EL Game Series (03): “Pictionary Card Game”

[Welcome to the EL game series. These posts are all short introductions to games you can play in the EL. Because learning to play games in English can take a long time, some posts will explain how to play simple versions of games. Other posts tell you why you should use games to practice English. You can also use the tags to find other posts you might be interested in.]

ELゲーム連載へようこそ。このコラムはELで遊べるボードゲームやカードゲームを紹介します。本来のやり方通りにやってしまうと、遊ぶまでの時間が大変かかるかもしれないので、ある投稿では簡単な遊びの工夫が紹介されます。ほかの投稿ではなぜゲームで英語を勉強するのがよいかが説明されます。投稿のタグを使ってほかに興味ありそうなポストを見つけられます。)

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Pictionary is a classic game that you probably have played before. Someone draws a picture and their team tries to guess what it is. This is the same game, except instead of drawing you have lots of picture cards to use.

The basics:

There are two kinds of cards in the box: shapes and words. There are two sets of the same shapes for two teams. There are no instructions in the box anymore…so use my ideas, below.

For English Learners:

  • Play with teams for points, or just go around in a circle guessing words.
  • One person uses the shape cards make a picture of a word. Their team guesses the word. For example, if the word is “house,” I would put a triangle on top of a square.
  • If you play with teams, divide the shape cards into red and blue piles. One person from each team looks at a word card and chooses the same word to act out. Then, they use the shape cards to make a picture of the word. The first team to guess the correct word gets a point.
  • If you play without teams, one person can use all of the cards to make the word.
  • Try moving the cards. For example, if the word is “spider,” I could take the sun card and move it like an insect.
  • Try using your body. For example, if the word is “tear,” I would take the water drop card and put it under my eye.
  • Difficult version: you can only use cards once each game. So, if you use the square card for the first word, you cannot use it again for the rest of the game.

Final Thoughts: This is a really good game to be creative with. Also, you can choose easy words, so anyone can join in.