Mastermind

This is a great game for those logical mathematical thinkers.

Procedure

• Think of a word (start with a four-letter word until your learners understand it, then you can do it with longer words) and mark four lines, like you would in a game of hangman.
  ___ ___ ___ ___
• Ask the students to guess four-letter words and write them up on the board under the four lines.
• The key for telling students how close they are to the target word is:
  two ticks = right letter in the right place
  one tick = right letter but in the wrong place
• As students make each guess, you give them the results in key form.
• To give an example, you are thinking of the word HOME and a student guesses the word HELP.
• They would get two ticks for the H as it is the right letter in the right place and one tick for the E which is in the word but in the wrong place. They keep on guessing until they find the pattern and guess the whole word. You can set a limit of 20 guesses.

Thanks to Ray Smith for demonstrating this one so well in a recent training session.