How To Write - Lesson 2

The two exercises today are best done in groups and will be presented that way.  However, if you are doing this on your own put yourself in the listener's shoes and see if you have been thorough enough in your descriptions.

Written Charades:  Objects

Below are the names of 20 objects.  One person in the group should number and list each on a separate sheet of paper and fold it up.  All slips of paper are drawn by group members until there are none left.  Each person then writes a descriptive about the object on their paper(s).  Be sure to set a time limit and my suggestion is a word limit also, perhaps 3-5 words per descriptive!  

Once everyone is ready the person with the first word reads their descriptive while the rest of the group guesses.  You can set your own rules, create teams, set guessing time limits or anything else you prefer!  Just have fun!

1. Airplane
2. Tomato
3. Spoon
4. Pen
5. Book
6. Sun
7. Doorknob
8. Chocolate ice cream
9. Tennis shoes
10. Volcano
11. Sofa
12. Radio
13. Lightning
14. Newborn baby
15. Pocket watch
16. Rock
17. Clock
18. Glass of Coca Cola
19. Cave
20. Ghost

Wow!  How many did you guess right?  How easily did others guess from your "clues"?  The better the descriptive, the easier it is to visualize the object.  Well, now that you've gotten good at that, we're going to make it just a bit harder!  Hey, I knew you'd be excited........

Written Charades:  Activities 

The rules are the same for this exercise except that you will be writing some action words (verbs) into your descriptive.  This is also a bit harder because when it's time for you to read aloud, you are NOT allowed to use any body language to help others guess - only words!  Oh yeah, one more thing - you may NOT use any of the words in the activities title as part of your description.

1. Car that won't start
2. Airplane taking off
3. Herd of horses running across a field
4. Birthday party for a 5 year old
5. Sailboat crossing the lake
6. Elderly gentleman feeding ducks on a lake 
7. Scoring a winning touchdown
8. Swimming in the ocean
9. Surviving a hurricane
10. Lance Armstrong riding in and winning Tour de France
11. Child swinging on a tire swing
12. Building a house
13. Doing laundry
14. Grocery shopping
15. Hailing a cab in New York City
16. Listening to a church choir
17. Flying a kite
18. Teaching someone to drive a car
19. Planting a garden
20. Rocking a baby to sleep

Now, wasn't that fun?  If you want to change it up a bit, you can have one person act out all the activities one at a time while everyone else writes down in descriptive detail what the activity is, thereby "drawing" a picture with words.

If you want a final challenge, write a descritive about Watching Grass Grow.  Good luck!  Have fun!  I'll see you next week for Lesson 3!