Actions Charades, Easy

35 words to act out

Easy action charades needs no cultural knowledge whatsoever, which makes it the most inclusive list on the whole site. Every prompt here is a motion the human body already knows: brushing your teeth, tying your shoes, blowing out candles, petting a dog, sneezing, yawning, whistling a tune. Nobody has to have watched anything or read anything to guess, so it works beautifully with young children, with mixed-language groups, and with the relatives who claim they are bad at games. Because the clues are single motions, rounds move fast and almost every turn ends in a correct guess. Use this tier to warm up a room, or as the entire game when the crowd spans forty years.

1. Brushing your teeth
2. Waving hello
3. Clapping your hands
4. Jumping up and down
5. Eating an apple
6. Drinking a glass of water
7. Falling asleep
8. Reading a book
9. Washing your hands
10. Combing your hair
11. Tying your shoes
12. Sneezing

13. Yawning
14. Laughing
15. Crying
16. Running in place
17. Swimming
18. Dancing
19. Cooking dinner
20. Sweeping the floor
21. Typing on a keyboard
22. Painting a wall
23. Riding a bike
24. Kicking a ball
25. Blowing out candles
26. Opening a heavy door
27. Pouring a drink
28. Petting a dog
29. Taking a photo
30. Shaking hands
31. Stretching
32. Whistling a tune
33. Tickling someone
34. Giving a big hug
35. Snapping your fingers

Give invisible objects weight and size

The single biggest upgrade on this tier is treating imaginary objects as real ones. When you open a heavy door, lean back and strain against it. When you pour a drink, watch the glass fill and stop pouring at the right moment. When you comb your hair, find the tangle. Small physical honesty like that turns an ambiguous mime into an obvious one, and it costs nothing. Exaggerate the scale by roughly half: brushing your teeth reads much faster if you foam at the mouth and check the mirror. Use your face constantly, because the difference between yawning, sneezing and crying lives entirely in the eyebrows. And repeat the motion in a loop rather than performing it once and standing still.

Charades tips & FAQ

How many actions charades words are on this easy list, and can I print them?

Thirty-five single-motion activities, from brushing your teeth to blowing out candles. Because they are plain text on the page, you can print the list, cut it into slips, and hand it to a group that includes readers and non-readers alike.

What makes these actions clues "easy" rather than another tier?

Each of these is one continuous motion the body already knows, so no cultural knowledge is required at all. That makes the tier the most inclusive on the site: it works across ages, languages and confidence levels.

How do we run a round of actions charades?

Two teams, one actor, and a two-minute timer works best here, because activities take longer to build than titles do. The actor mimes the activity in silence while their own team guesses; no sounds, no mouthing, no pointing at real objects. Score a point per correct guess, then hand the next clue to the other team. Loop the most distinctive step rather than restarting if your team stalls. On the easy tier you can drop the timer altogether and simply go round the room, since almost every clue lands within a few seconds.

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Want the background rather than another list? Read the charades rules and word-list guide (official gestures, timing, team setup and house rules worth stealing) and the party games night checklist (a running order that keeps a whole evening from stalling).

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