Drawing Together – Online Version

EnTeam Physical Game

Purpose

To draw a picture together in response to a question or topic by collaborating with your team and developing abstract thinking skills. 

Requirements 

  • Time: 30-45 Minutes
  • Number of Players: 2 or more
  • Age range: Students of any age
  • Space: Online 
  • Equipment: Video setup with internet access allowing multiple people to draw at the same time (Zoom, Google, etc.).
  • Prerequisites: Ability or willingness to draw on a whiteboard.

How to Play 

  1. Check that everyone knows how to draw on the whiteboard and use the chat box.
  2. Decide on a question (ex. What do you like to do for fun? How can you strengthen a friendship? What makes a good narrative story?) and each team decides on one answer (swimming, shopping, communication, mystery, etc.)
  3. Divide the group into teams of at least two players. 
  4. Teams have 3 minutes in a breakout room to plan and practice their drawing.
    1. Team members choose one answer that they will draw.
    2. A facilitator or team member selects “share screen” and opens a whiteboard.
    3. Each member selects “annotate” and picks their own color.
    4. After 3 minutes of strategizing, the host will bring you back to the main room.
  5. Each team has 90 seconds to silently draw their picture for the whole group. Those observing will guess what is being drawn and submit guesses in the chat.
  6. The score is the number of correct guesses written in the chat box.
  7. Before the next team’s turn, debrief and strategize on how to improve the score.
  8. After all teams have drawn, pose a new question, change teams, and play again!

Rules

  1. Teams must agree on their answer before they draw. The answer cannot change.
  2. Teams can only communicate their answer through their drawing.
    1. The drawing cannot have any words, letters, or numbers.
  3. Each member must draw with a different color.
  4. All members must draw something. 
  5. Only answers that are typed in the chat text box are scored.

Scoring

  • The score is the number of correct answers written in the chat box. 
    • Drawers and observers are working together, so the score belongs to everyone.
  • The score is zero if someone does not contribute to the drawing. 
  • If the scores improve, everyone wins. If scores don’t improve, everyone loses.

Level Two Variation

How to play

  1. Play as in level one except the drawing team may draw more than one picture.
    1. Each person on the drawing team must contribute to each drawing.
    2. If any person on the drawing team does not contribute to a drawing, that drawing cannot be scored.
  2. Time for drawing is 90 seconds.

Scoring

  • Scoring level two is the same as level one, except the maximum score is the number of drawings times the number of observers.

Level Three Variation

How to play

  1. Play as in level one except the drawings must show an abstract concept (an idea that is not a physical object or action) such as courage or freedom or fairness.
    1. Each person on the drawing team must contribute to each drawing.
    2. If any person on the drawing team does not contribute to a drawing, that drawing cannot be scored.
  2. Time for drawing is 90 seconds.

Scoring

  • Scoring level three is the same as level two except that each correct guess is worth 2 points.

Debrief Questions

The purpose of debriefing is to develop strategies that will improve your performance and to recognize how these lessons apply to everyday life. To facilitate a successful debrief, facilitators must observe participants and ask engaging questions that spark thoughtful reflection. If we don’t debrief, we don’t learn!

What happened?

What did you see? What did you hear? What was the score?

What worked? What didn’t work?

How did people feel? What issue(s) came up? What issue(s) remain?

So what? 

What did we learn?

How does this experience relate to other experiences?

Why are we doing this? How is it relevant to us? 

Now what? 

How could we improve our score in this activity?

How can we work together better?

How could we apply lessons learned outside of the game? 

Digging Deeper 

  • Did anyone feel reluctant to share strategies?
    • Why? Are you still in a win-lose mindset?
    • If we are trying to improve collective achievement, who are you benefitting when you withhold strategies from other teams?

Debrief Chart (PDF)

Partner Pictionary Online (PDF)

Partner Pictionary – a video-conference game

Objective: Collaborate with a partner to illustrate a word.

Game structure

  • Two people work together as partners to draw one picture representing a secret word.  
    • The secret word can be selected by a random word generator or assigned by the game facilitator.
      • The partner who finds the word must share it confidentially with their partner (text or private chat).
    • When the clock starts, both partners draw while the audience tries to guess the word.  
    • The audience may call out the word orally or write on a group chat.
  • The total time limit for one game is 60 seconds. 
    • Partners both draw on the screen at the same time.
    • To make clear that both partners draw, each should use a different color.
  • Pause between games to strategize.

Rules

  1. Partners may not communicate the word in any way except by their drawing.
  2. The drawing may not have any words, letters, or numbers.
  3. Both partners must draw before the audience guesses the word.
  4. Each partner draws with a different color so it is clear both contribute to the picture.
  5. Partners may not give any hints.
  6. The audience must guess the word before the time limit is up.

Scoring points 

  • If the audience guesses the secret word within 60 seconds, everyone earns the point.
    • Because the partners and audience are working together, the score belongs to everyone.
  • If they don’t guess the word, no one gets a point.
  • Add up all the scores from each round. 

Winning

  • If the combined scores improve each round, everyone wins together.
    • If the scores don’t improve, everyone loses together. 
  • Play enough games so everyone has at least two turns as a partner.
    • One round is finished after everyone has been a partner at least once.

You can play this game on any video conference platform that allows two people to draw together such as Google Draw or Zoom. 

If you are using Zoom, the host opens the whiteboard. Both partners need to open “view options” and click on “annotate” before they can draw together.

Online Drawing Together Game Packet (PDF)

ALL GAMES