How to Play Charades

Directions for How to Play Charades 

Choose a player to start the game. The player thinks of a book title, a famous person's name, a saying, a movie title or a song title to pantomime. He should choose something with which the others will be familiar. If you like, designate a category like sports or Disney.

The player then pantomimes the word or phrase he's chosen to the other players.

Here are some common clues used in charades:

• To indicate a book, pretend to read a book.
• To indicate a song, pretend to sing.
• To indicate a movie, pretend to crank an old movie camera.
• To indicate the number of words, hold up that many fingers. (Then hold up one finger before pantomiming the first word, two fingers before the second, and so on.)
• To pantomime a word that rhymes with the word you want players to guess, first tug on your ear to say "sounds like."

The first person to guess the word or phrase gets a point.

If you like, divide into teams before playing. Players from each team take turns pantomiming for their teammates. The first team to guess the word or phrase gets a point.

Keep track of the points earned by each player or team. The one with the most points at the end of the game wins.