Act It Out
Players act out a word or phrase without speaking while their team tries to guess it before the timer runs out.
- Time
- 15 to 30 minutes
- People
- 6 to 30
- Where
- In person or Virtual
- You need
- slips of paper with words or phrases, bowl, timer
How to play
- Write words and short phrases on slips, such as flying a kite, baking a cake or a famous movie, and fold them into a bowl.
- Split into two teams and agree on a few shared signals, such as holding up fingers for the number of words.
- A player draws a slip and acts it out silently for their team, with a one-minute limit.
- No words, sounds, letters drawn in the air or pointing at objects in the room are allowed.
- The team scores a point for each correct guess, then the other team takes a turn.
- Keep alternating until everyone who wants to act has had a turn, then tally the scores.
Tips
- Acting can be done seated with hands and facial expressions, which works well on a video call too.
- Let people act in pairs or pass the slip to a teammate if they would rather guess than perform.
- Choose phrases everyone is likely to know, and avoid inside references that leave newcomers out.
Variations
- Speed round: one actor has two minutes to get through as many slips as possible.
- Workplace edition: act out moments from your team's day, like a long meeting or a printer jam.