Friday Family Funtime - Play Charades

Equipment
Stopwatch or other timing device
Notepad for keeping score and pencil
Blank pieces of paper to write down phrases
Two baskets or other containers for slips

Rules
Divide family members into two teams.  Each team must come up with charade suggestions and write each suggestion on a piece of paper (decide ahead of time how many suggestions each team should come up with).  Fold the suggestion in half and put in the team's basket.

Decide which team goes first.  One player from the first team draws a slip from the other team's basket.  After the player has had a short time to review the slip, the player begins to act the phrase out.  Each team is given 2 minutes to guess the phrase.  If the team does not guess the phrase in the
allotted time, play then moves onto the other team.  If the team does guess the phrase in the allotted time, the team receives 1 point.

No talking is allowed.  Each player must try and get the other team members to guess the phrase through the use of hand and body gestures.

To indicate Categories use the following hand gestures:
Book title - Unfold hands as if they were a book
Movie Title - Pretend to crank an old-fashioned movie camera
Play Title - Pretend to pull the rope that opens a theater curtain
Song Title - Pretend to sing
TV Show - Draw a rectangle to outline the TV screen
Quote or Phrase - Make quotation marks in the air with fingers

To indicate other things use the following gestures:
Number of words in the title - Hold up the number of fingers
Which word you're working on - Hold up the number of fingers
Number of syllables in the word - Lay the number of fingers on your arm
Which syllable you're working on - Lay the number of fingers on your arm again
Length of word - Make a "little" or "big" sign as if you were measuring a fish
"The entire concept" - Sweep your arms through the air
"On the nose" - Point to your nose with one hand, while pointing at the person with the other hand
"Sounds like" - Cup one hand behind the ear
"Longer version of" - Pretend to stretch a piece of elastic
"Shorter version of" = Do a "karate chop" with your hand
"Plural" - Link your fingers
"Past tense" - Wave your hand over your shoulder toward your back
A letter of the alphabet - Move your hand in a chopping motion toward your arm (near the top of the forearm if the letter is near the beginning of the alphabet, and near the
bottom of your arm if the letter is near the end of the alphabet)