minute to win it games for kids and family

We’re always looking for cool activities to do with our children and our friends, and we’ve seriously found our fave.

Minute To Win It Games are a super-fun thing to do with kids and family.

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.

And honestly, if you search for Minute to Win It Games, you’ll find about fifty thousand.

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

Here’s the skinny. . .

Minute to Win It Games for Kids and Family:

Supplies needed to play the 12 games we played —

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• 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 wafer cookie
• Plastic spoons (10)
• Plastic bowls (6)
• Marbles (30)
• Double-sided tape
• Poster board (for keeping score)
• funny prizes for winners – maybe plastic crown or tiara?

Prepare for the games

Before you begin, gather all of your supplies and write the Minute to Win It Games you are playing on a poster board. See sample below:

Choose teams

We wrote down each player’s name on a small piece of paper, and before each game, we picked partners for that game. That way, teams were mixed up a bit and teams weren’t stuck. It made it 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.

Want to grab our Minute To Win It Games and score sheet?  Click here! 

Start the GAMES!

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.

Want to grab our Minute To Win It Games and score sheet?  Click here! 

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

3.  One-Handed 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 one hand.  So funny!

4.  Penny Towers

Players have one minute to stack as 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

Students 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. Students 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!

Want to grab our Minute To Win It Games and score sheet?  Click here! 

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 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 and unstack 36 cups into a pyramid. So fun!

8.  Movin’ Blue

Players have 1 minute to move through an entire line of 25 cups moving the blue cup from the top to bottom.

We didn’t do this one–only because we had different brands of blue and red cups–so they didn’t stack properly.

But it seems really fun!

9.  Nut Stacker

Thread 5 nuts onto a wooden skewer. With one hand, stack all the nuts on top of each other.

We didn’t have time for this one, either. But could be done with chopsticks, depending on the size of the nuts.

This may be safer if you have little guys playing.

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.

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.

Want to grab our Minute To Win It Games and score sheet?  Click here! 

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

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.

Here’s how we did prizes: everyone got one!

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?

Want to grab our Minute To Win It Games and score sheet?  Click here! 

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Check out the video:

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

Check these out:

• 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

OR:

Check out a few other posts that may help you develop strong and healthy habits for your family:

• wait time
• my day, your day
• frozen peas
• kids who rock the kitchen
• kids who rock the laundry
• rest time
• gem jars
• arm circles
• noticing kids
• homework routine

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