Minute to Win It Games for Kids and Families

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Sometimes you just want a little fun whether it’s you and one kid or the whole neighborhood. Here are twelve of the best games we’ve found with a handy printable set of instructions and score sheet. Enjoy!

We’ve researched, analyzed, and experimented with these games, and out of them all, here are our favorites, complete with a few notes to ensure a successful game time.

You can totally adjust these games for whatever age group you have or however many players you have. You can adjust them for how competitive you want to be or how team–or individual–focused you want to be.

Minute to Win It Games for Kids and Families

Prepare for the Games

Before you begin, gather all of your supplies (way down below!) and write the Minute to Win It Games you are playing on a poster board. The poster board brings out the competitor in all of us when everyone can see how you are stacking up!

You can also download a handy printable score sheet along with instructions for all of the games below. Keep going. You’re almost to the really fun part!

Choose Teams

We wrote down each player’s name on a small piece of paper, and before each game, we drew names to pick partners for that game. That way, teams were mixed up a bit and teams weren’t stuck. It made the games much more fun.

Because we started with ten people and planned to pick partners for each game, we decided to score our games as follows:

• winners: each got 5 points
• 2nd place: 4 points
• 3rd place: 3 points
• 4th place: 2 points
• 5th place: 1 point

It worked out well. We also didn’t get through all twelve games in one night. We moved slowly though each with our main focus: fun.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

We cheered, hooted, and hollered.

We took a break for halftime and the kids played for a bit and the parents re-grouped. It takes a lot out of you, setting each game up, playing, and keeping the atmosphere light.

1. Kix Chopstick Race

Players work individually to move as many Kix cereal pieces from a central bowl into their own plastic cups, using only a pair of chopsticks.

Easy? Think again!

2.  Cookie Face

Players have a cookie on their foreheads and have one minute to move that cookie from their forehead and into their mouth.

The winner is the player who moves the most cookies from forehead to mouth in one minute’s time!

3. One-Hand Bracelets

One minute to thread as many fruit loops onto a pipe cleaner as possible.

And then–here’s the clincher–the player has to make that pipe cleaner into a bracelet. Using only one hand.  So funny!

4. Penny Towers

Players have one minute to stack as many pennies with one hand as they can. It’s harder than you may think!

The winner is the person who has the highest stack after one minute.

5. Marshmallow Toss

Players partner up and stand across from each other, about 2-4 feet apart.

One person has a handful of marshmallows and the other has a small paper cup. Players have one minute to toss as many marshmallows into the cup as possible.

After one minute, the throwers catch and the catchers throw.

The winning team is the one with the most marshmallows in the cup!

Pro tip: You can use jelly beans, chocolate chips or anything else small for this game. Let your imagination run wild!

6. Marshmallow Race

Simple. You can play this several ways:

• Break the group in half and draw a line in the middle of the table. Each side uses inexpensive plastic straws to try to blow the marshmallows to the other side of the line. The team with the most after one minute wins.
• Each person plays individually and has one minute to blow a single marshmallow from one side of the table to the other. The person with the most over the finish line at the end wins.

Straws and marshmallows, and a clean table–that’s all you need.

7. Stack Attack

Players have 1 minute to completely stack 36 cups into a pyramid and unstack them back into a sleeve. So fun!

8.  Movin’ Blue

First, you make a stack of twenty-four red cups and one blue cup at the top. Players have 1 minute to move through the entire line of cups moving the blue cup from the top to bottom.

Sounds easy…but can YOU do it?

Give it a try!

9. Nut Stacker

Thread 5 nuts onto a wooden chopstick. With one hand, remove the nuts from the chopstick one at a time and stack all the nuts on top of each other on the table.

You’ll be amazed at how slippery those little nuts become when you are in a hurry!

10. Junk in the Trunk

Players have an empty sandwich bag box (or tissue box) tied to their waist with 6 ping pong balls inside. Players move shake and shimmy to get all balls out of the box in under one minute.

This. Is. Hilarious. You never knew you could move like that!

11. Balance the Balls

Players move ping pong balls from one shared bowl to another bowl on the opposite side of the room.

The catch: players can only move balls using a spoon that they’re holding in their mouth.

OR, you play with just about anything you have on hand!

Ready! Set! Go!

12. Sticky Balls

Players roll marbles from one side of the table to the other, trying to get as many as possible to stick on double sided tape.

Really, it was so much fun.

Prizes!

Just like we do for our New Year’s Bingo Bonanza, we wrap whatever we have around the house–so some are fun prizes and some are pure funny prizes.

And any complainers lose their prize. It’s all about the fun, right?

Throw your email into the box below and the Minute-To-Win-It game instructions and score sheet printable are yours!

Supplies Needed

• Kix cereal (or another round cereal)
• Chopsticks (3 pair)
• Pipe cleaners/ chenille craft sticks
• Fruit Loop cereal (or another loop cereal)
• Pennies (about 300)
• Small marshmallows (or jellybeans or chocolate chips)
• Small Dixie cups
• Plastic straws (about a dozen)
• Red solo cups (about 100)
• Blue solo cups (10)
• Wooden skewers
• Large nuts (hardware—about 15-20)
• Ping pong balls (about 40)
• 3 square tissue boxes or sandwich bag boxes, empty with long ribbon (about 36″) around it
• Nila wafers (or other small cookie)
• Plastic spoons (10)
• Plastic bowls (6)
• Marbles (30)
• Double-sided tape
• Poster board (for keeping score)
• Funny prizes for winners – maybe a plastic crown or tiara?

Want a few more fun ideas to use with your kids and family?

Check these out:

• Musical Leaves a Fun Indoor Fall Activity
• New Year’s Bingo Bonanza
• Valentine’s Day Class Party
• Throw a Rockstar Valentine’s Day Class Party
• Halloween Class Party Ideas
• New Year’s Eve Fondue for Family

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