Telestrations is a great family game that is a combination of charades and "the telephone game" with some art mixed in. Each player must draw a picture of the word on his card on an erasable sketch pad. The only rule is no letters or numbers. When time runs out, each player passes his pad to the player on his left who must guess what the drawing is. Pads are passed to the left again, with each player drawing what the 2nd player wrote. Play continues until each player has his original pad and then shares how the original word was guessed, drawn again, etc. The ability to think creatively of how to present a word/phrase is as valuable as art skills. Younger students will learn new words and figures of speech, but do allow them the opportunity to skip words/phrases they are not familiar with and just explain them. Families may also find it valuable to skip using the timer for younger and/or anxious children. New players will often benefit from a practice around.

• Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
• Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
• Presents educational concepts accurately
• Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
• Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
• Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
• Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)

• Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
• Visually appealing to children in the target age range
• Adults would enjoy playing with a child
• For electronic games, gives positive or encouraging feedback
• Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
• Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option

• Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
• Student should be able to use independently after first use
• Student graduates to the next level or topic only after meeting a benchmark
• Can effectively understand and monitor student's progress (email report or in product)
• Does not require excessive set-up time after first time use
• Can be fun as a single player game
• Multi-player game which fosters collaboration or cooperation
• Well-made for the cost
• For electronic games, can play without sound
• For electronic games, allows user to save work
• For electronic games, voice/sounds are appealing and pronounces words properly
• Provides options to play in languages other than English/Good for ELL
• Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
• Overall - Easy to use

• Fine Motor Skills
• Provides insufficient space or lines for answers
• Self-regulation
• Multi-player activity that requires cooperation or has potential for disagreements
• Themes that might disturb sensitive students (death, blood, slime)
• Multi-player activity with a clear 'winner' and 'loser'
• Turn or quiz abruptly ends when timer runs out
• Social Awareness
• Multi-player activity that requires cooperation or has potential for disagreements
• Themes that might disturb sensitive students (death, blood, slime)
• Multi-player activity with a clear 'winner' and 'loser'