The Fishbowl Game (aka: salad bowl game) is a really easy and fun game for family game night, teen sleepover party games, youth group activities, birthday party games, or holiday game ideas. It’s easy to play with supplies you have at home. It’s also a great ice breaker activity for work or kids’ activities.
All About The Fishbowl Game (The Most Fun You’ll Have with a Bowl Full of Paper!)
What is the Fishbowl Game?
The Fish bowl bowl game is a fast-paced game and hilarious group game that combines elements of Charades, Taboo, and old-school Password into different rounds of game play. It’s fun for groups of friends of all ages from kids to adults, kids’ activities for parties, or easy DIY family game nights.
Players work in teams to guess prompts (words or phrases) over three different rounds, each with unique rules.
It’s fast-paced, easy to learn (and an easy DIY game to make), and is a great game to get everyone involved and laughing.
If you’re looking for fun group trivia games or challenge games for adults, this is a good game!
- TIP: Don’t miss our pre-made word list for the Fish Bowl Game below! KEEP SCROLLING!
Fishbowl Game Overview
The goal of the game is for each team to pull a word or phrase from the fish bowl and then guess as many prompts as possible across three rounds.
The team that scores the most points by correctly guessing the prompts wins.
Each round gets progressively more challenging, starting with verbal descriptions, moving to one-word clues, and finishing with charade (with no talking!).
The thing I love most about this game is that you can play it with supplies you have at home already, no need for special purchases or time-consuming setup! Just a game with household items!
How many players do you need for Fishbowl?
To play Fishbowl, you need at least 4 players — two teams of two people.
However, the game is more fun with a larger group, like 6 to 12 players or more. That way you have enough people on each team to make the rounds more fun and competitive.
This is one of one of those games that more players you have the crazier and more fun it gets. So, the more, the merrier!
How To Play The Fishbowl Game Step-By-Step Instructions
Fishbowl is played over three rounds, each with different rules for how players give clues to their team to guess words or phrases written on slips of paper.
The objective is for your team to guess as many prompts as possible across all rounds before the timer goes off.
Let’s start with game supplies…
What You Need:
- At least 4 players, but more makes it more fun. (It’s a great game for large groups.)
- A small fish bowl people can reach into (or other container or bowl) for the word slips / pieces of paper. *I just picked up a small, cheap fish bowl shaped decoration at the dollar store and now I use it for candles and holiday decorations, too!
- Thin slips of paper and pens. (MY TIP: I find cutting up Post-It Notes really fast and helpful for this game. Just discard the part with the sticky on the back.)
- Pens (TIP: Do NOT use markers like we did when we first played this game. You can see the answers through the paper!)
- A timer (1 minute per turn) — the timer on your phone is fine.
EASY GAME TIP: You can also pre-print words (see our list below) to save time.
Setting Up For FishBowl Game:
- Divide into two teams of equal size (or as equal as you can get). If you’re playing with a very large group, you can split them into smaller teams of 3-4 groups.
- Give each player 3 slips of paper and have them write down a random word and/or easy phrase on each slip without showing other players. (One word or phrase per slip.) These prompts can be people, places, things, actions (like doing something) or feelings — just tell people not to make them super complicated. They should be well-known and every day items people will generally know (especially if you’re playing with a mix of kids and adults). I find giving people hints to get people started is helpful. You can give them examples like, “Santa” or “Movie Theater” or “Rainy Day” or “Football Game.” Remind everyone that people have to guess these (including your team!), so you don’t want to make them too hard. You may get some duplicates (especially if you’re doing theme words), but that’s OK.
- Fold up the slips of paper and place them in a bowl.
GAME TIP FOR SMALL GROUPS: The larger the group, the more slips of paper you will have. If you are playing with a smaller group but want longer game play, give each player 4-5 pieces of paper to write their word or phase prompts on.
- THEME GAME TIP: If you’re playing the game for a birthday party or another theme (like a football party, as a Christmas game, or another theme), you can make a rule that all the words have to be theme related. Like for a birthday party, the words would be the birthday child’s name, birthday cake, balloons, party punch, etc.
Directions On How to Play Each Round of Fish Bowl By Rounds
Fish bowl is played in three rounds: Describe It, Give One Word, and Act It Out.
Round 1: Describe It (like Taboo)
This Round: Describe the word or phrase using as many clues as possible without saying any part of the word or phrase.
- One player from Team A draws a slip from the bowl and has 1 minute to describe the word or phrase using as many clues as possible, without saying the word or using gestures.
- Team members try to guess the word or phrase.
- If the team guesses correctly, they keep the slip and the same player quickly draws a new paper prompt and tries to describe that one.
- If they’re stuck, the player can pass once per round.
- Keep going and try to get your teammates to guess as many word or phrase prompts in 1 minute.
- After 1 minute, Team B takes their turn and repeats the process. Alternative back and forth between teams in 1 minute intervals until all slips of paper in the bowl are gone.
- At the end of the round, tally scores by counting the number of prompts (slips of paper) each team guessed correctly. Write the scores down and loudly proclaim which team is the current loser. (That last part is optional, of course. It’s just how we play.)
- Fold the slips of paper and place them back in the fish bowl, shake to mix well, and move to Round 2.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If the announcing player accidentally says part of the word for this round, they are immediately out. The timer stops and play passes to next team. For example, if the word is Football and they say, “A ball you throw” they are out because they said part of the guessing word (“ball”).
GAME PLAY EXAMPLE: The phrase is Football Game. The announcing player says “Something you watch on Sundays.” If no one gets it they then say, “Friday Night Lights.” If someone guesses it, they put the slip of paper aside and then pull another slip of paper from the fish bowl and start the process over. Keep going to try to get as many in before the timer runs out.
Round 2: Give One Word (like the Password Game)
This Round: Only say one word to describe the word or phrase. For example, if the word is “football” the clue giver may say “Sunday” or “Sport” (and can’t say “foot” or “ball”).
- A different team (and different designated players) start first this round. (Or, you can play the team who won the last round gets to go first.)
- The designated player from the new team draws a slip of paper prompt out of the fishbowl. This time the clue-giver can only say one word to describe the word or phrase, but can’t say part of the word or phrase.
- If the team guesses, quickly choose another slip of paper and start the process. You can pass one time only per player prompting (per round), if needed. If the player says more than one word or accidentally says part of the word or phrase, then the turn ends and play passes to next team with the timer reset.
- After 1 minute, the next team takes their turn and repeats the process. Alternative back and forth between teams in 1 minute intervals until all slips of paper in the bowl are gone.
- At the end of the round, tally scores by counting the number of prompts (slips of paper) each team guessed correctly. Add the score to the scores from Round 1 for each team.
- Fold the slips of paper and place them back in the fish bowl, shake to mix well, and move to Round 3.
GAME TIP: It’s helpful if you have a good memory and can remember some of the words from Round 1!
ALSO TRY THE GRATITUDE GROUP GAME!
Round 3: Act It Out (like Charades)
This Round: Act out words or phrases without using any words (which is not my favorite round, tbh).
- For the final round, players act out the word or phrase without speaking. For example, if my word is “football” I might move my arm back like I’m throwing a football and then run to the other end of the room like I’m catching a football.
- Teams alternate 1-minute turns until all the clues are used, like in previous rounds.
- This round ends the game.
Fish Bowl Game Scoring
- After each round, tally the number of correctly guessed slips for each team for a running total of rounds.
- At the end of the third round, the team with the most points wins!
GAME TIP: Give out fun winner ribbons or medals like this or a game trophy to the winning team to up the competitive energy!
Bonus Fish Bowl Game Round
If you want to add a bonus round for the Fish Bowl Game, you can add a Pictionary round where players draw as many of the designated prompts as they can in 1 minute without using any words or without acting out any words. Just drawing!
GAME PLAY TIP: I love these for drawing games.
50 Ideas For Fish Bowl Game Words And Fun Game Phrases
If you want to print your own words and have everything ready for your game night when guests arrive, you can steal our list of words for the Fish Bowl Game!
Creative and Fun Ideas For Fish Bowl Game:
- Reading
- Disco Dance
- Chicken Nugget
- Ninja Turtle
- Marshmallow
- Bubblegum
- Grandma
- Unicorn
- Toaster
- Spaceship
- Shoes
- Pizza Party
- Walking Dogs
- Banana Split
- Superhero
- Ice Cream
- Zombie
- Monster Under the Bed
- Popcorn
- Rodeo
- Toothbrush
- Belly Laugh
- Soap
- Pirate
- Crying
- Snowball Fight
- Sunglasses
- Dinosaur
- Robot
- Drinking Coffee
- Sleepy
- Playing Soccer
- Eating Hot Dogs
- Laundry
- Swimming
- Blowing Out Birthday Cake Candles
- Laptop Computer
- Spying
- The Hokey Pokey
- Drinking Something Hot
- Making a Cake
- Shark Attack!
- Race Car Driver
- Pillow Fight
- Rollercoaster Ride
- Alien
- Newborn Baby
- Milking A Cow
- Driving a Car
- Teacher
ALSO CHECK OUT THIS FUN GAME – most people play it for a Christmas game, but we’ve adapted the game for a birthday theme, Halloween game and more!: Saran Wrap Ball Game Rules, Free Printable Coal Cards, Secret Tip
Have fun with the fishbowl game!
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