How to Draw Hangman

The drawing is the scoreboard of hangman, and a clean one makes the game easier to run. On a whiteboard you want a figure that takes about two seconds per stage and that everyone can see from the back of the room. This guide gives the standard ten-stage drawing in order, shows how to shorten it to eight or six stages by drawing the gallows ahead of time, and offers a snowman version for classrooms that prefer a friendlier picture.

What to prepare

Use a dark marker, one color, and leave space on the board. Draw the gallows in the upper left or right, and keep the dashes for the word along the bottom, with a strip beside them for wrong letters.

Practice the figure once before class. A tidy drawing of a hangman matters less than a consistent one: the same size every round means students learn to read progress at a glance.

If you share a board between classes, take a photo of your layout, or keep a small card showing the stage order, so a substitute can run the game the same way. A laminated card next to the board with the ten stage names takes a minute to make and keeps every round consistent.

The ten-stage drawing

Add exactly one part per wrong guess, in this order:

• Stage 1, the base: a horizontal line near the bottom.
• Stage 2, the post: a vertical line rising from one end of the base.
• Stage 3, the beam: a horizontal line across the top of the post.
• Stage 4, the rope: a short vertical line hanging from the beam.
• Stage 5, the head: a circle at the end of the rope.
• Stage 6, the body: a vertical line down from the head.
• Stage 7, the left arm: a diagonal line out from the body, just below the head.
• Stage 8, the right arm: the matching line on the other side.
• Stage 9, the left leg: a diagonal line down from the bottom of the body.
• Stage 10, the right leg: the matching line. The drawing is complete and the game ends.

Keeping the drawing consistent

Make each stroke one clean line, not a sketch. A circle for the head should be about a hand-width. Put the arms about a third of the way down the body, and angle the legs at roughly the same slope as the arms.

If you are drawing with students watching, name the part as you draw it: base, post, beam, rope. For younger students, this doubles as vocabulary practice.

Shorter versions: 8 stages

Ten wrong guesses suits long words and beginners. For a faster game, draw the base and the post before the first guess. The game then starts at the beam.

That gives eight stages: beam, rope, head, body, left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg. This matches the Medium setting in our online game, which allows 8 wrong guesses.

Shorter versions: 6 stages

For a tight game, pre-draw the whole gallows: base, post, beam and rope. Then count only the figure: head, body, left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg. That is six stages, the same as the Hard setting online.

Six is a good fit for words of seven or more letters. With 3- or 4-letter words, our solver averages 7.51 and 5.43 wrong guesses, so a six-stage game against a short word will usually end in a loss. Choose longer words, or use the eight or ten stage version.

Recording wrong guesses

Always write the wrong letters in a row next to the drawing. A student who sees that b and k are already out will not spend a turn on them.

If the drawing is erased after every round, wipe the stages from the end back to the start so the gallows stays. Use a damp cloth for just the figure.

The snowman alternative

Many teachers prefer a snowman, which keeps the same counting game and gives it a gentler picture. Draw a snowman with a pre-drawn outline, or build it up piece by piece.

A six-stage version: bottom snowball, middle snowball, head, arms, hat, and a face with a scarf. For ten stages, add buttons, a carrot nose, two eyes and a broom. Some teachers go the other way and start with a complete snowman, erasing one part for each wrong guess, so the snowman melts.

Our online classroom snowman mode uses the same idea of swapping the gallows for a gentler picture. See alternatives to hangman for other ways to keep the guessing game without the gallows.

Choosing a version

A rough guide: ten stages for beginners and short words, eight for mixed groups, six for confident players or long words. Whichever you pick, tell the class the number of wrong guesses before the first letter is called.

If you play online instead, the site draws the figure for you and counts misses automatically, which frees you to focus on the word list.

A last tip for large rooms: stand to one side while drawing so the figure is never hidden behind you, and add each stage as the class watches. The pause while the line goes on builds a little suspense and gives slower readers a moment to look at the board.