Supplies:
1. Small pieces of paper to write on
2. Something to hold all the pieces of paper (i.e. hat, bucket)
Set-up:
Brainstorm a list of items for students to act out. You can make them themed or random. Then write them out on small pieces of paper, fold them up, and put them in a hat/bucket. Here's just a few random ones to give you an idea of what you could write:
- The Lion King
- Santa Clause
- 101 Dalmatians
- Justin Beiber concert
- a herd of cows
- Twilight
Pro Tips:
- We did a pop culture category once and it proved to be way too difficult for our younger kids to participate. Try to pick words or phrases the vast majority of your group would know.
- If only a couple kids on a team are doing the acting while it's their team's turn and the rest of the team are standing around, encourage them to all find a way to participate. Maybe send a leader onto the team to help all of them find a way to creatively act out the word.
How to play:
So, this is exactly like normal charades. Except instead of one person standing in front of their team acting something out for them, the whole team is going to act something out as a group for one of their teammates.
You'll need to separate your students into 2 teams (if you have a huuuuuge youth group you may have to do several teams and go off into different parts of the room). Select one person from each team to be the guesser. Try to pick someone you think would be well acquainted with whatever words you will be playing with. (For example, don't pick a 6th grader who isn't allowed to watch a lot of movies if your category for the words is "movies". knowwhati'msayin'?)
Let one team go at a time. Have the group pick a word from the hat/bucket and make sure that everyone in the group gets to read what that is written down. Then time them (a minute should be fine), and let the group act out whatever was written down for their guesser. Make sure they know they are to act it out just as someone would act something out in regular charades -- which means, absolutely NO sounds or noises. If their guesser correctly guesses the word in under a minute (or whatever time limit you have set for them), their team gets a point. Then let the other team's group draw a word and act out for their guesser. You can decide when to end the game. You could have them keep playing until they run out of words and just tally up points at the end. Or if you're short on time maybe see which team scores "x" amount of points first. Completely up to you.
Use themed words for a theme party. Especially good around holidays.