Curated and Reviewed by
Lesson Planet
For a fun bonding time for the class or an introduction to pantomime, this game hits the mark. An individual from a team guesses at the clue that the rest of the team is acting out–without ever talking about how they will do it, making for a silly and fast-paced team-building opportunity.
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App Overview
Starting a Game:
- Tap New Game to get started
- Select the card pack you'd like to use; note that only the default Original Pack offers free cards. Buy other packs by selecting Buy Full and entering your Apple ID.
- Choose Next in the bottom right of the screen to set up the rules of the game, including the number of teams, rounds, seconds per turn, and passes per turn
- Tap Next again to customize team names
- Now tap Play and the game will begin
Game Interface:
The game home screen is fairly straightforward:
- Team score boxes (up to four) display in the corners of the screen
- Word cards and notes about whose turn it is are displayed in the middle center
- Control buttons are at the bottom center
- A pause button at the top center allows for the current game to be saved and returned to at a later time
Playing the Game:
The game begins when the first team presses Start Turn:
- Word cards appear in the center of the screen
- Below the word cards, a timer counts down the amount of time left, beeping when half the time is gone, and again during the last five seconds
- Someone from the opposing team holds the tablet and presses Next each time a word is guessed correctly
- A Back arrow icon at the top left allows the user to return to the previous word card (which will come in handy if they accidentally press Next too many times)
- If passes are available, Pass will appear at the left of the timer; otherwise, Foul appears
- Passing a word means that the current words go to the back of the pile with no penalty, while a foul means that the team has done something against the rules and loses a point
- When time is up, a buzzer sounds, and the game returns to the homescreen, where the next team up and the round number are displayed in the middle
- At the end of the game, the screen displays the winning team
Instructional Ideas
- Rev up morning meetings or other community-building times by playing a few rounds of Reverse Charades
- Switch up the rules and have different-size groups act out the cards
- Give a bonus point when the individual correctly identifies the part of speech of the word they guessed
- Set the timer for 90 seconds and allow newer players 15 seconds to discuss how they will work together to show the word
Classroom Considerations
- Since there are only 50 free cards, you may want to consider playing only a couple rounds of this at a time to keep the words fresh and spread out the amount of time the app is useful for
- The game uses sounds as time cues, so plan for a space where a little bit of noise won't bother anyone
- Preview the cards and create visuals for younger readers in case they don't know what words mean
Pros
- Simple interface makes it easy for anyone to use
- Pause feature makes it easy to start and stop a game
- Ability to control number of rounds and the seconds per round as well as number of teams
Cons
- No ability to add new words to the game
- It does not have graphics or pictures to show what the words mean, so some words may not be understood by all participating
- The app only saves the most recent game being played; starting a new game erases the current paused game
- The game interface allows for passes (go to a new word) and faults (lose a point for breaking a new rule). However, because the button for these two different functions is located in the same place, if any passes are available, the button for fault is not available.