Tips for Playing Charades

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Charades is a fun game suitable for children and adults of all ages. This iconic game requires little in the way of materials and is easy and fun to play with small and large groups of people.
To start gather your supplies. You will want a stopwatch or something to keep time. If you have a clock with a second hand then you can simply use that. You will also need to keep score, so you can do that with a writing utensil and a piece of paper. You will need a variety of pieces of paper where you will write down topics. Finally you will need two baskets for the teams to keep the phrase slips. If you have no basket you can just keep them in piles on a table.
Start by dividing the players into two teams. You may do so randomly, or people can choose where they want to be. The teams should be equal in size (or with one more on one team if there is an odd number). You can have someone who is not playing act as a timekeeper or alternate by drawing someone from each team, suggests Scholastic.
The two teams should separate to locations where they cannot hear each other. The people should then write down phrases on each paper. Options include quotes, movies, plays, television programs, songs or books.
Now the game is ready to start. One player takes a piece of paper from the other team’s basket. The object of the game is to convey what is on the paper to the others on your team before the timer runs out (generally 3 minutes). Only you cannot come out and say the words. Instead you have to try to act out the phrase. For instance, if the word “chicken” is in the title, you will try to act like a chicken. If your team guesses the phrase, the clock is stopped and the time is written down. The next team will then go. You can play as many rounds as you want, and in the end the team that took the least total time to guess all of the phrases wins.
There are various standard gestures that one may use in charades. They will typically first indicate the category such as if it is a song or book. For instance, they may pretend to belt out a tune if the category is a song. They will then indicate the number of words and start acting out the individual words.
Charades is a fun game. Use it for family game night, a get-together or a party.