Very often, the best way to help groups of friends break the ice in a room is to play an icebreaker game. There are a variety of group games that you can pick from, and today we’ll walk you through a creative game called Artistic Words.
Features of the Artistic Words Game
| ★ Game Name | Artistic Words |
| ★ Group size | medium to large |
| ★ Age | any |
| ★ Type | stationary |
| ★ Skill | drawing |
| ★ Place | indoor |
| ★ Time | up to 5 – 15 min |
| ★ Preparation | no |
| ★ Materials | paper, pen and watch |
Aim of the Artistic Words Game
When playing Artistic Words, it’s good to remember that the goal is to forge great teamwork and create a piece of art together, but apart. It may sound confusing, but once your groups get to work, you’ll see that Artistic Words is a lot of fun to play.
Group Size and Age
Artistic Words is best played between groups of 6 to 12 people, although larger groups are always welcome. You’ll want to keep the group size to an even number so you can separate everyone in random pairs for that extra icebreaker effect.
The game is suitable for anyone aged 6 and above but do keep in mind how difficult the art piece should be according to the age groups.
Preparation and Materials
To prepare for Artistic words, you’ll need:
- Pencils or pens
- Paper
- A watch or phone to keep time
- A variety of words such as pizza, bread, bed, etc.
- A judge
How to Play Artistic Words?
Before you begin playing Artistic Words, you’ll first have to separate your group into pairs. It’s best to pick pairs randomly, so everyone gets to know each other in the room, or if your group already knows each other, it’ll still be a good way to further forge friendships. Once you’ve picked out your pairs, you’ll be ready to start playing Artistic Words.
- Ask for a volunteer from every pair and introduce them to a variety of mystery words.
- Your volunteer cannot tell their partner the exact words are but can only describe it to them. Prepare their partners by distributing pens and papers to them.
- Have your volunteer sit with their partner but have the pairs face back to back.
- Set your timer for 1 minute or more if necessary.
- Once the timer starts, the volunteer must then describe the mystery words to their partner without looking at each other. It is not allowed to use synonyms to describe these words.
- Their partner must then draw what they assume are the mystery words.
- When the timer ends, have each pair hold up their artwork to be judged. You may see masterpieces that don’t reflect the mystery words at all, but that’s the fun behind Artistic Words.
- The pair with the most correct mystery words accurately drawn out will win.
More ways to play Artistic Words
If you’d like more ways to play Artistic Words, it may be good to introduce themes into your gameplay. For example, you may have words related only to food, celebrations such as Christmas, or bridal related matters for a bridal shower.
This would help narrow down the mystery words that are being drawn but still provide your groups with moments of fun.