Outline Category
One of the first steps to take when acting out charades is to inform team members what category the phrase fits in. Main categories used in charades include movies, songs, stage play, book, TV or a quote/phrase. Guide teammates to the proper category by starting off with a category gesture. For example, if the phrase is a book title unfold your hands like they are a book or for a movie act as if you're cranking an old-fashion movie camera. For quotes or phrases use your fingers to make quotation marks in the air and with the song category pretend as if you're singing.
Outline Number of Words
Outlining the number of words within a phrase is a good idea for steering teammates in the right direction. Before or after introducing the category, hold up a specific number of fingers based on the number of words in the phrase. For example, if the phrase is "Cat Jumped Over the Moon" you would hold up five fingers. Next, hold up one finger to indicate you're about to pantomime the first word of the phrase. Continue for the second, third, fourth and fifth.
Length of Word
Informing teammates the length of the word may help guide their answers. Do this after you've divulged the category and number of words in the phrase. Once you hold up the appropriate finger to represent the word number, hold your hands closely together for a short word or far apart for a long word.
Developing Phrases
Hand all the players five slips of paper and a writing utensil and instruct them to write a phrase for each category. Write the category at the top of the slip followed by the charade phrase directly underneath. If you do not want to use the standard book, movie, stage play, song and quote/phrase categories, brainstorm with the group and come up with five categories. After each person has written down his charade phrases, fold the slips in half and place the slips into a hat, box or some other container.