When I was a kid, Mad Libs were the rage. A Mad Lib is simply a letter or a story with important parts like nouns, adjectives, and verbs missing. One person asks for random words to fill in the blanks, then reads the results back to the crowd, often with hilarious results!
1. To start, you'll need to write a "love" letter or note. It doesn't need to be very long, but make sure that it has lots of descriptive words, actions, and items. I find it easiest to do this on the computer, but you can hand write it as well. Give yourself space between the lines.
2. Once the letter is written, go back and remove key words, such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives (see "Tips" below for simple explanation of what each is), put a line in place of the missing word, and make a note of what type of word you removed (number, noun, etc.) under the line.
3. Print your letter with its missing words and gather your friends.
1. Gather your friends and simply go through the letter asking for the missing words.
2. Write down the best/funniest suggestions from the crowd in the appropriate lines (e.g., you need a noun and the crowd yells out: "octopus, bike, car, mailbox" -- you will write in one of those).
3. When all the blanks are filled, read the letter back to your audience.
1. For a group activity, give each person the same letter (like our template, perhaps) and a pen and have them roam around the room asking for the random words. Once everyone has filled in their letters, collect them, and read a few of the funniest ones aloud.
2. Have people write their own mad libs. Choose a few to share with the crowd.
1. Keep your letters short, with no more than 10 to 15 missing words. It's more fun to do more letters than one long one that goes on and on.
2. You may want to list the basic description of what the different missing parts of speech are (noun, verb, adjective, etc.) so everyone is clear on what is what. Try It's a Mad Libs World for a simple overview.
3. For inspiration, and more downloadable mad libs go to It's a Mad Libs World.