Scripturdle for Seminary: A Teacher's Guide to the Free Daily Word Warm-Up

Scripturdle for seminary is a free daily word game that takes about two minutes. Each day there is one five-letter word, and starting December 28, 2026, every word comes from that week's Come, Follow Me reading in the New Testament. You put the board on the projector. Students scan a code and vote on every guess from their phones, and when the class solves it, everyone reads the verse the word comes from.

This guide covers how to set it up, how phone voting works, what to do without phones, and how to turn a two-minute puzzle into the opening of your lesson.

What Scripturdle is

• One word a day. Guess the five-letter word in 6 tries. Green tiles are the right letter in the right spot, gold tiles are in the word but in a different spot, and gray tiles are not in the word.
• Words from the week's reading. There are 364 daily words for the 2027 New Testament year, December 28, 2026 through December 26, 2027. Each one appears in that week's assigned chapters in the King James Version, and no word repeats during the year. Easter and Christmas weeks draw from the resurrection and birth chapters.
• A verse with every word. When the word is solved, the screen shows the verse it comes from with the word highlighted, plus links to the chapter and that week's lesson page.
• Warm-up words until the course starts. Until December 27, each day has a warm-up word from across the New Testament, so you can try it with your class now.

How to set it up in under a minute

1. Open weakthings.com/pages/scripturdle-seminary on the computer connected to your projector or TV.
2. Tap Projector (or Start projector mode).
3. Choose the word. Today's word is first, and you can also pick any earlier day from the last two weeks.
4. Leave Let phones vote on if students will use phones, or turn it off to play on the big screen only.
5. Tap Start on the big screen. Use the full-screen button in the top corner if you want the browser bars out of the way.

Way 1: students vote on their phones

With phone voting on, the big screen shows a QR code and a four-letter game code. Students scan the code or open the Scripturdle seminary page and add the code. There are no accounts, no app, no email and no names, so nothing to moderate.

Each student types a five-letter word and taps Send my vote. They can change their vote until you lock in a guess. The big screen shows how many students have joined, how many have voted, and the top votes with a bar for each.

When you're ready, tap Lock in the top vote. You can also tap any word in the tally to use it, or type a guess yourself on the keyboard. The tiles flip on the projector, every phone updates with the same colors, and the next round of voting starts.

When the class solves the word, or runs out of guesses, every phone shows the answer and its verse. Tap Next word to play another day's word with the same code.

Tip: Ask students to put phones face down as soon as the verse appears. The verse is your bridge into the lesson, and it works best with eyes up.

Way 2: projector only, or teams

No phones, or a phone-free building? Turn off Let phones vote. The class calls out guesses and you type them in. It's still a whole-class puzzle, and it works well for small classes and online classes with a shared screen.

For a little competition, tap Teams. Split the class into 2 to 4 teams, such as rows or sides of the room, and give each team a name. Teams take turns making one guess each. A team earns 1 point for every new green letter it finds, and the team that solves the word earns 6 points on the first guess down to 1 point on the sixth.

Stuck? Show the verse

After four guesses, a Show the verse button appears. It shows the verse with the word left blank and the name of the book. Students often get the word right after that, and they've just read a verse from the week's reading to get there. You can turn the hint off in Settings for an extra challenge.

Why a two-minute word game works

A small daily recall beats one big review

Being asked to recall something strengthens memory more than reading it again. In a well-known study, students who practiced recalling a passage remembered more of it days and a week later than students who restudied it. A review of 317 experiments found that spreading practice out over time leads to better long-term memory than packing it into one session. One word a day is a small, spaced reason to think about that week's chapters.

The verse is the point

The puzzle gets students curious, and the verse gives that curiosity somewhere to go. Ask one question about it before you move on. In a study published in Science, students who discussed a question with peers answered correctly more often afterward, even on a new question answered alone.

A note about phones

Pew Research reports that 95% of U.S. teens have or can use a smartphone. Scripturdle uses phones for one short task, then hands the room back to you. Our suggestion: phones out for the puzzle, face down for the verse, away for the lesson.

Six ways to use Scripturdle in class

1. Opening warm-up. Two minutes of energy at the start of early-morning or released-time seminary.
2. Lesson hook. Solve the word, read the verse, and start the lesson with "Why do you think this word matters in this chapter?"
3. Friday catch-up. Play the words from earlier in the week that the class missed.
4. Row vs. row. Use Teams mode and switch up the teams each week.
5. Substitute plan. The game runs itself, and the verse gives a substitute a natural discussion starter.
6. Send it home. Students can play the same word on their own phones, and families can play the family version with the same daily words.

Questions teachers ask

How much does Scripturdle cost?

Nothing. It's free, with no paid tier, and students don't need accounts.

What do students need to join?

Any phone with a web browser. They scan the QR code, or open the Scripturdle seminary page with the four-letter code. Game codes expire a few hours after the last guess.

Can I play a word from another day?

Yes. In projector mode you can pick today's word or any day from the last two weeks. Future words stay locked, so nobody can get ahead.

Do the family and seminary versions use the same words?

Yes. Both pages use the same word each day. The seminary page is set up for the projector and teams. The family page is set up for home, with a "Play together" mode for taking turns.

Is Scripturdle an official Church resource?

No. It's an independent study game made by Weak Things. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Use it alongside the official seminary curriculum.

Try it this week

Open Scripturdle for seminary and put today's warm-up word on the projector. For a longer weekly review, pair it with Seminary Showdown, and for more free classroom games, see our guide to free seminary games.

Sources

• Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16507066/
• Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16719566/
• Smith, M. K., et al. (2009). Why peer discussion improves student performance on in-class concept questions. Science, 323(5910). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19119232/
• Pew Research Center (2024). Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/12/12/teens-social-media-and-technology-2024/
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: New Testament 2027. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/come-follow-me-for-home-and-church-new-testament-2027?lang=eng