letters of a word form the first two letters of the next.
Like this:
metal>>almost>>stone>>nest>>stare>>reverse>>seat>>
...and so on.

Word chains help students with their spelling because they
encourage them to recognize possible letter combinations.

You score 2 points for each letter used
If you have to find a word from a dictionary
you only score 1 point for each letter.
You can challenge the previous player if you think he can't
follow his own word. If you make a successful challenge,
your opponent loses the score for that word and loses his turn.

A typical chain will make the scoring clearer:Word | Comments
Picture | nominated by Sophie. (No score for the first word)
replace | Bill didn't use a dictionary so scores double: 14 points
celebration | Sophie referred to the dictionary to find this word so only scores single points: 11
onion | Bill scores 10
once | Sophie scores 8
cemetery | Bill scores 16. But Sophie challenges the word "cemetery" - she believes he doesn't know a word starting ry-. She's right, so Bill loses his 16 points and his turn. She can replace cemetery with another ce- word.
certain | Sophie scores 14....and so on.

If you want to see a video about this game click here: A video showing how to play Word Chains

USA Spelling Books
UK Spelling Books 
| <--- Click the appropriate link on the left for my list of recommended spelling books available from Amazon.
Roger Smith