What Four? High Holiday Edition

Intro: I’ve always loved making connections in my head: grouping things together, playing with words, and finding common themes. This game is about doing just that -- with ideas from the High Holidays.  This game is inspired by The New York Times’ new game, Connections. If you’re familiar with that game, you’ll know exactly what to do here. If you’re not, no worries: keep on reading.  

How to Play: Each grid contains 16 words. The challenge is to divide those words into the correct 4 sets of 4 words each. Each set has a common theme, sometimes relying on homophones, synonyms, or idioms. While some words may seem to go together, each grid has only one correct solution.   

Game Use: You can use the game in multiple ways. Here are a few ideas: Project the grid on a screen and challenge players to solve them independently, print the puzzles and let players work in teams to find the categories, or solve the puzzles as a whole group activity. And afterwards, challenge participants to create their own or invite them in a discussion about the themes that came up.