10 Great Skills "Guess Who" can teach You

A Cover Photo of a Boy Learning


The skills that can be taught in this game:

  • Asking questions – The purpose of the game is to figure out WHO your opponent has chosen among the people on the board. You have to ask questions to figure out who they are, so you have to ask questions that distinguish one person from another.
  • Answering questions – You have to answer yes/no questions based on the person you chose in order to help your opponent narrow down the choices to one person on their side of the board.
  • Descriptive vocabulary– In order to narrow down your choices, you have to use descriptive vocabulary (big teeth, red hair, small nose etc)
  • Comparisons – When deciding what question to ask, you have to look at your choices and figure out how they are different in order to determine what you can ask that will ‘knock down’ more people at one time.
  • Similarities – You have to look at your choices and see how they are the same and they are different. You have have one person with glasses, but 3 people with white hair. Look and see how they are the same and yet different in order to make a distinction among them.
  • Turn-taking – You have to work one at a time and essentially work together by asking and answering questions. Each person taking their respective turn.
  • Color identification – You have to find ways to differentiate the characters/people in the pictures. Hair color or shirt color would be one of the many ways to set your person apart.
  • Listening – You have to listen to details in order to focus on what information you are not only giving but receiving in order to make the right choice in asking and answering questions.
  • Eye contact – This game should encourage you to look at the person you are talking to and asking questions to.
  • Articulation – If you are working on a specific sound, it can be incorporated in the words you choose to use. For example, if you are working on /s/ or /z/ or /r/, those sounds appear “every time” in the question “Does your person have ____?”

Sample questions:

  • Does your person have big/small teeth?
  • Does your person have brown/white/red/blonde hair?
  • Does your person have a bald head?
  • Is your person wearing glasses?
  • Does your person have their tongue hanging out of their mouth?
  • Does your person have their mouth closed?
  • Does your person have big/small nose?
  • Is your person a boy/girl?

Note: The electronic version of the game has many boards including “appliances” as well as different types of people (funny looking, kids, animals etc). So the questions can vary on where you would find the object, what its function is etc.

Expand the game: Design your own boards by cutting out pictures and making your own version.

You can purchase the game HERE.