Telephone Pictionary is a hilarious blend between the telephone game and the dictionary drawing game. Phrases need to be drawn, and other players try to draw them. As the books continue to be passed along the line, the message starts to get lost! There will be guaranteed laughs as everyone tries to guess and draw in the booklets.
The game is a party game / stationary game. There is a bit of setup required, but no special materials are required to play, besides a lot of standard 8.5″ x 11″ paper and pens. You can also use larger paper if you wish, but this is not especially required.
Instructions for Telephone Pictionary
Setup: Prepare the picture booklets by giving each player a stack of X sheets of paper, where “X” is equal to the number of players who are playing the game. Think of each stack as a “flip book” for each player. Cut each stack of paper down the middle and then fold them in half. Staple the books if you like. Make sure each player has their own book.
Have all players sit in a circle. Give each player their own blank picture booklet and a pen.
1. On the first page, have each person write down a funny or interesting phrase. This phrase can depict a scene, or perhaps a quote or song lyric, or basically any phrase that might be interesting to draw. Some examples can include (feel free to be creative with these):
- Elvis playing basketball
- A cow in the desert
- Ice, Ice Baby
- Chicken dance
- Hot dog eating contest
- Hitting a home run
- Crying over spilled milk
- Who let the dogs out
- The dog ate my homework
- It’s raining cats and dogs
- Dance party
2. Next, everyone should pass their booklet clockwise to the person on their right. This person read the phrase that was written, turn to the next blank page, and then draw a picture of their interpretation of what they read.
Instruct everyone to pass their booklet clockwise to the next player, making sure that their drawing is open and visible. The next person will look only at most recently drawn picture, turn to the next page, and write a phrase that tries to interpret the image that they saw. Then, everyone passes their booklets clockwise to the next player.
3. This player sees a phrase, turns the page, and draws an image based upon this new phrase. He or she then passes this book to the next player.
This pattern of writing phrases, then drawing pictures, then writing phrases, then drawing pictures continues until the booklets return to their original owner.
The game ends, and each player shows all the other players their hilarious picture and phrase books and how they evolve over time.
You can order supplies for Telephone Charades at our online store.