Age Range: 8 and Up

Time to Play: 30 Minutes+

Supplies or Materials Needed:
– Note cards or scrap paper    for each player
– Pen or pencil for each
player
– Timer, stop watch or watch

Charades Rules and Signals

This is a good time to go over the rules and signals the actor can use to show the guessers what he is about to act out. Knowing how to play charades makes the game more fun for everyone. Here goes:

RULES: No speaking. That’s about it for the rules.

SIGNALS: There are universal signals for the actor to use to indicate to his teammates what category he is about to act out:

Movie = Make an “O” with one hand held to one eye while the other hand, held next to the ear, is pretending to turn a crank (so it’s a dinosaur camera; they’ll get it).

Quote or phrase = With first two fingers of both hands make quote marks (I’m guessing we’ve all done this one).

TV show = Draw a square in the air with the pointer fingers.

Book = Put hands together in praying position opening and closing them.

Song = Dramatically open mouth, close eyes & pretend to be an opera diva.

Play = Pretend to pull on curtain cords.

MORE HELP WITH CHARADES SIGNALS

• The actor can show how many words are in the title or phrase by holding up that many fingers. If there is more than one word in the title or phrase and he is going to start with the first word, he can indicate that by holding up one finger. If the title starts with the word “The,” the actor can indicate that he will start with the second word in the title by holding up 2 fingers.
• Should the actor choose to indicate how many syllables are in a word he may lay that number of fingers against his arm.
• If it makes guessing easier for his teammates, the actor can signal a “sounds like” by pulling on his earlobe. This is often done of the word he is trying to act out sounds like another word that is easier to act out.
• Word Length: If the actor wants to indicate whether the word is big or little, he can hold his hands close together to indicate “little,” or his hands farther apart to indicate “big.” This type of hand signal can also be used to signal his team that the word they are guessing needs to be shortened. For example, if the team says “riding” and the word they need to guess is “ride,” the actor can signal by holding his hands close together, indicating that the team needs to shorten the word.

Visit my Pictionary Word List if you need a little help with word ideas. Depending on how long your game goes, you may run out of ideas. Let me help!

If you need even more words or you just want to have fun with seasons, I’ve got you covered. You can find Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer words on the seasonal Pictionary words list.