How to Run Classroom Charades

One device with a screen large enough for the group to see — a projector, interactive whiteboard, or a tablet passed around. The tool runs in a browser with no login or download. No props are required for the prompts themselves, though students can improvise with classroom objects if they want.

Open the Charades Wheel on the shared screen. Before the first turn, choose your settings:

• Categories: Select any combination of the five categories — Animals, Everyday Actions, Jobs & Activities, Objects, and Imaginative Situations. Leave all selected for the full pool, or narrow the focus.
• Difficulty: Choose Easy, Challenge, or both. The tool shows how many prompts match your filters.
• Turn duration: Set the timer to 30, 60, 90 seconds, or untimed. The timer does not start until you press Start Turn.
• No-repeat: When on, the tool avoids reusing prompts within the current session. When every eligible prompt has been used, it offers a Restart Prompt Pool button.
• Sound: Toggle the beep on or off. This affects the timer-expiry sound.

Your filter choices, turn duration, sound preference, and no-repeat setting are saved in your browser, so they persist across sessions on the same device.

Each turn follows the same sequence:

1. Spin the wheel. The wheel lands on a category. The tool selects a random prompt from that category behind the scenes.
2. Reveal the prompt. The actor taps Reveal Prompt to read it. Everyone else should look away or close their eyes while the prompt is on screen. The prompt stays hidden until the actor chooses to reveal it — this is what makes the tool work as a charades picker rather than just a random word generator.
3. Start the turn. The actor taps Start Turn. The timer begins counting down (if a duration is set). The actor acts out the prompt without speaking while the group guesses.
4. End the turn. Tap Correct if someone guesses it, Skip to end without a point, or let the timer run out. Each turn produces exactly one outcome — the first action wins, so a correct guess and a timer expiry cannot conflict.
5. Next turn. Tap Next Turn to reset the wheel for the next actor.

Practice mode is the simplest way to play. There are no teams, no scoreboard, and no turn history. Spin, reveal, act, and move on. Use it for a quick warm-up or when you want to focus on the acting rather than competition.

Team Game mode adds structure. Choose two to four teams, give them names, and the tool rotates turns automatically so each team goes in order. The scoreboard tracks one point per correct guess. Skip and timer expiry award zero points. Turn history records each turn with the team name, prompt, category, outcome, and points. You can undo the last turn if you made a mistake — this restores both the score and the turn position.

Scoring is intentionally simple: one correct guess equals one point. A skipped turn or a timer expiry awards zero points. The tool does not award partial credit or bonus points. In Team Game mode, the scoreboard updates automatically and the turn rotates to the next team after each turn.

The timer uses real timestamps, so it stays accurate even if you switch browser tabs during a turn. You can pause the timer mid-turn and resume from where it left off — the remaining time is preserved, not restarted. If the timer reaches zero, the turn ends automatically with a timeout outcome and no point is awarded.

Skip ends the current turn immediately with no point. Next Turn clears the current prompt and resets the wheel for the next actor. In Team Game mode, Next Turn also advances to the next team.

When no-repeat is on, the tool tracks which prompts have been used and excludes them from future spins. This means the same prompt will not come up twice in the same session. When every eligible prompt has been revealed, the tool tells you the pool is exhausted and offers a Restart Prompt Pool button. Clicking it clears the used-prompt history so all prompts become available again.

If you change your filters mid-session, the used-prompt history is preserved. Prompts that were used under the old filters stay excluded even after you expand or narrow the selection.

Not every student needs to act. You can have volunteers take turns as the actor while the rest of the class guesses. For students who prefer not to act, they can be the timer-keeper, the scorekeeper, or the person who taps the buttons. In Team Game mode, teams can take turns sending a representative rather than requiring every student to perform.

For younger groups or shorter sessions, use Easy difficulty and shorter turn durations (30 seconds). For older students or longer sessions, add Challenge prompts and 60-90 second turns. A short practice round with two or three prompts helps you judge whether the selected difficulty suits your group before committing to a full game.

This is a suggested manual plan, not a built-in feature. Adapt it to your class size and time available.

If you have more time, extend the turn duration to 60 seconds, add Challenge prompts, or play a full Team Game with four teams.

These are actual prompts from the Charades Wheel library, grouped by category and difficulty. You will find all of these in the tool by selecting the matching category and difficulty filters.