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Exercises/Reflection and Learning/Telephone Pictionary
General Collaboration Exercise · Reflection and Learning

Telephone Pictionary

You can divide the students into groups of six to eight, or do the activity as a whole class (if your number doesn’t easily divide).

5 to 15 minutesTIME
Medium group (9-25), PairsGROUP SIZE
ActiveENERGY
In personSETTING
Medium cognitive loadCOGNITIVE LOAD
Strengthens Learning Transfer This reflection and learning exercise strengthens Learning Transfer, one of the eight Gathering Effectiveness pillars.

How to run it

  1. 6+15-20 mins A4 Paper; Paper Clips; Scissors ← Back to all Activities Setup Each student needs a piece of A4 paper (use recycled if possible!) and a paper clip.
  2. They fold the paper into eight portions, then cut along the folds to make eight smaller papers.
  3. They stack the papers and hold the bundle together with the paper clip.
  4. You can divide the students into groups of six to eight, or do the activity as a whole class (if your number doesn’t easily divide).
  5. Large (if broken up into smaller groups of 6 or more)
  6. Each participant WRITES a sentence on the top card ( 1) in their pile (the crazier and more creative, the better!).
  7. Everyone passes their entire stack of cards to the left.
  8. Read the sentence on the card, flip to 2 and DRAW the sentence you just read.
  9. Look at the image, flip to card 3 and WRITE the image you just saw
Live facilitator

Run this exercise live

The facilitator console stays in this browser. Its QR handoff is a short-lived participant snapshot containing only public exercise instructions, phase, prompt, and timer state.

Prompts to use +

6+15-20 mins A4 Paper; Paper Clips; Scissors ← Back to all Activities Setup Each student needs a piece of A4 paper (use recycled if possible!) and a paper clip.

Read the sentence on the card, flip to 2 and DRAW the sentence you just read.

Look at the image, flip to card 3 and WRITE the image you just saw

Run this with your AI assistant +

Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.

Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Telephone Pictionary. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: 6+15-20 mins A4 Paper; Paper Clips; Scissors ← Back to all Activities Setup Each student needs a piece of A4 paper (use recycled if possible!) and a paper clip.; Read the sentence on the card, flip to 2 and DRAW the sentence you just read.; Look at the image, flip to card 3 and WRITE the image you just saw. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.

Origin unverified

  • Where we observed it: The exercise appears across 2 observed source organizations in the current corpus. (2 sources observed, including ESL Active, Teampedia.)
  • What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
  • No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
  • Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.

Pairs well with