Word & Vocabulary Games Grades 6–8
Silent Vocabulary Charades
Teams act out vocabulary words without speaking while their team races to guess before the timer runs out.
15 min 6+ students
Download printable kit (PDF)
What you need
- Vocabulary words on slips of paper (in the printable kit), a timer
Setup
Split the class into teams of 4–6 and give each team a small stack of word slips face-down.
How to run it
- One student from a team draws a word and has 60 seconds to act it out silently — no talking, no mouthing words, no spelling with fingers.
- Their team calls out guesses until they get it right or time runs out.
- Rotate to the next team’s actor and a new word; track how many words each team gets correct.
- After a few rounds, whichever team has the most correct guesses wins the round.
Variations
- For abstract vocabulary that’s hard to act out, allow one-word verbal clues instead of full silence.
- Add a "describe it without saying the word or any part of it" mode as a second round for variety.