Pictionary

One player draws a target word while their team guesses. No letters, no numbers, no speech from the drawer. Time-limited rounds.

Procedure

1. Prepare cards with target words (current unit vocabulary, phrasal verbs, idioms, abstract nouns).
2. Teams of 3–5. One drawer per round, rotating.
3. Drawer takes a card, has 60 seconds to get their team to say the word.
4. Rules: no letters, no numbers, no spoken sound. Drawer can nod/shake head only.
5. Point per correct guess. Pass if stuck. Rotate drawer.

Good Word Lists

• Concrete nouns (warm-up): bicycle, elephant, umbrella
• Actions (low–mid): queue, melt, whisper, stretch
• Abstracts (the interesting category): patience, democracy, jealousy, deadline
• Phrasal verbs: break up, look after, get over
• Idioms: spill the beans, cost an arm and a leg

Why It Works

• Production under pressure: guessers chain vocabulary quickly under the time limit.
• Forces definition: the drawer mentally extracts the core feature of the word — its picturable essence.
• Accessible to all levels: even low-proficiency learners succeed because the medium isn't words.

Variations

• Team vs team, same word: Both teams' drawers draw the same word simultaneously; fastest team wins.
• Sentence pictionary: the card is a short phrase or sentence; drawer must convey all of it.
• Describe not draw: Taboo Hot Seat variant — speak but cannot use listed words.
• Category clue: before drawing, drawer says one category word (verb / feeling / job).

Tips

• Let the drawer plan for 5 seconds before the clock starts — panicked scribbling fails.
• Keep abstract words for intermediate and above; beginners need concrete items.
• For online classes, use a whiteboard tool like Jamboard with a shared canvas.