What it is: Just what it sounds like: a cross between the game telephone and the game charades!

• Telephone Game Examples For Business
• Broken Telephone Game
• Telephone Game Examples
• Broken Telephone Game Examples

The Fortunately-Unfortunately game is a fun storytelling game that practices adding details to the plot of a simple story. Adding details to both their characters and their stories is something many kids need to work on. In this game, though, the most important thing is quick thinking, not creating a logical story, which can make for some. Broken Picture Telephone is a game similar to the childhood game of Broken Telephone – the game in which children sit in a circle, and whisper a sentence or phrase in a circle. If you’ve ever played the game, you know that very quickly hilarity ensues.

Best for: Group of about 5 to 8 people.

What you need: You’ll need actions or events to act out, whether they’re ones that you think up on the spot or have written down ahead of time (see the charades post or the word generator for some lists of things you can act out, or the end of this post for some printables). You’ll also need to play somewhere indoors with an enclosed room that players can leave.

How to play: First, choose a player to start the acting—we’ll call him Tyler. He goes first. Then the rest of the players choose a pre-defined order. Silently to himself, Tyler thinks of an event or action to act out (or draws one from a bowl or something). Say it’s capturing a wild snake. He doesn’t tell anyone what his action is. Then everyone leaves the room except for the next person in line, like Shannon.

Tyler silently acts out the action for Shannon while she watches. But while Tyler is thinking he’s acting out this:

Shannon might see something like this:

She’s not allowed to ask questions or guess or talk; she can only watch. After Tyler’s done or a predetermined time has passed, Tyler sits in the room and vows to stay silent (or leaves, if he doesn’t have enough willpower). Then the next player, Jill, enters. Shannon then acts out for Jill. But while Shannon’s thinking she’s acting out this:

Jill might see this:

As you can imagine, the actions change more and more with each step.

At the end, the last person, like Bill, has to guess what he thinks the event is, and then you can all laugh at how different it was from the original idea. And everyone in the middle can say what they thought the action was, too. You don’t really keep score or anything; just play for fun. So pick someone new to be the first person and start a new round!

Variations: If the game feels too slow or easy for you, you could set up a speed version where players only get 10 seconds or so to act out for the next person in line. That could increase the difficulty (and hilarity). You could also set up a sheet or a blocked off corner of the room so players don’t have to actually leave the room, just run behind the sheet, also making the game move a little faster. And for other acting games that are maybe a little less quiet and slow, check out charades, celebrities, and in the manner of the adverb.

Printables: I think this game would work best when played with specific actions, like the example capturing a wild snake. Or it would probably work well with harder charades words, as long as they weren’t too easy. So included below is the hard words list from the charades post, as well as a new list I made of actions. Try playing with either! And for more printable word lists, check out the charades post, or use my online word generator for word lists on the computer – or download the free app for electronic word lists on the go! I added the new actions list to the word generator, too, under the game “Charades.” Happy playing!

Telephone Game Examples For Business

Quick guide

• Key words:Laughter, effective communication skills
• Learner English level:Intermediate and above
• Learner maturity level:From young adults
• Preparation time:About 15 minutes
• Activity time:90 minutes
• Materials:One different story/passage for each student

Introduction

We are often amused to discover how messages can change when passed verbally from person to person. One such example is a story from during the First World War when communication systems were poor. According to the story, a British colonel requested that the following message be passed down the line of soldiers fighting in the trenches: 'Send reinforcements, we're going to advance!' But, after it had passed from soldier to soldier and finally reached its destination, the message was something completely different: 'Send three and four pence, we're going to a dance!' This reminds us of the popular Broken Telephone game which involves a message being passed down a line from person to person, usually ending up completely different from the original message. The following activity is a game based on this phenomenon. However, it is more elaborate and multi-dimensional, because it requires all the students to participate all of the time, telling their own story, speaking and listening to different partners and then relaying what they have heard from their current partner to the next one. The main purpose is to let students practice English through story-telling/listening, laughing together and having fun.

Preparation

For homework, give each student one different story (or article/passage). Tell them to remember the key ideas and some details for the next class so that they can tell the story in two or three minutes without referring to the original.

Procedure

Step 1:Begin the class by giving the students about 5 minutes to refer to their stories again to refresh their memories of the content and then ask them to put them away.

Step 2:With the students seated in pairs, ask them to tell their story to their partner without referring to the original. Encourage them to seek clarification while listening and even to repeat back what they heard for confirmation. Before moving onto the next step, students can rotate partners several times to gain confidence telling their story. Allow them to have a short sneak look at their original stories between rotations.

Step 3:Now, ask them to tell the story they just heard to their next partner (i.e., not their own story). Have students change partners 3 to 4 times, each time telling the previous partner’s story to their new partner.

Step 4: Ask the class to sit in such a manner that they can all see each other. Then, choose a student at random and ask that student to stand up and tell the class the last story s/he heard. Then, ask the student who first told this story to stand up and tell the original version. Also, ask the class, while listening, to note the differences between the two versions. Repeat this last-story-first-story retelling process as long as time permits. There will be laughter in the classroom as they see how the original has been changed.

Broken Telephone Game

Step 5:Elicit comments from the class about what went wrong with the final version of the stories told.

Step 6: Give a copy of all the original stories to each student, asking them to read them in their free time to discover the true stories.

Telephone Game Examples

Conclusion

Broken Telephone Game Examples

What started off as a serious activity ends up inspiring laughter in the classroom as students see how the meaning of messages can change when passed from person to person. As it becomes obvious to students where they have made mistakes, it is an incentive for them to be more careful next time, thus encouraging them to want to repeat the activity in future classes to see how much they can try to improve their communication skills.