Heads Up for kids.
Works from about four, because miming needs no reading. 475 kid-friendly words — animals, cartoons, food and actions. No app, no sign-up, free in your browser.
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Heads Up for kids — free, no app, works from about four
Most party games quietly assume everyone at the table can read, wait their turn and hold a shared reference. This one does not: the core skill is miming, and a four-year-old mimes an elephant as well as anyone. That is why it survives a room with a thirty-year age range in it when card games do not.
It runs in the browser with nothing to install, which matters more with children than with adults - handing someone a phone to download an app is where most family game nights quietly end.
How to run it with young children
The standard rules work from about seven. Below that, three adjustments:
- Mime, do not describe. "It lives in Africa and has a long trunk" needs vocabulary a four-year-old has not collected. An adult pretending to be an elephant needs none.
- Let them guess out of turn. The rule that only your own team may answer is the first thing that makes a child give up. Drop it.
- Pair the youngest with an adult. One mimes, one directs. The child is in the game without standing alone in front of the family.
Hold the phone for them if they are small, or skip tilting entirely - tapping the right side of the screen scores and the left side skips, which is far more forgiving than tipping a phone that is bigger than their hands.
The 475 words that work with children
Deck choice does more for a young group than any rule change. These five are the ones that land; tap any of them to play it now.
- 🧸 For Kids — 85 words. short, familiar words a five-year-old can act out and the whole room will recognise - start here
- 🐾 Animals — 105 words. the most reliable deck with young children; every animal has a noise or a walk
- 📺 Cartoons — 85 words. cartoons, which is where a mixed-age room finally agrees on something
- 🍔 Food — 100 words. food, easy to mime and impossible to argue about
- 🎭 Act It Out — 100 words. verbs and physical actions rather than nouns - built for miming, no reading needed
Worth avoiding with under-tens: celebrities, idioms, abstract concepts and the US sports decks. Not because they are difficult to mime, but because they need shared references a child has not collected yet, and a round where nobody can even start is the one that ends the game.
Age by age
- 4–6 — adults mime, children guess. Animals and food only. Expect to play four rounds and then be asked to play it again immediately.
- 7–9 — they can give clues as well as guess. Add cartoons and actions. Teams mode starts being worth it.
- 10+ — standard rules, they run it themselves, and you can open up the full 33 decks.
In the classroom
The animals, food and actions decks double as vocabulary practice, which is the difference between a game that is a break and a game that is a lesson. There are no student accounts, no app-store approval to chase and nothing to prepare - the practical reasons most classroom games never get used. More classroom formats here.
Birthday parties and big groups
Rounds are 60 seconds, so nobody sits out long enough to wander off. Above about eight children use teams mode: 2 to 4 teams, the phone passes turn by turn and the scoreboard keeps itself. Formats that scale are here.
Frequently asked questions
Is Heads Up a good game for kids?
It is one of the few party games that genuinely works across ages, because the core skill is miming rather than reading or vocabulary. A six-year-old and a grandparent can both act out an elephant. The things that usually exclude young children - reading cards, keeping score, waiting your turn quietly - are either handled by the phone or easy to drop.
What age can children play from?
About four, if the room mimes rather than describes. A four-year-old cannot follow a verbal clue like "it lives in Africa and has a long trunk", but can absolutely recognise an adult pretending to be an elephant. From about seven they can give clues as well as guess, and from about nine they can run the game themselves.
Which categories are best for children?
Animals first - every animal has a noise or a walk, so there is always something to do. Then cartoons, food and the For Kids deck, which uses short familiar words on purpose. Avoid celebrities, idioms and abstract concepts; those need shared references a child has not collected yet. There are 475 kid-friendly words across the five decks on this page.
Can we play it free online?
Yes. It runs in any phone browser with no app, no download and no sign-up. That matters more with children than with adults, because handing a child a phone to install something is where most family game nights stop.
How do you play with a group of children?
Two adjustments make it work. Let them guess out of turn - the rule that only your own team may answer is the first thing that makes a child give up. And pair the youngest with an adult for their turn, so one mimes and one directs; the child gets to be in it without standing alone in front of everyone.
Does it work in a classroom?
Yes, and it is genuinely useful there rather than just a break - the animals, food and actions decks double as vocabulary practice, and ESL teachers use the describing version to force target language. It needs no student accounts, no app-store approval and no preparation.
Is it good for a birthday party?
It is one of the few games that survives a room full of over-excited children, because rounds are 60 seconds and nobody sits out for long. For more than about eight children, use teams mode so the wait between turns stays short.
Should the child hold the phone?
Hold it for them if they are small - tilt controls plus small hands equals a dropped phone. Or turn tilting off entirely and tap the screen instead: the right side scores, the left side skips.
Other ways to play
The main upheads game with all 33 decks, charades, the forehead game, Who Am I?, family game night, classroom games, road trip games and every word list.