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People standing in a line waiting their turn to observe a charade this communication skills activity called Charade Line

Charade Line

Communication skills activity that creates outrageous laughter.

  • Very playful & fun
  • Inspires creativity
  • Promotes effective communication
  • Sharpens observation skills
  • No props

Step-by-Step Instructions

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Have you played this activity? What worked, what didn't work? What type of group? Do you have useful advice for other users? Do you know a fun variation?

Comments (5)

  1. Jeanette Murray

    Loved this activity for teaching elementary students how to focus on nonverbal communication, such as body language and facial expressions. After a group discussion, I explained this activity to be a bit like the game, ‘Telephone’ but without speaking. I did need to shorten the role-play ideas though and added some of my own. Later, I received a lot of positive feedback from students and staff.

    • Mark Collard

      This is a fantastic way to connect this game to your curriculum, Jeanette. Well played.

  2. jeWElle de Mesa

    i wonderrrrr…… what if we reversed the roles? one person guesses the story being told by multiple people at the same time? framing could be about how we get so much information from different sources, and the challenges that go with this – interpretation, comprehension, understanding, sense-making, empathy, conflicting messages, et al

    variation – this could be done in two teams, both giving the message at the same time (phrase, sentence, or one word – related to the topic).

    we’ve done this at the end of a workshop, with a different intention – super high energy!

    (“,)

    • Mark Collard

      You’re a genius JeWElle, I like this idea a lot. I must remember to try this next time I pull this game out of the bag 🙂

  3. David Piang-Nee

    Great activity demonstrating the subtleties and challenges regarding communication and what is required of both the “speaker” and “listener” to keep a message clear and understood.

    Recently participated in this activity and it highlighted that despite the best intentions and abilities of a speaker and the receiver of a message, how quickly and easily messages can be distorted beyond recognition. The results were hilarious in that setting.

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