The Ultimate FREE Party Game: Salad Bowl (Easy to Play & Super Fun for All Ages!)
Have you heard of The Salad Bowl Game? This FREE party game is perfect for your next gathering and we’re sharing the instructions!
If you love charades, you must try The Salad Bowl Game. 🥗
Looking for a fast, fun, and FREE party game for your next gathering? We have just the game for you to try! We’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about The Salad Bowl Game.
It’s an easy game that combines elements of Charades and Taboo. We tested it out and it’s super simple to learn. Plus, the supplies you need to play are most likely already in your home.
The Salad Bowl Game is appropriate for almost all ages so the kids can join in too! It’s best played with a group of 6 people or more so it’s perfect for your next holiday, family gathering, or party. Unlike some board games, if you have a BIG group, that is no problem! When it comes to this game, the more the merrier!
Have we piqued your interest? We have The Salad Bowl Game instructions for you. Keep reading to learn how to play!
Here’s how to play The Salad Bowl Game:
The object of the game: The team volunteer/player for each round has one objective and that is to quickly get their teammates to guess what is written on the slip of paper. If the team guesses correctly, the volunteer will grab another slip of paper and keep giving clues. Each team has 1 minute for their volunteer to get the team to guess as many secret words as possible.
How to score the game: Each team scores 1 point for each word they guess correctly.
How to set up The Salad Bowl Game:
Setting up the Salad Bowl Game is easy-peasy. Here’s a list of what you need:
- A salad bowl or any large bowl
- Several small pieces of paper
- Extra paper for keeping score
- Writing utensils
- A timer
Once you have your supplies, give each player 4-6 slips of paper and a writing utensil. Have them secretly write down a person, place, or thing on each piece of paper. You can use movie titles, fictional characters, and celebrities, too!
Once done, have the players fold their slips of paper and toss them inside the salad bowl (if you don’t have a salad bowl, you can use a pot or any other large container). No peeking! 🙈
Now for the Salad Bowl Game Instructions…
Ready to play? The Salad Bowl game is easy to learn and can be played with just 4 simple steps! Just follow these Salad Bowl Game instructions!
1. Make teams.
Divide the group into 2 teams with an equal number of players (larger groups may need to make 3 or 4 teams). Designate one player to also be a scorekeeper.
2. Choose the first clue giver.
Have each team choose a volunteer for the first round, pick the team that will go first, and set the timer for 1 minute.
3. Start playing! There are three rounds with different guessing methods.
Round 1 – Verbal Clues
The first round is similar to the game Taboo. Start the timer and the first volunteer will pluck a slip of paper from the salad bowl and look at the secret word or words written on it. For this round, the volunteer can only give clues using words. There are no props or gestures allowed!
The player may give clues using any amount of words they would like. The catch? They cannot say any word (or part of any word) that appears on the slip of paper. For example, if the slip of paper says, “skateboard” the player cannot say “skate,” “board,” or even “skater.” What they can say is, “Tony Hawk is famous for riding one of these.”
Once the time stops, the other team will have a chance to play the round. Once the round is finished, the scorekeeper will tally up the scores. Each team gets 1 point for each correct answer.
Round 2 – Charades
The second round is similar to the game charades and that means no talking! Have each team pick a new volunteer. Set the timer for a minute and let the first team’s volunteer begin. This player can use hand gestures but they cannot make words or say any sounds. 🤐 For example, if you get the word/movie title “Jaws,” you can’t hum the theme song, but you can pretend to have a dorsal fin.
Let each team take a turn and tally up the scores.
Round 3 – One-word only
Have each team nominate a new volunteer for the final round. This round is similar to the first except that players must keep their clues to a single word only, so make it good! The word they say aloud must not appear on the slip of paper.
For example, if the slip of paper says, “basketball net,” the player could give a clue like “Shaq,” “Jordan,” or “dunk.” They are not allowed to say, “net,” or “b-ball.” If the team is unable to figure out the word, it is up to you to set the rules on whether they can skip and try a new secret word instead.
Let each team take a turn and tally up the scores.
4. Score the game.
Add up the scores for each round. The team with the highest score wins the game!
Who knew such a simple and FREE game could be so much fun?! 🙌 If you need a game for your next party, this is one to try!
“This game is so fun for a really large groups of people, which is awesome as lots of board games are usually up to 6 or 8 players. With this game, if you have a very large group for a Christmas gathering or New Year’s, you can play with everyone! I think what makes it so much fun is that it really works for all ages. The little kids can still understand and get laughs out of it as well as the teens and adults. It’s a really, really entertaining game that my entire family enjoyed – and that’s coming from teenagers who are usually hard to please!” – Collin, Hip2Save
Hosting a holiday party? Check out our list of fun and easy holiday games!
We love this game. At Thanksgiving we played with ages 7-77!
YAY! Thanks for sharing how much you enjoy playing this game, and the ages of all who played it! 🥰
It is so fun and adaptable for any group.
We absolutely LOVE this game! Great with people of all ages and for large or small groups! Sometimes we even play it with a 4th round where you can only make a sound effect! 😂. It’s SO much fun!
That’s a great suggestion for the 4th round. Thanks for sharing.🙂💕
Best of 3 fun games. What’s not to love!! Thank you!
You’re SO welcome, Lydia! 💗
We call this the ”paper game”. We play each round until there are no more papers left in the bowl and a new team member has to be the clue giver and then all the papers are put back in the bowl for the next round after each team counts how many correct they got.
Thank you, I forced my multi generational family to play this. After about 2 minutes of grumbling, it was SO funny and so fun! We laughed like crazy and everyone loved it. Its hard to find something a tween, 2 teens, my husband and my elderly father can agree on and enjoy together. God bless you!!!
Yay! You’re so very welcome, Mollie!❤️🙌 Super glad this game was such a hit with your family! 🥰Thanks so much for the update and the kind words! Happy holidays to you and your family! 🤗
For Round 3 – one word only, are you only allowed to say one word and wait for them to guess? Or if your team doesn’t guess it, can you say another one word?
Great question, Kelly! Here are the details on that – ” If the team is unable to figure out the word, it is up to you to set the rules on whether they can skip and try a new secret word instead.” Hope that is helpful! 🥰
Haha! Okay thanks!!
You bet! 🤗
If the people playing the game are the ones that wrote the words, how does that work? Do they stay silent if their word is used?
Hey there! The players are free to guess. However, if their group feels this makes the game too easy, they can increase the amount of words in the salad bowl or otherwise modify the rules to fit their family’s needs. For example, use two salad bowls and have each team write the clues for the other team. Hoping this might be helpful, and happy playing! 🥰
Maybe a silly question. Suggestions for $10 gifts. Having a gift exchange with $10 limit $20 would be easy. I’ve walked a couple stores and thought for days nothing good comes to mind. I’m thankful for anything I get but have just gotten to the point of I don’t need more stuff.
Great question! If you have a Five Below near you, that may be a great place to shop for all sorts of items within that price range.
Here are some other suggestions that might be helpful too! 🤗❤️
https://hip2save.com/deals/group-gift-ideas/
https://hip2save.com/gift-ideas/
https://hip2save.com/deals/gifts-for-coworkers/
https://hip2save.com/deals/gifts-for-booklovers/
I think I found a good gift. The gift prize was for cousins that have young kids. Picked up a Mini waffle maker then went to the dollar store got pancake mix and small syrup. Could be the beginnings of waffle making and eating memories. I know I would have appreciated that when I had my littles.