ALPHABET SOUP

Skill area: Language Arts
Level: 3, 4
Equipment required: None
Modification: No

Lunchtime

It's lunchtime again, and the only thing to eat in the house is
alphabet soup. Alphabet soup isn't a bad lunch -- if you like soup,
that is. But the good thing about alphabet soup isn't the taste. The
good thing is that letters float up from the bottom of the bowl and
bob around on the top with the peas and the carrots. If you don't
have anything better to do, you can make all sorts of nifty words with
the letters.

How to Play

Today it's okay to play with your food. Sixteen letters float up to
the top in your bowl of alphabet soup. See how many words of 2
letters or more you can make with those 16 letters.

When you see a word in the line of letters, type it on the computer
keyboard. If you decide you don't like a word you typed, type the
symbol @, followed by the word. For example, if you've entered the
word 'zero' and decide you'd rather spell 'zebra', type "@zero" to
make zero disappear. The letters Z, E, R, and O will return to the
soupbowl, and you can use them again.

Before the game starts, you can decide how long you want the game to
last. If you're quick, make the time limit a minute. If you'd rather
concentrate on getting beautiful words than on spelling words quickly,
choose a longer playing time. If you've used all the letters you can
and the time still isn't up, press f1 to end a round early.

At the end of a game, you can press Y or N, indicating whether or not
you want to play again. If you want to play again but would like to
select a different time limit, press R to reset the time.

Scoring

The score is based on the word length and value of the letters in the
word. A six-letter word, for example, is going to be worth much more
than three two-letter words.

At the top of the soupbowl are the 16 letters you'll be using in the
round. Underneath each letter is a number. Letters that are harder
to use -- Q, X, Z, and some others -- are worth more points than
letters you can use anywhere. Try to use those big letters first.

The computer does not check to see if a word is spelled correctly, or
even if it is a word, so you'll have to be honest.

At the end of the game, your score will appear. Each word you created
will be printed together with the point value for that word. Then
you'll see your total score. Your score will depend a little bit on
which letters float to the top of the soupbowl, but your final score
will depend most on how good you are at making words with your food.