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Lesson Plan 3 - Charades

To identify words and phrases through the use of pantomime and spontaneous acting.

Lesson Procedure

Charades has many variations but all have one element in common: a player, without speaking, writing, touching, or pointing at an object, acts out a word, phrase, or idea for others to guess. This is best suited for advanced classes. Charades is usually a team game and is more exciting if played that way, but it can be played with an individual student acting out a word or phrase for the entire class to guess.

If it is played as a team game, one group makes up words or phrases for the members of the other team to guess; there should be one assignment for each player, written out on a slip of paper. When it is their turn, a player takes one of the slips prepared by the opposing team, reads it and immediately begins acting it out. They are timed, 3 minutes is about average for each player. The other players on his/her team must try to guess what is being acted out. They must work as fast as they can because a timekeeper, with a stopwatch, will check how long it takes each player to act out their word or phrase. The team guessing the most words or phrases in the shortest time wins the game.

Signals are allowed, such as nodding the head for yes and shaking it for no. If a word is to be guessed, the player may hold up the number of fingers representing the syllables in the word. The student may indicate whether a word is short or long by holding his hands close together or far apart. Many signals are permitted but they must be agreed upon before the game begins. Holding both hands together, palms up, for example, indicates a book, meaning that the title will be acted out. A movie can be pantomimed by pretending to grind the handle of a movie camera. A song title can be indicated by miming singing.

Each member of the team doing the guessing can shout out any word or phrase that comes to mind and should do so without waiting their turn. Time is of the essence in Charades.