Literacy

Professional Development

May 5, 2018

The Top 11 Minute to Win It Games for Classrooms

When it comes to classroom parties, I am all about keeping them simple, making them easy to manage, and letting parents help as much as possible. I put together the top 11 minute to win it games for classrooms that you can use for any classroom party throughout the year. 

If you have parents willing to help out with parties, take them up on their offer. Parents can help:

  • pass out food
  • manage game stations
  • clean up as we go

Check out the list, grab the free printable download of all of the games, and have a blast at your next class party!

If you are looking for a way to keep students engaged during a classroom party, these 11 games are sure to win them over! Check out how easy the games are to set up and run and grab the FREE list while you are there!

Before I get to the list, here is a tip!

To keep the students calmer and the games organized, have students rotate through the minute to win it games in small groups. You can ask parents to help lead each station and reset it as needed.

1. Cookie Face

Supplies: Any round cookie

How to Play:  Players place a cookie on their foreheads and have one minute to move that cookie from their forehead into their mouth without using any hands. The winner is the player who gets the most cookies from their forehead to their mouth in one minute. Hint – If your school is strict about treats, you could substitute crackers for the cookies.

2. The Cookie Unicorn

Supplies: 10 cookies per player

How to Play: Each player will try to stack 10 cookies on their forehead. The stack must stay for 3 seconds to win. Hint –  If your school is strict about treats, you could substitute crackers for the cookies.

3. Stack Attack

Supplies: 36 cups per person (reusable each round)

How to Play: Players have 1 minute to completely stack and unstack 36 bathroom cups into a pyramid (a row of 8 cups, 7 cups, 6 cups, etc.). The winner is first to complete the task.

4. Smiley Face

Supplies: 1 straw per person, 10 pom poms or M&Ms per person, 1 paper plate per person

How to Play: Players will use the straw to suck up pom poms/M&Ms to make a smiley face. The first person to complete it wins.

5. Chapstack

Supplies: 2 chopsticks per person (reusable each round), 4 chapsticks per person (reusable each round)

How to Play: Players will use chopsticks to turn 4 chapsticks over so they are standing. The first player to get all four chapsticks to stand wins. This is also great practice for fine motor skills!

6. Defying Gravity

Supplies: 2 balloons per person (reusable each round)

How to Play: Players must keep two balloons up in the air with just one hand and the other hand is kept behind their backs. The last player with two balloons still going wins. If it gets too challenging, you can drop it to one balloon.

7. Cereal Chopstick Race

Supplies: round cereal in a big center bowl, a paper plate per player (reusable each round),  two chopsticks per person (reusable each round)

How to Play: A group of players has to participate together. Each player should pick the cereal pieces from the center bowl to their individual plates using only the chopsticks. The player who has the most on their plate after one minute wins.

8. Keep It Up

Supplies: 1 feather per player (reusable each round), 1 bucket

How to Play: Each player must blow and keep the feather in the air and drop it into the bucket that is placed about 15 feet away somewhere in the room. Finish this in a minute to win the game. Hint – If it gets too difficult, just play until only one person still has their feather in the air.

9. Feather Race

Supplies: 1 feather per player (reusable each round), duct tape to make starting and finishing lines

How to Play: Make a starting and finishing line about 15 feet from each other. Each player puts their feather on the starting line and blows on it to try to be the first person to get their feather to the finish line.

10. Stick the Landing

Supplies: 1 half-full water bottle per person (reusable each round)

How to Play: Toss the water bottle in the air and make it land upright. The first player to achieve this wins, or whoever does it the most in one-minute wins.

11. Paper Dragon

Supplies: 2 rolls of crepe paper per player

How to Play: Each player holds the beginning of the crepe paper in each hand. The first to unroll both onto their hands/arms wins. Hint- Because this game requires so many rolls of crepe paper, you might make this a two player only game by randomly drawing two students’ names to play. Or you could have two adults pair off to play and have the students cheer them on (teacher vs principal, room mom, or aide).

To make things simple for you, I added them all of the minute to win it games for classrooms to one simple free download! You can take it to the Dollar Tree as you gather supplies, cut the directions into strips and give them to parent volunteers at each station, and keep everything in one place so it’s easier to stay organized!

If you are looking for a way to keep students engaged during a classroom party, these 11 games are sure to win them over! Check out how easy the games are to set up and run and grab the FREE list while you are there!

Click HERE to grab this FREEBIE!

Classroom parties can be fun and organized. These 11 minute to win it classroom party games are sure to be a blast at any party. I've also got tips on my blog to help you manage them and use your volunteers!pin it

Happy Teaching,

Amanda

EASILY PLAN YOUR K-2 READING SMALL GROUPS​

Want to use the latest research to boost your readers during small groups? This FREE guide is packed with engaging ideas to help them grow!

Hi, I'm Amanda

I’m a K-1 teacher who is passionate about making lessons your students love and that are easy to implement for teachers.  Helping teachers like you navigate their way through their literacy block brings me great joy. I am a lifelong learner who loves staying on top of current literacy learning and practices. Here, you’ll find the tools you need to move your K-2 students forward!

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15 Responses

      1. This is going to make my daughter’s class party the greatest and most extraordinary !!! I find it more than helpful!!!

  1. We’d like to do something like this for our class Halloween party coming up. If we’re rotating thru stations, how much time should we allot for each station? We’ll have 16 or 17 kids probably, so thinking 4 groups of 4 + 1 in one of them. We have an hour for our party, which will include snack time at the end.

    1. Hi Mary! Since the games are 1 minute long, then you will need to account for how many times you want the groups to play the games at each station. 🙂 Hope this helps!

  2. Hi Amanda! I am a parent planning games for the Halloween party this year. I was wondering what age would you suggest for the Cookie Face game? I tried it with two 3rd graders and a 4th grader at home (to see if it would work out), and they had a good time, but it seemed to be difficult for them. Do you have any tips? I thought if that didn’t work out, I can switch to the Cookie Unicorn game just as well 😉

    1. So fun! I think if your 3rd and 4th graders are having a hard time then the class may, too, BUT if they are having fun, it’s worth it for them to try and still enjoy it! 🙂

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