Minute to Win It Games for Kids, Teens, and Adults

We love playing Minute to Win It Games around here, and it sure seems like y’all love them, too! We have previously shared Minute to Win It Birthday Party Games, Summer Minute to Win It Games, Valentine’s Day Minute to Win It Games, Halloween Minute to Win It Games,  Thanksgiving Minute to Win It Games, and Christmas Minute to Win It Games, and today we’re bringing you 12 more SUPER awesome All-Occasion Minute to Win It Party Games! 

These Minute to Win It Games are perfect for all ages – challenging enough for older kids and adults, but still simple enough that younger children can join in the fun! These engaging and hilarious party games are tons of fun for all of your parties and gatherings, and they work well for everything from birthday parties to holiday parties to office team-building events!  These Minute to Win It games are perfect for all ages from toddlers to grandparents, so everyone can join in on the fun!

Notes: The ease or difficulty of these Minute to Win It games can be adjusted depending on the level of difficulty that is desired for your group (many of the games listed below include suggestions on ways to modify them). Also, many of our fun All-Occasion Minute to Win It Games require the same inexpensive materials and supplies to save you time and money; however, feel free to adjust the materials used depending on what you already have on-hand. We like to help make your party planning easy peasy!

Yank Me Around

What You’ll Need: Paper or plastic cups and heavyweight cardstock (cut into squares).

How to Play: Stack the cups into a tower with a sheet of cardstock in between each cup (adjust the number of cups depending on the level of difficulty that you desire). Quickly and carefully yank out each piece of cardstock so that the cups fall and nest into a single stack. If you knock the tower over, set it up and begin again. Award points to players who successfully complete the task in under a minute or you may choose to award points for each cup that is successfully stacked once time has run out.

Notes: We’ve discovered over the course of playing Yank Me Around several times that it also works REALLY well to flick the cards out instead of yanking them out. Depending on the level of difficulty that you desire, you may wish to allow younger players to flick the cards as well as yanking them.

Group the Loops

What You’ll Need: A bowl of Froot Loops, chopsticks (younger players may opt to use modified chopsticks), and our printable color sorting mat.

How to Play: Use the chopsticks to sort Froot Loops on to the coordinating colored square in under a minute. Points are awarded to players who successfully complete the task.

Notes: We recommend having younger players attempt to find and sort 3 of each color; older players can sort 5-6 of each color in under a minute. Alternately, you may wish to have players sort the entire bowl regardless of the number of each color; however, you may need to adjust the time to two minutes depending on the size of the bowl and the number of Fruit Loops inside.

Don’t Blow It

What You’ll Need: Two paper plates and ping pong balls.

How to Play: Carefully blow the ping pong balls from one plate to another. If the ball goes off the plates, players may use their hands to place it back on the original plate to continue the game. Points may be awarded for successfully transferring all of the balls or for each individual ball that is transferred in under one minute.

Notes: We found that 6-8 balls were an appropriate number to be successfully transferred for our group (ranging in age from 7 – adult), however, you may wish to adjust the number depending on the level of difficulty desired.

Cool Shot

What You’ll Need: Squirt guns, ping pong balls, golf tees, and a styrofoam block.

How to Play: Place the golf tees into the styrofoam block and set a ping pong ball atop each golf tee. Stand a fair distance away from the balls and use the squirt gun to try to knock all of the balls off of the tees. Points are awarded to players who knock down all of the balls, or points may be awarded for each ball that is knocked down. Players can also compete head-to-head with points being awarded to the player who knocks all of the balls off first.

Fork it Over

What You’ll Need: A fork and a stack of quarters – test to make sure that the prongs of the fork will allow a quarter to fit between them.

How to Play: Place an upside-down fork on the end of the table. Stand or sit at the opposite end of the table and attempt to roll a quarter in between the prongs of the fork. Award points to players who can successfully complete the task in under a minute.

Candy Elevator

What You’ll Need: Two pencils, twine, and small candies (we used M&Ms, but you could also use more of those Froot Loops!).

How to Play: Use the twine and pencils to create a “Candy Elevator” as shown in the photos above. Place the twine over the player’s ears, level the pencils, and add 3-4 pieces of small candy to the top of the pencils. Using the extra length of twine, the players must bring the elevator from chest height to their mouth and eat the candies off of the pencils. Points can be awarded for successful completion or for each candy eaten. If the players drop the candies, bring the elevator back to chest height, add more candy, and begin again until time runs out.

Notes: This game can be a little tricky, so we recommend setting the timer for two minutes on this one!

A Little Dicey

What You’ll Need: Jumbo Craft Sticks or Tongue Depressors and Dice

How to Play: Set the timer for one minute. Place a craft stick in your mouth and attempt to stack and balance a set amount of dice on the end of the stick. Award points to players who complete the task in under a minute.

Notes: We found that having players stack anywhere from 4-6 dice worked well for a variety of age groups.

Chop to It

What You’ll Need: Two Small Bowls, Froot Loops, and chopsticks.

How to Play: Use the chopsticks to transfer the Froot Loops from one bowl to the other. Points are awarded to players who successfully move all of the Froot Loops from one bowl to the other before time runs out.

Notes: If your group is not as handy with chopsticks and may not be able to transfer the entire bowl, set a specific number of Froot Loops to be transferred in under one minute. We found that younger children were able to transfer 20-30 loops and older children and adults could transfer 35-50. Adjust the number according to the level of difficulty you desire.

Needle in a Haystack

What You’ll Need: A Small Bowl filled with white rice, tweezers, and a colored Sharpie marker.

How to Play: Color several of the grains of rice with the Sharpie marker and place them back into the bowl of rice, hiding them in the middle of the pile. Using only the tweezers, find and extract the colored grains of rice in under one minute.

Notes: Depending on the size of your bowl, the amount of rice used, and the level of difficulty desired, you may wish to adjust the number of colored grains that players must find. We found that 4-5 grains were relatively simple to find in 2 cups of rice in the time allotted.

Ping Pong Pyramid

What You’ll Need: Six cups and a bowl of ping pong balls.

How to Play: Stand at the opposite end of the table away from the pyramid of cups. Bounce each ping pong ball on to the table and into the cups. Points may be awarded to players who get balls into all six of the cups in the time allotted or for each ball that they successfully land in the cups. Alternately, you may also set a goal and award points to players who reach the goal – younger players can get 2-3 balls into the cups, 4-5 for adults and older children.

Notes: If the player runs out of ping pong balls in their bowl, he/she may collect the loose balls and start again until time runs out.

Stick Around

What You’ll Need: Two Shallow Dishes, Froot Loops (see notes below), and Chopsticks.

How to Play: Place a single chopstick into your mouth, set the timer for one minute, and attempt to transfer the Froot Loops from one dish to another using only the chopstick. Award points to players who successfully transfer all of the items or for each item transferred.

Notes: This game also works well with gummy ring candies, metal washers/nuts, costume jewelry rings, and other ring-shaped objects.

Blow Me Away

What You’ll Need: Plastic cups and balloons.

How to Play: Line up a row of cups along the edge of a table. The player stands at the opposite side of the table, blows up their balloon and uses the air from the balloon to knock the row of cups off of the edge of the table. Continue to blow up the balloon again and again until all the cups are knocked off the edge of the table. Points are awarded to players who successfully complete the task in under a minute.

Notes: Adjust the number of cups depending on the level of difficulty desired. We found that 6-8 cups were relatively easy to knock off of a table from 3-4′ away in the time allotted.

SCORING & GAMEPLAY:

These Minute to Win It games can be scored in several different ways which can be adjusted depending on the size of your party group. Typically, games are played individually at small parties (around 6-8 guests) and in groups at larger parties.

In individual games, the player will try to race the clock  (set at one or two minutes depending on the age group of the party guests and the difficulty level of the challenge), and points will be awarded based upon whether or not the challenge is completed before time runs out. For these individual games, we usually opt to have players score 5 points if they complete the task, 0 if they do not.

For larger parties, challenges are completed head-t0-head in smaller groups of 3-5 players at a time competing to beat the clock. The timer is set, and points are awarded based upon whether or not the player is able to complete the task before the time runs out. We like to add extra bonus points for the player who finishes first, so we typically score as follows: 5 points if you finish first (or collect the most, etc.), 3 points if you complete the challenge, and 0 if you do not.

In the end, the points are tallied, and prizes are awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers.

Get the Minute to Win It Games Score Card Here

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Winning the Minute to Win It Games:

After all of the games have been played, total the scores and the winner is the person with the highest score! We generally play these fun Minute to Win It games with a large group of people, so we like to award prizes to the top three players. In the past, we’ve made Minute to Win It shirts for the winners, handed out trophies and prize ribbons, and given out fun novelty gifts prizes as well.