What it is: An easily adaptable game seen all over for all age groups. Here, it’s a game played on paper cards. The free printable cards I provide are animal themed.

Best for: Children in small to large groups (great for classrooms).

What you need: A printed game board for each child playing and a way to mark off squares that have been called. You can mark squares with something physical like cereal or candy. This is fun (especially if it’s M&Ms instead of Cheerios), but make sure children are old enough not to bump their boards and get things out of order (or eat their square markers!).

If you don’t want to use something physical that can get bumped or moved, use markers or stickers. The downside of this method is it will destroy your game boards – unless you laminate them first! Then you can use stickers that are easily removable, or dry erase markers, so you can use the same boards and play again and again.

How to play: In Bingo, each child gets his or her own Bingo game board. The boards have a 5 by 5 grids of squares, with each square being a unique item or number. Here, they are unique animals. Typically the center square is a free space, so each board has 24 different animals. There are 54 different animal pictures in this version of the game, so each game board is unique, and each game board has a 50/50ish chance of having any given animal.

The game moderator then starts calling out the 54 animals in the game in random order. Children must listen closely, because when the game moderator calls out an animal a child has on his or her game board, the child gets to mark it off.

The goal of the game is to get five marked-off squares in a row, either horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.

As soon as a child does this, they call out, “Bingo!” The first player to call out “Bingo!” wins. If more than one player calls out Bingo at the same time, they tie for first place. You can continue playing for second, third, etc., place.

Variations: In addition to winning a Bingo round by marking off five squares in a row, you can make the game more exciting by adding in rounds requiring players to win by marking off other formations on their board, like the ones pictured. (Players will have more than these squares marked; these are just the minimum to win.) Some are shorter than a normal round, and some are longer.

• Four corners – Mark the four corners
• Blackout – Mark every single square
• Outer border – Mark all the squares in the outer border
• Middle square – Mark the eight squares that surround the free space
• Letters – Mark off squares to form a letter, like T, L, X, or M
• Specific Bingo – Require players to get a specific five-in-a-row to win (like the first column, or the second row)
• Double Bingo – Players need two five-in-a-row’s to win
• Plus sign – Mark the middle row and the middle column
• The last to Bingo – When players get a Bingo, they are eliminated. The player who goes the longest without getting a Bingo wins.

Another way to make your Bingo game more exciting is to offer prizes to the winners, or have players swap their cards with each other randomly during a round.

Printables: Now that you know how to play, here’s everything you need to print and…well, play!

This PDF has the actual game boards (54 unique cards, which means you can play with up to 54 people at once).

This PDF is for the moderator or person running the game. It has strips of words with the all the animals in the game that you can print out, cut up, and read out loud. It also has 60 different sets of the animals in the game in random order, so, instead of drawing names and reading them, you can just read down the list (and play 60 unique games).

There’s also a PDF with each animal on a separate page, in case you want to show your class or players a visual of what each animal looks like, either digitally on a screen/projector or printed out. (You can also download this with 4 animals to a page.)

And, as a bonus, I have all of these translated into Spanish! (If I got anything wrong in the translation, please let me know and I’ll fix it.)

This would be an excellent activity for language learners, either English language learners of any age from any language, or English speakers learning Spanish. Introduce the vocabulary with the visual cards and use the Bingo game as a review.

Even more variations: “I spy” Bingo is another fun way to play. I have a Fourth of July and a Halloween version.

Any fun Bingo experiences or variations to share? I’d love to hear! And happy playing!

What it is: An alternative way to set up a white elephant gift exchange, where you basically set it all up yourself. Sounds less fun than the normal way? It doesn’t have to be!

Best for: About 10 to 20 people

What you need: A very generous host!

So rather than looking at this as a white elephant gift exchange, think of it as a fun way to give a gift to a group of people (co-workers, family members, etc.). If it’s Christmas or some other gift-giving occasion and you want to give a gift to everyone in a group in a fun, unique way, this might be it!

This game works the same way as a white elephant gift exchange, with all the same rules. The only difference is, you will supply all of the gifts yourself.

The gifts can be whatever you want. They can be inexpensive or they can be nice. It’s often fun if they’re all the same type of gift with different patterns or themes, but they don’t have to be.

We played this most recently at a family Christmas gathering. My husband and I decided to set it up as a fun game for everyone. We bought a bunch of pairs of wacky/unique socks, enough so everyone would have one. Then we wrapped them all with different wrapping paper, put them in the middle of the room in the evening after Christmas dinner, and played! Everyone ended up with a pair of silly socks. We tried to include a variety, so some were laughable, some were cool, some were neat, and a few were pretty undesirable but in a funny way.

It was a good game because everyone (kids and adults) could participate together. And because we didn’t have too many kids, and there wasn’t too much overlap in the socks the adults wanted and the socks the kids wanted, there were minimal tears. (Minimal. Unfortunately not no tears.)

Like a good white elephant exchange, it’s fun if some of the items are kind of eccentric (there were many options for that when it came to silly socks). We’ve also done it with wall calendars. Wall calendars are another great gift idea, because you have a huge range of styles to choose from, from serious (motivational quotes) to beautiful (beaches and mountains) to specific interests (movies and video games) to just silly (cats doing yoga).

You can also set up the game with items that are unrelated to each other. My mom has done this for our family’s Christmas gifts for the past few years, and we all have a blast. Each gift is unique (exercise equipment, kitchen supplies, just funny stuff), but they’re all nice, and people still steal and scheme, but everyone walks away with a gift in the end.

It’s a neat activity that turns a group gift into a game (so not only do your family/friends/co-workers get a gift, they also get laughter and memories, which are probably even better). Other theme ideas for gifts might be candy, treats or food, gift cards, nostalgic toys, or even more “boring” things like office supplies. Have a variety of pens and pencils of varying quality, and shake it up by throwing in a few truly absurd writing utensils that are sure to make everyone laugh. What other ideas can you come up with?

Variations: You can read about the normal white elephant gift exchange here. There’s also some other activities, Christmas gift pass and mystery gift pass, that involve less stealing and conniving and might be better suited for young children. You could easily adapt the mystery gift pass to play with adults as well, and it might also be a fun way to give a group of people a group gift. Have fun!

What it is: A fun variation on normal dodgeball.

Best for: A big group of players in a gym, or a big room without breakables inside

What you need: Dodgeballs! We have been playing with these Rhino Skin balls, which are great because they have enough heft to travel well, but they’re made of foam and don’t hurt at all. You can play with other balls, too.

How to play: The name of this game pretty much says it all. It’s dodgeball, but instead of playing on teams, all players are playing for themselves.

To start, put all the dodgeballs on the floor in the center of the room. It’s good to have more balls than players. Have all players start the same distance away from the balls on the floor. Someone yells “Go!” and everyone rushes for the dodgeballs (make sure you don’t run into each other).

All players are free to grab as many balls as they want, then they usually back away from everyone pretty quickly.

Let’s follow one player, Nina, on her journey through the game. At “go,” Nina rushes forward and grabs two balls. Then she quickly backs away from the other players. According to the rules, before she’s allowed to throw a dodgeball at anyone, she has to touch one of the walls.

She does so, backing up until she feels the wall behind her. Then she is on the offensive, ready to strike. And on the defensive, too, because there’s a room full of players who could strike her at any moment.

Say Nina gets a good throw in and pegs Ralph. Ralph immediately sits down in place and tosses away any balls he was holding in his hands. Nina pauses for two seconds to smile and give an excited little hop, but it was two seconds too many. Another player named Duncan throws a ball that hits Nina in the arm. She is out.

Nina sits down right where she is, rolling away the ball she was still holding. At the same time, Ralph, whom Nina pegged a few seconds ago, gets to stand up and rejoin the game. That’s the main rule of the game: if the person who pegged you gets pegged and sits down, you can pop up and play again.

So Nina, who was pegged by Duncan, watches him closely. A few minutes later when a player named Kelly pegs Duncan and he has to sit down, Nina jumps up, grabs the nearest ball, and starts playing again.

Play continues like this. When you get pegged, you sit down. When the person who pegged you sits down, you get to stand up and keep playing.

When does it end? When there’s only one man standing. Essentially this means that the last player has personally pegged every single other player in the game. That player wins, and you can start a new round! Heads up, the rounds can get pretty long.

All the normal dodgeball rules apply. If you catch a ball, the person who threw it at you is out. Throwing balls above the shoulders is not allowed.

If you want to see a sample game, here you go! We played at our parents’ place, which includes a giant warehouse room perfect for playing dodgeball in. (Queen music is optional.)

Another name for the game that I just made up is Hunger Games dodgeball (pretty good though, right?). I like this game better than normal dodgeball because there’s a little less pressure; you’re not going to let any teammates down if you mess up because you don’t have any! Have fun playing!

Variations: For another spin off the classic game of dodgeball, try glow in the dark dodgeball! Or for little kids, try playing on a playground for fun.

What it is: A name-the-song-title trivia game where knowing song lyrics is key

Best for: Anyone in any group size! Or at least anyone old enough to identify songs based on their lyrics. Since my three-year-old can do this with Disney songs, I’d say the age range is pretty inclusive. It’s also an especially great game for music lovers.

What you need: Bits of song lyrics. I provide a huge list (free!). You can also think of your own.

How to play: Basically, one person reads a line or two from a song and everyone else tries to guess the name of the song. There are three ways you can play.

Version one: Free-for-all

Before you play, if you’re using my printable song lyrics, there is a particular way you can prepare them to make playing much easier. Just watch this video:

Now that your slips of paper are prepped, let’s play!

To play competitively, have everyone sit in a circle. Take turns drawing a song lyric from the cup. The person who draws the song lyric can peek at the answer, then reads (NOT sings) the lyric of the song.

As soon as the reader starts reading, everyone else is able to start guessing the name of the song. But once someone shouts a title out loud, they are not allowed to guess again that round. So, for example, say Elijah starts reading, “Tranquil as a forest but on fire within.” Then Juan might shout, “Be a man!” Elijah knows, however, that this is not the correct name of the song because he’s looked at the answer (it’s actually “Make a Man Out of You” from the Disney movie Mulan). So Elijah would tell Juan no and either continue reading or, if he’s read the whole line, wait for other people to guess. Juan is not allowed to guess again, even if he remembers the right name of the song.

If the reader wants, they can wait to look at the title of the song until after they’ve read the lyric out loud, if they want to give themselves a chance to guess (to themself).

Whoever guesses the actual song title (the one written on the paper) first gets to keep the paper slip. If there is a tie, see who can name the artist first. Then the next person in the circle draws a paper and reads it aloud. Whoever has the most paper slips at the end of the game wins! 

If no one can name the song, Elijah can sing the lyric or recite more of it, if he knows the song. He could also, if he wants, provide hints on the artist (like, “It was sung by Donny Osmond”) or song (like, “It’s from Mulan“). If there’s still no one who can name the song, no one gets the paper and play passes to the next player.

If you want to play not-as-competitively, let the reader sing the song lyrics if they wish. It’s easier to guess, but some people might enjoy getting to sing a little Also, when you’re playing not-so-competitively, the best part is when a song lyric is read, no one can remember the title, and everyone bursts into song as they try to remember what it’s called. You might not be able to stop your players from doing this!

Version two: One at a time

Another way you can play is have one person guess at a time. So, for example, if it were Juan’s turn, someone else (like Elijah) would read him the song lyric. Juan on his own would get a chance to name the title of the song. You could even give him a certain time limit like 10 seconds. If Juan can’t name the song in time, play can open up to other players. The first to name the song title (or, if there are ties, the song title and the artist) gets the slip of paper.

Version three: Single player

If you are on your own, you can still play this game! Just prepare the printable slips of paper as shown above (and REALLY make sure you don’t peek as you do). Then draw yourself a paper one at a time and try to guess the song! Unfold the paper to see if you’re right. It’s actually a pretty fun trivia game on your own. This would work great as a two-player game, too.

In my printable, there are four categories of songs: Disney songs, 80s songs, songs released before the 80s, and songs released after the 80s up to the present decade (which right now includes the 2010s). I tried to stick with top 40s or well-known songs so, if you are at least a little familiar with a certain era of music, hopefully you have a good chance. There are a few tricky ones thrown in there, though!

We played this at our last family reunion and it was a lot of fun. I printed off papers from each of the four categories and put them in separate cups. We did one round of each. Again, my favorite part was when everyone would burst into song (and possibly dance), as shown at the end of the video below:

Have fun playing (and singing!)

Free printable: Song lyrics and titles

Variations: Some similar games are Name that tune or Sing a song

What it is: A simple two-player math game to review “greater than/less than” number sentences (Does anyone else’s child have to stop every single time they draw a greater than/less than sign so they can turn it into an alligator?)

Best for: A young child learning math and an older sibling or parent

What you need: A printable number chart and a crayon or maker

How to play: Start with a number chart on the table in front of both players. (The printable charts I included have four versions that go up to 100, 120, 150, and 200.) Player 1 (who can be named Mom) silently chooses a number on the chart and says, “Guess my number.” Player 2 (whose name can be Ben) then guesses any number, saying, “Is it 25?” Say Mom’s number is 56. She would say, “It is greater than 25.” Ben would then be able to use his crayon or marker and cross off any number on the number chart he knows the answer isn’t (so 25 and everything less than 25). Ben then gets another guess. If he says, “Is it 73?” Mom says, “It is less than 73.” Then Ben gets to cross out all numbers 73 and higher. Play continues like this, with Ben guessing and getting closer and closer until he finally guesses Mom’s number. Then Ben gets a turn to think of a number and Mom gets a turn to guess.

If you’re playing competitively, you can say that the person who had the most un-crossed-out numbers when they finally guess the right number wins. You could also keep track of guesses and say the winner is the one who gets the answer in the least number of guesses.

It’s a simple game, but it can be a good way to work in number practice and reasoning, too. Make sure to give your child a turn both guessing and thinking of a number.

If you want to use the printable number chart again and again, laminate it and use a dry erase marker. Happy playing!

(For you older people playing, my husband informed me of a strategy called binary search that greatly increases your odds of winning when it’s your turn to guess. Basically, if you’re playing up to 100, you guess 50 first. If you’e told the number is less than 50, guess 25. If you’re told the number is more than 25, guess 37. Basically keep cutting the un-eliminated numbers in half and you’ll get it faster. Just be careful not to crush the confidence of the younger players you’re playing with.) 

What it is: Another simple card game involving numbers; a great way to teach math and have fun while homeschooling

Best for: Young children learning to add or compare the values of two- or three-digit numbers

What you need: A deck of cards with the face cards removed (or we’ve been playing with Rook cards with everything over 9 removed)

How to play: This game is a variation of War, the classic two-player card game where you divide the deck of cards evenly and players each turn over a card at the same time. The player with the higher cards wins both cards, and the person who wins all the cards first wins.

In this game, you have to do some math first. There are two main variations.

Addition

If you want to teach addition, have each player turn over two cards at once. Each player adds their two cards together, and the player with the higher sum wins all the cards. You could also add three cards together.

Place value

If you want to focus on place value, each player turns over two or three cards at once. Players can choose how to order their cards to create the largest number they can. The player with the largest number wins all the cards.

Other variations

You could combine the variations and have players create more than one two- or three-digit numbers and also add them together. If you do this, you might need more than one deck of cards because you’ll go through them more quickly.

If your child is more advanced, you could even play with multiplication. That might be a great way to teach that in multiplication, it doesn’t matter which order the numbers go in.

Winning

Oh, first, on the rare chance two players flip over the exact same cards, a war happens, which, in this game, simply involves players flipping over another two or three cards (however you’re playing), and the winner of that round gets all the cards from both rounds.

During play, have players put the cards they win in a separate stack off to the side.

If you want a shorter game, play only until players’ main stacks are gone. Then count up how many cards each player has in their stack of won cards, and the person who’s won the most wins.

If you want a longer game, after players’ main stacks are gone, they shuffle and reuse the cards they’ve already won, repeating each time they use up all the cards in the stacks in their hands. (However, I’ve found that, even though it’s disguised as a game, my kids are smart and realize it’s still math, and they’re usually not up for a long game.)

If you want to encourage even more math, have the child write down each math addition sentence or greater than/less than fact on paper.

Can you come up with any other variations? Are there any other games you’ve created using math? Please share!

What it is: A simple and educational math game

Best for: Young kids who can (or are learning to) add single-digit numbers, two to five players. It’s a great game for addition practice!

What you need: A deck of face cards (or we’ve been playing with Rook cards)

How to play: First, shuffle the cards and deal six cards to each player. Place the remaining cards in a stack face-down in the middle of the table.

In “Addition Go Fish,” players collect cards and try to form sets. In regular Go Fish, sets are formed by finding cards that are the same, but in this game, sets are formed by gathering cards that add up to a certain number. For example, we’ve been playing with Rook cards and searching for sets that add up to 15 (because the cards are values 1 to 14).

Players get sets by asking another player for a specific card. So, for example, say it’s Carson’s turn. One of his cards is a 9, so he knows if he gets a 6 he can add it to the 9 and get 15. He might say, “Annelise, do you have a 6?” If she does, she gives it to him, and Carson lays down his 6 and his 9 (now a set) in front of him. If Annelise doesn’t have a 6, she says, “Go fish,” and Carson draws a card from the deck in the middle of the table. Then it’s the next player’s turn. Players take turns until the deck is gone and no one can make any more sets. The player with the most sets wins.

Some rules and points:

• A set can consist of any number of cards. (For example, a 9 and a 6 could form a set. So could an 11 and a 4; a 7 and two 4s; or a 2, 4, 3, and 6.)
• Any time a player asks someone for a card and gets the card they asked for, the player gets to go again; they get another turn. This can happen more than once per turn; it happens as often as a player gets a card they asked for.
• Say Carson had a 9 and asked Annelise for a 6, she didn’t have one, she said “Go fish,” Carson drew a card, and he just happened to draw a 6. He can still lay down the 6 with his other card for a set, but he doesn’t get to go again.
• If for some reason a player asks someone else for a card and gets it but doesn’t yet form a set, the player still gets to go again. For example, say I have a 4 and I’m looking to make 15. I know I need an 11. But I’ve asked everyone for an 11 and I know no one’s got one. However, I have a high suspicion Carson has a 9 (because he’s been asking for a 6). I can ask Carson for his 9; then I’ll get a card and, even though I don’t yet have a set, I’ll get to go again, and now I can start asking for a 2 (because 9 plus 4 equals 13, and I would need 2 more to make 15). (Though the children playing this game most likely won’t be using that level of strategy, and maybe you won’t either, if you’re playing with kids like mine whose feelings get hurt if they lose by too much.)
• If a player has a set in their hand, they lay it down immediately; this can happen when they first get dealt cards, if someone gives them a card, or if they happen to draw a card that makes a set.
• If a player runs out of cards, they draw two from the deck and keep playing.
• Unlike regular Go Fish, if Carson asks for a 6 and Annelise has two of them, she only has to give Carson one.

If you want to play with regular cards, take out all of the Kings, Queens, and Jacks and only play with the cards with number values (1 to 9; Aces can be 1s). Play for sets that add to 10. You can add to sets of any number you choose. You could play with Uno cards. You could even incorporate subtraction, or create two-digit numbers and add or subtract those. What variations can you come up with?

What it is: A kind of silly team relay game

Best for: A large group and an area with plenty of space

What you need: Two to four hula hoops

How to play: First, divide your players into teams of 8 to 15 (ish) players. Have your teams stand in a long line holding hands. Each line of players should be parallel to the others.

Give each team a hula hoop. Start the hula hoop at one end of the line, handing it to the player on the end. At “go,” the players must pass the hula hoop all the way down the line of players. The trick is, since they’re holding hands, they’ve got to do it by shimmying and wiggling their bodies through the hula hoop–no grabbing of the hula hoop allowed.

Once the hula hoop reaches the end of the line, players must return it, passing it back the other way. The first team to return the hula hoop to the original starting player wins!

It’s a simple game, but would make a great relay as part of a larger event. It’s funny to watch, too!

What it is: A dress-in-disguise mall scavenger hunt modeled after the seek-and-find children’s books (which, I never knew until now, are originally the British Where’s Wally? books, only Where’s Waldo in the US and Canada. Who knew?)

Best for: Large groups divided into teams of 3 to 5 players; it would be a perfect church youth activity

What you need: A shopping mall and volunteers to dress up in disguise, stickers or stamps for each volunteer, and a paper and clipboard for each team of players

How to play: You’ll need to do some prep work before the actual event. In advance, find five to ten volunteers (like adult leaders) to dress up in disguise and walk around the mall. If you’re playing true to the name of the game, have them dress up as Waldo from the Where’s Waldo books, or with pieces of a Waldo costume, like thick-rimmed glasses, a red and white beanie, a red and white striped shirt, and a walking cane.

The night of the activity, give your Waldos and/or Wendas each a sheet of stickers or a stamp and ink pad. Then have them split up and walk around the mall. I would require them to stay either in the main hallways or in small stores right off the main hallway, stores players could quickly glance in. (So no department stores.)

On the night of the event, divide up your players into teams of 3 to 5. Give each team a clipboard and a piece of paper.

Gather all players together in the food court of the mall and explain the rules. They will walk around the shopping mall and try to spot the Waldo characters in disguise. Depending on how good your Waldo costumes are (meaning if they’re not very good), you might want to tell your players the names of the volunteers dressed as Waldo to make it easier for them. You should also tell the players how many Waldos there are. The teams have the goal of spotting all the Waldos in disguise and getting a stamp or sticker from each. You could also have teams take a picture with each Waldo. At the end of a predetermined time, like one hour, all teams will meet back in the food court. The team with the most stickers or stamps wins!

So then teams split up and do their hunting! The Waldos are free to walk around the mall. When a team approaches them, they hand out a stamp or sticker. The team with the most stickers or stamps, or the first team to return with all of them, wins!

Variations: Since the Where’s Waldo books aren’t as popular as they used to be, you might want to use another disguise. I would keep the disguises on a theme. Here are some other ideas. You could have your volunteers:

• Wear different brightly-colored wigs
• Dress up as characters from a movie like Harry Potter
• Dress up as super heroes (either real or made up)
• Wear all one color from head to toe

What other ideas can you come up with?

This game could create some great photo ops, so be sure to take advantage of them!

What it is: A fun activity where you shoot play-doh darts around the room! It’s a huge mess! So why wouldn’t it be fun?

Best for: A small group of kids at home

What you need:

• Play-doh in different colors
• A rolling pin
• Drinking straws
• A big bowl
• Somewhere to play with hard floors (NOT carpet)
• Recommended: A broom

How to play: First, let’s discuss the art of making play-doh blow darts.

Slightly old, hard play-doh actually works really well for this. As you’ll be throwing away the play-doh after you play, this is a great way to get rid of that multicolored mixed-together play-doh that no one wants to play with anymore.

First form your play-doh into a ball, then roll it flat with a rolling pin to about a quarter-inch thickness.

Take a drinking straw and press it straight down into the play-doh. Give the straw a little twist, lift it up, and, voila, there should be a little circle of play-doh stuck into the end of it.

Then all you do is blow into the other end of the straw and – zing! – out pops the little circle of play-doh and flies across the table. What fun! (If your play-doh doesn’t pop out easily, try rolling it a little thinner.)

So once everyone gets their blow dart making-and-shooting technique down, it’s time for a game!

Give each player their own color of play-doh. (If you’re like us with a well-worn play-doh supply, these colors might be varying shades of brown and gray.) Set up a bowl in one corner of the room. I recommend in the corner so the play-doh darts are contained and don’t end up all over the house.

Start a timer or play some music and tell players, “Ready, set, blow!” Everyone shoots play-doh darts as quickly as possible, aiming for the bowl. At the end of the timer or when the music stops, all players stop shooting.

Dump the play-doh darts in the bowl out, sort them by color, and count them. The player with the most darts in the bowl wins!

You could count each player’s darts, keep track of their points, and play for multiple rounds.

You could set up multiple bowls of varying sizes and assign different point values to each one.

You could give more than one player the same color of play-doh and play with teams.

You could get rid of the bowl entirely and just shoot play-doh darts at each other!

They don’t travel far and they’re perfectly harmless. It’s perfect for small kids sitting around a kitchen table.

Now, what about the gigantic mess, you ask? If you can, keep the play-doh contained to one area of the room, and shoo everyone out of the room as soon as the game is over. Keep everyone out of the room in order to keep the play-doh from getting smushed or spread around. Then just give it a few hours until the play-doh dries up and sweep the little dry play-doh bits into the trash. When they’re dry, they clean up really well.

Have fun!

What it is: An activity where you throw marshmallows at each other!

Best for: A larger group, any age

What you need: 

• Marshmallows! The big kind works best.

How to play: Really I can’t make it much simpler: throw marshmallows at each other!

Marshmallows are fun because they’re harmless, and yummy. Also relatively easy to clean up. You can play indoors or outdoors.

The first time I remember playing, we were on a family reunion and I saw my mom emptying some bags of big marshmallows into a tray. I went up to ask her what she was doing and she threw a marshmallow in my face! Once I got over the initial shock, I laughed as everyone joined in, throwing marshmallows all over the room. It was pandemonium. And a lot of fun.

Just watch out for players who try to stick the marshmallows in their mouths or bite them in half before throwing them, because then the marshmallows get sticky.

You can also play with mini marshmallows and DIY marshmallow guns made of PVC pipes. Here’s a tutorial I found online. That works well for a big group outside and is a ton of fun. Again, watch out for those people who stick the marshmallows in their mouths before shooting them, resulting in sticky marshmallow wads stuck to everyone’s clothes and hair. (Ew!) That might be against the rules for you, your call.

So grab a bag of marshmallows and organize a marshmallow fight!

What it is: It’s not the card game – it’s a quiet game of perception and memorization

Best for: Any size group, with players old enough to write

What you need:

• Paper and a writing utensil for everyone
• A tray or flat area to display items
• Items to display and memorize. It works great if there’s a theme to follow, like items from a diaper bag if it’s a baby shower, or jewelry and accessories for a princess themed party.

How to play: First, assemble your items. The number of items you have will vary depending on the age of your players and how hard you want the game to be. Let’s pretend you’re playing the game at an art themed birthday party. You might gather items such as these:

• An orange crayon
• A blue marker
• Watercolor paints
• Big paint brush
• Small paint brush
• Sheet of paper
• Pencil
• A red colored pencil
• Eraser
• A purple bottle of paint
• Pencil sharpener
• One paper towel
• A piece of green construction paper
• A yellow pipe cleaner
• Two googly eyes

Seat all your players in a room. Give each a piece of paper and something to write with. Then bring out your items. It’s handy if you have them on a tray or a table. Set a timer and give your players a set amount of time to study the objects. Depending on the age of your players and the number of your objects, this might be one minute, three minutes, or even 30 seconds.

When the timer ends, remove all the items from your players’ view. If they’re on a table or on the floor, you could throw a towel or sheet over them.

Set another timer and give your players a chance to write down as many of the items they can remember. Again, you could give them one minute, five minutes, or whatever you think is appropriate.

After everyone has had a chance to write down as many items they can remember, show the items one by one. Anyone who wrote down the displayed item gets a point. You can offer two points to players who remember something about the item, too; for example, if they wrote “orange crayon” instead of just “crayon.”

After players tally up their own points, ask things like, “Who remembered at least 10 things? Who remembered at least 12? Who remembered more than 15?” until you narrow down enough players and eventually find the player or players who remembered the most. They get a prize!

It’s a great shower or party game. Have fun!

What it is: Basically a mother/daughter version of the Newlywed game where mothers and daughters are quizzed to see how much they know about each other. Perfect for a mother/daughter activity.

Best for: A group of 4 to 10 mother/daughter pairs

What you need:

• The printable game (included below for free)
• Pens or pencils

How to play: One person will need to host the game and print the file beforehand. The included printable has purple (player) pages and orange (host) pages. Print one copy of the purple pages for each mother/daughter pair. Print one copy total of the orange pages.

After you print, cut all the pages in half. Each half-sheet represents a round. On odd rounds (1, 3, 5, 7), daughters silently answer questions about themselves and mothers are quizzed aloud on the answers. On even rounds (2, 4, 6, 8), mothers silently answer questions about themselves and the daughters are quizzed aloud.

You will probably want to play at least one odd round and at least one even round. You can read through all of the rounds and choose your favorites ahead of time, or play them all!

After you’ve printed, chosen your rounds, and organized your papers, invite your players to start!

Starting with Round 1, give each daughter a copy of the purple Round 1 half-sheet. Make sure they write their names at the bottom, and have them silently write the answers to the questions (moms, no peeking!).

After the daughters fill out their questionnaires, collect them and invite all the mothers to sit at the front of the room. Use the host’s Round 1 page to ask the mothers the corresponding questions to the daughters’ questionnaire.

First, read the first question to the first mom and have her answer out loud. Then read her daughter’s answer out loud. If the mom’s answer matches her daughter’s answer, put a check mark next to the question. The mother gets a point. Move on to the next mom until all moms have had a chance to answer question one. Then move on to question two, and repeat until you’ve gone through the whole round.

The mother who scored the most out of the 6 points possible in the round wins the round and a point for her and her daughter.

Then move on to Round 2. Give the purple Round 2 questionnaires to the mothers and have them quietly write in their answers. Collect them, invite the daughters to the front of the room, and ask each daughter each question, one at a time. The daughter with the most correct answers (answers that match her mother’s answers) wins the round and gets a point for her and her mother.

After you’ve played all the rounds you wish to play, the mother/daughter pair who’s won most of the rounds wins and gets a prize!

Printable: Here’s the printable you need to play the game!

Variations: Instead of declaring a winner after each round, add up all of a pair’s points, mother’s and daughter’s, from all rounds. The pair with the highest overall points wins.

You can also declare a winner within each pair – whoever got the most questions right, the mother or the daughter, wins (and the loser needs to pay more attention when their mother or daughter talks).

I also have basically the same style of game for couples and for bridal showers.

What it is: A perfect bridal shower version of the Newlywed game – a game to test a bride on how well she knows her fiancé before their wedding. 

Best for: A bridal shower

What you need:

• The included free printable
• A bride
• A groom
• Time in advance to get questions answered from the groom

How to play: First, print the included printable. Before the shower starts, give the groom-to-be the first three pages of the printable. Either circle the questions on page 1 you want him to answer, or let him choose his favorites. Aim for at least 10 questions. Pages 2 and 3 have space for him to write his answers.

After you’ve collected the groom’s answers and during the bridal shower, have the bride sit at the front of the room. Read her the questions on page 4 of the printable that correspond with the numbered questions the groom answered. Have her give her answers out loud, then reveal what her fiancé said. She gets a point if their answers matched.

Remind the bride that she’s trying to give the answers her fiancé would give, not necessarily the answers she thinks are true. For example, for the question, “Who liked who first, your fiancé or you?”, the bride and groom might have differing opinions on this particular subject. Maybe according to him, she liked him first, but for the her it’s vice versa. If the bride wants a point, she should make sure to answer with what her fiancé would say, not necessarily what she thinks is correct.

It’s a fun bridal shower activity because it lets everyone learn more about the bride and groom and their story (and who doesn’t love that?). It gives some structure and will hopefully lead to some laughs. So have fun, and tell the bride and groom congratulations from me!

Printable: Here’s the free printable!

Variations: Besides the version for couples, I also have a version of the game for mothers and daughters. Have fun!

What it is: A game to test how well husbands and wives know each other

Best for: A group of husbands and wives of any age, whether they’re newlyweds or celebrating their 50th anniversary!

What you need: 

• The free printable included with this post
• Pens or pencils

How to play: One person will need to host the game and print the file beforehand. The included printable has blue (player) pages and orange (host) pages. Print one copy of the blue pages for each player. Print one copy total of the orange pages.

After you print, cut all the pages in half. Each half-sheet represents a round. You can read through all of the rounds and choose your favorites ahead of time, or play them all!

After you’ve printed, chosen your rounds, and organized your papers, invite your players to start!

Let’s start with the husbands. Give each husband a copy of the blue (player) Round 1 half-sheet.

Make sure they label it with their name (that’s important). Have them quietly write in their answers. Don’t let the wives peek!

As the host, gather the husband’s filled-out questionnaires. Then seat the wives at the front of the room.

Using the host’s corresponding Round 1 sheet, read the first question out loud to the first wife.

She gives an answer out loud, no hints allowed. After she answers, read her husband’s answer to the corresponding question out loud. If the answers are the same, give the question a check mark and the wife gets a point.

Repeat with the second wife. After each wife has answered the first question, repeat with the other four questions.

At the end of Round 1, count up each wife’s correct answers. The wife with the most correct answers wins the round and a point for her and her husband.

Then switch spots – the wives will write the answers on a blue (player) page. You can either repeat Round 1 and ask the wives the same questions, or move on to a new round. After the wives write their answers, collect the sheets, invite the husbands to the front of the room, and use the corresponding host’s page to ask the husbands the corresponding questions out loud. Husbands get a point for each correct answer, and the husband with the most points at the end of the round wins the round and a point for him and his wife.

After you’ve played all of the rounds you wish to play, the couple who has won the most rounds wins the game!

Printable: Here’s the free printable to grab! 

Variations: Instead of declaring a winner after each round, add up all of a couple’s points, husband’s and wife’s, from all rounds. The couple with the highest overall points wins.

You can also declare a winner within each couple – whoever got the most questions right, the husband or the wife, wins (and the loser needs to pay more attention when their spouse talks).

I also have a version of the same game to play at bridal showers and one for mothers and daughters.

What it is: A way to play pictionary that works best with specific categories, like idioms or, in this post, movie titles. It’s not as competitive as regular pictionary and takes a lot more creativity!

Best for: Older players (teens or above) because of the difficulty involved

What you need: 

• A wipe-off board and dry erase marker, a chalkboard and chalk, or a paper pad and marker; basically a surface to draw on that all players can see

How to play: Just like in regular pictionary, players take turns drawing silently, trying to get other players to guess a word or phrase.

In what I’ve dubbed “mixtionary,” it works better if players come up with their own ideas of what to draw and if you don’t have a timer. You might not even want to keep score. It’s just a fun way to see who can creatively get others to guess a word or phrase in a challenging way, because instead of drawing any picture, your challenge is to illustrate the individual sounds of the phrase, mixing pictures to put together the entire phrase.

So in this post, I’ll use movie titles as an example. (Also, mostly family/PG movie titles.) Can you guess this one?

If you need a hint, cows say MOO, and the picture of the lawn mower is pointing to the LAWN…

Mulan!

See how the pictures make up the whole phrase? Here’s another one:

In this example, you can see how letters can come into play. Considering how difficult this game can be, I recommend allowing letters (instead of in regular pictionary where letters are usually against the rules).

In this game, use a bubble letter, like the first E, to indicate that the letter should be pronounced individually, like “eee.” Use normal letters, like the “er,” to indicate that the letters should be read instead of pronounced individually, like the end of the word, oh, “Potter,” for instance.

Want another? (Excuse my sloppy drawing by the way; this is my go-time pictionary drawing style. No time for fancy pictures!)

I’m not going to give away that one… How about some more?

In this last example, notice how you can use more complex equations to dissect sounds. So you’ve got your first picture, then a little equation, a picture of the EARTH minus the H sound (leaving you with “urt”). Plus the last picture… Can you guess the movie title?

This one’s a little tricker. Remember, a bubble letter means you pronounce the letter, like “ess.” A regular letter means you read the sound the letter makes. Another point is that if there’s a plus sign or a minus sign, it indicates that those two sounds are part of the same word. But if there’s no plus or minus sign between pictures, that indicates a word break. So in the above example, since there’s no plus sign after the T, the first and second lines are separate words.

How about one more?

See how the game works? You can play with movie titles, book titles, maybe even idioms. Since you won’t be able to illustrate all movie titles this way, it’s best to let players think of their own, or if you have a big list (like my word generator provides) allow skipping until players find one they feel like they can illustrate.

OK, finally, to end, here’s one last hard one that, I admit, is a big stretch and maybe nigh unto impossible, because it’s kind of an obscure movie to begin with. Guess it correctly in the comments, or guess all of the previous pictures, and I’ll give you a free escape room kit from my site!

(Here’s your one clue. See how there’s no plus or minus signs? That means it’s three separate words.)

Variations: For more variations on the classic game of pictionary, try musical pictionary or pictionades. If you’re looking for lists of movies or other pictionary words, check out my printables page or the word generator.

Good luck, and happy playing!

What it is: An open-ended alphabet themed activity

Best for: An empty afternoon or day to fill up

What you need: It depends!

How to play: This is just a kind of silly way to throw a themed party or day. You basically choose a letter, then do as many activities, eat as many foods, and say as many words that start with that letter that you can think of! 

So if you chose O, you could:

• Eat oranges, okra, and onion rings
• Fold origami
• Listen to opera music
• Play Operation

And if you choose P, you could…

• Eat popcorn, peaches, and pears
• Make popsicles
• Play Parcheesi
• Paint pictures of pigs
• Listen to music by Phillip Phillips

That’s it! A great activity for young kids learning the alphabet. My preferred letter would be C so I could eat chocolate. Or I for ice cream…ah, I can’t decide!

If you have any letter/activity/food combo ideas, I’d love to hear them

Best for: Group of 8 to 12ish.

What you need: A group of people and a room they can all sit in. It’s harder to play this one on the floor, so it’s best if everyone’s sitting on chairs or couches arranged in a circle.

How to play: Before you start, everyone who’s playing needs to choose a sign—something distinct enough that it’s clearly theirs, but (usually) inconspicuous and silent. For example, let’s say Mike, Lori, Ben, and Kate are choosing their signs. Mike’s is pulling his right ear. Lori’s is touching her nose with her finger. Ben’s is making a “peace” sign with his hand. And Kate’s is a wink.

Next, choose someone to be It (this time it’s Ben). Ben stands up in the middle of the circle and picks someone in the circle (like Kate) to have the Sign. Then he closes his eyes. The point of the game is to pass the Sign around the circle without Ben knowing who has it. Kate has the Sign now. To pass it to someone else, she has to make their sign to them. So, what if Kate wants to pass the Sign to Mike? She’ll make sure Mike’s looking at her and then pull her right ear (remember, that’s Mike’s sign). For Mike to officially receive the Sign, he has to acknowledge to Kate by pulling his ear. As soon as Mike makes his sign, he has the Sign. Until then, Kate still has it. Make sense?

So that’s how the Sign is passed around the circle. Now remember that Ben closed his eyes? After he counts to ten, he opens them, and by then Kate will have passed the Sign on to someone else (and maybe the Sign has been passed a few times), so Ben doesn’t know who has it. Since he’s standing in the middle of the circle, his back is always turned to part of it, allowing the players to pass and receive the Sign when he’s not looking. But Ben can be quick. Let’s say he catches a glimpse of Lori making her sign (touching her nose with her finger) and he guesses that she just accepted the Sign. Ben can then ask, “Lori, do you have the Sign?” She has to respond truthfully, and then Lori is the new It. She stands in the middle of the circle, picks a new person to start with the Sign, and closes her eyes to count. If Lori (or any other It) guesses incorrectly, the game keeps going. She can guess as many times as she wants. So that’s how the game is played.

A few things to remember while playing signs: First, make sure that everyone remembers everyone else’s signs. It’s okay if people forget momentarily, but if none of the other players can ever remember Ben’s sign, they’ll never pass the Sign to him, and that would be sad. So it might be good to review everyone’s signs every once in a while. Another thing, sometimes the game can get confusing. If you’re not paying attention, it could be easy to lose track of who has the Sign, or multiple people could think they have it. At that point, it’s best to pause the game and have whoever’s It pick a new person to start and then count to ten. Finally, you can get pretty sneaky with passing the Sign. If Ben’s It and he asks, “Do you have the sign?” and you do, but technically you just passed it to someone else who accepted it before you have to answer, you can say “no” and you’re off the hook. So practice being sneaky and inconspicuous and go have fun with signs!

Variations: There are many other games similar to signs that you perhaps call the same name. The games newspaper and animal signs are similar, just not as quiet. Know any others? Oh, and one of my favorites is playing signs in a perhaps less formal setting, say if you’re in a boring meeting and want some entertainment. Get your buddies to all very quietly and inconspicuously choose a sign and then pass it around without the People in Charge catching on.* Good times.

* Of course, you should be responsible. Always.

What it is: An easy game for young children

Best for: 4 or more players

What you need: 

• Just an area to play, a big open space you can run in

How to play: First choose one player to be your caller. We’ll call her Mom. Mom stands at one end of the room or area while all of the players stand across from her, facing her. There should be a long space between Mom and the players. It’s also ideal if the players have a wall to stand against or a line to stand behind so everyone starts the same distance from Mom.

When all players are lined up and not wiggling too much, Mom turns her back to the players and calls “Green light!”

This is the players’ cue to run forward towards Mom. But whenever she chooses, Mom says “Red light!” and turns around. As soon as they hear “Red light!” all the players freeze in place. If Mom turns around and catches anyone moving, anyone who hasn’t frozen still, she can send them back to the starting line. (So it may not be in players’ best interest to run as fast as they can, lest their momentum keeps them from stopping in time and gets them sent back to the starting line.)

After Mom has caught anyone who was moving and sent them back to the starting line, she turns around again and calls “Green light!” Players rush forward until Mom says “Red light!” and turns around.

The first player to reach Mom wins! They get to be the caller next round.

Variations: For younger children, you could play without Mom turning around. She just stands facing the players all the time saying “Red light!” and “Green light!” She also doesn’t send players back to the starting line if they don’t stop right away, but she can require players who were slow to freeze to take a few steps back.

What it is: A game where players step on balloons tied to each other’s ankles!

Best for: 5 to 12 players

What you need:

• String
• One balloon per player per round
• A big open space to play (indoors is ideal)

How to play: To set up, tie a balloon to each player’s ankle with a short piece of string. There should be at least a few inches of string from the ankle to the balloon so the balloon can bounce along the ground.

Have all your players carefully stand at the edges of the play area. At “go,” all players rush forward and try to stomp each other’s balloons so they pop. When your balloon pops, you’re eliminated from the game. Go sit or stand along the sidelines and watch until there’s only one player remaining with a balloon on their ankle: the winner!

Some rules: No touching the balloons, and you might want to set up clear guidelines up front about pushing or shoving.

Variations: This game is similar to floppy sock tag, but for sure a lot noisier!

What it is: A quiet, low-activity big-group game of speed

Best for: Older kids and up, and at least 10 players

What you need:

• A dice
• Two balloons

How to play: Divide your players into two even teams. Have one team sit cross-legged on the floor in a line, side by side, creating one long line. Have your second team sit the same way, with their backs to the first team’s backs. So you should have two parallel lines, one line for each team, with their backs to each other.

Next everyone holds hands with the two teammates on either side of them. Go to one end of the lines where each team will have an end person. Say, for example, Team 1 has Nicolas and Team 2 has Inez. Give Nicolas and Inez each a balloon to hold in their free hand. They should hold the balloon in their hand but keep their hand and balloon down on the ground beside them, not in their lap.

Go to the other end of the lines, which will be the starting point. Eric on Team 1 and Louise on Team 2 are there. You as referee sit next to Eric and Louise with a dice in your hand. Start rolling the dice, making sure to hold it where only Eric and Louise (by turning their heads) can see it.

As soon as you roll a 1, Eric and Louise each squeeze their teammates’ hand. Those teammate number 2s will pass the squeeze on to the player next to them, and so on and so on down the line, until, like an electric current, Nicolas and Inez will feel their hands squeezed.

As soon as Nicolas or Inez feels a squeeze, he or she holds up their balloon high as quickly as possible. The first team to raise their balloon wins. (You as referee make the call.)

Have everyone rotate (so Eric and Louise would move to the end of the line, holding the balloons, and those teammate number 2s move up to be the first in line, the players watching the dice). Then go again.

That’s your gameplay! Play until each player has had a chance to be both the balloon-holder and the dice-watcher, then tally up each team’s points and declare a winner!

One rule is no talking is allowed. Players should not be clued in that an electric current has started before it reaches them. (So Eric and Louise should refrain from gasping in excitement if the referee rolls a 1.)

Variations: Instead of rolling a dice, you could also flip a coin. When it lands on heads, the first players start passing the squeeze down.

And instead of having players hold up balloons, you could put only one hand-sized object, like a water bottle or a tennis ball, at the end of the line, equidistant from Nicolas and Inez. Whichever of them grabs and holds up the tennis ball first wins.

What it is: A simple game of chance where you try not to get a face full of water

Best for: A small to big group

What you need:

• Small cup
• Water to put in the cup
• Slips of paper
• Drinking straw (optional)

How to play: Fill your cup with just a tiny amount of water. You could even dip a drinking straw in another cup of water, put your finger over the top, and release the water in the straw in an empty cup.

Choose one person to be It. How about José? Everyone else sits in a circle around the room and José stands in the middle and holds the cup of water.

José chooses a category. You can use the categories list in the word generator (or the categories post has some lists, too) for ideas if you want.

Let’s say the category José chooses is mythological creatures. José announces the category to everyone, then secretly thinks of an item in the category, like a dragon. He writes down “dragon” on a slip of paper, folds it up, and puts it down where no one can read it.

José then starts with one player, like Evie. Standing in front of her with the water cup ready, he has her name an item in the category. Evie says “hippogriff” so José moves on to the next player, Sophia. She says “Big Foot.” José moves to the next player, John, who says “dragon.” So John gets a face full of water. José just tosses it in his face. Then José shows everyone the paper with “dragon” on it, to prove that he did indeed come up with that word beforehand and not just pretend he had picked dragon because he doesn’t like John.

So, in summary, the player who names It’s pre-selected item gets the cup of water in their face. Then that person gets a turn to be It and think of a new category.

You can add a rule that, if any player takes more than 3 seconds to name an item, they get the face full of water. Also, the person who’s It keeps going around and around the circle until someone guesses the item.

Enjoy the suspense that comes from hoping a cup of water doesn’t get thrown in your face!

What it is: A get-to-know-you game, a game to get people to share facts about themselves

Best for: A shower or a class or other group get-together where players are meeting each other for the first time

What you need:

• A roll of toilet paper

How to play: To start, have everyone sit down in a circle. Hand the toilet paper roll to one player and tell them to take as much as they think they will need and keep it. If they ask, “What’s it for?” just say, “Take as much as you think you will need.” Don’t give any guidance as to how much toilet paper they should unroll.

After the first player unrolls their toilet paper, tell them to hand the toilet paper roll to the next person and pass the message down to take some toilet paper, again with no guidance on how much toilet paper to take, just “Take as much as you think you will need.” Don’t tell players what it’s for. If they ask, say a game and nothing more.

Once all of your players have a wad of toilet paper, announce how the game works: each person must go around the room and share facts about themselves, one fact per square of toilet paper they unrolled. Some players might have taken big wads, while some might have taken just a few squares. Either case, each square of toilet paper equals one fact.

You could have some questions handy to ask in case people run out of ideas. Check out the word generator or the get to know you questions post for some ideas!

It’s just a simple activity to, well, trick people into sharing lots of facts about themselves.

Variations: Instead of toilet paper, you could use a jar of small objects, like coins, M&Ms, or paper clips. Still tell players to take as many as they think they will need. The toilet paper throws in a humor factor, though.

Best for: A small group of players (3 to 6), big kids to adults

What you need: 

• All-purpose baking flour
  
• A cup
• A penny
• A pie tin, cookie sheet, or baking dish
• A butter knife

How to play: To set up the game, pack the cup tightly with flour. Then carefully turn the cup over in the pie tin and gently pull it back, leaving a cup-shaped stack of flour in the middle of the pie tin. Then very carefully place the penny on top of the stack, right in the middle, like this:

To play, players take turns slicing a chunk of flour away with the butter knife while everyone watches. If a player tries to slice away a chunk that’s too thin, the rest of the players can vote to make the player go again.

Eventually the penny will fall. The last player who touched the flour stack before the penny falls loses and, as punishment, has to dig the penny out of the flour using only their teeth. They’ll inevitably end up with a white powdery face, so you might want some paper towels (and a camera) handy. If you want to play again, set up a new stack with new flour and go for it!

I’ve played this game as part of a trivia game, too. Players had to answer questions, and if someone answered a question incorrectly they had to cut away a slice of flour. If you answered the question correctly, you didn’t have to cut away the flour and so didn’t have to risk getting flour all over your face/in your mouth. 

If you don’t like the idea of putting a piece of money in your mouth, you can play with a piece of candy like a Sweet Tart or a jelly bean. The money is just more difficult, resulting in more laughs (except for the poor person with their face in the flour).

Speaking of the poor person with their face in the flour, someone inevitably will try shoving their head from behind as they bend over the flour pile, pushing their face into the flour, making an even bigger mess, and possibly losing the penny even more. If you want your players to play nice, make sure you set up your rules (like no touching the flour-digging player) at the beginning.

What it is: A talking guessing game perfect for young children

Best for: A small group of children plus some adults

What you need: Nothing!

How to play: Players take turns naming three things in a category. The rest of the players then guess the category.

For example, Matt says “Tyrannosaurus, Brontosaurus, Procompsognathus.” It’s pretty each to guess that the category is dinosaurs (this is why it’s a good game for small kids).

(Yes, I know, you’re like, “A good game for small kids? What small kid is going to know Procompsognathus?” But I just saw Jurassic World so I had dinosaurs on my mind, plus I wanted to draw a compy. Cute, right?)

Here’s some more examples, ranging from easy to more difficult:

• Katerina, Prince Wednesday, Daniel (characters from Daniel Tiger)
• Daisy, rose, violet (flowers)
• Chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodle (types of cookies)
• Shoes, candy wrappers, rocks from the playground (things found in the backseat of our family van)

You can adjust the limit to 5 things instead of 3, or you can let the item-namer come up with an unlimited number of additional items, until the category is guessed.

If you want ideas of items in categories, check out the post three deep – that’s essentially all it is, groups of 3 items sorted into categories. You’ll have to figure out the category on your own, though

What it is: An active game involving hopping and rock-paper-scissors

Best for: A big group (at the very least 8 players) in a gym

What you need:

• 20 to 30 hula hoops
• Optional: Painter’s tape to secure the hula hoops to the floor
  

How to play: This game is easily demonstrated through a video, so let’s just start with one right off the bat:

Now that you get the idea, lets talk specifics! First, setup. Place or tape your hula hoops on the ground, creating one long trail of hula hoops that can wind and curve across the gym. There should be room on each end of the trail for a line of players to stand.

Divide your players evenly into two teams and send each team to line up at either end of the hula hoop trail. Then you’re ready to start the game!

Let’s say on Team 1 we have Simon at the front of the line, and on Team 2 we have Mary. At “go,” Simon and Mary start hopping down the hula hoop trail, landing once in each hula hoop. When they meet each other, they play a quick round of rock-paper-scissors. (If they tie, they play again quickly until someone wins.)

Say Mary wins. The loser of rock-paper-scissors (Simon) then leaves the hula hoop trail, going back to the end of his team’s line. Mary gets to continue hopping up the hula hoop trail, trying to get to the opposing team’s starting point.

As soon as Simon leaves the trail, the next player in Team 1’s line (we’ll call him Jacob) starts hopping down the trail. When Mary and Jacob meet, they play rock-paper-scissors. Say Mary wins. Then Mary continues hopping down the trail, Jacob goes to the end of his team’s line, and Jacob’s team sends another player hopping right away.

The game ends when someone reaches the end of the hula hoop trail (the starting point for the other team).

It’s a great game because it works for any age. If your players are too young to play rock-paper-scissors, have a buddy walk with them and play rock-paper-scissors for them. And there’s really not much skill involved. Sure, some kids might be faster hoppers than others, but anyone (even the youngest players) can win at rock-paper-scissors. So it’s a great mixed-age group game.

Also, it’s so fun! For some reason players just get so excited when a teammate wins at rock-paper-scissors. Much cheering occurs. So much suspense! So much intensity! So much hopping! This game is a keeper.

Source: I learned about the game from Eric Branch. His video of his gym class playing is great! It went viral. Thanks for the great game, Eric!

What it is: A great Halloween activity where players wrap each other up like mummies

Best for: 6 players or more, divided up into teams of 3 or 4

What you  need: 

• 1 to 3 rolls of toilet paper for each team
• A roll of masking tape for each team (optional)

How to play: Once you have your players divided up into teams, give each team their roll(s) of toilet paper. Then have each team choose one player to be the mummy. The other players on the team will wrap the mummy with toilet paper, making them look as much like a real mummy as they can! There are several ways you can do this:

• Set a generous timer, like 10 minutes, and have teams make the best mummy they can. At the end of 10 minutes, have a judge give out awards like Best Overall Mummy, Most Covered, Most Realistic, etc. You can award candy as prizes, too. This variation might be best with masking tape, to make those higher quality mummies, none of that sloppy stuff.
• Another variation is more about the sloppy stuff. Have players race against each other. The first team to completely use up their toilet paper wins. You can still have a judge award prizes based on the best mummy.
• Combine the mummy wrapping with a relay race. Have a designated area or room the mummies can race across. After players use all their toilet paper to wrap up the mummy, the mummies races across the room and back. The first team to complete the relay without their mummy wrappings falling apart wins!
  
• Don’t keep a timer and don’t make a race. Just let players have fun with it! If you have a lot of toilet paper, have players take turns being the mummy.

Happy playing, and happy Halloween!

What it is: A challenge where players race each other to see who can be the fastest to eat a dangling donut

Best for: 5 to 8 players

What you need: 

• One donut per person
• String to suspend the donuts with
• A long stick like a mop or broom handle

How to play: First, you’ll need to do some set up. Count out a donut for each person who’ll be playing. Then cut an approximately two-foot length of string for each donut.

Tie a string through the whole of each donut, careful not to pull too tight so as to not rip the donut. Tie the other end of the string around the pole and space the strings at least a foot apart from each other.

To start the game, have two people hold the pole so the donuts hang at mouth-height of the players. It’s better to be slightly too low than too high.

Have all players come and stand in front of a donut. It might be good to have strings of varying lengths so players can select, based on their height, which donut hangs best next to their mouth.

Once each player has a donut, have all players put their hands behind their back and say go!

Then all the players race to see who can eat their donut the fastest. The trick is no hands are allowed, so players can use only their mouths to eat. With the donuts hanging freely, this is trickier than it sounds! Good laughter is sure to ensue from all spectators.

The first player to finish their whole donut without dropping any on the floor and chew it up and swallow the whole thing wins! (If it drops on the floor, you’re eliminated.) Then the winner gets to eat all the rest of the donuts! (kidding)

If you live in Texas, make sure you use Shipley’s donuts. They’re totally the best.

Have fun!

What it is: A reverse of the game catchphrase. Instead of one person talking while everyone else guesses, it’s the opposite; everyone talks while one person guesses. (Head on over to catchphrase if you don’t know how to play.)

Best for: 5 to 10 players

What you need: 

• A list of catchphrase words or, even better, an app or website like my word generator would be really handy.
• A chalkboard, dry erase board, or TV screen to display words on

How to play: First, your setup. You need some surface to display words on where everyone in the room can see it, except for one person who will sit with their back to the word. We’ll call that person Dave.

If you have a board to write on, have Dave sit with his back to it and have a list of words ready to write on the board.

We’ve played before with my word generator app and an Apple TV. We just Airplay the app up to the TV so it’s easy to tap and display new words. (If you have an Android you can also cast to, for example, a Google Chromecast.) Dave would sit or stand to the side of the TV, with his back to it.

As part of your set up, you can also divide your players into two teams.

Dave’s team goes first and, as said, sends Dave up to sit with his back to the TV (or board). Write or display your first word on the board or screen, say “go,” and start a 30-second or 1-minute timer. Dave’s team reads the first word, which is “monster.” Then they all try as fast as they can, with talking only and no acting, to get Dave to guess the word.

• “A big hairy thing that chases kids and hides in closets!”
• “Sulley and Mike from that Pixar movie!”
• “Kids are scared this is hiding under their bed!”
• “Oscar and Elmo and Grover from Sesame Street are all…”

It will probably be pretty crazy, as you can imagine, with everyone shouting. Just like in regular catchphrase, players aren’t allowed to say any form of the word “monsters” or any word that contains “monsters” (like Monsters, Inc.).

As soon as Dave says “monster,” write or show a new word on the board or screen. Everyone keeps going until the timer runs out. Then tally up the points Dave’s team got (the number of words they guessed correctly) and let the other team have a turn.

It’ll be crazy and include a lot of shouting, but that’s all part of the fun!

For a list of word ideas to use, check out my online word generator or download the app (available for iOS or Android), or visit the catchphrase post or the printables page for some PDFs you can download.

Variations: Catchphrase, of course, is a variation. The game celebrities also has some catchphrase elements to it.

What it is: A lung-powered cross between air hockey and ping-pong, played around a table

Best for: 4 to 8 players, divided into two teams, and any age

What you need:

• A table big enough for all your players to gather around
• A ping-pong ball
• A drinking straw for each player (optional)

How to play: First, set up your playing area. Divide the table in half, one half for each team. If your table has a seam down the middle, that’s nice and convenient. You could also use a strip of masking tape. Then have your players surround the table. You want players’ heads to be at table level, so the best way to do this is have players kneel around the table. Young children might stand. If you’re using a coffee table, maybe players could sit.

If you don’t have enough players to completely surround the table, stack books or lay another type of barrier across the open sides.

Once you have your teams assigned and your players in place, put the ping-pong ball in the middle of the table and say “go.”

The object of the game is to blow the ping-pong ball off the opposing team’s side of the table. So everyone bends down, takes a deep breath, and blows! The ping-pong ball will shoot around the table, being blown around until it sneaks past a player onto the floor. That player’s team loses the round, the other team gets a point, and a new round can start.

You can let players blow into straws (thick smoothie straws work especially well) if you want to let them more precisely direct the direction of their blowing. No straws works just fine, too. Try both ways and see which one you like more.

One rule: Players are not allowed to touch the table at all. So no hands on the table, and no pressing your body against the edge of the table to keep the ping pong ball from falling. (If you find the game too difficult this way, you can modify the rules to fit your players.)

It’s a game so fun, it will take your breath away! (Sorry. I couldn’t resist.) Seriously, though, it can involve a lot of exhaling. Make sure no one passes out! (Though I often end up laughing so hard I can’t blow the ping pong ball anyway!)

What it is: A mash-up movie guessing game that takes some creativity

Best for: Teens to adults

What you need: 

• You might find the IMDb or a list of movie titles helpful

How to play: Can you name this movie?

A snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl’s innocent pet cocker spaniel and make her presentable in high society before a streetwise downtown mutt falls in love with her first.

Sound a little wacky? Well, it’s not a real movie. It’s a mash-up! A made-up summary of a combination of two movie titles that share a word…

My Fair Lady and the Tramp!

The summary combines parts of the movie My Fair Lady (1964), a movie about a phonetics professor passing off a flower girl in high society, with Lady and the Tramp (1955), a movie about an innocent pet cocker spaniel falling in love with a streetwise downtown mutt.

That’s the game! Take turns with your friends coming up with summaries of mashed-up movies and see if you can guess. See how wacky they get. Do you want some more examples?

A high school student time travels to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, where rebels are battling against a mean bully and his fleet of star ships, so they must stop the Empire from preventing his parents from meeting and falling in love.

A father and daughter attempt to defend their flock of orphaned Canada Geese from idiotic burglars during the holidays.

The Soviet Union’s best submarine captain in their newest sub violates orders and heads for the U.S., while a coal miner’s son with an interest in rocketry attempts to track down the sub and find out if the captain is trying to defect or start a war.

And then, finally, one from my brother-in-law that’s a bit of a stretch and might be a little tricky…

“Crouch, I say, crouch! Now you—hide!”

Guess all four movie titles in this post and I’ll give you a free escape room kit from my site!

Or do you have a movie title or summary to share? Post it in the comments! Maybe you can come up with a summary for one of these wacky combinations:

• The Corpse Bride of Frankenstein
• Black Beauty and the Beast
• October Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
• The Great Escape to Witch Mountain
• A Little Princess Bride
• We’re Back to the Future
• It’s a Wonderful Life is Beautiful
• Treasure Planet of the Apes
• Star Wars of the Worlds
• Shark Tale of Two Cities
• Finding Neverland Before Time
• She’s the Man for All Seasons
• The Swan Princess Bride
• Forever Young Frankenstein
• Mighty Joe Young Indiana Jones
• Jungle 2 Jungle Book
• Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey to the Center of the Earth

One last bonus, here’s a printable list of more mashed-up movie summaries with answers. You can give the list to a group and see who can get the most right. It would be a great movie night activity!

Best for: All ages, and pretty much any group size

What you need: 

• A roll of masking tape

How to play: Start by tearing a small strip of masking tape for each person. Loop the strips to make a piece of tape sticky on all sides, then have each person stick the piece of tape right on the end of his or her nose.

Game play is very simple. Two players walk up to each other, press the tape on their noses together, and pull back.

The tape pieces will stick together and one person will end up losing their tape, with both pieces sticking to the other player’s nose. The person who lost their tape is out of the game. Meanwhile, the person with two pieces of tape goes up to challenge another player. If they keep their tape, they go on and challenge someone else. Any player who loses their tape is eliminated. Eventually the winners will collect bigger and bigger wads of comical-looking tape on the ends of their noses, until the last two players face each other and one person is left with a giant wad of tape on the end of his or her nose, the winner!

Rules: Except for at the beginning when players are first sticking the tape on their noses, they are not allowed to touch the tape with their hands at all. At the beginning, they are free to press their tape on their nose as much as they want. When two players approach each other to touch tape, they aren’t allowed to touch each other (to prevent cheating).

It’s a short, simple, kind of silly game that will probably get lots of giggles. It would be a very interesting icebreaker, but it’s also fun for a family reunion (it works great with mixed ages) or a group of people who know each other well.

What it is: Games to play with your kids at home to get them to clean! Here’s a few we’ve used at our own house.

Best for: A family of young kids at home cleaning a house

What you need:

• A messy house

How to play: Ah, cleaning with young kids. Sometimes when the house is messy and it’s time to clean, it can be so tempting to get my kids out of my hair somehow so I can just get the cleaning done on my own. It goes so much quicker that way! Of course, that’s not always possible. And of course, we all want to teach our kids the value of hard work and personal responsibility. But come on, I’m the Game Gal here! Do you think we get through our chores without any play at all? Of course not! Here are some of the common “games” we use to get through chore time at our house.

Drawing for jobs

My mom used this technique all the time when I was a kid. She would write whatever jobs needed to be done on slips of paper, fold them up, throw them in the air, and then us kids would scramble for them. Kind of felt like a piñata being opened…but the opposite. Anyway, there was a fun feeling of suspense, unfolding your slip, wondering what job you got.

It was also a handy tool for the days she had some extra kids over, like friends or cousins. She would write more than one slip for a larger job (usually a room in the house like the kitchen or the living room) and anyone who drew that room would form a team or partnership. I think it was also a handy way for her to absolve herself from responsibility: How could we be mad at her if we drew a job we didn’t like? We were the one who drew it, after all.

What’s my job?

Another one invented by my mom. Basically the kids just say “What’s my job?” Then you give them a job and they do it. When they’re done they come back and say “What’s my job?” again. It’s not the most effective cleaning game in our house, but it can work.

Secret item

I got this tip from a friend. If you’re staring at a messy room, secretly choose one item, especially an obscure or tiny item off to the side. Tell all of your cleaners “go,” and then they start cleaning the room. Watch carefully, and as soon as someone cleans up the secret item, tell them and they get to sit out for the rest of the cleaning time. Repeat in a new room.

I like this because it encourages not only working but also speed – the faster you pick up toys, the more toys you pick up, the more likely you are to get the mystery item and get to sit out. Also, since the item is a secret, you can cheat a little so the secret item “magically” always ends up one of the last things left on the floor…

One job, one fun thing

This works well for big open Saturdays where we have a whole house to clean, but also time for some fun, too. At the beginning of the day my kids and I will make a list of all of the big cleaning tasks that need to be done, like clean out the car, weed the yard, clean the kitchen, etc. Then we’ll make a list of some fun things we want to do that day, like play with play doh, have a dance party, eat popsicles, etc.

I write all the things on slips of paper and fold them up and put the fun things in one jar and the jobs in another jar. Then we just alternate: someone draws a job and we all do it together. Then someone draws a fun thing and we all do that together. We go through like that until both jars are empty. It helps to have fun rewards, and it helps my kids stay motivated when they get a reward after each task, instead of cleaning the whole house all at once.

Obey spray

This is the most recent game we’ve invented. My son read a book at school – Dog Man, I think? I guess there’s a villain in the book who has this stuff called obey spray that will make obedient servants out of anyone he sprays? Not totally sure…but it’s the premise of our game, which is probably the most fun for my kids.

They get to “obey spray” me so I’m their obedient servant and then I help them clean! The trick is, I can only obey if they themselves are also doing whatever they ask me to do. So if my son tells me to put away the stuffed animals, I only do so if he’s also putting them away. If he stops, I stop. And then if a certain amount of time goes by without me getting any commands, the obey spray wears off and they’re left cleaning their room on their own.

I’ve liked this game better than “What’s my job?” because it puts the initiative in their hands and makes them own their mess more, makes them assess what needs to be done instead of me. And they also think it’s pretty fun, giving mom commands. Oh, and I guess in the book laughter reverses the effect of the obey spray? So when the room is clean, we end with jokes or a tickle fight and then I’m free.

Now a note from me as a mom instead of me as the Game Gal: Most of the time in our house, jobs are just boring jobs. The kids do them on their own, sometimes without complaining but lots of times with, sometimes without my husband and I nagging but lots of times with. When we all clean together, we don’t always play fun cleaning games. Still though, even if the cleaning games are the exception rather than the norm, I think the fun times will stand out in my kids’ memories. That’s how it was for me.

Best for: Teens and above, and at the very least six players (preferably more like 12). You also need an even number of players and one player to be the referee.

What you need:

• A playing area: somewhere large and flat like a gym, a large room, or a big slab of concrete
• A way to mark squares on the floor. Painter’s tape or masking tape is great for this (or chalk if you’re outside).
• A pen and paper to keep score
• Optional: A way to distinguish teams from one another. Three bandanas of one color and three of another (or scrimmage vests in two colors) would work great for this.

How to play: First, prepare your playing area.

You want a giant human-sized tic-tac-toe board on the ground. You can start by taping out your typical tic-tac-toe board with strips of tape. Aim to have each square about 3 feet by 3 feet.

Now, in the middle of each of your nine squares, tape a smaller rectangle, just big enough to hold one pair of feet.

If you want, you can skip the first step and forego the long tape lines. The most important part is a 3 by 3 grid of small rectangles just big enough for one person to stand in. Also, tape two lines parallel to and on opposite sides of the grid, spaced a few feet back from the grid:

Next, prepare your players.

First divide them into two even teams. If you have scrimmage vests to wear, assign each team a color and have them put on their vests. Next, give each player a number. Assign a number 1 on each team, a number 2 on each team, a number 3 on each team, and so on. So each player will have, on the opposing team, a counterpart with a matching number. Each player needs to remember his or her number. You as a referee might want to write down the numbers on a piece of paper so you know which numbers are assigned to players.

Have the teams stand behind the lines on opposite sides of the grid, like this:

If you’re playing with bandanas, assign each team a color and put the bandanas on the floor between the teams and the grid.

As a referee, sit or stand off to the side so you can clearly see the grid and both teams. Now you’re ready to start!

To begin, call out three numbers. The three players with those numbers on each team run forward, grab a bandana (if you have bandanas), and try stand on open squares to form a three in a row. The first team to get three in a row wins! With two teams competing for open spots, though, there’s a fair amount of running, teamwork, and communication involved. Still, it shouldn’t take more than a few seconds until one team has made three in a row.

The only row teams are not allowed to use is the one closest to them:

Any other row of three is fair game, for example:

Once one team has scored, mark them a point, send all the players back, put the bandanas back on the ground, and call three more numbers for the next round.

It’s handy to have all the players’ numbers written down because you can mark how many times you call each number so all the players get an even amount of playing time.

The bandanas or scrimmage vests are handy because they make it very easy for players to see and remember whose team they’re on. If you’re using bandanas, players can also hold their bandanas up in the air as soon as they form a row of three, making it easier for you as referee.

After a while you can change up teams, if you like. At the end of your desired playing time, tally up the points and declare a winner!

It’s a simple game, rule wise, with enough strategy to keep it interesting but fast-paced enough to keep it fun. It’s a great game for a big youth group to play.

Enjoy!

Variations: Another variation of the classic tic-tac-toe is 3D triple-decker tic-tac-toe. Ultimate tic-tac-toe brings even more strategy to the game.

What it is: A simple on-the-go out loud trivia game to play with family members

Best for: A family! Especially young children who need a game to play to kill time

What you need: Just some general knowledge about your family!

How to play: This game just consists of asking each other trivia questions about family members. Here’s an example:

• Out of Uncle Max and Uncle John, who used to live in Canada?

And then see who can answer the question correctly. It’s works best, of course, if parents come up with the questions and the children see if they can answer them. The questions can be easy or more challenging. The questions just always take the format:

• Out of _____ and _____, who _____?

Here are some other examples of things you could ask:

• Who worked as a ___?
• Who lived ___?
• Who knows how to ___?
• Who studied ___ in school?
• Who had ___ when they were a child?
• Who grew up with ___?
• Who did ___?
• Who lives ___?

It’s a fun way to learn about family members: parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, even siblings. It’s fun to test how well you know your family. It’s simple, but engaging. When we’re around the dinner table or waiting in line, this is one of the games our kids request the most.

What it is: An easy, moderately active gym game

Best for: A large group of children

What you need:

• Something harmless to throw. In this game, you’ll be throwing things across the gym. It can be anything harmless like crumpled up pieces of paper, foam balls, wadded up socks, lightweight inflated balls, etc. The more the merrier!
• A place to play. A gym is ideal. You could potentially play outside. The important thing is you have a clearly marked playing area with a distinct line down the middle, dividing your playing area in half.

How to play: To start, divide up your players into two teams. The teams stand on either side of a line down the middle of the playing area.

Next, take your “garbage” – your harmless things to throw across the gym. Let’s say you’re playing with wadded up paper balls. You can either divide the garbage into two equal piles and put one pile on each side of the line, or you can dump all of the garbage in the middle of the two teams, right down the dividing line.

Then signal the start of the game, by blowing a whistle or playing music or something.

When the game starts, players have only one objective: get the garbage off their side and into the opposing team’s. So players run, pick up, gather, and throw the garbage as quickly as they can. It will most likely be pandemonium.

At the blow of the whistle or when the music stops, all the players must stop throwing. Both sides count up the garbage that remains on their side of the gym. The team with the least amount of garbage wins! Then have your losing team be in charge of cleaning up all the garbage so you can play again!

The game is easily understood by all ages and can be a fun game for a mixed age group. And the more heft your garbage has, the more active your game will be. If you play with paper, for example, paper doesn’t travel far and both teams will hover close to the dividing line, tossing paper across. If you play with balls that travel farther when you throw them, it will naturally lead to more running around the gym.

Best for: A class at school.

What you need:

• The game works best when players have desks or tables to sit at. Other than that, you don’t need anything!

How to play: (Okay, this is reaching way back into my grade school memories for this one…) Heads up, seven up is a game often played in classrooms as a reward or to fill extra down time. It’s quiet and calm (great for teachers!) but fun for the kids.

To start, choose seven children. We’ll call them the Seven. They move to the front of the room and stand, facing the class. The rest of the class sit in their desks. Then the teacher (or whoever’s in charge) calls out, “Heads down, thumbs up!”

All the students sitting in their desks put their heads down and put one thumb in the air, like this:

They close their eyes and cover their faces so they can’t see. I seem to always remember the lights being off at this point, too, but maybe that’s unnecessary. Just tell kids not to peek.

Once all the students in their desks have their heads down and their thumbs up, the teacher signals to the Seven, who then quietly walk among the class. Each of the Seven picks one student sitting down and quietly touches their outstretched thumb. The student then tucks their thumb into their fist but continues waiting silently with eyes closed.

Once the Seven have all touched a thumb, they stand back at the front of the classroom. The teacher announces, “Heads up, seven up!” and all of the students in the class can raise their heads and open their eyes. The seven students whose thumbs were touched stand up.

Then the standing students each get one chance to guess which of the Seven touched their thumb. So, for example, let’s say Michael and Alyssa are two of the standing students whose thumbs were touched. Shelby and Drew are two of the Seven standing at the front of the classroom. On Michael’s turn, he gets to guess who touched his thumb. He might say, “Shelby?” But let’s say he’s wrong and it was another of the Seven who touched his thumb. Shelby says “no” and Michael sits down.

Then it’s Alyssa’s turn to guess. She says, “Drew?” And Drew is the one who touched Alyssa’s thumb. He would say “yes” and then he and Alyssa would switch spots. Drew goes back to his seat and becomes one of the sitting students and Alyssa gets to join the lucky Seven.

Once all of the standing students have had a chance to guess, everyone but the Seven sits down and the teacher calls “Heads down, thumbs up!” again. Play continues as long as you want!

To make it fair, the teacher can choose the order the standing students take when it’s their turn to guess. It’s best if the teacher varies it, sometimes going front of the class to back, sometimes right to left, sometimes left to right, etc., because the students who guess last are at an advantage.

Variations: You can easily play the heads up, seven up game with less than Seven if you have a smaller group.

What it is: A hilarious game! It’s quick-paced, low-strategy, and involves big groups, shouting, and finding your two teammates as quickly as you can.

Best for: A big group, I would say at least 12. You also need players in multiples of three.

What you need:

• You will need specific word lists to play this game. But I’ve got you covered! At the end of the post are some free downloadable lists you can play with.
• Other than that, you need a big area to hold all of your players and, depending on how you play, seats around the outside to sit in. There don’t necessarily have to be enough seats to hold everyone, and they can be couches, chairs, benches, anything.

How to play: To play three deep, first, make sure you have the correct number of players. You need players in groups of three, so 12, 15, 18, etc.

The word lists have words in sets of three, like pig, horse, cow (farm animals), or Spanish, French, Italian (languages), or square, circle, triangle (shapes).

Everyone will end up getting one word, and their goal is to find their two matching counterparts as quickly as possible. The last group of three to find each other is eliminated.

To start, cut your word list into paper strips and fold them. (There are instructions down below about the best way to cut up the word list.) Put the paper strips in a bowl and let everyone pick one.

Let everyone read their word quietly to themselves. Then call “go” and the pandemonium begins.

Everyone starts shouting their word as loudly as possible. Players can use hand motions, too. Inevitably all the players end up in a big clump as everyone mingles, trying to find their two matching buddies as quickly as they can.

As soon as a group of three has found each other, they move to the edge of the room and take a seat, but all in one chair on each other’s laps (this is where the “three deep” name comes from). You’ll notice on the paper slips there are letters next to the words: B, M, and T. These stand for bottom, middle, and top. The person with the B slip sits on the chair. The person with the M slip sits on that person’s lap. And the person with the T slip sits on that person’s lap, creating a stack, three deep.

Now, you might not want to play with players sitting on each other’s laps. That’s okay; you can do a variation. Instead of players sitting on each other’s laps, you could have them all sit at the edge of the room on the floor, cross-legged, back to back (to back). Or you could have them go and stand three in a row with their backs against the wall. The important thing is to give them a place to go and a position to stand or sit in that is easily recognizable as done. If you just told them to form groups of three standing up, for example, it doesn’t work so well because you can’t easily tell which group is last.

Anyway, if you choose to play with a no-sitting-on-laps variation, you can use this version of the word lists that have 1, 2, and 3 next to the words, instead of B, M, and T.

Once everyone has found their groups of three, eliminate the group that was last and go again! Prepare new word slips in a new bowl, yell “go” and start again. See if you can keep playing until only one group remains.

Preparing the game: Preparing the word slips the right way will make your job as host a lot easier. I made a video showing the easiest way to prepare these:

Alternatively, instead of handing out new words after each round, you can reuse them. Have everyone who wasn’t eliminated hand their paper slips back and forth to each other. Have them do this while mingling around, passing slips several times, trying to switch things up enough. The words won’t be new, but hopefully there’s enough randomizing to make a new unique round.

Printables: Here are the printable word lists you can use to play the game. There are two versions: one with the slips labeled B, M, T if you’re playing with sitting on laps, and one labeled 1, 2, 3 if you want to play with a variation with no lap-sitting. There are word lists divided by difficulty level (easy, medium, and hard) and some other categories as well.

I also have a version of the game for Christmas, and one in Spanish!

Source: I found out about the game from this post from the blog 71 Toes. She even has a video that illustrates the game very well.

What it is: A funny and kind of wacky tag game to play inside.

Best for: A group as small as 4 or as large as 12ish, either kids or adults.

What you need:

• Each player needs a pair of long socks, like the knee-length kind.

How to play: To start, everyone puts on their socks, but not all the way. Players put the socks over their toes but aren’t allowed to pull the socks up over their heels. It looks something like the image shown.

That way there’s quite a bit of extra floppy sock hanging off the front of your foot.

Everyone stands in a circle and someone says “go.” The object is simple: Step on the floppy part of other players’ socks to pull them off. When both of your socks are off, you’re eliminated from the game. The last player to keep one or both of their socks wins.

This is a great game for mixed groups of kids and adults. It’s silly and fun for everyone, and easy for children to understand, but there’s enough sport in it that it’s fun for adults, too. It’s also nice if you need a quick, easy game, so it’s great for family night.

We played this game several times over out past Thanksgiving break with extended family, mostly adults. It was so fun! It’s pretty hilarious to see everyone hopping around, trying to protect their socks while stepping on other players’ socks. Also there were some pretty intense family members at our gathering, so when the last few players remained, it kind of turned into Extreme Floppy Sock Tag, which was sort of half wrestling match. Quite entertaining!

Variations: You can do basically the same thing with balloons instead of socks.

Best for: Teens to adults

What you need:

• Only a list of words (and I’ve got plenty for you)

How to play: You play password with two teams of two. There’s one word (the password) that one player on each team knows, and both are trying to get their teammate to guess the word first by taking turns giving one-word clues.

Here’s how it works.

Let’s say our players are Ben and Brooke (on one team) and Dan and Donna (on the other team).

Each team chooses one player to go first. We’ll say Ben and Dan. Using a word generator or paper slips or cards with words written on them, one word is chosen, the word that will be the password for both of them. We’ll say it’s “key.”

Ben and Dan both know the password, while it’s kept secret from Brooke and Donna.

Once Ben and Dan both know the password, the game can start. One of them will go first, say Ben. He gets a chance to get his teammate Brooke to guess the password. The trick is, Ben can only give a one-word clue. He might say “lock.” With her one-word clue, Brooke thinks and makes a one-word guess as to what the password might be. She might say, “door?” Because she guesses incorrectly, it’s now Dan and Donna’s turn.

Dan can now give Donna a one-word clue. He might say “metal.” Now Donna has the benefit of knowing Dan’s clue (metal) as well as Ben’s (lock). But she might still guess incorrectly and say, “safe?”

Now it’s Ben’s turn again. He thinks hard and gives the clue “unlock.” It’s Brooke’s turn to guess, and now she has three clues to work with: lock, metal, and unlock. That might be enough for her to correctly guess, “key?”

Play goes back and forth between the two teams, as many turns as it takes, until someone guesses the password. Once someone correctly guesses the password, the round is over, that team gets a point, and you start another round. Switch roles first, so Brooke and Donna are giving the clues and Ben and Dan are guessing. Every two rounds, switch which team goes first.

That’s the basic gameplay! It’s simple and might even seem boring, but it can actually get really funny. You might have seen the game played on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Depending on how you play, the game might also be a fun test as to how well two players know each other. If you are OK with using shared knowledge as clues, the more you know about your partner and the way they think, the better chance you have of figuring out their clues. For example, once when my husband and I were playing, the password was stomp. The other team had given the clue foot, and it was my turn to give my husband a clue. Our three-year-old daughter was going through a very stubborn phase where she was apt to throw mini tantrums, so I only had to say Annelise for my husband to know exactly what I was talking about.

As for what words to use, the word lists for catchphrase, either easy or medium, might work well. My online or app form word generator is a great resource. Multi-meaning words like organ and wave are always interesting, because the clue-givers can say any one-word clue they want, even if they use a different definition of the password that has previously been used. The same goes for words like coach or bruise that can be either verbs or nouns.

Rules: Like in catchphrase, rhyming words are not allowed as clues. So, for example, if the password were sassy and someone, after a few rounds, tried to use the word Lassie as a clue, that would be against the rules, because sassy and Lassie have no relation except for the fact that they rhyme (well, unless you have a pet dog named Lassie with some serious sass). The same goes for using clue words simply because they have the same first letter as the password.

There are lots of other rules that many readers have shared! Check out the comments below for some. I think when you play with your friends and family, if you are serious about the rules, clarify them all with everyone beforehand and be prepared to settle disputes if they arise.

Variations: The game is similar to catchphrase.

What it is: A silly drawing game that was actually sent in from a reader! Thanks, Jennifer!

Best for: Three to eight players (and a great game for children)

What you need:

• Paper and pens or pencils. You could get fancy with crayons, markers, or colored pencils. You could also get fancy with a pre-made printable form, like the one I provide below

How to play: The game is pretty simple. A paper is divided into thirds and different players draw a monster head, body, and feet, creating a silly monster masterpiece (or monsterpiece) that everyone can laugh at, because the results always end up being funny.

The secret is folding the paper so the current artist can’t see what the previous artists drew. So, Lucy might draw a monster head, then fold over a third of the paper, hiding the head. She would pass the paper to Bryce, who would draw a monster body, then fold the paper over, hiding the body, and pass it to Susan, who would draw the feet. Then unfold the paper for the big reveal!

On the included printable, there are two monster drawing blanks to a page. The drawing space is divided into thirds; once you draw a monster head, fold the paper down until the top edge meets the first line, covering the head. Repeat with the other two sections. The small vertical marks on the horizontal lines tell you how wide to make the monster neck and waist, so the three sections fit together well.

I hope you and your family have some fun monster-drawing silliness with this game, just in time for Halloween!

Draw a Monster Printable

Best for: Two people or a small group, probably ages 8 and up

What you need: Nothing but your brains!

How to play: The basic gameplay is simple: one player thinks of an object and the other players try to guess what it is. For this game, it’s best if there’s a pre-determined category, like food, people, animals, etc. The category that has worked the best for us is people.

But let’s play with food and say Julie thinks of banana bread.

She’s playing with Laura, who, unlike in twenty questions, makes guesses by naming a specific food. For example:

Laura: Is it an orange?

To give Laura a clue, Julie gives a statement starting “No, because…” Like this:

Julie: No, because it doesn’t grow on trees.

Laura guesses another specific food, and then another.

Laura: Is it lemonade?

Julie: No, because you don’t drink it.

Laura: Is it pizza?

Julie: No, because it’s sweeter.

Laura: Is it a strawberry?

Julie: No, because it’s manmade.

Laura: Is it a cookie?

At this point, when Laura’s guess is pretty close to Julie’s item, Laura can give a clue in the form of “No, but…”

Julie: No, but it is a baked good.

Laura keeps guessing until she gets it.

Laura: Is it…oh, I don’t know, banana bread?

Julie: Yes! Wow, good guess!

It can actually be a challenging game. It can be hard to come up with specific guesses when you know so little about the object in question. It can also be difficult to come up with clues that aren’t too easy and aren’t too hard. And it actually hasn’t worked too well with my young children. Carson, my six year old, often looses interest in guessing because it’s too hard or, when it’s his turn to give the clues, gives ones like these:

Me: Is it an eraser?

Carson: No, because it doesn’t erase things.

Me: Is it a stapler?

Carson: No, because it doesn’t staple things.

See my problem? So I would say this game is better suited for older children to adults who want a more challenging version of twenty questions with more thought involved.

Variations: This game, in addition to being like twenty questions, is also pretty similar to the game breakfast combo. (It actually started out as me trying to come up with a version of breakfast combo that my young children could play, because my husband and I play it together but it’s too difficult for them.) If you want another twenty questions variation that’s great for young kids, try poodle, which just might also get you laughing!

What it is: An easy, fast game that everyone probably already knows. But I like to be comprehensive, so here we go with some rock-paper-scissors instructions. Rock-paper-scissors is a quick win-loose game that is often used to determine who will go first or who will win some other small privilege.

Best for: Two players. But you could have a giant rock-paper-scissors tournament with tons of people!

What you need: Nothing! Well, technically speaking, each player needs to use their two hands.

How to play: In rock-paper-scissors, two players will each randomly choose one of three hand signs: rock (made by making a fist), paper (made by laying your hand flat), or scissors (made by holding out two fingers to look like scissors). Both players show their signs at the same time to see who will win. Here are the rules that determine which sign beats another:

• Rock wins over scissors (because rock smashes scissors)
• Scissors wins over paper (because scissors cut paper)
• Paper wins over rock (because paper covers rock)

(If that last one doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to you…you’re not alone.)

If both players show the same sign, it’s a tie. And that’s basically the whole game! It’s often played in a best-two-out-of-three format as a quick contest to decide who gets to go first or something like that.

To make sure things are clear, here’s a short video on the game:

It’s essentially just a game of chance. But if you’re young, rock-paper-scissors is a legitimately exciting game that can provide hours of fun…or, if not hours, at least minutes.

I did find this video that gives some interesting insight and tips at winning rock-paper-scissors. Who knew there could be that much strategy involved in a game of chance?

Variations: I’ve never played it, but there’s a variation invented by Sam Kass and Karen Bryla that includes five options instead of three: Rock-Paper-Scissors-Spock-Lizard. And I guess you could include the rock-scissors-dynamite variation.

What it is: A people-watching game. If you’re thinking from the title that it’s a mean game, don’t worry. It’s not supposed to be at all.

Best for: One, two, or three people.

What you need:

• A place to people-watch. So a mall or airport or a big event like a sports game where there are lots of people to observe.

How to play: When you’re somewhere crowded where you want to pass the time, people watching is a great activity. It can be fun with friends, too. In this game, you look at the clothes other people are wearing and ask yourself, “Would I wear that?”

The goal isn’t to be mean or to judge others. It’s to think about yourself and what styles you like to wear, what you’d be willing to try, what you could or couldn’t pull off, what you think looks good on you and what doesn’t. So I guess it’s not so much of a people-watching game as an…outfit-watching game.

It might be informative, too. Maybe you might get some ideas about clothes you’ve always liked but haven’t ever tried. Maybe you just realize things about your taste that you’ve never noticed before. (For example, I realized that the harder it is to identify a color, the more I like it. Bright, obvious, bold royal blue – ew. But a shirt that’s kind of grayish-purpleish-brownish or maybe orangeish-pinkish-tanish? Love it.)

Variations: There are lots of variations to people-watching – basically sitting somewhere and watching strangers walk past. You could try to guess where they’re from or where they’re going (perfect for in an airport). You could try to invent a crazy exciting backstory for them. You could make it more of a scavenger hunt with a list of things to find. I’ve made some printables for a people-watching scavenger hunt you could play in an airport and one you could play on a date night.

What it is: A cooperative talking game where players try to say the same word at the same time.

Best for: Two players. I’ve seen it done with three, which is more difficult but could be doable.

What you need: You don’t need anything to play, other than your brains.

How to play: This is a simple game that can provide hours of fun. It’s kind of addicting, almost, once you get started.

After I learned the game, I found out it’s from the band OK Go (you know, the ones with all the awesome music videos?). (This one isn’t really official, but I think it’s my favorite…except a lot of them are kind of my favorite.) OK Go actually has a video that explains the game really well, as well as an app that lets you play even when you’re not with friends. Go check them out! So though I know this post won’t be as entertaining as OK Go’s video, I’ll go ahead and explain how to play here, too.

You start by having two people each say a word at the same time. Any word. It will be a random pair, and that’s okay.

Let’s say Adam and Liz are playing. These are the two words they say:

• Adam: See saw
• Liz: Trip

To make sure they say their words at the same, one or both of them can snap their fingers three times. After the third snap, or on an optional fourth snap, they each say their word.

After that first round, Adam and Liz go again. But this time they’re going to try to say the same word. They do this by trying to find a word that connects the first two words, or something they have in common. You could also think of it as finding the intersection between the two words. So the second round might look like this, with the players’ thought process included:

• Adam: Playground (because this is where you’d trip over a see saw)
• Liz: Fall (because if you tripped over a see saw, you would fall)

Everyone thinks a little bit differently, so it might take a while for Adam and Elizabeth to finally say the right word.

• Adam: Push (because if you fall at a playground, someone might have pushed you)
• Liz: Merry-go-round (the most likely place to fall at a playground)

It’s good for them to take time between rounds to think and come up with the right word. Otherwise, if it’s just about speed, it could get difficult.

• Adam: Exercise (because pushing a merry-go-round is essentially exercise)
• Liz: Spin (because when you push a merry-go-round, it spins)

But it can be a little bit about speed. They don’t want to sit around waiting forever.

• Adam: Treadmill (a form of exercising that involves spinning equipment)
• Liz: Dancing (because this is a way you can spin and exercise at the same time)

Finally, though, they’ll end up on the same word.

• Adam: OK Go! (because they have the best treadmill dance music video of all time)
• Liz: OK Go! (because they have the best treadmill dance music video of all time)

It’s a very rewarding feeling.

This game could be over quickly, in three or even two rounds. Or it could drag on for a while. It’s fun to see the way someone else thinks, and to laugh (or get frustrated) when you think an opposite way. It can also lead to some funny moments, too. Once my husband and I were playing and, I can’t remember what the preceding pair was, but we said Luke Skywalker and Mark Hamill at the same time. (We weren’t sure if that should count as a win.) Another time my sister and I had the words love and brown to work with, and we both came up with chocolate.

I like this game because it’s cooperative instead of competitive. It’s a great time-killer and fun to play. So thank you, OK Go!

What it is: An imagining game where players talk out loud, describing a dream cabin or house.

Best for: A small group of players. It’s ideal for playing on long car rides.

What you need: Nothing. It’s just a talking game.

How to play: My husband introduced me to this game. He said he and his family played in on car rides often. (He’s the oldest of six boys, and they took a lot of road trips.) The game starts with everyone agreeing to build an imaginary cabin. Then each player takes a turn and adds a feature to the cabin. My husband said these usually included things like these:

• Rooms full of bunk beds
• Soda machines around the house
• A movie theater in the basement with an all-you-can-eat popcorn machine
• Observatories
• Underground pools
• Slides or firemen poles leading to lower levels
• A big beautiful bay window right outside the dining area (This was the type of addition my mother-in-law would make, as opposed to the brothers, if you can’t guess.)

Kind of along the same lines as the dream homes my sisters and I would draw as kids. The features can include things inside the cabin, the structure of the cabin, and the surrounding landscape.

My husband did say that sometimes the game tended to break down, as arguments might erupt about placement or functionality of features (e.g., “You can’t put a giant trampoline that catapults into the lake! I already added the boat dock there!”). My husband said this often led to an alternate version of the game where, instead of everyone building onto one collective cabin, each person has their own. Players then still take turns adding on features, but this time to their own personal cabin. Maybe everyone can still be neighbors, at least.

Variations: Instead of a cabin, you can build anything in your mind: Dream home, hotel, mansion, space station, house boat, luxury train, submersible ship, AirBnB house, underwater home, castle, amusement park, a lunar base, tree house, campsite, beach house, airplane, cruise ship…your imagination’s the limit!

My sisters and I also did a similar activity growing up where we would draw our dream houses. I think it’s kind of neat that when my husband was ten years old growing up in Colorado, describing the indoor slides his dream cabin would have, I was ten years old in Texas, decorating my dream house with indoor slides, too.

speed!

There is a commercial game called Bananagrams that’s essentially the same thing. I learned this game as Speed Scrabble first, and I’ve also heard it called Take Two.

Best for: A small group of people, maybe 4 to 6 players.

What you need:

• Letter tiles from a Scrabble game (but you won’t need the game board)

How to play: To set up your game, have everyone sit around a table or in a circle on the floor. Turn all of your Scrabble tiles face-down in the center of the circle and mix them all up. Then have each player pull out two tiles, keeping them face-down.

Someone starts the game by saying “go.” Then everyone turns over his or her pieces.

Each player will be building their own mini Scrabble grid in front of them. So when you turn over your pieces, start spelling with them as fast as you can. Once someone successfully uses all their tiles (and for this first round, that’s just two tiles), they shout “go.” Then everyone reaches forward and grabs another tile from the pile. Now you have three tiles, and you use all of them to build another Scrabble grid. Then, just like in the last round, whoever uses all three pieces together in one unbroken grid first calls “go,” and everyone takes another tile.

Each round you’ll get one more piece, making the grid larger and more complex. You can add the tiles you draw onto your existing grid, or, at any time, you can rearrange the whole thing. To call “go” you just need to use all of your tiles, and they all need to be connected in one unbroken grid.

This short video demonstrates part of a game and should make it a little clearer:

The goal is to use all your pieces, not leaving any out. The person who completes their whole Scrabble grid first when no more pieces are left wins. So it doesn’t matter if you’re ahead or behind for most of the game – all you need to do is be the first to finish and you win.

As for rules, blank tiles are wilds; you can use them for any letter. But it has to be the same letter for the whole Scrabble board, just like in real Scrabble. (But if you do decide to start over and change everything, you can switch the letter the wild stands for.) Players can challenge others’ words if they don’t think they’re real, and at the end the winner has to go through each of their words, proving that they didn’t cheat. It’s also often fun for everyone to say all their words out loud at the end, too.

Variations: Although I haven’t played with most of them, the Wikipedia page on Scrabble variants lists some other variations of Speed Scrabble that sound like they could be fun.

By the way, this post contains affiliate links. Thanks so much for your support!

What it is: A version of the six degrees of Kevin Bacon game – you’re basically trying to find links between actors via the movies they star in.

Best for: A small group, maybe up to six players. Two players work fine, too. You could even play by yourself.

What you need: Just your brains! If you want/need to cheat, IMDb would be a good resource.

How to play: My siblings and I would play this game on car trips or to kill time. We would start with someone naming an actor or actress. For example, Kate might name Anne Hathaway.

The next player, Michelle, would name another actor that Anne Hathaway appeared in a movie with. For example, Anne Hathaway appeared in Ella Enchanted with Cary Elwes. The next player might say that Cary Elwes appeared in The Princess Bride with Billy Crystal. It can be entertaining to simply name actors and movies and come up with a big long chain. This is also how you could play competitively. If someone on their turn can’t think of an actor and/or movie that hasn’t already been said, they’re eliminated from the game. The last player left wins.

In our version of the game, though, we played cooperatively. Our goal as a group was to get back to where we started (so in this game, Anne Hathaway). The whole loop might look like this:

• Anne Hathaway appeared in Ella Enchanted with Cary Elwes.
• Cary Elwes appeared in The Princess Bride with Billy Crystal.
• Billy Crystal was in in Monsters, Inc. with John Goodman.
• John Goodman appeared in The Borrowers with…with that boy who helped the Borrowers…what was his name? [Quick IMDB check] Bradley Pierce.
• Bradley Pierce appeared in Jumangi with Robin Williams.
• Robin Williams appeared in Night at the Museum with Dick Van Dyke.
• Dick Van Dyke appeared in Mary Poppins with Julie Andrews.
• Julie Andrews appeared in The Princess Diaries with…Anne Hathaway!

It can take a while, but that’s all part of the fun. We really didn’t play that seriously. Half the time we didn’t even know the actors’ names: it was “that guy from ___, the villain, you know?” And our loops probably could have been done more efficiently, but we didn’t care if it took a while. (Also, side note, it can take a while/be harder if you’re keeping your blog family-friendly by trying to name only PG or G movies.)

There are some rules you might want to consider. Can you mention a movie or actor if they’ve been said before? (We said no.) Does voice talent in animated movies count? (We said yes.) Does it count if you don’t know the name of the actor? (We said yes, because we weren’t huge movie buffs.) Do multiple movies in a series (for example, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) count as the same movie? Do cameos count? Do TV shows count? If so, do guest stars count? Things like that.

Hope it can be an entertaining game for your and your family or friends!

What it is: A talking and guessing game for a large group of people. You’re assigned a character or person and you have to ask questions to other players until you figure out who you are.

Best for: A medium to large group of people, maybe 10 to 20.

What you need:

• You’ll need names of characters or people written on cards. These can be themed, like all Star Wars names or all Disney princesses. The broader the theme, the more difficult it will be. You can make your own cards (3×5 cards work great) or I provide some free printable cards at the bottom of the post.

How to play: Before you start, tape a different card on each player’s forehead with masking tape. Do it carefully so they can’t see the name. Once all of the players have a card taped to their forehead, announce the start of the game.

Players are free to mingle throughout the room, talking to each other and trying to figure out which character they have taped on their forehead. They’re allowed to ask yes or no questions, but that’s all. Once they guess correctly, they can remove the card and go stand to the side until everyone guesses their card. (Or they can continue to mingle, answering others’ questions to help them guess.)

Encourage players to move around and mingle and talk to more than one person. It can be a good way to get a variety of clues, and it makes the game more of an icebreaker. Also, sometimes some players may not be familiar with all of the names on the cards, so you might have to talk to multiple people to get enough clues to guess who you are.

If you want an example, let’s say you’re playing in a group where everyone has a Disney character taped to their forehead. Here are some of the questions you might ask and the answers you might receive:

Am I a hero? Yes…

Am I American? Not applicable.

Not applicable? Well, you speak Standard American English, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re American (especially in animated movies, right?).

Am I a person? Yes.

Am I from the past or the future? Present…maybe sort of past?

Am I a boy? Yes.

Am I CGI or animated? CGI.

Am I Woody? No.

Buzz Lightyear? No.

Am I the main character? Yes.

Do I have super powers? Um…no, I would say no.

Am I a grown man? Yes.

Do I play sports? No.

Do I save a girl? Yes.

Do I have a co-star? Yes, several.

Do I have a sidekick? Not really.

Do I sing any songs? No.

Thank heavens.

I’m good, right? At heart…

Am I not good on the surface? You could say that.

Do I have a love interest? No.

Um…give me a hint. Maybe you’re bad guy…but that does not mean you are bad guy…

Have you guessed it by now? (Side note: it’s one of my favorite Disney movies.) Leave a comment if you have!

Printables: I made a couple printables to get you started if you want to play this game. There’s a list of female and male Disney characters. (I broke it out by gender in case you have an all-girls sleepover party or something, or if you want to match gender to players.) I only used animated Disney movies, I included Pixar, and, though I didn’t include every movie or every character, there are definitely some obscure ones in there. Each card has the name of the character as well as the movie to make identifying the character easier. If there are some that you think are too difficult or that your group won’t be familiar with, just leave them out.

There are six cards to each 8.5×11 page. Just print and cut along the dotted lines. I would recommend printing on cardstock. Or, you could cut out the cards and mount them on 3×5 notecards.

Female Disney Character Cards

Male Disney Character Cards

If you play, let me know how it goes! Or let me know if you have any requests of character lists you would like to use. Happy playing!

What it is: A variation of twenty questions. It’s a little more complicated than twenty questions and involves more thought for both the guesser and the one answering the questions. So if you like twenty questions but it’s getting a little old, this’ll probably be the perfect game for you to try.

Best for: Two players.

What you need: Nothing! Those games are the best.

How to play: Just like twenty questions, this game starts with one player (we’ll call him Josh) thinking of an item to guess. Unlike twenty questions, it’s best if this item is pretty specific. So some good examples might be things like this:

• Your iPhone
• A garbage sack
• The shirt I’m wearing
• A Garmin GPS

Some not-so-good examples:

• Clouds
• Rocks
• A house

Does that make sense?

So, let’s say Josh is playing and he’s thinking of an item, and he comes up with his iPhone. Then the person he’s playing with, Paige, gets to start guessing, with the goal, of course, of guessing that the item is Josh’s iPhone.

In twenty questions, Paige would ask yes or no questions and try to deduce what the item would be from the provided clues. In breakfast combo, Paige just goes ahead and starts guessing things. They can start out random. It’s also good if these guesses are more specific rather than broad. So…

Paige: Is it a fireplace?

Because this is the first guess, this is what Josh says:

Josh: It’s more like a fireplace than anything you’ve guessed so far.

Then Paige gets to guess something else.

Paige: Is it a turtle?

Now Josh needs to decide if the item, his iPhone, is more similar to a turtle or a fireplace. Say he decides it’s more like a fireplace.

Josh: It’s more like a fireplace than a turtle, but, like a turtle…

And then Josh would fill in a clue, something that his iPhone and a turtle have in common. It could be anything he comes up with, like:

Josh: It’s more like a fireplace than a turtle, but, like a turtle, I’ve seen it.

So then Paige gets to guess something else.

Paige: Is it a campfire?

Josh answers the same way he did before.

Josh: It’s more like a fireplace than a campfire, but, like a campfire, it needs to be started.

Paige guesses again:

Paige: Is it a Sega Genesis game system?

In this case, Josh would probably decide that his iPhone is more like a Sega Genesis than anything else that Paige has guessed. So he says:

Josh: It’s more like a Sega Genesis than anything you’ve guessed so far.

(Here you can add a slight variation. Josh can either say the above sentence and leave it at that, or he could provide a reason, e.g., “It’s more like a Sega Genesis than anything you’ve guessed so far because it’s manmade.” The second option makes it easier for the guesser.)

Play goes on like that, with Paige guessing specific objects and Josh responding. If the item Paige just guessed is closest to the item Josh has in mind, Josh says, “It’s more like [current guess] than anything you’ve said so far.” If the item Paige just guessed isn’t as close to the item as something else she’s previously said, Josh says, “It’s more like [previous guess] than [current guess], but, like [current guess], [something current guess and item have in common].

As you might guess, it’s often just as challenging for Josh to come up with answers as it is for Paige to guess. It’s fun because it does provide some new variety to the classic game of twenty questions. It’s a great game to play in the car (which is where Paige and Josh play it most).

Variations: As stated, breakfast combo is a variation of twenty questions. It’s also very similar to no, because. For another, more creative/silly variation of 20 questions, try poodle!

What it is: A game, or really more of an activity, to play around the house. It’s ideal for one to two players, really entertaining for little children, a new favorite of my four-year-old, and the reason my handheld mirror is broken.

Best for: One, two, or three children in a house

What you need:

• A handheld mirror, not huge, but big enough to see your whole face in. If you have more than one person, you can have more than one mirror (more fun). Or you can take turns (less fun).

How to play: This is a simple one. You take a handheld mirror and use it to pretend to walk on the ceiling. To do this, just hold the mirror parallel to the floor, pressed against your face right underneath your nose. Then look down into the mirror, which will be displaying a reflection of the ceiling.

If you walk around and use your suspension of disbelief, it kind of feels like you’re actually walking on the ceiling, especially if the mirror is large enough to cover up the view of your feet and the ground beneath you.

So then the fun part comes in the novelty of walking on the ceiling. There are light fixtures to avoid, door frames to step over, and sometimes giant pits (aka, vaulted ceilings) that you could fall into. The ceiling is a dangerous place. It can be fun to play with two people, so you can plan and explore together. You can definitely add more imaginative play too, like a mission to complete or ceiling goblins chasing after you or the spacetime continuum to restore to balance. Something like that.

Just be sure that when you’re playing you’re not totally unaware of the ground you’re actually walking on. Me and my sisters loved to play this when we were little, and I remember getting banged shins from coffee tables in the process. Make sure the rooms are tidy, without too many toys or objects to trip over or step on. (Like Legos. Legos are the worst.)

It’s funny, I recently taught my son Carson to play this. He loved it from the get-go. And asks to play every time I’m doing my hair and makeup and he sees my little mirror. Did I mention he broke one already? Now I know why my mom was always reluctant to let us play when I was a kid. She was worried not only about the safety of her mirrors, but us, too.

I never got it before. I couldn’t understand why she wanted to take away all our fun like that.

I understand now, Mom. I understand.

What it is: A Christmas gift pass/exchange activity, kind of like a white elephant gift exchange, but for younger kids. It’s easier and faster than a white elephant gift exchange and, because there’s no actual choosing involved, will probably lead to less gift-picker remorse/tears.

Best for: A classroom of children, anywhere from 12 to 30ish.

What you need:

• Each child will need to bring a wrapped gift for this gift exchange activity. It would be nice to set up some rules or a theme beforehand, like everyone bring a wrapped book, or the gift should be anywhere from $3-$5, or please keep it gender neutral, etc.
• You’ll also need this printable poem to read.

How to play: Have everyone sit in a circle on the floor. Then you can start one of two ways. You can have all the children put their gifts in a pile in the middle of the circle, then let everyone go up and pick a gift. They can probably all go up at the same time. Tell them they’re not going to end up with the gift they pick, so it’s not a decision to stress over. For an easier way to start or for younger children, just have each child hold the gift he or she brought.

Once everyone is seated in a circle and holding a gift, explain how the gift pass will work. You’ll read a poem aloud, and every time you say the words right or left, the children will pass their gift in the direction you say. (So the children will need to have at least a basic understanding of right and left.)

Then start reading the poem aloud. It’s an adaptation of the famous “‘Twas Night Before Christmas” poem. The key difference is words have been added – the words “right” and “left,” as many times as I could get them in. (It unfortunately messes with the rhythm a little bit, but it’s for the sake of the game.) Any time you come to one of those words, bolded and underlined for your convenience, really emphasize it. Make sure all the children pass their gift in the right direction. If your class is young, it might be nice to have another parent or teacher helper to oversee the passing.

Hopefully the kids will enjoy it, listening in anticipation for the words and watching the gifts move around the circle. And it’s a great way to practice directions, too. At the end of the poem, everyone keeps the gift he or she ends up with. Then all the children can open their gifts, either together or one at a time.

Note: I didn’t come up with this game. I remember playing it as a child at a class party, but I can’t quite remember when. I couldn’t find the text anywhere, so I wrote a new version. The original author of the poem “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” is Clement Clarke Moore.

Printables: Here’s the free printable poem you can read! The instructions are also included on the printable.

Christmas Poem Gift Pass

What it is: A Thanksgiving tradition my mother-in-law always does. It’s a talking reflection activity, a great way to develop grateful hearts because it goes beyond the typical “Name one thing you’re grateful for this year.”

Best for: A group of people, any size, at a Thanksgiving dinner.

What you need:

• Slips of paper with different items you can be grateful for written down on them. I provide a free printable below. When my mother-in-law does it, they’re always cute crafty papers punched out the shape of leaves or shaped to look like little pilgrim boats or something. Mine are a kind of cheap imitation, but if you print them on cardstock and cut them out I think they might look okay. Feel free to use some of my word ideas and make your own cards as cute or as plain as you would like them to be.

How to play: The tradition is pretty simple. At Thanksgiving dinner, each guest will be given one card with different items you can be grateful for written on them. These can include things like family, home, food, sunshine and some that are more specific (like a random act of kindness). After everyone has eaten, go around the table and have each guest tell a story or explain the time they were most grateful for the item on their card.

My mother-in-law usually preassigns the cards by setting them at place settings. You could also have guests randomly draw a card. But I like having them at the place setting at the beginning of the meal because it gives everyone a chance to think (this is one of those things that you need to think about). One thing to be aware of, some of the topics could be sensitive or difficult for some guests, so allowing trading is always a fine idea.

The stories can be longer or shorter; they might just be a few words. But I’ve found that it’s really a great activity that leaves everyone feeling grateful for the blessings we do have, because a lot of times the time when we were most grateful for something is the time we didn’t have it. There’s something about hearing others’ stories or grateful experiences that is very powerful. I love Thanksgiving at my in-law’s because we do this each time.

If you want an example, say I were given the card food. I might tell about the time when I had finished labor and delivery with my first child, and I was amazed and happy and exhausted and I hadn’t eaten in twelve hours. And then my new son and I made it to our recovery room and he was all swaddled and clean and my husband was there, and I got to order lunch! And the hospital food tasted so good, and I don’t think I had ever been more grateful just to have food to eat. The experiences can be as simple as that.

Printables: Here is the printable I made! I’d recommend printing on cardstock. Feel free to pick and choose. The items should be pretty universal, except for the last three pages. Those pages are specific to the Latter-day Saint or Mormon culture (the church I belong to). Feel free to use or not use those pages as you see fit.

What it is: A version of pictionary where you draw and get other players to guess song titles instead of just regular terms.

Best for: Any group of people, from 2 to more than 20. Pictionary is very adaptable.

What you need:

• A drawing surface, like a whiteboard and dry erase marker, or a chalkboard, or a big pad of paper and marker

How to play: You basically play just like pictionary (visit that post for in-depth instructions) but with song titles! So how does this change the game? First of all, they might be harder to draw than regular Pictionary terms. Let’s take an example. “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” from The Lion King. How would you draw that song title so that your friends would guess it? You could draw a singing lion cub with a speech bubble and a king’s crown inside it. You could draw a bunch of African animals all dancing around like in the scene from the movie. You could draw a clock with a slash through it (for “can’t wait”) and a king’s crown. However you want to! Possibilities are endless. The point is, it might be a little more involved than regular pictionary, and that’s all part of the fun.

Because phrases might be harder, it’s nice to allow a longer time limit, maybe a couple of minutes. Or maybe don’t play competitively and don’t have a time limit at all!

And then I think you should totally assign bonus points to someone who can not only guess the song, but starts singing it as well.

Variations: I have a free printable word list below with Disney song titles. But you could play any number of variations. 90’s music, oldies, country, musicals…there are all sorts of categories of music out there! You don’t need a list to play, either. Just have players think up their own song titles to illustrate.

As for variations on pictionary, there’s pictionary telephone, pictionary charades, and mixtionary. You can also play pictionary with any group of words. It’s a great game for holidays. On my printables page, I have free printable word lists in all sorts of categories, including for most major holidays. The word generator has even more word lists.

Printables: And here’s the list of Disney songs! I won’t say it’s comprehensive, but it’s pretty long. There are some obscure ones on there. So if you’re not a Disney song know-it-all, just skip the ones you don’t know. Enjoy!

Disney Songs List

What it is: The wonderful game every child thinks he or she invented.

Best for: A small group, or a group to fit however big your playing area is.

What you need:

• You’ll need a place to play. For me and my siblings and cousins, this was always an indoor game, played in a large living room or bedroom (much to our parents’ chagrin). You could easily play outside as well. A playground would be ideal.

How to play: There’s one rule. THE FLOOR IS LAVA! Don’t touch it!

Ah, this is such a fun game. Kids just love to climb and jump, and pretending the floor is hot lava gives you an excellent excuse to do so. So jump from couch to couch, throw down couch pillows to use as stepping stones, step on the coffee table, just don’t touch the floor!

If you play outside, you can make the grass lava, or the concrete, or whatever you want. You can have some spots of ground be safe spots.

Too bad this game, when played indoors, always makes grown-ups so mad. It’s so fun! I remember playing with my siblings and cousins at my grandparents’ house all the time. We played in the upstairs kids’ room, a room with four sets of bunk beds and couches and a chair: a truly perfect setup for hot lava. But if we were too loud as we leapt from furniture to furniture, our parents would hear the banging downstairs and tell us to stop. Once I remember playing in college (you’re never too old for the classics) in our dorm common room, where we took off couch cushions and made paths across the floor, until a resident assistant told us to stop. So much fun!

Variations: Lava monsters are a great variation to have. Either start with one or two at the beginning of the game, or make any player who accidentally touches the lava become a lava monster. The goal of a lava monster is simple: drag other players into the lava, mua ha ha! (This can be literally dragging, or a simple one-hand tag will do.) When players are captured by the lava monster, they become lava monsters, too!

I know you played this as a child, so do you have any variations to share? Or favorite experiences playing? I’d love to hear; leave a comment!

What it is: A group game where one player, the murderer, squeezes people’s hands to “kill” them, trying to kill as many as he can before his identity is discovered. So, whereas the other murder game is all about your eyes, in this one you use your hands.

Best for: A group of about 10, though a little more or less is fine.

What you need: 

• A way to pick a murderer: either a deck of cards or slips of blank paper (or something else you come up with).

How to play: This is another fun variation on the murder game theme (in time for Halloween!). To start, you need to choose a murderer. If you have a deck of cards, pull out one card for each player. Make them all non-face cards, except for one. Shuffle and have each player pick a card, face down. Whichever player draws the face card will be the Murderer. You can do the same thing with slips of paper. Just draw an X on one and fold them all up.

So now one player should be the Murderer, but only he or she knows. To everyone else it’s a secret. Now have all your players sit in a circle on the ground, cross-legged. Then players all hold hands to form a circle, but it’s important that players hide their hands, to the best of their ability, behind backs or under legs. You don’t want your hands just sitting on laps where everyone can see them.

Then announce the start of the game, at which point the Murderer can start in with the dirty work, mua-ha-ha.

The Murderer “kills” people by squeezing the hands of the players next to him. So let’s say Aaron is the Murderer. To his left is Kate, and to his right is Juliet. Aaron, after waiting several seconds, might start by squeezing Kate’s hand three times. Then Kate would “pass” the squeeze to the player on her other side by squeezing his hand two times. That player would pass it on by squeezing only one time. And the player who receives one squeeze…is dead.

Which brings us to: optional dramatic deaths. The game gets extra fun if, whenever you “die,” you die a dramatic death: fall on the floor, gasp, shout out your famous last words, etc. Adds in an element of humor and drama. At the minimum, just announce you’re dead and leave the circle.

That’s basically the only game play. The Murderer squeezes hands of the people next to him, both to his right and to his left, and the squeezes get passed around the circle, going both directions, and any player who receives only one hand squeeze dies and leaves the circle. So the circle keeps getting smaller and smaller. The Murderer can kill as quickly or as slowly as he wants.

As for the other players, their objective is to guess who the Murderer is before they all end up dead. Players do this with a simple accusation: “Kate, are you the Murderer?” Since Kate’s not the Murderer in this game, she shakes her head no, and then the player who made the false accusation has to leave the circle. Figuring out the Murderer is trickier than you might think, because players have no idea where the hand-squeezes originate from, and when you watch a player die on the other side of the circle, you might not even know from which direction the killing strike came.

The game ends when someone correctly accuses Aaron as the Murderer, or when Aaron kills everyone else. Whew!

Variations: Have you tried the winks version of murder? There’s also mafia, a game with a similar theme.

What it is: A group game best played late at night, often at sleepovers. Players try to discover the identity of a secret “mafia” amongst the group before they’re all eliminated.

Best for: Teens or older in a group of at least 8.

What you need:

• Traditionally you play with a deck of cards, though you could accomplish the same thing with some slips of paper and a pen. And that’s it!

How to play: This game is a little involved (though probably not the most complex game I’ve posted), so I’ll do my best to explain it.

First of all, choose one player to be the narrator. This player will volunteer to sit the game out and be the moderator, running the game so everyone else can play.

After you pick a narrator, you start by handing out parts. In this game, each player is given a role to play. Let’s run over the roles real quick.

• Mafia member: A player who tries to kill all other players and eliminate them from the game before his or her identity is discovered.
• Detective: A player who has a special skill in guessing who the mafia is and tries to protect the citizens.
• Citizen: Anyone else; players who just play the game, hope not to die, and try to help discover who the mafia is.

Games with large groups will often have two detectives and two mafia members.

So at the beginning of the game, you’ll have players draw cards to determine who are mafia, who are the detectives, and who are the citizens. You can accomplish this by pulling out cards from your card deck. Assign the different roles to cards: so Kings could be detectives, Jacks would be mafia, and anything else would mark a citizen. If you have a smaller group, put one detective card and one mafia card in your deck. If you have a larger group, try two of each.

Once players have picked their roles, it’s important they keep them a secret. No one should know who had what role. But tell players to hang onto their cards and keep them hidden; eventually during the game, everyone will end up revealing his or her card.

So now that you have your players and you have your roles, the game can start. The narrator starts the game, usually by telling a story, if you’re really into the game like that. The story is about the players and a scenario they’re in and might start out something like this:

“It was a dark and stormy night, and the members of the Jones family were gathered together on a camping trip. That night as everyone gathered around to roast hot dogs and tell ghost stories, the clouds gathered and lighting flashed ahead. Spirits were high around the campfire, though, but no one knew that someone in the party had evil intentions…”

Each round the story is different and it doesn’t really matter; it’s just part of setting the mood for this kind of creepy game. (That’s why it’s good to pick a narrator who can pull off this mood-setting story-telling role.)

So let’s set up a sample game. Say James is the narrator and is starting the game. He starts telling his story, setting the scene, and ends the first segment with the end of a day, saying something like

“…so everyone finished eating their hot dogs and returned to their tents to sleep.”

At that point, all of the players close their eyes and keep them closed until otherwise instructed by James, the narrator.

Then James will say something like:

“But late that night, two members of the mafia woke up with a dark and evil plan. Mafia members only, open your eyes and look at me.”

Then the two players who drew Mafia cards open their eyes and silently nod to James to show who they are. Let’s call the mafia Steve and Marco.

So Steve and Marco open their eyes. James will go on:

“Now the two mafia members will silently agree on one person to kill tonight.”

Then Steve and Marco point, shake their heads, and nod until they agree on one person to “kill.” Let’s call her Lara. After they have, James resumes narrating:

“Now mafia, close your eyes. Detectives only, open your eyes.”

The detectives open their eyes — we’ll call them Katie and Chloe. The detectives then silently point, shake their heads, and nod until they agree on one person to accuse as a member of the mafia. Say they point to Joe. Once they do, the narrator silently shakes his head, indicating that Joe is not a member of the mafia. Katie and Chloe close their eyes and James resumes narrating.

“The next day dawns cool and misty, and everyone wakes up and opens their eyes…”

(everyone opens their eyes)

“…to find that last night, there was a MURDER.” Duh-duh-duh.

Then James can explain that as everyone wakes up, they find that Lara has been murdered in the night. He can go into as much gruesome detail as he wants in describing the murder; it just depends on the narrator and how into the game he or she is. At the least, he needs to announce that Lara died. Lara can also dramatically act out the death if she so chooses.

At this point, all the players get a chance to discuss out loud who they think the mafia members might be. Then they can accuse one player of being a mafia member. If they’re right, that mafia member is eliminated and the citizens and detectives are one step closer to winning the game. If they’re wrong (say if they think Joe is a member of the mafia), Joe is eliminated and the mafia is one step closer.

The discussion period is where the bulk of the game takes place, and where things can get pretty heated. (Also, this often argumentative phase of the game is why I think many people either love or hate this game.)

So how does the discussion phase look? Anyone can talk, anyone can voice an opinion, and everyone must come to an agreement (or at least a majority vote) about who to accuse. The one rule is, no one is allowed to say what their role is. James, the narrator, plays the role of mediator, keeping people focused and reigning in any too-heated discussions.

As for the two mafia members, they’ll want to protect themselves, of course. The trick is, they don’t know who the detectives are, and if the detectives are onto them or not.

After everyone agrees on who to accuse, that person must reveal their card and their role and then exit the game. Then the narrator starts another nighttime phase of the game, where everyone closes his or her eyes, the Mafia gets another chance to kill someone, and the detectives get another guess at who the mafia are.

Say during the next round, the detectives guess that Steve is a member of the mafia. The narrator nods his head yes. Now the detectives are at an advantage: they know a member of the mafia. But during the next discussion round, they have to carefully use this knowledge. They can’t outright say they’re detectives, you see. They can’t state that they know Steve is a mafia member. But they can persuade and lead the discussion, hoping to sway the citizens their way.

If anyone speaks out too vocally against a member of the mafia during one round, the mafia always has the option of killing them during the next night phase of the game, so the detectives will want to be careful. But the mafia members can’t make the murder too obvious or everyone else will be onto them… See how it’s a game of mind tricks, deceptions, and secrets? It often evolves into backstabbing and throwing people under the bus, which is all part of the fun.

One last thing: what happens to the players who die? They become “ghosts” and can stay in the room, watch the game, and even keep their eyes open during the nighttime phase, but they’re not allowed to make a sound. If they don’t have that much will power, kick them out of the room.

The game ends when either the mafia are both killed, or when they’ve killed both the detectives (or is it when they’ve killed everyone? Maybe you could play either way). What a creepy game for your Halloween party this year!

Variations: Along with the murder theme, there’s a murder: winks version game and a hand-squeezing version that are both a lot of fun.

What it is: A group game where you try to eliminate other players by winking at them. So, despite its spooky title, really it’s just a game that’s all about your eyes.

Best for: Anywhere from a small to a large group. Ten or more would probably be ideal.

What you need:

• Just players and a way to randomly select one player to be the Murderer. This can be slips of blank paper, a deck of cards, anything so long as the identity of the Murderer can be a secret.

How to play: First, set up your playing area by sitting everyone in a circle. This can be cross-legged on the ground or in chairs/on couches. Everyone just needs to be able to see every other player.

Then, choose one player to be the Murderer. If you have a deck of cards, pull out one card for each player. Make them all non-face cards, except for one. Shuffle and have each player pick a card, face down. Whichever player draws the face card will be the Murderer. You can do the same thing with slips of paper. Just draw an X on one and fold them all up.

When you pick the Murderer, only the Murderer should know their identity. It should be a secret to everyone else.

So once the Murderer is established, have everyone sit in a circle and announce the start of the game.

For the Murderer, the objective is to murder (i.e. wink at) as many people as possible before being caught. The Murderer can wink at whoever they want whenever they want as often as they want.

For everyone else, the objective is to not die and to catch the Murderer as quickly as possible, thus saving as many lives as possible. You catch the Murderer by calling him or her out.

So let’s set up a sample game. Bobby is the Murderer, and only he knows that. Close after the start of the game, Bobby winks at Monica, who lets out a scream and falls on the floor.

That reminds me: optional dramatic deaths. The game gets extra fun if, whenever you “die,” you die a dramatic death: fall on the floor, gasp, shout out your famous last words, etc. Adds in an element of humor and drama. At the minimum, just announce you’re dead somehow and leave the circle.

After Monica dies, another player, Alex, was watching and thinks he saw a fourth player named Lindsay wink at Monica. So Alex says, “Lindsay, are you the Murderer?” To which Lindsay has to say, no, she’s not. At that point, Alex dies from his false accusation, so now two players are out. Bobby goes on winking at players when he can catch their eye contact, killing as quickly or as slowly as he wants. Both lead to a different game dynamic.

The game ends when someone says, “Bobby, are you the Murderer?” Or, in rare cases, when Bobby kills absolutely everyone else. Then Bobby wins.

It’s a kind of balancing game: for Bobby, he doesn’t want to necessarily kill too fast or too obviously. But if he doesn’t go fast enough, it gives players more time to discover him. For everyone else, they don’t want to spend too much time making eye contact with anyone just in case it’s the Murderer. But the game involves looking in eyes to try and figure out who is winking at whom. I like this game a lot; it’s suspenseful and fun.

To start another round, draw cards again to pick a new Murderer and go!

Variations: There’s another version of this game that’s a lot of fun. And along the murder theme, you can always try mafia!

Best for: A big group, probably around 10.

What you need:

• A wipe-off board, the small-ish kinds you can hold in your hands.
• A dry erase marker and eraser
• A specialized list of Star Wars actions to act out. I provide one below.

How to play: First divide your players into two teams. Like in a regular game of pictionary or charades, each team takes turns drawing/acting for their team members only to guess.

So let’s say team 1 is up: the Rebels (who are of course playing against the Empire). Unlike regular pictionary, the Rebels will send up two players, Han and Chewie (I’m sorry, I can’t resist). One player will hold the wipe-off board and marker (Han, since Chewie’s hands are too furry). Chewie will stand next to Han and be prepared to act.

Like in pictionary and charades, no talking is allowed during the turn. At  the start of a timer, Han and Chewie pull a slip of paper with their first action to act out. It might be using the Force to lift an X-wing.

At “Go!” Han and Chewie start. They work together as a team, with Han drawing and Chewie (and also Han) acting to get their team members to guess the word.

So Han might draw an X-wing on the wipe-off board, then hold the board down low to the ground. Meanwhile, Chewie would hold out his hands, pretending to use the Force, and Han would slowly raise the drawing of the X-wing up off the ground. Get it? It’s a combination of acting and drawing that does it.

When your team members guess, try to be pretty literal with the answer matching the phrase on the card (for example, just saying “X-wing!” for the above example wouldn’t cut it). You want your team members to say the whole phrase.

When Han and Chewie finish their first phrase, they draw and act another, and keep going until the timer runs out. Oh, another rule: Han and Chewie also can’t talk with each other. So they can’t prepare or plan in advance. It’s about thinking fast and acting together as a team.

The Rebels get a point for every phrase they successfully guess during Han and Chewie’s turn. Then it would be the Empire’s turn. At the end of the game, whichever team has the most points wins.

It’s up to each team which combination of players they want to send up in groups of two. You can change the pairs of two each round, or keep them the same. Just make sure to give everyone an equal opportunity to go up.

Are there any rules I’m forgetting? Oh, I would suggest a longer time limit for the rounds for this game: maybe 1 to 2 minutes. Since the phrases are more complex, it’s nice to allow time to draw something good or act out multiple parts to a complex phrase.

Variations: For more variations on the classic game of pictionary, try mixtionary or musical pictionary.

Printables: And finally, the phrases! These were fun to compile. I did a lot of research (involving a Star Wars marathon and a lot of spell-checking on Wookieepedia). I hope you enjoy them!

Star Wars Actions

]]> https://www.thegamegal.com/2014/10/27/pictionades-pictionary-meets-charades-star-wars-version/feed/ 4 3278 https://www.thegamegal.com/2014/10/26/rather/ https://www.thegamegal.com/2014/10/26/rather/#comments Sun, 26 Oct 2014 15:37:06 +0000 https://www.thegamegal.com/?p=3328 What it is: A hypothetical talking game where players choose which of two scenarios they’d rather do.

Best for: Any number of players. It’s a great two-player game.

What you need: Nothing! Aren’t those games the best? It can be nice if you have a pre-made list of “would you rather” scenarios. Guess what? I made one! You can download it for free below.

How to play: Basically players take turns asking each other questions starting with “Would you rather…” and ending with two different scenarios. Like, “Would you rather have to wear ski goggles for the rest of your life…

…or have to wear a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask?”

(p.s. is Donatello your favorite?)

As demonstrated, the questions are usually a little wacky/silly/absurd. (In some variations, they’re also gross/weird, but I don’t like those questions as much.)

Some other examples of would you rather questions:

• Would you rather live to be 90 with great health or live an extra ten years past 90 with not-so-great health?
• Would you rather live off of bread only or live off of anything but carbs?
• Would you rather be respected but feared or laughed at and loved?

The questions can be thoughtful, silly, or completely hypothetical. It’s fun for players to think up their own questions, too.

Once someone asks a question, everyone else must answer the question. Then another player gets to ask a question.

Another variation for a large group is to have one player draw a question (like from the list I made below) and answer it alone. Then another player draws another question and answers it for themselves, and so on. This could work well if you have so many people, it’s hard to have everyone answer each question.

Printables: Here’s the list of Would you rather questions I came up with. It’s two pages long, so not a ton, but definitely enough to get you started or get you thinking of ideas. Once you get playing with a good group, the ideas usually start coming to players. It’s a fun talking game to play.

Would you rather

Disclaimer: As with all games on this site, please be thoughtful when picking out activities and make sure it is age appropriate for your audience. This game is funny, but cramming tons of Skittles in your mouth at once is not for the young’uns. Stay safe!

What it is: A game about cramming as many skittles candies into your mouth as possible. Kind of silly and maybe, depending on your point of view, a little gross, too.

Best for: A big group, like at least 8. And probably best played late at night at a party or sleepover.

What you need:

• A bag of skittles candy, the big kind, one you can reach your whole hand into

How to play: First, have everyone sit in a circle (in chairs or on the ground, it doesn’t matter). Pull out your bag of skittles, open the top, and hand it to your first player (we’ll call her Ashley). Ashley reaches her hand into the bag and pulls out two skittles without looking, no peeking allowed.

If Ashley’s skittles are two different colors, like red and orange, she pops them in her mouth and leaves them there. No chewing, swallowing, or spitting out allowed. Then she passes the bag to the next player, Anthony.

Anthony draws two skittles and the same rule applies. He draws two different colors, so he puts them in his mouth and leaves them there, no chewing or swallowing.

Let’s say the whole first round, all around the circle, proceeds like this. Each player pulls out two skittles of different colors and must hold them in his or her mouth without chewing.

Now it’s Ashley’s turn again, and her skittles are all soggy and she’s really wishing she could chew them up. She reaches her hand into the bag and pulls out…two reds! Two skittles of the same color! It’s Ashley’s lucky day because two skittles of the same color means she’s allowed to chew up and swallow everything in her mouth: the two red skittles and the ones from the last round (and any other rounds).

The catch is, Ashley doesn’t have forever to chew and swallow. She has to stop chewing when it’s her turn again, or when someone else draws two skittles of the same color, whichever comes first. That may not seem like a big deal, but when you’ve been playing for a few rounds and you’ve got eight skittles in your mouth, trying to speed-chew them isn’t the easiest thing in the world. Then if your chew-and-swallow time is over because someone else drew two of the same color, you’re stuck with a wad of half-chewed-up skittles in your mouth to hang onto until you’re lucky enough to draw two of the same color again.

The player who lasts the longest without gagging or spitting out their skittles wins! (Or, this is one of those games that’s kind of played without a winner.)

OK, I admit it, typing this up is kind of making me gag. But it’s one of those gross silly games that can be fun under the right circumstances. Just don’t play around my grandma, who doesn’t approve of candy and who once claimed she could hear our teeth rotting as the game progressed.

Which brings me to, brush your teeth after.

[whispered creepily] Taste the rainbow.

Happy playing!

What it is: A very flexible game with lots of adaptations.

Best for: A group of about 4 to 10.

What you need: You’ll need a list of categories (I’ve provided one below) and possibly a timer and pens and paper.

How to play: Basically the challenge is to try and think of as many items in a category as you can. An example category would be fast food.

And items in the category? Chicken nuggets, tacos, hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, McDonald’s apple pies, chicken sandwiches, and on and on. How many things can you think of?

Variations: There are many different ways you could set up your game. Here’s a few to get you started.

Like the game Scattergories (commission link), you can name as many items in a category that start with the same letter. Choose a letter from the alphabet, draw a category, set a timer, and go! For example, if the category were male names and the letter were C, you could write any of these:

• Carson
• Caleb
• Cole
• Christian
• Connor
• Carter
• Cameron

You can play on teams, individually, or as a whole group. At the end of the game, everyone takes turns reading all their answers aloud, where questionable answers can be submitted to the group to see if they’ll be allowed or not. (For example: “Camille? That’s a girl’s name!” “But I totally knew a guy named Camille once!” “OK, fine, we’ll allow it.”) If you’re playing against each other, the person who writes down the most names wins. (One variation is to have everyone cross off any name that someone else wrote down, too. That way the person with the most unique answers wins.)

You could also play the above version, but without the restriction of a letter of the alphabet. Any boy name, for example, would work for the above example. Then follow the same rules for the rest of the game.

Another variation which works really well for car rides or killing time can be played one word at a time. In this variation, you pick a category and then take turns saying something from that category, one player at a time. The first person who can’t think of a word that hasn’t already been said is out of the game, and you start a new round with a new category. (The game first letter, last letter is an even more challenging variation of this.)

You could of course use your list of categories to play the pool game categories or a similar game.

What other rules or variations can you come up with?

Printables: Here’s the list of categories! It’s a few pages long, so hopefully it gives you lots of categories to choose from for all of your game-playing needs.

Categories

What it is: A great game to play at showers (baby or bridal), my mom’s favorite shower game. With good reason. I love it, too: it’s fun, entertaining, informative, helps you get to know each other, and gives all the guests (not just the guest of honor, though we all love her, too) a chance to share.

Best for: A shower! You could adapt this game to birthday parties too, I’m sure, but the free printables I have below are for bridal and baby showers.

What you need: You need a printed-out questionnaire for each guest to fill out (use mine below, or make your own). The questionnaire should have a few get-to-know-you questions on it (we’ll get to those later). Each guest also needs something to write with, and that’s it!

How to play: Basically, this shower game involves giving each of your guests a set of questions to answer. Then you read the answers out loud.

So first, on creating the questionnaire. Basically you just want three to five questions that guests can answer about themselves. Because everyone loves hearing all about the guest of honor, but people do love talking about themselves, too. And if you craft the questions carefully, they can tie in to your shower perfectly. You can have questions about advice, you can have questions about honeymoons, you can have just fun get-to-know you questions that would be fun to answer and read aloud. For example, for a bridal shower you could use questions like these:

• Where did you or would you like to honeymoon?
• What is one of the best gifts you’ve ever been given?
• What is something you wish you had right now?
• What is your favorite dessert?
• If your love life were made into a movie, which chick flick would it most resemble?
• In eight words or less, what is your best advice for the first year of marriage?
• What is your best advice for getting through a wedding day?

And for a baby shower:

• In eight words or less, what is your best advice for having a new baby?
• What’s one story your parents tell about you as a baby?
• What size were you when you were born?
• For mothers: How long was your longest labor? And how long was your shortest?
• What’s one of the best creative mothering tips you’ve done or seen?
• What is one distinctive feature about the way you looked as a baby?
• What is one baby boy/girl name you love?

So create your questionnaire, keeping in mind that you just want a few questions; it doesn’t need to be long.

When we played at my sister’s bridal shower, we set the questionnaires and a jar of pens by the front door, with a sign telling everyone to take one and fill it out. You could also hand them out after the shower has started.

Give your guests time to go over the questionnaires and answer them. This can be done all at once or in the background as the shower is going on. After everyone has had time, start collecting the answers. Once you have them all, have one person (like the person throwing the shower) stand up and read the answers aloud. A fun way to do it is to read the answers, but not the name, and have all the guests guess which guest filled out that questionnaire.

It’s just a fun way to hear from everyone, get to know each other, and talk about weddings or babies. After the shower, you can give the stack of questionnaires to the bride/expectant mother as a keepsake and a way to keep track of advice (make sure everyone wrote her name down). If you’re really on top of it, you could put them in a little photo album or something.

Variations: There’s some other things you could do with the answer sheets. Instead of just reading them all, you could have someone pre-read them and choose one or two answers (the funny ones) to share from each guest’s questionnaire. Then have someone stand up, announce the guest’s name, and read her selected answers out loud. If you want to make more of a game of it, you could choose a “winner” for each question, or the few best answers (like the longest labor, the most elaborate honeymoon, etc.). Read the winning responses aloud, and you could even give out prizes.

Printables: Here’s the printable list of questions I mentioned. Just print, copy, and cut and you can have a stack of questions to give to your quests. Feel free to make your own to fit your specific situation, too! For example, for my sister, who was proposed to on a trip to Europe, we had some questions about European vacations. You could easily fit this shower question game to the theme of your shower.

Bridal shower questions

Baby shower questions

What it is: Essentially a get-to-know-you version of the game fruit basket.

Best for: A large group, probably at least 10 players. The game is designed to get to know things about strangers you might not know at all, but that doesn’t stop you from playing with a group of people who know each other well, either.

What you need: You’ll need a circle of chairs, one for every player in the game minus one. (So if you’re playing with 16 people, you’d need a circle of 15 chairs). Couches and other seats can work, too, as long as there are 15 distinct places to sit.

How to play: Start off with one player, like Matt, standing in the middle of the circle. He starts out as It. Everyone else sits around the circle. To start the game, Matt says a trait or characteristic out loud that might apply to one or more people in the circle. For example, he might call out, “Anyone who’s been on a ride in a hot air balloon.”

Other things he could call out:

• Anyone who’s tasted octopus
• Anyone who’s lived outside of the United States
• Anyone who really loves to read

Once Matt says “anyone who’s been on a ride in a hot air balloon,” everyone in the circle who’s been on a hot air balloon immediately jumps up and tries to run and claim a new seat. Matt runs along with them, trying to find a seat, and the new person left standing without a seat is the new It. (If it’s Matt, he just goes again.)

Say Julie is the new It. She would say something new: “Anyone who can do a cartwheel.” Immediately everyone who can do a cartwheel jumps up and must find a new seat, including Julie. Play continues until you want the game to end.

A couple of rules and pointers. You may be thinking, but people could lie! Yes, yes they could. If Julie called out, “Anyone who owns a season of Fraggle Rock on DVD,” and no one else seemed to be jumping up and you were a little ashamed to admit that you actually do own Season 1 (as I may or may not…), you could stay put and no one would be the wiser. But, come on, where’s the fun in that? It’s a get to know you game, no one will judge, and everyone will be happy to know each other better. So don’t be afraid to be honest.

Also, you’ll realize that the more people the statement applies to, the more people will jump up. So it’s fun to kind of vary the statements from things like “Anyone who has synesthesia” (my husband does, by the way) to “Anyone who’s flown on an airplane.” That way some rounds have tons of people jumping up, and some rounds maybe just have a few or one. That’s OK; all are fun ways to get to know the other players.

Also, in the original game fruit basket, there’s one special round you can call where everyone has to jump up. I think that’s a fun way to play, so you could set a special trait that applies to everyone in your group, and the player who’s It would have the option of calling that at any time. So for example, if you’re playing at a company party and you’ve got a lot of workplace pride, the apply-to-everyone call could be, “Anyone who works for the best company in the world.” Other examples:

• Anyone who’s related to me! (for a big family reunion)
• Anyone who loves Fraggle Rock! (for a Fraggle Rock fan club meeting)
• Anyone who’s sitting down!

Just find something that everyone has in common and have that be your standard everyone-gets-up call.

Alternately, players in the middle could have the option to come up with their own applies-to-everyone phrases if they wanted to.

Variations: I’ve already linked to the normal version of fruit basket. This is also a kind of similar game to newspaper. And finally, you could take out the running and competition and just say these types of traits or experiences out loud and have people stand or raise their hand if the statement applied to them. It would take out a lot of the fun, but it would still be a relatively unique way to get to know each other and could be played easily in any situation (on a bus, in an auditorium, etc.)

Printables: If you need help coming up with things to say, I made a printable list for you! You could look at this ahead of time for ideas, or the person in the middle of the circle could always have it to look at for reference; however you want to play.

Get to know you traits

Happy playing!

What it is: A reverse game of hide and seek where, instead of one person seeking while everyone else hides, you have one person hiding while everyone else seeks.

Best for: At least 6 players or so, up to a group maybe twice that size.

What you need: A place to play. This is an ideal indoor game, but could also be played outside in a yard or park as long as there are lots of good places to hide.

How to play: First, set the boundaries for your playing area. Then choose one player to be It. We’ll call him Tim. Everyone else but Tim closes their eyes and counts out loud together to a predetermined number, like 50. (The larger your playing area is, the higher the number can be.) While everyone is counting, Tim goes and hides. He can choose anywhere he wants, like inside a blanket closet, for example. Then he sits quietly and waits.

After the rest of the players are done counting, they call out, “Ready or not, here we come!” And then they start to seek. The seeking is done every-man-for-himself style: no teams, just individual players looking for Tim by themselves. Everyone tries to find Tim first.

Say Anna is the first player to open the blanket closet and find Tim. First of all, she’ll want to make sure no other player is watching her. Then as quietly as she can, she slips into the blanket closet and hides along with him. Now Tim and Anna both are as still and quiet as they can be, still trying to avoid being found.

Maybe Louis is the next player to happen along and find Tim’s hiding spot. Now he squeezes in, too, and the three of them hide until they’re joined by a fourth, and a fifth… And everyone hides right along with Tim. If the blanket closet runs out of room, players do their best to hide close by, but it’s best if everyone can fit into Tim’s original hiding spot. (Are you seeing why the game is called sardines now?)

The last person to find Tim is the new It, and a new round starts!

It’s a fun game and (good for adults needing some peace) a quiet game. It’s kind of eerie in a way, too, which I guess is part of the fun. But when there’s 10 of you and you’re all searching for one hiding person and you’re looking and looking and start realizing the other players searching with you are dwindling and dwindling, and you have no idea where they’re all disappearing to, and you keep searching, and finally you open the blanket closet to see all 10 of your friends crammed in there – yeah, all part of the fun.

It’s also kind of hilarious, trying to fit as many people as you can into what’s usually a small hiding place. Sometimes the hiding place is larger, though, like in a walk-in pantry, and that’s perfectly fine too (and a little easier). It’s always, fun, too, to hide along with a group of your friends and cover your mouths and try not to giggle. It takes some of the lonely suspense (which I’m not a fan of) out of the normal version of hide and seek.

Variations: For some other games along the theme of hiding and seeking, check out the classic hide and seek, as well as kick the can, hit the dirt, and capture the flag.

Man, typing all of this up is making me want to go and play! I haven’t played sardines in far too long.

Happy hiding!

What it is: An easy time-killing game where players test their psychic abilities…or at least pretend to have them.

Best for: A group of about 6 or more. I think the bigger the group, the easier it might be.

What you need: Nothing!

How to play: Psychic is pretty simple. Everyone plays together as a team. Players count from one to as high as they can by saying numbers out loud, one player at a time. If two players say one number at the same time, everyone has to start over at 1. The catch is, there’s no order in which players speak.

Here’s an example. Say Adam, Bridget, Caleb, Dan, Ethan, and a bunch of their friends are playing. Everyone’s sitting in random order around a circle. In fact, they don’t even have to be sitting in a circle.

When they’re ready to play, someone will say “go.” Then Adam says 1 out loud. Dan, across the circle, says 2. His friend next to him says 3. Bridget, three people down, says 4. Adam says 5. Someone else says 6. But then by chance both Caleb and Ethan say 7 at the same time. That means the whole group has to start over at 1. Pauses are allowed, but if two people speak at once, you have to start over. The goal is to see how high you can count to as a group.

I don’t think we’ve ever gotten higher than like 15 or so, the times I’ve played it. My husband played it in a really big group once and got into the 30s.

It’s a great game for killing time because you don’t need anything to play with. But if you did have a large group and wanted to organize a big game, I think it would be a fun challenge for everyone.

Oh, and I just couldn’t resist writing a post about fake psychic abilities without throwing this in:

What it is: A version of a scavenger hunt where you take pictures of things (and often yourself doing fun things).

Best for: A small to large group, maybe 4 to 10 people.

What you need: A camera and a list of things to take pictures of! (see bottom of the post for my free printable list).

How to play: Just like other scavenger hunts, the goal is to go down the list and cross off as many items as you can. Other than that basic rule, the game is super easy to customize however you’d like. Let me show you an example.

This is a scavenger hunt list I made for the mall. I might use it for a birthday party for a group of 13-year-old girls. If the group is smaller (say 5 girls), I’d give them all one list and set them loose in the mall to take their photos, telling them to meet back at the foot court in two hours or something like that. If the group were bigger (say 10 girls), I’d make two smaller groups of 5 and give each team a copy of the list. Then I’d make a contest out of it. The team who crosses off the most items in the allotted time period wins (with quality of the photos taken into consideration).

A great way to end a photo scavenger hunt is a photo slideshow at home. With technology today, it can be relatively easy to show pictures on an iPad or a laptop or even a TV, and then everyone can watch all the pictures and laugh and comment.

So basically, you need a list of things to take pictures off. Slightly embarrassing photo setups are always fun (like take a picture of your group dancing in the middle of the food court). Use my printables below or get creative and make your own! Then you set your ground rules, including things like:

• Duration of the game
• Boundaries
• Teams
• Whether you’re going for quality or quantity

Then play and have a blast! I think photo scavenger hunts work great for date nights or youth activities. Ha, actually, one of my and my husband’s first dates was a photo scavenger hunt that was such a phenomenal success, we realized how much we liked each other and ended up where we are now.

Happy photographing!

Printables: The photo scavenger hunts I’ve included are for different settings: at the mall (designed for teens or older), at the park (designed for kids or older), at home (designed for younger children), and an alphabet hunt (suitable for anyone). If you have a requests for another list, leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do!

Oh, P.S., for the alphabet scavenger hunt, what I was thinking is you take pictures of objects that happen to look like letters of the alphabet, either objects that you set up or that you just find (like two sticks crossed to make an X, or a door handle that looks like an S).

What it is: A perfect, easy little kid game that’s popular and often learned in preschool or kindergarten.

Best for: A group of young kids

What you need: Just people to play and a large, flat area big enough for everyone to sit in a circle with no obstructions around.

How to play: First, have all your players sit in a circle. Choose one player – we’ll call her Mary – to be It. Mary stands outside the circle while everyone else sits.

Mary starts the game by walking around the outside of the circle. As she passes each player, she touches his or her head and calls them either a “duck” or a “goose.” If Mary says duck, nothing happens. But if Mary touches Jane’s head and says goose, then Jane (the goose) must immediately jump up and try to tag Mary. Mary runs all around the outside of the circle (no cutting corners or changing directions) back to Jane’s empty spot and tries to sit in it. If Mary makes it back before Jane tags her, Mary sits in Jane’s spot and Jane becomes the new It, walking around the circle and calling duck or goose. If Jane happens to tag Mary, then Mary is still It and must try again.

Play continues for as long as you want to play!

Variations: We always played with the mush pot variation. In this variation, the middle of the circle is called the mush pot. Say Mary is running around the outside of the circle, trying not to be tagged by Jane. If Jane does tag Mary, then Mary has to go sit in the mush pot. When we played, everyone would then pat the ground of the mush pot together and yell out “Mush! Mush! Mush!” Yeah, super humiliating. Then Mary has to stay in the mush pot until someone else gets sent there.

Also, just because it’s a little kid game doesn’t mean it can’t be fun for older players, too. The chasing and tagging could get more extreme in this case, and more fun. I guess the classic games are just always classic.

What it is: Basically a skill-less game used to randomly select one player to win a prize. Often played at school carnivals or holiday parties.

Best for: About 10 players.

What you need: You’ll need some prizes for your winners. Traditionally, the prize is a cake for each winner (hence the name “cake walk”). You would need a cake for every round you want to play. Other prize ideas could be cupcakes (smaller than cakes, but the same idea), toys, or candy.

You’ll also need some laminated papers with numbers on them and slips of paper with corresponding numbers in a jar or bowl (and I’ve made a free version you can download if you want). Finally, you’ll need some way to play music, like an iPod with speakers.

How to play: First, there’s the game setup. Decide how many players you want to include in each round: that will be the number of laminated paper numbers you tape on the floor. (The printable I’ve made goes up to 20). Tape your numbers in a big circle on the floor. (Tip: If you don’t have laminated numbers, use packing tape to completely cover them so they don’t peel up when kids step on them.)

Once you have your numbers down, your cakes ready for your winners, and your music ready to play, invite your players! When I’ve played at carnivals or school fairs, the cake walk booth stays open until enough players come to join, then the person running the booth starts the game. Also, you don’t need a player on each number to start the game. You can do a round with as little as three or four players.

To start, have each player select a number to start on. Play the music. As the music plays, everyone walks around the circle, stepping from one numbered circle to another (or walking in between them). As soon as the music stops, everyone stands on the number he or she is closest to. Then draw a number, read it out, and the person standing on that number gets a cake! Hooray! If no one is standing on the number, draw another until you find a winner. Then you can start a new round (after the winner leaves the game; it’d be a little excessive for someone to win two cakes.)

Pretty simple, right? Am I forgetting anything? If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask! And here’s the free cake walk numbers printable:

Cake walk printable

Best for: A classroom full of students! I would say you need about 10 people at a minimum, to however many can fit comfortably in your room.

What you need: Just players and a room with four corners! Ooh, actually, if you were in a hexagon-shaped room, you could play six corners…but that’s beyond the point.

How to play: First assign each corner of your room a number one through four, like this:

The numbers will stay the same and everyone will need to remember them.

Then select one player to be It, like Melanie. Melanie stands in the middle of the room, closes her eyes, and counts to ten (or another specified number). While she’s counting, all of the other players silently move to a corner of the room. Each player can pick whichever corner they want.

When Melanie is done counting, she keeps her eyes closed and then tries to guess which corner has the most people, based on the sounds she might have heard when she was counting. Say she heard a lot of rustling and banging over by the door in corner number 4. She would say out loud, “Four!” Then all of the players in corner 4 would be out and would go sit down at their desks. Then Melanie begins another round, counting to ten again while players move to whichever corner they want. Then Melanie picks a corner, the players in that corner are out, and a new round starts. Play continues until one player is left – the new It.

Strategies: You obviously want to be quiet when picking a corner. You don’t want Melanie to know that your corner is occupied! But, if you have time and if you move fast, maybe you could throw her off – make a noise over by corner 3 before hurrying silently back to corner 2. (The corner 3 people wouldn’t like it much, though.) When I’ve played, we’ve mostly tried to move as silently as possible and avoided too much “strategy.” There’s just something about this simple game that’s fun enough on its own: the countdown, hurrying to pick a corner, moving silently with everyone else, making eye contact and trying not to giggle, the suspense, the last-minute mind changes where you dart across the room. Ah, good times in Mrs. Pritchard’s third grade class.

Does anyone have any variations or alternate rules to share?

A little bit ago I created a date night scavenger hunt kit for a fundraiser. Even though they’re not exactly games, I thought I’d post some of the activities here. They all come with printables. You can do all the activities in one night and make a scavenger hunt of it, or each could even be its own date.

What it is: A fun date night activity for two; something that makes a trip to a mall or other public place more exciting.

Oh, wait. Also. The kangaroo really doesn’t have much to do with people watching, I admit. But isn’t he cute? Just think of him in a zoo, watching people himself. See, it totally ties in.

Best for: A couple on a date…or really any small group of people, maybe 4 max. It could even be done solo.

What you need: A public place where you’ll be able to see lots of people, preferably going and coming so you get a good variety. Shopping malls are ideal. Large stores in general could work, or even just walking down streets downtown. You’ll also need a list of things to find (like my printable included below). Optional: a quarter.

How to play: Go with your significant other to the aforementioned public place, have a seat or stroll around, and people watch! It’s fun to do this as a kind of scavenger hunt, like the printable. Just look for each item on the list, check off the ones you find, and play until you’ve either found them all or run out of time. The printable includes an extra bonus activity to do with a quarter; just follow the instructions.

This can be a fun activity because you get to talk, but it’s not necessarily competitive. Just be sure to be polite about those people you’re spotting and try not to stare, point, or let them see you talking about them in secretive whispers.

Printables: Here’s the printable that goes with the activity. If you print it at actual size (which I recommend), it’s a little smaller than an 8.5 x by 11 page, so you can trim it down.

Remember to check out the other date night activities in this series!

A little bit ago I designed a date night scavenger hunt kit for a fundraising activity my church did. I heard the couple who ended up with the kit had a lot of fun, and so I thought I’d post pieces of it here for the next little bit. They all come with printables, and you can do all the activities in one night and make a scavenger hunt-type thing of it, or each could probably even be its own date.

So first off, the ice cream/frozen yogurt swap!

What it is: A fun date night activity for two; a way to make a normal out-to-get-ice-cream date a little more exciting.

Best for: A couple (either married or courting) on a date.

What you need: A frozen yogurt place (those kinds where you build your own bowl with the soft-serve yogurt and all the toppings and weigh it at the end) or an ice cream place, and an appetite for dessert. Optional: my printable included below.

How to play: It’s pretty straightforward. First, you can print the printable. Then go out for frozen yogurt, but the catch is you have to build each other’s yogurt bowl – and no input allowed! Build your spouse the dessert you think they would build for themselves if they could; you should aim to please.

After you’ve created your ice cream bowls and paid, swap them and enjoy! And rate each other by filling out the printable form. You can even tally up points and declare a winner, then think of a prize the winner gets that night (to choose what you do next, dinner at their favorite place next time, etc.)

Printables: Here’s the printable that goes with the activity. If you print it at actual size (which I recommend), it’s a little smaller than an 8.5 x by 11 page, so you can trim it down.

Remember, be sure and check out the other date night activities in this series!

Happy Thanksgiving! This is one of my family’s favorite holidays. Time together with family, good food, and taking time to think about what we’re grateful for: it’s a wonderful combination for a holiday.

I try to post a different game or variation for each holiday, and for Thanksgiving this year I thought it would be fun to do a Thanksgiving version of celebrities. Quick, click the link to learn how to play so you can read about the Thanksgiving version!

OK, read it? Good. I think this would be best with a large group (around 15-20 people). The Thanksgiving spin is, instead of having players write down celebrities’ names, have players write down something they’re grateful for. I made a printable you could use to do this easily. Just cut up and pass out the slips:

Try to encourage players to use their creativity and write down unique or specific answers. (For example, the game won’t be very fun if everyone writes my family, even if it’s what we’re all grateful for most.) Here’s some answers that might be more suitable for the game:

• chocolate chip cookie dough
• Annelise’s high-pitched laugh
• my latest favorite song, “Zorbing” by Stornoway
• weekly date nights with my husband
• beds with clean new sheets
• going to wedding receptions
• hearing Carson tell airplane stories
• Mom’s homemade cinnamon rolls
• Shelby’s free babysitting
• Amazon two-day shipping

(All things that I’m grateful for this year. :))

At the bottom of the slips to print out, I typed “Don’t be boring!” to encourage all your players to write down good responses. (You can cut that part off if you want, though.)

After you collect all the responses, fold them up, put them in a bowl, and play just like you would play celebrities. As you play you can find out who wrote down what and perhaps have some conversations on what you’re all grateful for (in between uncontrollable laughter, of course).

I haven’t played this variation yet (I’m planning on playing it this year), so if you play, let us all know how it works and if you made any adjustments! Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you all enjoy the holiday!

What it is: A good way to pass the time when you’re flying somewhere. Look for items on a list and cross them off when you see them.

Best for: One to 5 players.

What you need: A list of things to find in an airport! You could make your own, or I have some free printable ones below. Also a pen.

How to play: It’s easy! When you’re sitting in an airport waiting for your plane, or waiting in an extra long security line, or stuck somewhere with a longer-than-expected layover, pass the time by doing a little scavenger hunting. Make or obtain a list of common things you might see in an airport (the items could be as easy as an airplane or a person with a hat, for younger players; or much harder, like the Southwest Shamu plane). When you’re in the airport, keep your list and a pen handy and cross things off as you see them. First player to cross off all the items (or the player to cross off the most) wins!

Rules and Variations: This is a very adaptable game. It’s a great one-player or two-player game, and you can play competitively or cooperatively. You could even stretch out one game over a whole trip or multiple trips. If you want to play competitively, you probably want to set up some specific rules (when to start looking, when to stop looking, whether photographs of things count, etc.).

Printables: We’re flying this Thanksgiving for my sister’s wedding. (Incidentally, the airplane illustration above is in her wedding colors – I guess I have her color scheme on my brain after some fun clothes shopping for me, my husband, and our two kids.) In preparation, I made these scavenger hunts and I want to share them with you! Feel free to download and use. There are two lists: the first one is pretty easy, and the second one is harder. Just print, cut, and use whichever fits your needs! If you do use them, I’d love to hear any feedback on how they work. Happy flying!

Airport Scavenger Hunt

What it is: I Spy Bingo is a version of classic bingo. In classic bingo, everyone has a 5 x 5 grid of randomly placed numbers. Someone reads off a number at random, and players look for the number on their playing card and mark it off if they find it. Players try to get 5 marked-off squares in a row. First person to get 5 in a row (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) shouts out “Bingo!” and wins. In I Spy Bingo, instead of listening for numbers called out loud, you’re watching for things you might see in real life.

Best for: 1 to 6 players.

What you need: Everyone will need a game card. You can make your own or use my free printable ones! (see end of post). Everyone will also need a pen or something else to use to mark off squares (like candy, especially M&Ms, which are our favorites). You also need somewhere specific to play: in this case, a Halloween costume party, or the day at school when everyone comes dressed up, or trick-or-treating night…basically anywhere you can see lots of people in Halloween costumes.

How to play: Halloween costume I Spy Bingo is pretty simple. Everyone gets a 5 x 5 grid of squares. In each square, write a costume you think you might see someone wearing this Halloween. (My free printable cards already have costumes written out.) Once you’re at your party or school day or wherever you’re going to play, just keep a lookout at all of the cool Halloween costumes going by and cross off any costume you see on your card. First player to get 5 in a row (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) shouts “BOO!” (instead of “bingo”) and wins!

You can also play the blackout version – where you have to cross off all your squares, not just 5 in a row, to win. Other than that, you can set up your own rules however you’d like! Here are some suggestions.

On the printable cards I made below, some of the costumes might overlap (e.g., fairy and Disney character; if you saw someone dressed as Tinkerbell, that could count for both). But I say you can only use each individual costume to cross off one square on your card. However, it’s up to you if you want to use Tinkerbell to cross off fairy or Disney character, bringing in a slight element of strategy. But if you do see two or more Tinkerbells walking around on Halloween night (from what I can gather, it’s a pretty popular costume), you can cross off both. You might have to settle some disputes as you play (like whether Princess Leia counts as a Disney princess), but that’s all part of the fun.

You can set a time limit, or just make the game last the duration of the party. You can play at a costume party, at school, or Halloween night (especially if you’re the one stuck at home alone handing out the candy. Why not call up another friend at home and have them play, too? Text each other pictures of your finished card when you win). Play by yourself or with a small group; it’s a very adaptable game. You can even have prizes for the winner(s), like pre-purchased candy bars, or some sweet deal like winner gets all the Snickers bars of the Halloween candy haul. Make it fit your group and make it fun!

Variations: There are lots of variations to I Spy Bingo. In addition to holidays or holiday parties, you can play on a road trip, in the airport, at the mall while people watching… I have some other ideas I’m working on that I’m excited to post, so stay tuned!

Printables: To make your Halloween Bingo easy, here’s some free printables! The first one comes with 6 unique cards already filled out. (But even if you want to play with more than 6 people, it would probably work just fine as long as there’s enough variation in the costumes you all see). The second one is blank so you can fill in your own costumes. This would be a great way to play and encourage creativity. Just come up with some basic rules, especially if you’re playing with a lot of people, and let the fun begin!

Halloween Costume Bingo

Halloween Costume Bingo: blank cards

Happy Halloween! I hope you all enjoy!

What it is: A really easy, adaptable game for all sorts of circumstances. Mostly it’s fun to ask get to know you questions (especially quirky or unusual ones) to family and friends.

Best for: 6 to 9 players.

What you need: Mostly just questions to ask! I’ve provided a free printable list of some below. You could also think of your own. Or I know there’s many commercial sets of conversation-starter type questions you can buy. Optional: Paper and pens.

How to play: The ways to play with get-to-know-you questions are endless. The easiest way is to just take turns asking questions to each other and answering them. You can all sit in a circle and take turns picking a question, reading it aloud, and then each giving an answer in turn. You could also take turns asking specific questions to specific people only. I’ve even used questions like this as journal-writing prompts for myself when I didn’t know what else to write about. If you have a creative set of questions, the good uses for them go on and on.

One of the favorite ways I like to play this game with my friends and family is to answer questions and then guess who gave which answer. This can be done a few different ways. One way that works well with a big group (like from 20 to 30) is to use paper and pens and have everyone write down his or her answer to a question. Then gather up the questions, have someone read them out loud, and together as a group discuss who you think gave which answer (this can be done informally, hopefully with a good amount of laughter). With a big group like this, the best way to do it is to ask several questions at a time, maybe 5 to 10. You could even just hand out a survey with the questions already written down. Then have each player fill out the survey, gather them up, read all the answers out loud, and guess together as a group who filled out that survey. You could even eliminate the guessing part and just read aloud the answers for fun. This could be a great icebreaker game.

Another way to play that’s better with a smaller group (perhaps about 8 people) is to take turns and keep score. It might look like this: Adam is playing with his family. He picks a question, he asks it aloud, everyone write down his or her answer, and then Adam’s brother Stuart collects the cards and reads them to Adam out loud. After Adam has heard all the answers, he has to correctly match each answer with each player. He gets a point for each one he matches correctly. Whoever gets the most points after everyone gets a turn wins. We played this way with my husband’s family last Christmas, and it was sooo fun. We all laughed harder than we had in months! It’s a good way to get more competitive and encourage creativity (since you’re trying to avoid making it obvious which answers are yours). You could even do more than one question at a time.

Variations: What other ways do you like to play with get-to-know-you questions? They’re great discussion starters or time fillers. My husband and I love to ask them to each other in car trips or on out-for-ice-cream dates.

Printables: If you want to print out some questions you can use, I’ve made some free printables for you! Just cut along the lines and you’ll have strips of questions you can fold up and put in a bowl or have people draw. You could also just read them aloud or use the list for ideas. The second list has some simpler questions that might be better suited for young children. So enjoy!

Get to know you questions

Simple get to know you questions

HEY! Wait! I just had an idea! Does anyone want to play? What if I pick a few questions now and we all answer them? Everyone loves to answer fun questions about themselves, right? Well, let’s play! Join in with a comment if you like with the answers to the questions below! I’d love to hear your answers.

1. If money didn’t matter, what food or snack would you buy at the movie theater? Those nachos with the fake cheese! Mmm, fake cheese…usually so gross, but somehow when it’s at a movie theater or baseball game on nachos, so good. A close runner-up to the nachos is good old-fashioned movie popcorn.
2. If you had a month of free time to learn a new hobby, what would it be? Dancing! I’ve always wished I could dance.
3. What’s your favorite way to eat a potato? Twice-baked all the way!

What it is: A gift exchange party activity, usually played at Christmas parties, where guests bring gifts and, through a series of complex rules, exchange them. Lots of laughs are usually involved. Be advised, it’s also a better game for teens or adults than kids, because, yes, some people are bound to end up with better gifts than others, and adults are less likely to cry and throw fits when that happens.

Best for: About 15 to 20 people.

What you need: First, you’ll need little slips of paper with numbers written on them, one number for each guest. Start at 1 and work up from there. Put the slips of paper in a bowl or hat for guests to draw from.

Next, instruct each guest who wants to play to bring a wrapped gift to the party. It is important that the gift is wrapped. It’s also often a good idea to set boundaries ahead of time for what the gift might be. In lots of white elephant exchanges I’ve been in, used gifts are fine (and even encouraged), but you could rule out used gifts if you wanted to. You can also set a monetary limit (like no more than five dollars).

If you’ve never done a white elephant gift exchange before, there seems to be a general perception of what makes a good white elephant gift. It’s often something quirky, random, regifted, and/or funny. That ugly fur hat you’ve had in the back of your closet but never worn, for instance, is sure to get a few laughs. Or a pair of ridiculous fuzzy slippers. Maybe a backscratcher shaped like a claw. Once I saw someone bring a live hermit crab (that was a surprise when it was opened). The point is, it doesn’t have to be expected or normal; the quirky stuff is often the most fun. There always seems to be a selection of more normal gifts, too (candles, bath salts, chocolate and candy…) and that’s fine and great. Personally, the only type of white elephant gifts I don’t like are obvious junk or trash (like dirty socks). To me, that’s just plain mean and you feel sorry for the person who ends up with it.

How to play: To start the game, have everyone put their wrapped gifts in a pile in the center of the room. Then have everyone else sit in a circle around the gifts.

Go around the circle and have each guest draw a number. Have them hold onto their slips of paper because it will be important to remember which number everyone has. The person who drew number 1 (we’ll call her Julie) goes first.

Julie starts by picking a gift, any gift she wants, from the pile in the center and opening it in front of everyone. As Julie is picking, no one else is allowed to say which gift they brought (but they can say after she’s chosen and started opening the gift). After she opens the gift, she holds it up for everyone to see and either admire (woah, awesome vintage Star Wars poster!), covet (I must have that five-pound bag of gummy bears!) or laugh at (haha, a Superman snuggie!).

Then whoever has number 2 (we’ll call him Jack) gets to go next. Now Jack has two options. He can either “steal” Julie’s gift, if he really wants that snuggie, or he can choose a new unopened gift from the pile, open it, and let everyone see. Let’s say he opts to open a new gift and gets a board game.

Now it’s number 3’s turn (let’s say her name is Katelyn). Katelyn gets the option of stealing Julie’s snuggie or Jack’s board game, or choosing a completely new gift. Say she wants Julie’s snuggie. All she has to do is walk over and take it (Julie has to let it go). But then Julie gets the option of stealing a different gift or opening a new gift from the pile. If she chooses Jack’s board game, then Jack gets the option to steal a gift or open a new one…and the round ends when someone finally opens a new gift from the pile.

That’s the basic game play, and you continue until the last gift from the pile is opened. Then everyone gets to take home the gift they’re holding, either excited (yes, I always wanted a snuggie!) or maybe a little bummed (man, I think I’ll just save this fake potted plant until next year’s white elephant and give it away then) or possibly full of regret (why didn’t I steal that bag of gummy bears when I had the chance?), but such is the nature of a white elephant gift exchange, and hopefully everyone still had fun. Now, to make the game possibly a little more fair and less likely to result in disappointment, read on to some of the rules and variations below.

Rules and variations: I think one universal rule is that there are no immediate steal-backs. So, for example, if Katelyn stole the snuggie from Julie, Julie couldn’t steal it back right away. If you wanted, however, you could allow Julie to steal it back during the same round, just not right away. (So say if Katelyn stole Julie’s snuggie, then Julie stole Brian’s Disney princess lunchbox, then Brian stole Ashley’s chocolate truffles, then Ashley stole the Disney princess lunchbox, then Julie would have the option of fairly stealing the snuggie back if she wanted.) That rule could be debatable, though…

Another pretty universal rule is that there’s no hiding of a gift after you’ve opened it. All gifts must be kept out and in plain sight of everyone. (This keeps that sneaky guy who opened the $10 gift certificate to Coldstone from hiding it under his chair undetected the whole game long just so no one will steal it.)

Another very common rule I’ve played with is to “freeze” a gift after it has been stolen a certain number of times, usually 2 or 3. So let’s say in your circle you have a super desirable gift, like a five-pound bag of gummy bears, that everyone wants. If you have a rule that gifts can only be stolen 3 times, whoever is the third lucky person to steal the gummy bears gets them for keeps. It would work like this: if Julie opened the gummy bears, then Jack stole them a few rounds later (one steal), then Katelyn stole them the round after that (two steals), then Isaac finally stole them after that (three steals), Isaac would get to keep them for the rest of the game; no one would be allowed to steal them away. This rule kind of also adds an element of strategy to the game. If you really want something, try to be the third person to steal it and you’re set.

Another rule I’ve played with is to, at the very end of the game, let whoever drew number 1 choose to steal any un-frozen gift in the circle if they want, because this person is kind of at a disadvantage, especially if they just happen to pick a lame gift (a ball of yarn? really?) and no one ever picks it from them. So let’s say Julie was the first person to go and picked a ball of yarn. At the end of the game, she would get the option to steal any un-frozen gift: say the nice boxed set of dominoes from Jack. Then you have two options. You can either have Julie and Jack do a straight-up trade, so Jack is stuck with the ball of yarn (sorry, Jack), or Julie can put the ball of yarn back in the middle of the circle, steal the dominoes, and then another round of stealing starts, with Jack choosing whatever un-frozen gift in the circle he wanted, until someone in the circle ends up taking the ball of yarn again and the game officially ends. The first option ends the game quicker; the second option can drag out the game longer.

Additionally, because in every game there usually is at least one gift that’s just kind of sad, and some poor guest opens it and gets stuck with it for the rest of the game, my mom always played with a twist that I liked; it makes the “loser” feel less jipped. My mom always prepared ahead of time one or two wrapped consolation prizes, usually just simple, ordinary things like candy or maybe a small gift card. Then at the very end of the game, everyone votes on the one or two worst gifts to end up with, and those people get the consolation prizes and feel not so bad about life.

I’m sure there are other rules you could play with that I’m forgetting or not aware of. Anyone else have another rule or variation to share?

For another way to play the game, check out batteries included white elephant gift exchange, which talks about hosting the game yourself and providing all the gifts.

(Oh, and side note if you’re curious, none of the sample people mentioned in this post are real people I’ve played with, of course…but some of the gifts are ;))

Best for: Group of about 5 to 8 people.

What you need: You’ll need actions or events to act out, whether they’re ones that you think up on the spot or have written down ahead of time (see the charades post or the word generator for some lists of things you can act out, or the end of this post for some printables). You’ll also need to play somewhere indoors with an enclosed room that players can leave.

How to play: First, choose a player to start the acting—we’ll call him Tyler. He goes first. Then the rest of the players choose a pre-defined order. Silently to himself, Tyler thinks of an event or action to act out (or draws one from a bowl or something). Say it’s capturing a wild snake. He doesn’t tell anyone what his action is. Then everyone leaves the room except for the next person in line, like Shannon.

Tyler silently acts out the action for Shannon while she watches. But while Tyler is thinking he’s acting out this:

Shannon might see something like this:

She’s not allowed to ask questions or guess or talk; she can only watch. After Tyler’s done or a predetermined time has passed, Tyler sits in the room and vows to stay silent (or leaves, if he doesn’t have enough willpower). Then the next player, Jill, enters. Shannon then acts out for Jill. But while Shannon’s thinking she’s acting out this:

Jill might see this:

As you can imagine, the actions change more and more with each step.

At the end, the last person, like Bill, has to guess what he thinks the event is, and then you can all laugh at how different it was from the original idea. And everyone in the middle can say what they thought the action was, too. You don’t really keep score or anything; just play for fun. So pick someone new to be the first person and start a new round!

Variations: If the game feels too slow or easy for you, you could set up a speed version where players only get 10 seconds or so to act out for the next person in line. That could increase the difficulty (and hilarity). You could also set up a sheet or a blocked off corner of the room so players don’t have to actually leave the room, just run behind the sheet, also making the game move a little faster. And for other acting games that are maybe a little less quiet and slow, check out charades, celebrities, and in the manner of the adverb.

Printables: I think this game would work best when played with specific actions, like the example capturing a wild snake. Or it would probably work well with harder charades words, as long as they weren’t too easy. So included below is the hard words list from the charades post, as well as a new list I made of actions. Try playing with either! And for more printable word lists, check out the charades post, or use my online word generator for word lists on the computer – or download the free app for electronic word lists on the go! I added the new actions list to the word generator, too, under the game “Charades.” Happy playing!

Charades word list – Hard words

Charades word list – Actions

What it is: A simple, flexible time-killing activity for anyone who loves music and guessing games.

Best for: 2 to 8 players.

What you need: Nothing!

How to play: This is just a simple guessing game involving singing, but singing a song only one word at a time. One person, like Lucy, starts out by thinking up a song. Then Lucy starts singing the song out loud, but only the first word.

So let’s say Lucy chooses the song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” She would start singing the first note: “Take…” Then there are several different ways you can play. You can have other players guess what song Lucy is singing by adding what they think is the next word. Ryan, for example, might think Lucy is singing “Take on Me” (he’s an eighties fan). So Ryan would start singing “on…” Lucy could either shake her head no and let other players continue to guess, or, for a more fluid game, the song could change and now all the other players have to guess what Ryan is singing. The song might change several times as players take turns adding notes and words to what they think the song is. You can have play go in a circle, or just have players sing out in any order when they think they know the next word.

Variations: Another similar game you can play is when one person says a word (like take, for example), and the next player has to think of a song with that word in it. You can play with song titles or song lyrics in general. We played this a lot as just kind of a time-killer, not keeping score or having much structure, but just shouting out words and singing songs as they occurred to us.

Some more similar games are Name that tune and What’s the name of that song?

So if you like music and have friends who know a lot of songs, they can be some fun games to play to pass the time or try to stump each other.

Best for: One person or a smaller group, maybe during a time when you need to be quiet.

What you need: Everyone needs paper and a pen or pencil. Optional: colored pencils, crayons, markers, or other supplies for making your dream house pretty.

How to play: Really, it’s a simple activity. You just draw your dream house! And when you’re a kid (or an adult), you can let your imagination run wild, which is where the fun comes in. I thought the best way to show this activity would be an example, so imagine how happy I was when, during the move my family recently completed, I was going through a box of old memories and found this:

I wish I had dated it! My best guess is that I drew it when I was 7 or 8? But this is exactly what I’m talking about! Usually my sisters and I drew kind of a floor plan layout like this, and of course our houses were always ginormous and held all sorts of cool extras. Which seemed to mostly be themed rooms: a party room, a toy room, a ferris wheel room, a rock climbing room, a pet room, a maze room, a museum room, a candy room, of course…oh, and a manatee room. (My sisters and I were in love with manatees. We thought they were the coolest things ever.) There also has to be a mini airport, of course, and indoor swimming pool. Anyway, I’m so glad I found this priceless drawing. Maybe I can convince my husband to build this floor plan for us one day.

And as a bonus, here’s another, more recent example. I think I drew this shortly after my husband and I were married; I was babysitting some younger cousins and wanted to show them one of my favorite drawing activities. So, since I was older this one is of course more realistic…(uh, kind of…)

Notice I kept the indoor swimming pool (this time with a dolphin) and now have a private helicopter pad instead of a mini airport. And complete with home theater, exercise room, large kitchen, hot tob, play room, and star-gazing deck, this dream home is perfect. Oh, and slides to reach the lower levels. Who hasn’t wanted a house with slides at one point?

Anyway, this second drawing shows another way you can draw your dream home: as a cut-away side view instead of a bird’s-eye view. And you can use words to label rooms (like in the first drawing), or you can just draw (like in the second). Either way, whatever you want to draw, go for it! Draw your dream home. Adding as many details as possible is always fun.

Variations: We often played this with sidewalk chalk, too, except it was more of a “draw your dream room.” Each of us would take one large square of the driveway (the squares formed by the seams in the concrete) and pretend it was our room, drawing in beds, dressers, rugs, and usually bean bag chairs and lava lamps (things we always wanted but never had), all from a bird’s-eye view. Then you can play house in your new room. My husband also played a similar game in talking version called build a cabin in your mind.

What it is: A very similar game to winks, just more physically active, with more physical contact.

Best for: A big group of 9 to 21 players (ish).

What you need: You’ll need an odd number of players, and kind of a bigger group. Also somewhere to play. You’ll basically be wrestling on the floor, so keep that in mind. I most often played in a carpeted building with a big room (lots of space, not many breakables). I also played in a bouncy castle once. That was fun.

How to play: Divide your number of players in two (except, since you’re playing with an odd number of players, one half will have one extra person). The bigger half all sits cross-legged in a big circle. Then all the rest of the players sit cross-legged in front of someone already sitting, creating an inner circle. But one poor person, like Jeremy, will be left sitting cross-legged with no one in front of him. He’ll start the game.

When everyone is ready to play and attentively watching Jeremy, he chooses the names of two people sitting in the inner circle and calls them out loud, like “Stephanie and Charlie!” Then Stephanie and Charlie both try to race across the circle and tag Jeremy’s outstretched hand. Whoever does so first moves spots and sits in front of Jeremy, and someone else will be left without a parter. Then it’s his or her turn.

But here’s what makes it hard: The people sitting behind Stephanie and Charlie (we’ll call them Parker and Julie, respectively) do everything they can to keep their partners from making it to Jeremy. That’s where the wrestling part comes in. It’s basically anything goes, except mean behavior: hitting, scratching, biting, you know. Oh, and tickling counts as bad behavior. Play nice.

So let’s say Parker and Julie are both trying their hardest to keep their partners in place, and Parker puts up a good fight, but Stephanie is just too tenacious and wiggles away to tag Jeremy’s hand. Then she gets to sit in front of Jeremy and it’s Parker’s turn to call two names.

There are some other rules you could add to adjust your game to the skills and desires of your players. First, it’s fun if the people in the inner circle and outer circle get to switch places; then they don’t get too tired of always being called or always being alone. So you could say that each time someone gets a new partner, they switch places, and each time someone in the inner circle fails to get away from someone in the outer circle, they switch places, too. (So, in the above example, once Stephanie got to Jeremy, they’d switch places so now Stephanie is in the outer circle, and once Julie successfully kept Charlie as her partner, they’d switch places, too.)

Then, if two pairs are wrestling for a long time and it looks like no one’s getting anywhere fast, you could call it a draw and make the two inner-circle players switch with the outer-circle players. Then Jeremy calls two new people.

I played this game regularly with some friends in high school, and it was a lot of fun. Definitely lots of physical contact. But it could be fun to play with just family, too, if your family is bigger.

Cautions: Because you’re wrestling on the ground, make sure that everyone plays nice and doesn’t hurt each other. But be warned that a few small injuries (especially rug burns) might be unavoidable.

Variations: Winks is a similar game, just not as active or full contact.

What it is: A little-kid game, best when played with a big brother, sister, or adult. One of those simple games you love so much as a kid.

Best for: 4 to 6 little kids and at least one bigger kid or adult.

What you need: A room indoors with a relatively big, open area. And preferably a big person to play with, like a dad or an uncle.

How to play: The game is very simple. One or two players (the adults) lay down on the floor, hold themselves long and straight, and roll around. These players are the steamrollers. Then the other players jump and run around the playing area, trying not to be steamrolled (i.e., grabbed, tripped, hugged, and /or tickled by the steamrollers). It works best the steamrollers are bigger (but gentle) players, and everyone else is young and small (so as not to hurt the steamrollers).

My sisters and I played this with my dad and with each other all the time when we were young. It’s one of those great simple wrestling games kids like to play.

What it is: Next to tag, hide and seek is probably one of the most basic kid games out there. It can be played indoors or outdoors and is easily adaptable for lots of ages and playing areas.

Best for: From as little as 3 or 4 to as many as 20 players.

What you need: You’ll need somewhere to play that has places to hide. This could be almost anywhere: inside a house, in a yard or neighborhood, in a park, in the library (if your public library happens to host a fun lock-in over the summer as a reward to kids who read)…basically anywhere but a big open field or gym.

How to play: Hide and seek is simple. First, set the boundaries for your playing area. Is it one room, one house, one yard, a whole neighborhood? Make sure everyone’s clear on the boundaries at the beginning. Then gather all your players together, choose one person, like Jack, to be It, and have It count out loud to a designated number, such as 20. (The number can be as low as 10, for really young kids in a small room, or as high as 60 or more for older kids in a bigger playing area.) While Jack counts, all of the other players quietly sneak away to hide. Once the other players have hidden, they must stay put until they are found. Everyone tries to hide, silently hoping that Jack will never find them…

Once Jack is done counting, he opens his eyes, calls out loud, “Ready or not, here I come!” and then starts to seek. He searches all over the playing area for the other players. All he has to do is spot someone (not necessarily tag them or anything) and then they’re found. If Jack needs help finding those last few players who had really good hiding spots, the people who are found can help him.

Once everyone has been found (including that last small sneaky player who always gets the best spots and is always last to be found), the game starts over with a new person as It. For us this was usually the first person Jack found (kind of a punishment for choosing such a lame hiding place, I guess). Then play as many rounds as you want!

Variations: Hide and seek was never my favorite game. Too quiet, too slow – and the suspense, fear, and tension of hiding and waiting to be found pretty much always gave me an anxiety attack. You could change the rules a little and allow players, once they’ve hid, to move around and find new hiding spots, at the risk of being seen by It when they move. Or for some more exciting or complex variations along the lines of hiding and seeking, try kick the can, hit the dirt, capture the flag, or sardines.

Best for: A group of about 10.

What you need: You’ll need paper and pens for everyone to write with. The paper doesn’t need to be big; in fact, index cards would be perfect.

How to play: To start, pass around pens and cards to everyone in the circle. This is a great, easy game for groups because you don’t need a certain number of players and no one has to sit out; everyone can play right away. Once everyone has a card and pen, tell everyone to write a question that begins with “What if…” at the top of the card. For example, “What if people had platypuses for pets instead of dogs?”

These questions can be as serious or as silly as you want them to be. In our games, they usually end up both ridiculously silly and about people in the room, like “What if Joe wore only corduroy clothing all the time?” At any rate, don’t be afraid to let your creativity show!

Then collect all of the cards, shuffle them up, and deal them back out to everyone randomly. If someone gets their own card by chance, you can let them switch for another one.

Once everyone has a card with a question that they didn’t write, tell everyone to then write an answer to the question, starting with the word “Then…” Again, these can be as silly or as serious as you want. If you got the question “What if we all had platypuses for pets instead of dogs?” you might write: “Then we’d all have to live next to rivers and streams.” Or you might write “Then Lassie would have turned out a whole lot differently.” The point of the game is to be kind of silly, so don’t be afraid to. Also don’t worry if you think you’re not terribly witty (as I always do in games like this), because it really won’t matter in the end. You’ll still be funny even if you’re not witty. I love games like that.

Then for the last part of the game, everyone goes around the circle and reads their cards, but here’s the catch: you’ll answer each question with a mis-matched answer. So here’s how it works. Say Mike’s playing and he was holding the platypus question. He’d read the question out loud: “What if we all had platypuses for pets instead of dogs?” But then the person to the right of Mike, we’ll call her Kim, would read her answer for her question, which might be: “Then the world would be a much better place.” Then Kim would read the question on the card she’s holding, “What if there were a Chick-fil-A on every corner?” and the next person in the circle would respond with their answer to their question. You’d go all around the circle until you got back to Mike’s answer: “Then Lassie would have turned out a whole lot differently.”

Usually hearing a question with the wrong answer is pretty funny, either because it makes absolutely no sense or it’s surprisingly true. So as you go around the circle, you’ll all probably laugh and joke (especially if  some of the questions are about people in the room) and claim the questions. A lot of silliness, but a lot of fun, too. Then if you like it, play another round!

Variations: This game reminds me a lot of paper telephone, probably because both games invariably tend to be about people in the room in ridiculous situations. So silly. But so fun.

Best for: A group of 3 to 6.

What you need: First, you need a metal muffin tin. If you have an old one that you wouldn’t mind sacrificing, that would be best. (If not, that’s okay, too.) Then you’ll need a bag of marshmallows, not the mini kind. It’s also helpful to have some way of marking a boundary on the floor (masking tape works well) and a way to keep score (like pen and paper). Finally, if you have some sticky labels, like the small neon circle kinds, and a black Sharpie, you’ll be set.

How to play: The game is really simple: players take turns tossing marshmallows towards the muffin tin, scoring points based on where the marshmallow lands.

To set up the game, you’ll want to assign a point value to each row or each hole in your muffin tin. That might look like this:

 Or like this:

Whatever you want. You can use the sticky labels to assign the point values or, if you don’t want to put stickers on your muffin tin, just write down or remember which points correspond to each row (shoot, you could print out one of those pictures right above) or just make sure the stickers will come off.

Then set the muffin tin up, either flat on the floor or propped up slightly on a book or something, and mark a line on the floor a few feet away. The distance of the line will depend on the age/skill of your players. In my family, where players ranged from my parents to my youngest sister not yet in Kindergarten, we had a few lines for varying ages.

Then to play, just have your players take turns tossing the marshmallow towards the muffin tin. If a marshmallow lands in a hole and stays there, that player gets that number of points. Each player might get three marshmallow tosses, and you can cycle through your players as many times as you want. The player with the most points in the end wins and gets to eat all the remaining marshmallows, mua ha ha! Or, just…win. Either way.

Variations: It’s a really simple game, but you could add some of your own rules if you wanted to make it more exciting. For example, you could give some of the muffin holes negative point values for added variability.

What it is: A really simple hide-and-seek type game. It’s a good kind of quiet, not-too-disruptive game for little kids. We used to play in primary (Sunday church class for little kids).

Best for: 5 to 10 players.

What you need: You’ll need something to hide, but this can be anything: a toy or stuffed animal, a piece of paper, a trinket. For a harder game, pick a smaller item. For an easier game (or for really young kids), pick a bigger item.

You’ll also need somewhere to play. This game is ideal indoors, like in a living room where there are lots of places to hide the object. You could also play in another enclosed area, even a backyard.

How to play: Let’s say you’re playing with a small group of young kids, and the object you’re hiding is a bouncy ball. First, choose someone, like Joe, to leave the room. Then choose another person in the room, like Kylie, to hide the bouncy ball. Make sure everyone sees where it’s hidden.

Then call Joe back into the room. He tries to find the bouncy ball, and everyone else gives him hints. The hints work like this: as Joe gets closer to the bouncy ball, everyone says, “warmer…” As he gets further away, everyone says, “colder…” You can use other temperature-describing words, too, like lukewarm, ice cold, burning hot, etc. The closer Joe gets, the hotter the temperature gets. The further he gets, the colder it gets. (The clues can also get more frantic as Joe gets closer and is about to find it: “You’re cool…getting warmer…warmer…okay, really warm! Ooh, hot! Hot, hot! Ooh, on fire! You’ve got it!”

Then once Joe successfully finds the object, it can be his turn to hide it while someone else leaves the room.

Strategies: It’s pretty fun to hide the object in creative places you wouldn’t expect. Ooh, the best is somehow on a ceiling fan because then someone could be in the middle of the room getting clues, “hot! hot!” and there won’t be anything nearby, haha!

Variations: There are tons of variations to this game. If you’re playing with a pretty small group, you could even have all the players leave the room while one person (like the adult) hides the object and gives the clues. And, though hot and cold words make good clues, you could use other clues, too. When we played in primary, the teacher would use the game as a way to get us to practice our primary songs. One person would leave, and the rest of us would sing to let him know if he was close or far. When we sang loud, he was close. When we sang quietly, he was far. (Our teacher helped us know when to sing loud or soft.) You could do the same thing with music played on speakers, if you wanted.

When my sisters and I were really little, we loooved playing this game with our uncle Jason, but we called it “where’s rabby?” because the hidden object was a little stuffed toy rabbit. My sisters and I would leave the room, my uncle would hide the rabbit, and we’d have a ball coming in and trying to find it with the help of his clues.

Best for: Smaller groups, maybe 3 to 6 people.

What you need: Nothing! But a word list might be helpful.

How to play: This game is really simple, and you could make up more complicated rules if you wanted to. But basically someone says a word, any word, and another player has to respond immediately with the very first word that pops into his or her head (no thinking allowed). So a sample game between Mack and Jane might go like this:

MACK: Apples.

JANE: Caramel.

MACK: Christmas.

JANE: Lights.

M: Spider.

J: Eww.

M: Groundhog.

J: Bill Murray.

M: Slow.

J: Snail.

It’s supposed to be very fast, with only a fraction of a second between Mack’s prompt and Jane’s response. It’s best if Mack responds quickly, too; that gets Jane in the habit of responding quickly. The fun of the game comes in learning possibly interesting things about your friends or family (“Crush.” “Andrew–I mean,…uh…” “What?!”), or in laughing at the interesting, creative, or (il)logical associations our minds come up with. Your game might be interrupted with questions, explanations, or laughter, and that’s all part of the fun.

To help in thinking up quick prompts, feel free to use my online word generator.

What it is: This clapping routine game is set of hand routines involving snaps, claps, and slaps. You learn the routine, then the fun consists of doing it over and over, getting faster and faster. I learned and played the game at a summer camp for teenage girls. It was our favorite game to play in the mess hall while we waited for our food because it makes a lot of noise.

Best for: However many people you want. You could even play by yourself (but I’m not promising that would be as fun as playing with friends).

What you need: Preferably, a table. But if you don’t have a table or flat surface, your lap will do.

How to play: This is one of those games that would be really hard to teach in writing. So my sisters helped me make this short video that teaches you how to play.

You just have to memorize the clapping routines (it’s not that hard once you start), and then you can do them as fast as you can.

Variations: You can play either competitively or non-competitively. To play competitively, make it a game of elimination. Start by doing all six routines slowly, then do them again a little faster, then a little faster. Anyone who messes up at any point is out of the game. (You might need a judge to help decide this.) Or, don’t eliminate anyone and just play for fun, teaching any new friends who walk up to your table and wonder what in the world you’re doing.

Also, for a very similar game, check out the cup game.

What it is: A good indoor group game for all ages; it can easily be used as a get-to-know-you game, too.

Best for: A group of about 10 to 20.

What you need: Somewhere to play with enough seats for everyone, arranged in a more or less a circle. Also a rolled-up newspaper. (This will be used to lightly whack each other with and could easily be substituted with something else: a foam baseball bat, the cardboard middle of a roll of paper towels, etc.)

How to play: Let’s say you’re playing as a get-to-know-you game. First, have everyone sit in a circle. Then, since your players don’t all know each other, go around the room and have everyone say his or her name a few times, so everyone can start to learn names. If you have two people with the same first name, learn their first name and last initial.

Next, choose one player to be It (we’ll call him David). David holds the rolled-up newspaper and stands in the middle of the circle. David’s goal is to whack one of the other players with the newspaper, which will let him trade spots and sit down while someone else becomes It. But David can only hit certain players at certain times.

To start the game, choose one player, like Katie, to begin. She starts by saying the name of someone else sitting in the circle, like Greg. As soon as she says Greg’s name, David can hit Greg with the newspaper. But as soon as Greg says another name, like Violet, David has to target Violet instead. If David whacks Violet with the newspaper after her name is said but before she can say a new name, she’s It and David gets to sit down.

It’s a good get-to-know-you game for David because he has to remember everyone’s names so he knows who to tag. And it’s a good get-to-know-you game for everyone else because they have to remember each other’s names so they can call them out.

Variations: If you’re playing with a group of people and you all know each other, using your first names might be too easy. So make the game more fun by assigning everyone a state, or a fruit, or something else in a category of your choosing. Now everyone has to remember each other’s assigned names, making the game more challenging and fun.

You could make the game even more challenging by tying the name to the chair, instead of the person. So if David was it but tagged Greg and then sat down in Greg’s seat, David would assume Greg’s name until he moved to a different chair. Make sense? That might get confusing, but it could be a fun way to make the game more challenging.

This game is also a variation on the theme of signs, just not as quiet as signs.

What it is: A simple variation of regular tag.

Best for: A big group of 10 or more players.

What you need: A basketball court, or preferably one of those combined basketball-and-volleyball-courts-in-one. (There are more lines drawn on the ground that way, and lines are the point of this game.)

Not the most accurate picture ever, but you get the idea.

How to play: Just like in regular tag, choose someone to be It. And just like in regular tag, It runs around and tries to tag the other players, making them It instead. But unlike regular tag, all players (including It) can only run on the lines of the court. So no touching the ground unless you’re on a line. (But it is way cool when you can jump from one line to another, haha!)

It’s a fun game because you kind of have to think ahead, or else you can easily get cornered by It and tagged. The game also requires more finesse and balance than regular tag. Oh yeah, finesse and balance, that’s so totally my kind of game…well, not really. But still, I have fun.

And that’s the game! Once It tags someone, that person becomes the new It and runs around trying to tag someone else. Depending on how many people you’re playing with, you might want to have more than one person as It. Also, when I played, I seem to remember a rule that you couldn’t run, only walk. But I think that was mostly because my sisters, friends, and I played at our church building. Well, just on week nights while we waited for our moms to finish chatting after their activity…except for maybe those few times on Sunday while we waited for our moms to finish chatting after church. And that’s when we defintiely tried to walk and be quiet, because if we got caught, we’d have to stop.

Variations: You could play with the variation that once someone is tagged (or is caught stepping off of a line), they have to sit down in place, thus blocking other players from passing them on the line. The player who is It can pass the blocks, but not anyone else, making it a little more challenging for everyone (and making it possible for It to trap people and win more easily). If you play like this, you could make a rule that the last person (besides It) who is standing wins the round.

This is also one of those super easy adaptable games that you could easily make your own rules to. Like, if you’re tagged you actually have to run backwards or something. Anyone have any good rules or ideas to share?

What it is: A simple clapping routine that’s fun to do with a big group of people. You learn the routine and try to do it as fast as you can. I’ve played during summer camps in cafeterias at meal times. It makes a lot of noise, and it’s fun to do with a lot of people.

Best for: A big group of at least 10 people (but you can play with less).

What you need: You need a table to sit at and enough people to sit all around the table. Then everyone who’s playing needs a cup. It’s best if all the cups are identical. They should be small enough that they’re easy to grab. Plastic Dixie cups work okay, but sometimes they’re too lightweight. Ideally, you’d have a bunch of plastic restaurant tumblers, like the kind you get at one of those all-you-can-eat pizza buffets (CiCi’s, anyone?).

How to play: To get ready, have everyone sit around a table. The bigger the table and the more people you have, the more fun it is. And to work right, everyone needs to be sitting next to each other; no empty spaces. Then everyone gets a cup and turns it upside on the table right in front of them.

Now the best way to teach this game is with a video, so three of my sisters helped me make one. Just watch!

So when you really play, you’ll be sitting in a circle and be able to pass the cups all around, making the game a loop that goes on and on. You gradually get faster and faster, until no one can keep up and everyone laughs.

Variations: You could play more competitively and eliminate anyone who messes up, making the circle smaller and smaller, but for that you’d need to modify the group size around the table. The real fun is just in trying to go as fast as you can as a group. And in making a lot of noise.

Best for: Group of 3 to 8ish.

What you need: Nothing!

How to play: Have all your players sit in a circle, or establish a clear playing order. Then proceed to tell a story, with each person saying one sentence at a time. Here’s the catch: each sentence must start with either “fortunately” or “unfortunately,” always alternating. So here’s how a sample game might go. The first player, Rachel, starts out the story by saying a simple statement of fact, like

One day I got a new puppy.

(The story can be in first person, but it doesn’t have to be.) The next player, Brad, would then add a sentence onto the story, but he has to start the sentence with “unfortunately,” like

Unfortunately, he ran away.

Then it’s Katie’s turn, but she has to start a sentence with “fortunately:”

Fortunately, he came back the next day with a 100 dollar bill.

The next player would say an “unfortunately” sentence, like “Unfortunately, the 100 dollar bill was a counterfeit and the cops nabbed me for it when I tried to use it to buy a pet canary.” As you can imagine, the game usually gets pretty silly pretty fast. And the stories tend to drag on without any clear ending, so just break it up when you want to start a new one. It’s a lot of fun, though, and good for car rides or killing time. Write your stories down or just tell them out loud; either way, have fun!

Variations: As said, this game is pretty similar to tell a story.

Example: If you want an example game, maybe you could watch the TV show I Shouldn’t Be Alive; sometimes I think those episodes tend to play out like a version of this game. (The man was starving in the jungle…fortunately, he found some berries…unfortunately, they were poisionous. But fortunately, he hunted a rabbit to eat…but unfortunately, he had no fire to cook it…)

Okay, for real, here’s a sample game from me and my husband. Oh, which reminds me of something else: if you’re playing with only two people (or any even number), it means the same people will always be saying “unfortunately” or “fortunately” sentences. Which could be boring or could be fun. But you could just switch it up halfway through if you want. For now, you can guess who had the “fortunately” sentences in this example, me or my husband:

One day a man was flying on an airplane. Unfortunately, the airplane was out of peanuts. Fortunately, the man was allergic to peanuts and so he was happy about that. Unfortunately, the man was also allergic to chocolate chip cookies, and the airplane wasn’t out of those. Fortunately, the man was the pilot, and so he wasn’t offered any of the cookies. Unfortunately, the pilot was so distracted by the conversation about the cookies he was allergic to that he didn’t see the huge thundercloud. Fortunately, the plane’s autopilot took control and did a barrel roll around the thundercloud. Unfortunately…

Well, you get the idea.

Best for: A big group of at least 10 players.

What you need: Slips of paper and pens to write with. And also a hat or bowl to put all the slips of paper in. And a timer.

How to play: First, write down names of people or characters on the slips of paper. You could prepare this ahead of time on your own (or print off mine!). Or, hand out a slip of paper to every person in the room and have everyone write down the name of someone famous (a person, alive or dead, or a character). You don’t have to have the same number of papers as players; that’s just a convenient way to set up the game. The more names you have written, the longer your game will be.

Once you have all your names written down, fold each one up and put them in the hat or bowl. Then divide your players into two teams (drawing a line down the center of the room is an easy way). Now you’re ready to play.

The game consists of team members guessing the names on the slips of paper throughout three rounds. The team who guesses the most names after the three rounds wins. Here’s how it works.

The first round is just like catchphrase. Team 1 sends up a player (say Jake) up to the front. Jake stands at the ready, and the designated timer person starts the time. (You can choose a time that works best for you, but about 30 seconds usually works well.) As soon as the time starts, Jake draws a name from the hat and starts getting his teammates to guess. Just like catchphrase, Jake can talk and say anything except the celebrity’s name, or any part of it.

So, if Jake drew the name Billy the Kid, he might say, “A famous outlaw from the American Old West!” but he couldn’t say, “An outlaw who was referred to as a kid!” because kid is written on the paper.

As soon as Jake’s teammates say “Billy the Kid!” Jake gets to draw another slip of paper. He goes through as many names as he can until the time runs out (no skipping allowed). Then save all of Team 1’s correct slips in a pile until the end of the round.

Next team 2 gets a turn, and you keep rotating teams and players until all the slips of paper have been guessed correctly. Have each team count up the correct names in their piles and write down each team’s total somewhere. Next, put all the slips of paper back in the hat. Then round 2 starts.

Round 2 is just like charades. Just like in round 1, players come to the front, draw slips of paper, and try to get their teammates to guess as many names as they can before the time runs out, but this time players are not allowed to talk, only act. So if Carlos drew Billy the Kid this time, he could pretend to draw a gun out of his holster to get his teammates to guess the name.

Round 2 should be somewhat easier because everyone’s heard the names once before. Just like in round 1, have each team save up their correct guesses and count up the total at the end. Then, put all the papers back in the hat for the third and final round.

Round 3 is similar to round 1. Players get their teammates to guess names by talking—but this time, players are only allowed one word. So if Jake happened to draw Billy the Kid again, he might say “Outlaw!” and wait for his team to guess the right name. Guessers have the advantage this round of having heard each name twice before, so memory comes to play as much of a role as guessing does. If Jake’s one word just doesn’t cut it and his team doesn’t guess it right away, they’re forced to keep guessing and thinking until the time runs out. Speed is still important, because Jake wants to get through as many names as possible before the time runs out. (You might find that a shorter time, like 10 seconds, works better for round 3.)

At the end of the round, count up each team’s names one more time, and then add each team’s totals from rounds 1, 2, and 3. The team with the most correct guesses overall wins.

Variations: You don’t have to play with people’s names. The game could also work well with movie titles, books, etc. Or you could easily put a themed spin on the game (historical celebrities, for example). I’ve also made a Thanksgiving version.

Printables: If you want a list of famous people and characters ready to go, just print out mine! Click the link below, print, and cut along the lines. And for more printable lists of people and also movie titles, check out the pictionary post. Enjoy!

List of famous people and characters

Best for: A group of about 6 to 12 people.

What you need: Nothing!

How to play: The basic game play consists of players telling three facts about themselves. Two of the facts must be true, but the third one should be a lie. Then the other players have to guess which one is the lie.

So here’s how you could set up the game. Have all of your players sit in a circle and choose someone to start, say Mark. Mark would then think of two true facts about himself and one lie, then say them aloud in any order, trying to conceal the lie as a truth. For example, Mark might say, “I can finish a whole large pizza in one sitting…

“…I’ve had my picture in the newspaper…”

“…and I’ve been skydiving.”

Then the rest of the players would be able to think, consult, and decide together which fact about Mark is false. If you want an easy, no-score game, just have the players discuss and guess, and then have Mark reveal the lie. If you really want to keep score, you could let all of the players guess individually. Whoever is right gets a point; whoever is wrong doesn’t. You could also give Mark a point for every person he fooled. Whether you’re keeping score or not, after Mark reveals the lie, then the next player in the circle takes a turn.

Strategies: When you’re giving your three facts, since you’re trying to fool the other players, it’s good to disguise the lie as a truth; that is, something that people would believe you’ve done. Alternatively, you could try to disguise your truths as lies (so say things you’ve done that are kind of unbelievable, kind of like Mark did). Also, I’ve seen people play where they name very common things as their truths and lie, making it pretty difficult to guess. But either way, you’re trying to say things about yourself that others don’t know, making this a good get-to-know-you game.

Variations: If you wanted, instead of having players reveal their lie right away, you could have everyone in the circle say their truths and lie, and then go back around the circle a second time and let people reveal what was true and false.

Best for: A group of about 8 to 10 people (though you can play with many more).

What you need: Words to act out (check out my word generator for an electronic list, or the end of this post for word lists you can print out). Optional: A timer or stopwatch and paper to keep score on.

How to play: The object of the game is simple: players take turns acting out words, with no talking or sound effects. Other players try to guess the word, and the team or player who guesses the most wins.

For example, if you’re playing with a big group of people, you could have two teams. Team 1 sends up their first player, Tucker, to act out a word. Say Tucker draws a slip of paper with the word astronaut written on it.

Tucker would then have to act out the word as fast as possible in a way that his teammates could guess. He might take slow, exaggerated steps, as if he were walking on the moon, then pretend to put up a flag and salute to it. Anything to get his teammates to shout out the word astronaut. As Tucker is acting, his teammates start shouting out guesses. Tucker can modify his actions based on the feedback of his team, but the one thing he can’t do is talk or make any noise.

(Another possible rule: It’s debatable whether Tucker can point to things, like the framed picture of Neil Armstrong his uncle has on the wall. This was often against the rules when we played, but you can decide what’s best for your game.)

After Tucker finishes acting out his word, he sits down and a player from Team 2 gets a turn.

That’s how the game play works, but you can set up the actual game however you want. You could have two teams or more, or no teams at all. You could keep score or just play for fun. You can have a timer and set a time limit on each player’s turn; as many words as they can act out and get their team to guess, they get points for, but once the timer runs out, their turn is over.

You can also easily make this a themed game. Just use words related to Halloween for your classroom Halloween party, or summer words for your end-of-the-year summer bash, or a list of your niece’s favorite things for her seven-year-old birthday party.

Variations: There are lots of other variations on this simple acting and guessing game. You can try telephone charades, celebrities, in the manner of the adverb, and even Star Wars pictionades (a game of my own invention).

Printables: Need a printable charades word list ready to go? Here you go! Click the links below to open the word lists, then just print them and cut along the lines for paper strips of words ready for acting. Have fun!

Charades Word List – Easy Words

Charades Word List – Medium Words

Charades Word List – Hard Words

Charades Word List – Really Hard Words

What it is: A funny variation of telephone, played on paper instead of out loud. It’s a great game for creative teens or adults and can be quite entertaining. It’s always been a favorite among my family and friends.

Best for: Group of about 6 to 10.

What you need: Each player will need a piece of paper and a pencil or pen to write/draw with.

How to play: First set up the game by sitting all of your players in a circle indoors. This game might be hard to play around a table because each player needs to keep their paper secret from their neighbors, so playing in a living room on couches and chairs works great.

Then hand out paper and writing utensils to all the players. Have everyone write his or her name in small print at the bottom right of the page.

Everyone starts by writing a sentence at the top of his or her paper. It can be something random, true, abstract, from a song lyric, or about someone in the room. Here are some examples:

• The kids all danced around the large oak tree.
• The dog chased the carefree butterflies to the end of the rainbow.
• If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops, oh what a world it would be!
• Ted can’t find the right shoes to wear to prom.

Once everyone has a sentence at the top of his or her paper, everyone passes their paper to the player to their right.

Then everyone illustrates the sentence give to them with a small picture right underneath the sentence. So, for example, if Mary were given the sentence “The kids all danced around the large oak tree,” she might draw something like this:

Once everyone has finished drawing their sentences, everyone folds the top part of the paper over so it covers the first sentence, but not the picture. Then again, everyone passes their papers to the right.

Now everyone receives a paper with just a drawing visible, and everyone writes the sentence that presumably could have led to that picture (usually with some humor thrown in). For example, Bob, given the above picture, might write this sentence underneath: “Once there was a family of tree huggers.” Then everyone folds over their paper so only the last sentence is visible and passes the paper to the right.

And that’s basically how the game works. Everyone continues alternately writing sentences and drawing pictures, always covering up everything but the latest sentence or picture and passing to the right. Continue writing and drawing until you run out of room, or until everyone gets his or her paper back (that’s why you wrote names at the bottom at the beginning).

After everyone’s done writing and drawing, everyone unfolds the paper he or she has and begins to read and laugh at all the sentences and drawings, especially how in the world the first sentence turned into the last one. Then you can go around the circle one by one as everyone reads a paper out loud, or you can just pass them around so everyone can see the drawings clearly.

And then play another round!

Strategies: Really, the point of the game is to evoke laughter, so good strategies include being creative and off-the-wall with your sentences and pictures. Oh, and don’t worry, no artistic talent is required. It’s always kind of funny (or against the rules, depending on your viewpoint) when someone writes a sentence about a picture and throws in something that wasn’t there before, just to heighten the random factor. And when we play, most papers inevitably end up about people in the room, even if they don’t start out that way.

Example game

This game might be hard to visualize if you’ve never played it before, so here’s an example from a real-live game, to show you how one sentence can turn into a picture that can turn into a totally new sentence and on and on:

The kids all danced around the large oak tree.

Once there was a family of tree huggers.

After watching Fern Gully, Mrs. Mullen’s fourth grade class hurried out to the playground for a live reenactment.

The boys saw a picture of a girl and ran frantically to the park.

Many thanks to my sister and cousins for letting me use their artwork.

You can see some other game samples here.

What you need: Words to guess (either written down on strips of paper, or perhaps generated by a handy online word generator someone made) and a timer.

How to play: The point of the game is to get your team members to guess the target word by explaining the word to them out loud. The trick is, you can’t say the word (or any variant of the word) or you lose the round.

So to start, prepare a bunch of words or phrases on slips of paper (see below for some pre-made printable word lists, or use my online word generator). You could divide these into categories (famous people, foods, sports, household items, animals) or just mix them all together.

Put your papers into a bowl or hat and then situate all your players. Divide everyone up into two teams and have everyone sit in a circle, alternating members from each team (if you can find a way to divide teams like boys versus girls, then it’s good because it’s very easy to remember who’s on your team).

Choose one player, like Marty, to start. Marty takes the bowl of words, draws one, and immediately starts to describe it while at the same time someone starts the timer (for as much time as you all choose). As soon as Marty starts describing, his team members can start shouting out guesses (while the opposing team stays silent/watches the timer). Marty can say anything as long as it’s not the word written on the paper or any variant of the word. (The opposing team members sitting next to Marty can look over his shoulder and make sure he doesn’t say any words he’s not allowed to.)

Say Marty’s first word is baseball bat.

He could say:

“A long wooden thing you use to play a sport!”

However, he could not say:

“A long wooden thing you use to play baseball!”

Or even:

“A long wooden thing you use to hit a ball!”

Because he can’t say any variant of anything written on the slip of paper. Marty could get creative, though, and say something like:

“The mammal that has wings and is black and flies around at night eating insects!”

And when his team members shout, “bat!” he could say:

“Okay, that same word, but used to describe something long and wooden you use in a sport!”

As Marty’s team members guess, he can provide feedback and keep talking, as long as he doesn’t say any word on the paper.

Speed is definitely the key, because Marty’s goal is to get through as many words as he can before the timer runs out. Each word his team guesses correctly gets them a point. When the timer runs out, pass the bowl to the next person in the circle, and they get a turn to draw words and describe them while their team guesses. Play moves like this around the circle, with lots of describing and shouting out answers involved. It’s a lot of fun.

The team with the most points in the end wins. You can have players just save their papers until the end to count points, or have someone write down the score after each round, for those players who like to know they’re winning (or not).

Rules: Rhyming words are not allowed as clues. So, for example, if the word were plum and someone tried to use the word chum to get a teammate to guess it, that would be against the rules, because plum and chum have no clear relation except for the fact that they rhyme. The same goes for using clue words simply because they have the same first letter as the word. (So if the word were plum, saying, “Princess! Poultry! Pumpkin!” and accentuating the “p” sound would be against the rules.)

Strategies: Since speed is so important in this game, the faster you can give hints that will help your team members guess, the better. Well-known phrases or song lyrics are great, for instance. For example, if the word were snowman, instead of saying: “Something kids build in the winter that’s in the shape of a human…” you could just shout: “Frosty the…” and everyone would (hopefully) immediately shout “Snowman!”

Variations: You can choose to allow or prohibit skipping words (say if you draw one that’s just way too hard to describe or a word you don’t know the definition of). If you’re playing with younger players, maybe allowing passing is a good idea. But if you’re hardcore, maybe it’s not.

Also, you could play with a shorter time limit (maybe 10 seconds or so) and let each player describe only one word per turn. If they guess it, great; the turn ends, the team gets a point, and it’s the next player’s turn. If they don’t, too bad; no points for them that round. Just experiment to find out the best time limit for your group.

One fun rule to make it more challenging is to try to get people to guess the word by saying as few words as possible, like one or two. You could get more points the fewer words you used, if you really wanted to keep score.

Oh, and once I was playing catchphrase with my family and it was getting a little easy, so my sister suggested that each person had to use a random pre-selected word in each clue. The word we chose was “banana.” So, for example, if the word was baseball bat, we’d say something like, “This is kind of shaped like a banana in that it’s long and skinny…” Or if the word were tiptoe, we’d say something like “If you’re in a room with a lot of banana peels all over the floor, you might walk like this.” It was a kind of fun way to keep the game interesting, creative, challenging, and a little silly.

The game password is also a four-person variation of the game.

Printables: For your catchprase-playing pleasure, here are some ready-to-go word lists for you! Just click a list to open it, print it out, and then cut along the lines to create pre-made paper word slips. Or, for an even bigger list of words, check out my online game word generator, perfect if you’re playing with a laptop, iPod, or iPad handy.

Catchphrase Word List – Easy Words

Catchphrase Word List – Easy Words 2

Catchphrase Word List – Medium Words

Catchphrase Word List – Hard Words

Catchphrase Word List – Animals

Catchphrase Word List – Food

Catchphrase Word List – Household Items

Catchphrase Words – People

Catchphrase Words – Travel

Hopefully these word lists help you out, but if you like playing catchphrase, I’d recommend buying the electronic version of the real game. It’s a lot easier to play and keep score, and it has a ton of words. It makes the game a lot more fun.

What it is: A simple, silly talking game with no winners or losers. Great for kids.

Best for: Group of 6 to 12.

What you need: Just people to play.

How to play: Sit all of your players in a line. The player at one end of the line (we’ll call her Janna) thinks of a phrase or saying. It can be something made-up; in fact, it’s often funnier if it is. Something like, for example, “The cow ate the apple pie.” It can be as silly as Janna wants, about people in the room or about something random.

Once Janna thinks of her phrase, she whispers it quietly in the ear of the player next to her, Robby. Robby listens carefully, and then once Janna finishes whispering her phrase, he leans over and whispers it in the ear of the player next to him. The game continues like this, with the phrase being passed all the way down the line of players.

Now if Robby doesn’t clearly hear the phrase Janna whispers or it doesn’t make much sense to him, he CAN’T ask Janna to repeat it – that’s a rule. Each player is only allowed to say the phrase once. So if Robby didn’t hear right, he just has to guess the best he can at what the phrase might be and whisper it to the next player.

That’s where the fun of the game comes in, because by the time the phrase reaches the end of the line, it’s usually so different from the original as to be silly. Once the last player (we’ll call him Benny) has the phrase whispered in his ear, he repeats it out loud to the other players, and then everyone laughs at the absurd differences in the sentences; perhaps as what started as “The cow ate the apple pie” ends as “Now Nate learns to fly.”

To play another round, have Janna move to the end of the line and let Robby start the next phrase.

Variations: Telephone is a good simple game, but there are some more involved – and fun – variations involving charades and drawing/writing.

What it is: A big-group indoor memory and guessing game. Entertaining and great for teens or adults.

Best for: A big group of at least 10 people.

What you need: A slip of paper for each person to write on, pens to write with, and a hat or bowl to collect your slips of paper.

How to play: First, pass out the pens and paper and have everyone secretly write a name on their slip. It can be any name – usually a celebrity or famous character, but it could be a made-up name too. Mostly, it should be a name that other players wouldn’t immediately associate with you (this is an important part of the strategy of winning the game).

Players fold up their slips of paper and put them all in a bowl or hat. Then one player (who, to avoid giving him or her an unfair advantage, shouldn’t be particularly good at identifying the others’ handwriting) goes through and reads all the names out loud, probably a couple of times, just to make sure that everyone knows all of the names. Players should listen carefully when the names are read aloud, because that’s the last time they’ll hear them.

Then the game can start. At first, it’s every man for himself, and the object for each player is to form the biggest “corporation” by pulling other players onto their team. Players take turns guessing which name another player wrote. If the guess is correct, the guesser gets that player on his or her corporation. If the guess is incorrect, the guessed player gets a turn to guess somebody else’s name.

So let’s set up a sample game to illustrate. Alyssa, Jared, and Savannah are three players playing with their friends. The players just heard all of the written-down names read aloud, including the names Socrates, Grace Kelly, and Bob.

Alyssa is selected to start. She starts by guessing which name one of the other players wrote on their slip of paper. So she would say something like, “Jared, are you Grace Kelly?” If Jared didn’t write Grace Kelly on his paper, he would say, “nope,” and then it would be Jared’s turn to guess. He might say, “Savannah, are you Bob?” Say Savannah did write down the name Bob on her paper. She says yes, and then she joins Jared’s “corporation,” or becomes part of his team. For the rest of the game, Jared and Savannah will work together  – they can confer and help each other, but ultimately Jared is the boss of the corporation (and the winner of the game if his corporation wins).

So after Savannah joins Jared’s corporation, Jared (and now Savannah) would get another chance to guess. After conferring with Savannah, Jared might say, “Alyssa, are you Socrates?”

Also, if sometime later in the game, Alyssa guessed Jared’s name, that means that Alyssa gets Jared and Savannah on her corporation.

So you can see that memory is a very important skill. First, it’s important for players to remember the names that were read off at the beginning. (There’s usually always one name, something common or nondescript, that manages to slip everyone’s memory until the end. The player who wrote down that name is lucky and has a good shot of winning.) It’s also important for players to remember who guessed what. Also, the bigger a corporation gets, the better they usually get, because there are more people conferring and helping each other guess.

It’s fun to watch the dynamics of the game, and each round will be different: sometimes it might be one giant corporation against another, or other times it might be one pretty big corporation against a lot of mom-and-pop businesses (one- or two-group teams who have managed to avoiding getting guessed out by the larger corporations). In the end, there will be one giant corporation with one player at the head, and that player is the winner.

Strategies: Mind games can play an important role in strategy. For example, if Jared wrote down the name Socrates, he might want to guess, when it’s his turn, “Jeremiah, did you write down Socrates?” Jared would know the answer would be no, of course, but it might confuse the other players. (“His name must not be Socrates because he asked Jeremiah if that was his name…”)

A lot of mind-reading and interpretation will probably happen as players try to guess which name was written down by who. So one of the best things you can do to win is write down a name that no one will associate with you (but not so obviously opposite as to attract attention).

What it is: A simple game for big groups, easy enough for young kids, and also entertaining for older kids and adults.

Best for: A big group of at least 8 players.

What you need: Enough chairs for all of your players (minus one) and an open room big enough to hold all of the chairs in a circle.

How to play: First you’ll want to assign each player a fruit. Depending on the number and age of the players, you can do this several different ways. If you have young players or a smaller group, you might want to assign the fruits yourself, labeling players as strawberry, orange, apple, etc. Instruct players to remember their fruit. It’s okay (in fact, preferable) if multiple people have the same fruit, so you might use only two or three fruits.

If you’re playing with a large group of older players, you might let everyone choose his or her own fruit. Again, it’s okay (even preferable) if more than one person has the same fruit, but you might get someone who’s the only one with his or her fruit, and that’s okay, too. (It’ll probably be the creative quirky guy who chooses kumquat or something like that.)

Next set up the game by arranging all the chairs in a big circle and having everyone sit in a chair. One player will be left standing – say it’s Geoffrey. He’s It. Geoffrey starts the game by calling out the name of a fruit, like “strawberries!” As soon as he calls out a fruit name, any player sitting in the circle assigned to that fruit would jump up and try to find a new seat. Geoffrey would also try as fast as he could to sit in one of the open seats. In the end, a player (hopefully not Geoffrey) would be left without a seat. That player would then call out another fruit and the game continues.

If you have some players that are the only ones assigned to their fruit (like the kumquat guy), it would be a good idea to have Geoffrey call out more than one fruit. That way if Geoffrey called out “kumquat!,” the kumquat guy wouldn’t feel all alone and hurt because he wouldn’t have anyone else’s chair to take and would be forced to be It. In a case like this, you can make a rule that the person in the middle always calls out two fruits, or you could leave it up to the person to call out however many fruits he or she wanted.

You can also call out fruits by saying things like, “Any fruit that is red” or “Fruits with pits” or “Berries,” phrases that describe multiple fruits.

Either way you play, at any time, the player in the middle also has the option of calling out “Fruit basket!” When that happens, all players get up from their chairs and find a new one. Mass pandemonium and good fun ensues as everyone tries not to be left without a seat. The game continues until you want to stop.

Rules: You can set a rule that a player getting up from a chair must find a new one at least two seats away (to encourage players to get up and run around). Also, if you’re halfway through your game and realize that there’s one or two fruits that no one’s calling because everyone’s forgotten about them (like that kumquat guy), you might want to remind everyone of everyone’s fruit.

Variations: There’s a get-to-know-you version of this game played with traits instead of fruits. The fruit basket game is also similar to another game, castles and beavers, in a lot of ways, except you’re inside instead of running around outside. Both are a lot of fun.