Teaching Children How to Play Charades

Write simple words on paper or paste pictures of items on index cards for young children who cannot read. Place the words or pictures in a container or neatly stack them on a table. In general, the game of charades is used to mime titles of a book, movie, television show or song or a phrase, but the simplest way to teach children is to start with basic words until they get the hang of the game. It will build confidence as they correctly guess words.

Grab an adult and show an example of how the game is played. Mimic each aspect of the game so the children can follow your example. Reach into the container holding words and pull one out. Read the word. Set a timer to 30 seconds to create a clear start and finish time and prevent the game from continuing indefinitely. Press start on the timer and begin acting out the word. The other adult should begin guessing. When time is up, stop acting. If the person guessing the action correctly calls out the word within the given amount of time, he receives a point. However, if no correct guess is given, nobody receives a point.

Tell one child to grab one card out of the pile. Explain she needs to keep the word she is about to read or see a secret. Show her the card. If the child is having difficulty figuring out a way to act out the word, offer suggestions.

Advise the child acting out the word to make no noises and to exaggerate his movements. Show him an example of exaggerated motions by using both of your arms to wave and using one hand to wave. Explain both arms catch attention better than the smaller movement made by one hand.

Squeeze a bike horn or blow a whistle when time is up to help children remember to stop guessing when time is up. Tell the kids because not one of them correctly guessed the word in the allotted amount of time, nobody will receive a point. However, if one of the children called out the correct word, tell the children that child will receive a point. Mark the score on a large piece of paper or on a chalkboard so the kids have visual representation of who is winning, because the person with the most points is the winner.

Add new words, actions and ideas as children get better at the game. In addition to simple words like monkey, playing baseball and reading, include titles like Row, Row, Row Your Boat or an action such as reading a book.