How To Play Fish Bowl

Check Out This Fun Party Game For Large Groups!

Anyone else love playing party games?  Games are one of my favorite activities.  I love to laugh, get competitive, and enjoy time with friends and family all while playing a game together.  One of my favorite group games is called Fish Bowl.  This game is the perfect mix of Charades, Password and Taboo.  I’m excited to share with you exactly How To Play Fish Bowl so you can enjoy it at your next party!  

How To Play Fish Bowl

Fish Bowl is a really easy game to learn and play.  I’ve played it in many different groups and it has always been a hit.  The perfect game for a group of mixed personalities!

1.  Gather Supplies

One of the reasons why I love this game so much is because it’s so easy to prepare.  You do need to gather a few supplies, but you probably already have them in your house.  To play Fish Bowl you will need:

• Blank White Paper
• Scissors
• Pens/Pencils
• Bowl (this can be an actual fishbowl, but is not necessary to play)
• Timer (I just use the one on my phone)

2.  Prepare The Fish Bowl

Now that you have your supplies, it’s time to prepare the “fish bowl.”  The original game was meant to be played using an actual fishbowl, but any bowl will work just fine.  Use whatever you have at home!

Cut your white papers into thin strips, they need to be big enough for players to write a word or phrase on.  Each player will need three strips of paper.  Once you have your strips of paper of cut, pass three to everyone playing.

Ask each person to write a noun on each one of their paper strips.  For example you could write, “pine tree”, “Santa Clause” or “rollerblades.”  You can make these words as vague or familiar as possible, but keeping mind that you want your team to be able to guess the word you wrote down.

Fold each of the papers in half and place them into the bowl.

3.  Split Into Teams

It’s now time to split into teams!  You will need two teams for this game, each with an equal amount of players in them.  I call the teams, Team A and Team B (so creative, I know 😉 ).  You can call the teams whatever you would like!

Have everyone sit in a circle, with teams sitting every other person.  So, players will sit: Team A, Team B, Team A, Team B, etc.

4. Round 1:  Taboo

Now, for the fun part!  Let’s learn how to play Fish Bowl!  This game is separated into three rounds.  Each round is played similar, but with a different twist.  The first round is the Taboo round.

Choose one person from Team A to start the round.  Give that player the bowl containing the paper strips and set the timer to 60 seconds.

Once the timer begins the player will pull a strip of paper from the bowl and describe the word on their paper while trying to get their team to guess it. first player will pull a strip of paper from the bowl and describe the word trying to get their team to guess it.  They can not say any part of the secret  word, or use any gestures.  So, if the word is, “Blanket” they can not say the word “blank” when giving the clue.  Instead they might give clues like, “something warm on your bed.”

Once the team guesses the word on the strip, set it aside and draw out another strip from the bowl.  Keep trying to get your team to guess as many words as you can before the timer goes off.

After the 60 seconds are done that player keeps the strips of papers their team guessed correctly, and then passes the bowl to the next player, who should be on Team B.

Play continues in this order until all words in the bowl have been guessed.

Once the round is over, have each team add up the amount of papers their team guessed correctly.  Each paper is worth one point for the team.

Fold the papers in half again and then place them back into the bowl.  It’s time for round 2!

5.  Round 2:  Password

The second round of the Fish Bowl game is the Password round.  Play continues similar to round 1, where each team takes turns trying to get their teammates to guess as many words as they can within the 60 second time limit.

However, this round you can only give a one word clue to describe the word on your paper.  For example, if the word is “blanket” you might give the one word clue of “bed.”  It really helps to try to remember the clues that were given in the first round and try to give your one word clue based off of the first round clues.

Let Team B start this round since Team A started the first round.

Once all of the papers have been guessed correctly, add up how many words each team guessed correctly and add it to your score.

Fold the papers in half and place them back into the bowl for the last round.

6.  Round 3:  Charades

The final round is the charades round (my favorite!).  Keep playing using the same routine as round 1 and round 1; passing the bowl around the circle and taking 60 second turns trying to get your team to guess the words in the bowl.

Only this time, you can’t say any words when trying to get your team to guess.  You can only use gestures to act out the clue.  So, if my word was “blanket” I would maybe act out getting into bed and pulling a blanket on me.

After all of the words in the bowl have been guessed add up the scores for each team one more time.

Whichever team has the most points at the end of the game wins!

In Conclusion

The fish bowl party game is so much fun.  It’s a great ice breaker to use at a youth activity or party.  I love teaching this game to new people, because everyone who plays it enjoys it!  Fish bowl is a game for all personalities and interests.

Try this game at your next get together, you will not regret it!!  Before long you’ll be teaching everyone else how to play fish bowl!

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I hope this helped you understand how to play fish bowl!