Charades

One team member sees the word on screen without showing it to the rest. They act it out using only their body and gestures: no speaking, no sounds, no pointing at letters or drawing in the air. The team guesses aloud. The teacher presses Correct if they guess it or Pass if they want to skip it. Each correct guess scores 1 point for the team. When time is up, the turn summary and updated scoreboard are shown.

7 banks with 25 to 30 words each: Actions (run, swim, dance, dive, cook, yawn...), Animals (elephant, penguin, crocodile, dolphin, gorilla, flamingo...), Professions (doctor, firefighter, chef, astronaut, dentist, surgeon...), Sports (swimming, boxing, golf, fencing, figure skating, surfing...), Objects (guitar, vacuum cleaner, microscope, accordion, telescope, umbrella...), Movies and series (Titanic, The Lion King, Toy Story, Frozen, Spider-Man, Coco...) and School concepts (photosynthesis, earthquake, evolution, ecosystem, acid rain...). You can activate several banks at the same time.

Yes. In the Custom words section, write one word or phrase per line. You can put any curricular content: 'The Industrial Revolution', 'The water cycle', 'Feudalism', names of historical or scientific processes, or English vocabulary words being learned. Physically acting out a concept helps fix it in memory in a way that reading cannot.

There is no limit: the team can guess as many as they can in the allotted time. Each Correct scores 1 point and the next card appears automatically. Words that are Passed don't count. The turn summary shows how many were guessed and how many were passed. This mechanic creates a fast pace that gives the activity energy and competitiveness.

In the settings screen you can choose the time per turn (between 30 and 120 seconds) and the number of rounds (1 to 5). The timer is large and visible for the whole class. When time is up the turn automatically passes to the next team without teacher intervention, making the game very fluid. You can pause manually if you need a break between turns.

In Educational Pictionary the team member draws the word on a digital canvas. In Charades they act with their body without speaking or drawing. Charades is more physically dynamic, requires no drawing skill, and works better with verbs, actions and animals. Pictionary works better with nouns, objects and places. Both tools complement each other to work vocabulary in different ways throughout the week.

It is very flexible depending on which bank you activate. The Actions and Animals banks are ideal from second grade of elementary school. Professions, Sports and Movies work for all levels. School concepts is more challenging and suitable for secondary school. With custom words you can adapt the difficulty exactly to what you are teaching, from basic vocabulary to complex scientific processes.

Yes, it is especially well-suited for large groups. The whole class participates actively: while one team member acts, the rest of their team guesses aloud and the other teams watch. With 30 students it works very well by dividing the class into 5 or 6 teams. You can set up large teams where multiple students rotate as actors so everyone gets to participate.

Load custom words with vocabulary specific to the unit. In natural sciences: digestion process, mitosis, photosynthesis; in history: the French Revolution, feudalism, the conquest; in physical education: specific sports gestures. Physically acting out a concept activates kinesthetic memory and forces students to break the concept down into observable parts, which deepens understanding much more than reading a definition.

Yes, it is designed to be projected. The screen shows a large timer and the team scoreboard visible to the whole class. Only the actor sees the word (they approach the screen or tablet before acting). The teacher controls the Correct and Pass buttons from the same computer. The tool does not require students to have their own devices.

Charades develops Nonverbal communication (representing ideas using only the body), Creative thinking (finding original ways to represent abstract concepts), Collaboration (listening and interpreting together), Frustration tolerance and active memory of concepts through physical representation.

It falls within Game-Based Learning, Purposeful Gamification and Experiential Learning. Physical representation of concepts activates kinesthetic memory and reinforces understanding deeply. It also connects with principles of Neuroeducation: movement and emotion enhance memory consolidation.

Yes. The Export button downloads a JSON file with the complete configuration: teams, active banks, custom words, timer and rounds. The Load button restores that configuration on any device. The Share button generates a link with everything included, ideal for setting up the game at home and opening it already configured on the classroom projector, or sending it to another teacher working on the same topic.