoor air. The sun was starting to go down and it looked like

______________________ (FOOD PLURAL). We pushed the _______________________ (ADJECTIVE) on our project

and rode off into the sunset like we were a couple of ________________________ (SOMETHING SILLY). We were off to the

moon!

Mad Lib Instructions:

1. Print off this mad lib or paste it into a word processor so you can fill in the blanks.
2. Get one person to read out what ind of words they need (adjective, noun, etc. as shown in capital letters behind the blank) to fill in the blanks of the story (don’t read the story out loud yet.) Have the other person call out words to fill in those blanks.
3. Read out the story with it’s new words and try not to laugh too hard!

Reminder on parts of speech:

Noun: An object. Think of it as something you could pick up and put in a suitcase. Like a cloud, person, table, etc.
Adjective: A describing word. It describes a noun. Such as a beautiful house or a strong man.
Verb: A doing word. An action. I ran, walked, jumped, squealed, and swam.
Adverb: Describes a verb (and action). Ends in “ly.” He shouted loudly.

This mad lib has been created by Jean Oram (copyright 2012) as part of It’s All Kids’ Play.ca. If you would like to share this mad lib with others such as your class, please go ahead with attribution (mention my site as the source). Thanks.

Take turns with a friend or bunch of friends and switch between ‘unfortunately’ and ‘fortunately’.

Start with unfortunately.
For example:
First person: “Unfortunately our essay that was due next week is really due tomorrow morning.”
Next person: “Fortunately, I have mine done.”
Next person: “Unfortunately the teacher added an extra page.”
Next Person: “Fortunately, mine was two pages over.”

Make this a family activity: Play together in the car, around the supper table, or anytime you feel up to a little playing.

This activity promotes positive problem solving and thinking in opposites.

Everyone sits in a circle and claps or slaps their legs to a rhythm (like: clap-clap, clap, clap-clap, clap or if you are slapping: slap-slap, slap, slap-slap, slap). Once everyone has the rhythm, one player starts the categories by saying “I am thinking of kinds of…. (and says what the category is and then adds in their item).”

They say this in rhythm to the clapping or slapping. The next player in the circle joins in after one clap or slap by saying something that fits in the category.

Go around the circle until all players are out of ideas or someone misses a beat. Players are normally sent out of the game for missing a beat, but you can also play where they keep playing.

Example:
Person one: (clap-clap, clap) “I am thinking of kinds of clothes” (clap-clap, clap) “hat”
Person two: (clap-clap, clap) “socks”
Person three: (clap-clap, clap) “pants”
Persons four: (clap-clap, clap) “t-shirt”

Category ideas: clothes, candy, places, things that grow, TV shows, books, people, relatives, food that is red, animals, electronics, teachers in your school, sports, dog breeds, song titles, names, school subjects, ice cream flavours.

Make this a family activity: Instead of playing a board game on family game night, try this one. This game can also be played in the car. (The driver doesn’t have to clap or slap though!)

This activity promotes timing, word association and grouping skills.

How to play the telephone game:

Have everyone sit in a circle. One player makes up a sentence—silly sentences are good—like, “On Sundays giraffes walk sideways in peanut butter.” They whisper their sentence in the ear of the next player. That player repeats what they heard to the next player, and on and on until it reaches the last player.

The sentence can only be whispered to a player once. If someone forgets or doesn’t hear it all, they have to repeat the sentence to the next player as best as they can. The last player in the circle says the sentence out loud and the player who made up the sentence tells everyone what the sentence really was. Sometimes it is very different!

Make this a family activity: Sit in a circle with your family and see if the telephone gets broken.

This activity promotes listening and memory skills.

Here’s the catch: both players can ONLY ask questions. If playing with more than two players, switch players out as they mess up (they don’t ask a question).

Here is an example:
Person one: How are you?
Person two: What do you mean?
Person one: What are you crazy?
Person two: No, are you?
Person one: Sometimes, but how are you?
Person two: I’m fine (and they are out because this isn’t a question!).

Hint: The conversation doesn’t always have to make sense.

Variations: Make it harder—players have to reply right away (no pause to think about what they are going to ask) or they are out.

Make this a family activity: See who can ask the most questions without messing up.

This activity promotes quick thinking.