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: A car game, perfect for killing time on long (or short) rides.

Best for: A carful of players, from 2 up to 8 or however many fit in your car or van (or bus!)

What you need: A car trip!

How to play: This game is a variation on the alphabet game you play in the car, the one where you look out the window and try to find words that start with each letter of the alphabet, in order. Well, on a recent car trip when our family hit some traffic through a sparsely populated area and were crawling along and needed a way to entertain ourselves, we decided that, instead of looking for signs with words on them, we would just look for objects that start with each letter of the alphabet instead.

So instead of looking for a sign with a word that starts with a letter A, you just look for any object that starts with the letter A, like an arrow, or asphalt. Then move on to B, then C, and see if you can get to Z before the trip is over.

I think the game is best played cooperatively as a group. It’s fun because it’s a little more creative than the other variation. For example, you see a hamburger wrapper lying by the side of the road. It could be paper (P), maybe a wrapper (W), or even litter (L). Use your vocabulary and think creatively and see how far you can get!

It also moves faster than the other version. My daughter and I keep trying to get through the whole alphabet during the trip to pick up the older kids from school, and we’ve almost done it! One of our trickiest letters is I (it was easiest at Christmas time when there were lots of yards decorated with inflatables). (I’m sure letters like U or Q would be even trickier, but we usually don’t make it that far )

Rules: The rules we’ve played by are that the items must be outside the car, and they must be nouns that you can see (so “air” doesn’t count). We also don’t count adjectives (so “blue mailbox” wouldn’t fly for the letter B). But pictures of items do count (so a billboard with a penguin on it counts for P). But feel free to add or adapt your own rules!

Variations: Besides the normal alphabet game, another car I-spy game is the license plate search. Or, if physical objects are too hard, you can always play with brainstorming items in your head, too!

So we’ve finally reached the end of the school year, and the end of our unexpected little adventure in homeschooling. My kids love their end-of-year parties so much and they were both super bummed to miss them. So I wanted to give them the best little at-home end-of-year-party I could. I wanted to try a game, something fun and new, so enter…the human piñata.

What it is: An activity involving candy and running. Don’t worry! No one gets whacked with a stick. Instead, kids chase around the “human piñata,” someone with tons of candy attached to their shirt.

Best for: Kids! And one grown-up who’s a good sport

What you need: A cheap or old t-shirt, individually wrapped candy, a hot glue gun, and a piece of cardboard; also, small buckets or bags for children to collect candy in

How to play: Before you play, prepare your shirt by gluing the pieces of candy all over it. There are some tips and techniques to this:

• Use a tiny dot of hot glue for each candy.
• Use a low-heat glue gun, or give the glue just a second to cool down before you stick the candies on.
• Try not to press the candies on too firmly; you want kids to be able to pull them off fairly easily.
• Slide a piece of cardboard inside the t-shirt before you glue so the glue doesn’t stick to the opposite side.
• Use individually wrapped candies. Sealed candies like mini bags of Skittles work better than loose-wrapped candies like Smarties, Starbursts, Dum-dums, or Hershey’s kisses; the loose wrappers can easy tear or fall off.
• If you’re using small individually wrapped chocolates, especially if you’re playing outside, consider throwing the whole shirt (candies and all) into the fridge for an hour or so before you play, just to try to minimize the melting/smushing of the chocolates.

When your human piñata is set, dressed in their candy shirt and ready to run, say “Ready, set, go!” and the kids go crazy! Depending on the age and number of children you’re playing with, you might want to set up some rules (like no tackling the piñata). Make sure you have enough candy for all the children. For large groups, you might even have more than one human piñata. You also might want to give the children buckets or bags to collect the candy in.

This was a lot of fun for us! I think it’s just something so different than what kids usually do, it should create some memories.

Happy summer!

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 simple and kind of silly talking game

Best for: A small group, and kids older than about 5

What you need: Just your brains!

How to play: 

Leg of spider,
Tail of rat,
Turn your dog
Into a hat!

In this game, players take turns making up silly spells. The spells follow this format:

[Ingredient 1],
[Ingredient 2],
Turn your _____
Into [something silly that rhymes with ingredient 2]

The ingredients often, but not always, take the form:

[Body part] of [animal or plant]

So, some examples of spells…

Thorn of rose,
Foot of frog,
Turn your grandmother
Into a dog!

Tail of unicorn,
Eye of newt,
Turn your homework
Into a boot.

Grease of bacon,
Horn of goat,
Turn your bed
Into a boat!

There are two ways you can take turns. One player can make up a whole spell and then play passes to the next player. Or, what I personally think is more fun, four players make up a spell together. Player 1 says the first line, player 2 says the second line, and so on. Player 4 should be someone old enough to rhyme.

It can be a great game for kids to teach rhyming skills and encourage creativity.

So how about it? What spells can you guys come up with? Post in a comment below!

Disclaimer if magic runs in your family: The Game Gal is not responsible for any friends, family members, and/or pets being turned into items including but not limited to monsters, animals, and/or household objects.

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: 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

What it is: A variation of freeze tag

Best for: A large group (at least 8 players)

What you need:

• A big, open playing area

How to play: Choose one or several people to be It – the ones who run around and try to tag the rest of the players. Let’s say June and Bobby are It. They stand still, close their eyes, and count to 10, giving the rest of the players a chance to run and scatter. When Bobby and June are done counting, they open their eyes and spring into action.

Bobby and June run around the playing area, trying to tag (touch with one hand) as many people as possible.

Say Bobby tags Raoul. As soon as he does, Raoul has to freeze, standing still in one spot, and put his hands above his head and lean slightly to the side, like this:

See how he’s making roughly the shape of a banana?

Then Raoul stands still and waits for someone to unfreeze him.

In banana tag, Raoul is unfrozen by two teammates, not just one, who come up to either side of him, each grab an arm, and pull his arms down – like Raoul is a banana they’re peeling, get it? Then Raoul is unfrozen and he can run around again, until he’s tagged again.

The game ends when Bobby and June have frozen all other players. I like banana tag more than regular freeze tag because having to have two players unfreeze a frozen player (or, in this case, peel a banana-ed player) makes the game a little harder for the players (and a little easier for It).

Have fun!

Variations: Freeze tag, and the even sillier variant, freeze tag with all your limbs bent or all your limbs straight. Another type of tag is photo tag.

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 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: A small-group (even two-player) playground game my son and I invented at the park the other day. (Since my son invented the game, I let my five-year-old daughter contribute to this post by drawing the post artwork. So the cat doesn’t have anything to do with the game, but it’s cute, right?)

Best for: A grown-up and some kids at a playground

What you need:

• A camera or smartphone

How to play: The other day at the park, the weather was nice and all I wanted was to take some cute pictures of my kids. My one-year-old, I could understand how it would be difficult. It’s hard to get her to sit still. I didn’t have much luck. My five-year-old, she obliged me a little bit. But my seven-year-old, he’s old enough to know to sit still, right? Old enough to cooperate and let his mom get a good picture of him? Nope, not at all. I couldn’t get a single good shot of his face.

But, on the plus side, it led to us creating a new form of tag that my son loved and was a lot of fun.

We call it photo tag!

It’s kind of like hide-and-seek, and it’s best played somewhere players can hide, like on a playground. One person (the grown-up with the camera) is It. We’ll call her Mom. All the players run and scatter throughout the playing area while Mom counts to ten, then opens her eyes and, armed with her finger poised over the camera button, starts searching for the players.

Mom’s goal is simple: capture a photo of a player that clearly shows the player’s whole face. The players are allowed to run, hide, and evade Mom, but are not allowed to cover their faces with their hands.

At the end of your playing time, Mom can show all the players the pictures she took. The player with the least photos of their face wins. Or, Mom can show players pictures as she takes them.

This probably isn’t a game where you’ll want to take turns being It. Better just let Mom handle the camera, unless you’re playing with teens or above.

Variations: If you are playing with teens or above, let everyone hold a phone/camera, and everyone can be It at the same time. Then at the end of an allotted time, everyone shows any picture they got of someone else’s whole face. The player with no photos or the least photos of his or her face wins! For more creative versions of tag, try banana tag or freeze tag with all your limbs bent or straight.

Samples: Interestingly enough, this game actually led to some of the cutest pictures of the day, candid ones I shot as my son was trying to evade me. Since he was having so much fun, his smiles are genuine. Mom wins!

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 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!)

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.

This is one of the proudest moments of my life. My six-year-old son, Carson, is writing my very first guest post! The other week I was reading a nice note one of his school friends wrote him that said he liked playing the game “spiers and spotters” with Carson. I asked Carson about it and he said it’s a game he invented himself. Of course I was thrilled and couldn’t wait to get the details. So we sat down together, I helped him color his very own original artwork, and he told me all about it. So now, without further ado, here’s the game spiers/spotters from Carson! (His words, with a little prompting from me.)

What it is: A game that’s kind of like hide and seek

Best for: Recess, and for kids, at least four of them

What you need:

• A playground and two groups of people

How to play: Start at the front of a playground. You’ll need to get your kids together, and they’ll split into groups. The kids can choose their own groups. One is called the spiers and one is called the spotters. The spiers spy on the spotters and try not to be seen. The spotters run around and try to spot the spiers. When a spotter spots a spier, they say “I see you!” Then the spier tries to find the other spiers and ask if they’ve been seen too.

Once all the spiers have been spotted, you’ll get back to the front of the playground and split into new groups. Make sure every kid gets a chance to be both spiers and spotters.

Variations: Spiers/spotters is like a team version of hide and seek. Sardines and hit the dirt are similar games.

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.

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.

What it is: A playground game that’s hard to play unless you have the right place and people, but if you do, it can be a lot of fun

Best for: Three to six children and one to two adults or older teens

What you need:

• You play this game at a park on a playground structure. It needs to be the right type, though. Not too big, provides enough places to hide, but offers enough open space, too. And not dangerous to move around in.
• You also need balls–the more the better! Not balls as hard as dodge balls or soccer balls, but those softer, air-filled plastic balls, or foam balls.

How to play: If I remember right, my family made this one up. Basically all the children are on the play structure, and it’s their castle. The adults are out on the ground around the castle. And then they just peg balls at the kids. Lightly, of course, not aiming for heads. (This is why you don’t want to play with dodge balls.) The kids try to avoid getting hit by the balls, and also try to throw them back out of the castle as fast as they can. There’s probably a lot of laughter and screaming involved. There’s no winning, losing, or being eliminated. Just play for the fun of it.

Like I said, I think my family made this one up. We lived close to a park with a play structure in the shape of a giant castle, which made the game perfect there. I remember my dad running all around, picking up balls, throwing them at us, and all of us laughing. It’s probably one of those games that, when you’re a kid, seems all too short because the grown-ups get tired. We didn’t ever play it as a formal game. We probably didn’t play it more than a few times. But I remember loving it. So I wanted to document it here.

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

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: 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.

What it is: A throwing and catching game for a small group. Players try to keep the ball away from one player (the “monkey”).

Best for: A small group, maybe 3 to 5.

What you need:

• A ball to throw and catch. It could be a kickball or an inflated ball. You could even play with a soccer ball that you kick and receive, or a frisbee or some other object.

How to play: Monkey in the middle is one of those simple games that’s easily variable. Players toss or kick a ball back and forth between them, but one extra player (the “monkey”) is left standing in the middle. The other players try to keep the ball away from the monkey. The monkey tries to grab the ball, earning him or her a place on the outside of the circle.

When the monkey grabs the ball, the last player to have touched it is now the monkey. You can decide on more specific rules, too. Does the monkey have to grab the ball, or will simply touching it count? You can adjust the rules and playing size to the ages of your players.

This is often one of those games that happens naturally to pass the time or (unfortunately) to bully someone else by keeping something they want away from them.

Don’t play like that. We all know it’s not nice.

But when played with people who agree by common consent to play, it can be a fun game that lasts for a while.

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: 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 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?

What it is: It’s not really a game; this is more of a family tradition/activity. But it’s one that my family did for a good portion of my childhood, and one me and my siblings all looked forward to at Christmas time. It’s a fun gift-giving activity where, over the course of 12 days, you give gifts secretly to another family or friend. (We called it a ding-dong-ditch gift approach; I’ve also heard it called ring-and-run.) It’s a great way to feel the Christmas spirit of giving and service, and fun for kids, too.

Best for: Two families: your family to give the gifts and another family to receive them.

What you need: You’ll need 12 specialized gifts, one for each of the 12 days before Christmas. These can be highly variable or personalized depending on your family or the family you’re gifting to. You start with gift 12 on December 13 and work down from there to gift 1 on December 24 (one day until Christmas). When we did this tradition, we always used cute tags to mark each gift, and each tag had a number and said “Christmas is…” followed by a different noun, like “Christmas is joy” or “Christmas is love.” The last gift, gift number 1, always said “Christmas is Christ.”

On day 12, the gift would be 12 of something: maybe 12 oranges, or a dozen cookies. On day 11, it might be 11 small ornaments. On day 10, 10 candy canes, and so on. The exact gifts would vary by year and by the family we were giving them to, but one gift was always the same: on day 1, we gave a framed picture of Jesus Christ.

When we could, we matched the gift to the tag: for example, for “Christmas is giving” on day 4 we might give 4 rolls of wrapping paper. Not all of the days matched perfectly, but that was okay. Here’s a sample of what the tags and gifts might look like one year:

Again, the gifts varied year by year. We kept the family in mind. A lot of times we gave useful gifts. Some other gift ideas might be any baked goods (cookies, brownies, fudge), food (Little Debbie snacks, bread, popcorn, cans of soup, fruit, 2-liter bottles of soda), small toys, hot chocolate mugs, pads of paper, Christmas decorations, gift-wrapping tape, cookie cutters… even rolls of paper towels (useful!). You can get creative and give gifts you think the family would like and use. And they don’t have to be big, either. Even small things (like tape for wrapping presents or hot chocolate mix) can be a special gift, especially because this family will be receiving one gift every day for 12 days.

A tip on the gifts that my mom shared with me: she always tried to gather, wrap, tag, and prepare the gifts all before December 13, before we even started. That way we weren’t scrambling around last-minute getting gifts together. And, after you’ve secretly dropped off gifts for 5 days, it’s not like you can all the sudden stop or put it off a day; the family will be expecting you! But, come to think of it…I can remember at least a couple times when we kind of missed a day and gave two gifts the next day, or dropped it super late at night and didn’t ring the bell so they’d just find it in the morning. But we were a busy family of six kids…of course we weren’t perfect.

The delivery: After you’ve prepared your gifts, you’re ready to deliver! Start on December 13 with gift 12 so you’ll end on December 24 with gift 1. To deliver the gifts secretly, go to your chosen family’s house each night, then choose one or two people to sneak the gift quietly up to the doorstep, ring the bell, and make a run for it! Don’t get caught! On Christmas Eve, you can go as a whole family, ring the doorbell, show who you are, and present your gift of Jesus Christ, maybe with a message or a Christmas carol.

Printables: So because this tradition really is so special to me, I wanted to make it easy for others to do it, too. So I made these free printables of the 12 “Christmas is…” tags. Click the picture to download the PDF.

Now because I think you really do need to customize the gifts/days based on your family and the family you’re giving the gifts to, I left the numbers separate (on the last page) so you can cut the numbers out and paste them on the tag you want to use for that day. For example, say you just happen to have a Christmas CD with 12 tracks ready to give. Glue the “12” number on “Christmas is Music” and you’re set. So, even though the tags you’re printing don’t look like this now, when you cut out the numbers and past them on, the tags will look like this:

I also included a page of blanks in case you want to write in your own ending to the sentence “Christmas is…” Also, I’d recommend printing these on card stock, or mounting them on colored card stock if you print on normal printer paper. It’s nicer that way.

Variations: There are lots of ways you could vary this tradition. If you don’t like the ding-dong-ditch aspect, just give the gifts to your family openly. Or you could even do it with cards long-distance through the mail.

As for the theme, you don’t have to do the “Christmas is…” tags. You could use the song “12 Days of Christmas” as your theme instead. We never did it that way, but Natalie at Chronicles of a Babywise Mom has some great ideas on how to do it. In the same post she also talks about another variation that we never did but that sounds really neat: having each gift over the 12 days be a different piece to a new Nativity set you buy for the family. That way you can also include scriptures about the Nativity story with each piece. I think that would be a neat variation to do.

Finally, I came across this story about a family that does the 12 Days of Christmas for their neighbors. It’s a neat, touching story about loving our neighbors – what I think Christmas is really all about.

My memories: What makes this tradition so special to me is the memories I have of it. Each December, we’d sit in a family meeting and choose one family to secretly give our 12 days of gifts to. It might be someone we knew needed some extra love. It might be one of our friends from school. It might be someone we knew well or someone we didn’t know that that well at all. But we’d all decide together on who the family would be.

My mom would prepare the gifts, and then, starting on December 13, we drove as a family after dark to our chosen family’s home. Dad parked down the street, a few houses away, usually with the headlights off. One or two of us (we took turns each night) would quietly get out of the car with the first gift, sneak up to the family’s door step, put the gift down, and sprint away. Whew, the adrenaline rush! Then we’d jump back in the car and quickly drive away, hoping we weren’t seen. Dad always circled around the block slowly before we cautiously drove in front of the house to make sure the gift was gone. It was great fun for us as kids, and always left us very excited, with lots of stories to share. Of course, we had to keep the secret from the family if we saw them during the day, which was always fun, too. I remember once when we did my friend’s family, I was driving her to her house one night and pretended I didn’t know the way, just to throw her off the trail…as if I didn’t know; we had been driving secretly to her house at night for days! Some families got really into trying to catch us, too, and it would get harder and harder to ding-dong-ditch their house. (I remember one particularly zealous family; we had to recruit neighbors and friends to drop off the gifts to them because they waited so diligently by the door and chased us down the street.) Sometimes we were discovered, but we always tried to keep our identity a secret until the last day, Christmas Eve, which was always the best day.

On Christmas Eve, we’d drive as a family, but this time we all got out of the car together, walked to the porch, and rang the doorbell. When they answered, we presented the last gift, the picture of the Savior Jesus Christ, and sometimes sang a carol (but…probably not that often; my family’s not particularly well-known for our singing). Then it was fun and neat to admit our secret identity and talk to our family face to face. We always left feeling good and happy inside. It was part of our Christmas traditions for many years.

I hope you enjoy! If you want to start this tradition this year, December 13 will be your first drop-off day: you still have time! Merry Christmas and, however you celebrate the season, I hope you can find the joy and happiness that come not just from playing games and having fun, but from giving to others.

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 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: A game played outside on a playground, perfect for recess at school. (For me, it brings back all sorts of great memories of fourth grade.)

Best for: 6 to 8 players.

What you need: A good playground. The more things to climb on, the better. Even best if there are isolated toys at the playground that you can’t reach without touching the ground.

How to play: First, choose one player to be It (we’ll call her Monica). Monica stands on the playground with her eyes closed and counts to ten. While she’s counting, all of the other players run quietly to the playground equipment and climb on something so they’re no longer touching the ground.

After Monica reaches ten, she keeps her eyes closed but moves towards the playground equipment. The object of the game is for Monica to tag another player so Monica is no longer It. The other players try to avoid being tagged. Rules: Monica can’t open her eyes, and she can’t leave the ground. (So since Monica is walking around a playground with her eyes closed, make sure you play safely: no running for Monica, she should walk with her arms outstretched to avoid crashing into anything, and make sure you’re playing in a safe area.)

So it might seem like a kind of hard game for Monica, but there are some tricks she can use, and some other ways to get someone else to be It.

First, the other players aren’t prohibited from touching the ground, but if Monica catches someone else standing on the ground or even touching the ground, that person is It. If Monica suspects someone of touching the ground, she calls out “Monkey on the ground!” Say Timmy was touching the ground, trying to run from one piece of playground equipment to another. Timmy would be the new It, and Monica would open her eyes and join the other players.

If Monica calls out “Monkey on the ground!” but no one is touching the ground, all of the other players in unison have to call out, “Out of town!” to let Monica know that she’s still It – and to give Monica a hint as to the players’ whereabouts. (Monica can even call out “Monkey on the ground!” even if she doesn’t suspect anyone’s on the ground, just to hear everyone’s voices for a hint.)

So Monica shouldn’t be at too much of a disadvantage, and should be able to tag someone else so they become it.

Though more rare, it’s possible that Monica could call “Monkey on the ground!” and more than one person is on the ground. In this case, either all of the people on the ground become It together, or they play rock-paper-scissors to decide who’s It.

Ways to cheat: When you play, you’ll want to watch out for these ways to cheat and make sure everyone’s playing honestly. First of all, Monica (or the person who’s It) can’t call out “Monkey on the ground!” too often, like every five seconds. That’s cheating.

Also, the players can’t be too good – that is, they can’t all just climb up to the very top of the equipment and just stay there silently. They need to move around some, even touch the ground every once in a while. They can also call out and make noise to tease the person who’s It (and make it slightly easier).

Finally, there was always that one kid I played with who would wear dark sunglasses every time he was It. As if we didn’t know he was peeking…seriously. So no dark sunglasses for the person who’s It.

Variations: This game is kind of like the pool game Marco Polo (watch for a post coming soon), but on a playground instead of in the pool. I like monkey on the ground better, though.

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.

What it is: A great outdoor running game, kind of a cross between hide and seek and tag. Can be played during the day, but also makes a great night game.

Best for: A big group of at least 12.

What you need: First, you’ll need somewhere outdoors to play, preferably with lots of trees or things to hide behind. The best place my siblings and cousins and I played was at our grandparents’ house, which had a huge front and back yard that were connected (no fences) so you could run all the way around. Yeah, a house to run around and hide behind makes a great game setup.

Then you’ll need one to six empty cans. We always used three or six of the metal soup can variety (rinsed and saved kindly by my grandma for whenever we’d visit). Just be careful you don’t cut yourself. In place of metal cans, you could use cardboard oatmeal containers or something similar. If you have just one can, it could be bigger, like a pail or a bucket. If you have more than one, be sure your items can stack (see above picture), and it’s more fun if they make noise when they bang around.

How to play: First, choose a jail in your playing area, or a place players will have to go when they’re tagged. The jail should be a central place from which a shout by a player can be heard all across the playing area. The jail should also have a flat surface, like concrete, on which to stack the cans.

Then choose someone to be It (we’ll say it’s Tony). Tony takes the cans and stacks them in the jail area. Then he closes his eyes and counts to a designated number, like 30, which can vary depending on the age of the players and the size of the playing area.

While Tony counts, all of the other players scatter across the playing area and find somewhere to hide. Players don’t have to stay put in their hiding places for the duration of the game.

Once Tony finishes counting, he opens his eyes and goes out to find people. The object of the game for Tony is to find and tag all of the players, sending them to jail. The players try to prevent him from doing so.

So Tony walks wherever he wants around the playing area, looking for players. If he sees someone, like Shelby, he chases after her so he can tag her. If Shelby is tagged, she walks to the jail and stays there, next to the cans.

The players who are hiding don’t have to stay in their hiding places; they can sneak around the playing area, trying to avoid being tagged. And trying to free other players from the jail.

Say Shelby and two other players are stuck in jail while Tony is going around looking for more people to tag. If Asher hasn’t been tagged or found by Tony yet and he sneaks safely to the jail without Tony seeing, he can free all of the players in the jail at once by kicking over the stack of cans and yelling as loud as he can, “Kick the can!” He should yell loud enough so Tony can hear.

As soon as Asher kicks the cans, he and the other players from jail scatter and hide again. Once Tony hears the yell and the cans being scattered, he has to go back to the jail and set up the cans (and, depending on how many players you have, how many cans you have, and how big your playing area is, maybe count to like 10 again) before he can go find people to tag.

If for some reason Tony doesn’t get around to setting up the cans right away, the jail can’t hold anyone; that is, if a player is tagged by Tony and heads to the jail but sees the cans already scattered, that player is automatically freed from jail.

If you’re playing with more than one can, it’s a good strategy to kick them as hard as you can so they scatter far; that way, it’s harder for Tony to set them up again. But no deliberately hiding the cans from Tony or carrying them far away; that’s cheating. Also, it’s okay if someone kicks the cans in plain sight of Tony, as long as Tony doesn’t tag him or her first.

Variations: I think we almost always played with two people being It, just so it was a little more fairly matched.

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.

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?

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 talking, guessing game, similar to green glass doors, but players think of their own rules rather than following the secret green glass door rule.

Best for: 2 to 8 players.

What you need: Nothing!

How to play: Similar to green glass doors, players try to discover what can be taken on a hypothetical picnic. One player starts by thinking of a rule for things that can go on the picnic; the other players try to guess the rule.

Say Julie and Todd are playing. Julie starts by thinking of a rule of things that can and can’t go on the picnic. The rule can be as complex or as simple as she likes. It can have to do with any attribute (color, shape, size, even the number of letters used to spell the name of the object). Here are some example rules Julie could choose:

• Only yellow things can go on the picnic (bananas, the sun, dandelions, etc.).
• Only things you can eat can go on the picnic (apples, oranges, pancakes).
• Only things bigger than a person can go on the picnic (elephants, houses, the moon).
• Only things that are spelled with five letters can go on the picnic (apple, grass, honey).

The rules could be even more complicated and relate to the person trying to go on the picnic, like these rules:

• I can only bring items on the picnic that start with the same letter as my first name (so Julie could bring jam to the picnic, but Todd couldn’t, though he could bring a truck).
• I can only bring items on the picnic that start with the same letter as the first name of the person sitting to my right (yeah, that one can get really complicated to figure out).

The player thinking of the rule can use his or her imagination and come up with something as complicated or as sneaky as they want; the point of the game is to keep the other players from guessing the rule.

Let’s say Julie picks the rule that only yellow things can go on the picnic. Once she has the rule, she starts the game by declaring something she’s bringing on the picnic. For example, she’d say:

“I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing bananas, and I can go.”

Then it’s Todd’s turn to guess something that he can bring on the picnic. He might say, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples?” Then Julie would shake her head sadly and say, “You can’t go.”

Play would continue, with Julie and Todd taking turns. Julie would usually say things that she could bring to the picnic, but she could give Todd some examples of things she can’t bring, too. Todd keeps guessing until he’s figured out the rule. Then it can be Todd’s turn to think of a new rule for Julie to guess.

It’s a great, entertaining game for long car trips or killing time. Since the rule changes with each round, it doesn’t get boring easily. And the level of difficulty can be easily adapted—just choose easier rules for younger kids and harder rules for older kids.

Variations: This game is a more adaptable variation of green glass doors.

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 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.

What it is: A visual spying and guessing game, entertaining for younger kids, and, when I was a kid, my family’s game of choice while waiting for food in sit-down restaurants.

Best for: 2 players or however many more you want.

What you need: Just at least two people to play. And something relatively interesting to look at (this would be a hard game to play in an empty room with white walls, for instance).

How to play: It’s a pretty simple game. One player, like Jennie, looks around the room and picks something she can see. Then she says, “I spy with my little eye something ____,” filling in the blank with an adjective that describes the object she spies (traditionally a color).

So say Jennie’s object was a blue ceramic flower pot (like this one) sitting in the Mexican restaurant where she was waiting with her family.

Jennie would say: “I spy with my little eye something blue.” Then the other players would look around the room for something blue and try to guess Jennie’s object.

“Is it the blue border on that poster of the chili peppers?” someone might ask. Or, “Is it that vase holding the flowers by the door?” Jennie would say shake her head no until someone guessed the right object. Then the person who guessed right gets to choose the next object. And everyone would play happily, spying and guessing until the waiter brings their chips and tacos and enchiladas. Yum.

Strategies: Of course, it’s wise to not be staring at the object you’re spying while you say “I spy…” That was the tragic mistake that always got my youngest siblings.

Best for: 2 players.

What you need: A pen for each player and a pad of paper to draw on.

How to play: Start by drawing a line down the center of your paper:

Say Jackie and T.J. are playing. Jackie starts by drawing something, anything, on her side of the paper:

Then T.J. has to draw the same thing on his side of the paper:

After that, it’s T.J.’s turn to draw something on his side that Jackie has to mirror. T.J. might draw something like this:

The game continues, with Jackie and T.J. taking turns drawing and mirroring each other’s drawings. When we played, we usually didn’t know what we would end up drawing; we would just take turns drawing shapes and it would turn into a symmetrical drawing, usually a person or a robot:

A simple game, but entertaining, especially for young kids who like drawing silly pictures.

Best for: Group of 3 players to however many you want.

What you need: Just people to play.

How to play: First, choose one player to be Simon. Simon stands in front of the group, while the rest of the players stand facing him. The object of the game for Simon is to eliminate players from the round by tricking them into disobeying his commands. The object of the game for the players is to stay in the round until they’re the last one remaining.

So Simon gets to give commands in two formats. He can say a command with the words “Simon says” before it, like this:

• “Simon says touch your toes!”
• “Simon says jump in the air!”
• “Simon says put your arms up!”

When Simon gives these commands, all the players must obey, and if they fail to (try to) do what Simon says, he can call them out of the round. Simon can also give a command without saying “Simon says,” like this:

• “Touch your toes!”
• “Rub your tummy and pat your head!”
• “Cover your eyes!”

If any player does obey one of these commands, then Simon says “I didn’t say Simon says!” and calls that player out of the round, too.

The last player left at the end of the round gets to be the new Simon. If by chance Simon tricks all the players and they all lose, Simon gets to give the orders for another round.

Strategies and rules: One good strategy for Simon is to give a series of quick commands starting with “Simon says…” and then another quick command without “Simon says,” tricking everyone to obey by habit. Also, Simon shouldn’t give commands that would be impossible (or embarrassing or mean) for the other plays to follow. The game is meant to test listening and obedience, not skill level.

Best for: Big group of about 20 players.

What you need: You’ll need several things for this activity. First, you’ll need some small, cheap gifts or party favors or candy (the kind of little cheap stuff from the Oriental Trading Company, for example, or maybe some gifts from your local dollar store). You’ll want one gift for each person expected to play. You’ll also need wrapping paper, and, depending on how many people you’re preparing for, maybe several rolls of it. Finally, some appropriately-themed music (like Christmas music, if it’s a Christmas party) to play isn’t required, but it’s nice to have.

How to play: First, you’ll have to prepare a little by wrapping the mystery gift. Before the party starts, take you first gift and wrap it in wrapping paper. It’s okay if it doesn’t look good, because by the end, nothing will look good.

After you’ve wrapped your first gift, take another, put it on top of the wrapped gift, and wrap the whole thing with another layer of wrapping paper. Repeat this for as many gifts as you have. It might be fun to use different patterns of wrapping paper for each layer. When you’re done, you should have a lumpy, squishy wrapped gift ball that looks something like this:

Then, when it comes time for the party, have everyone sit in a circle on the floor. Give the gift ball to one child and explain how the game works: You’re going to play some music, and while the music is playing, the children pass the gift around the circle. When the music stops, whoever is holding the gift gets to unwrap one layer of wrapping paper and keep whatever surprise falls out. Then that child leaves the circle and the game continues, until every child has received a gift. (My mom also always gave a little spiel with the theme “take what you get and don’t throw a fit.”)

Then let the game start! Kids love the anticipation of waiting for the music to stop, opening a layer of wrapping paper, and getting a prize. Just be sure that everyone gets one!

Considerations: Some things to keep in mind – if you’re playing with boys and girls, it’s probably best to have only non-gender-specific gifts, or to allow trading at the end so any boys stuck with something pink can trade it away. Also, you might want to explain beforehand whether trading at the end is allowed or not. Finally, depending on how mature your players are, you might want to consider having every prize very similar (maybe just different colors) so that children don’t get upset if they don’t get what they want. Have fun!

What it is: More of an activity or chant than a game with a winner and loser, but a perfect activity to occupy long car trips.

Best for: Smaller group of 3 to 6 players.

What you need: Just people to play!

How to play: Players take turns going through the alphabet and saying the following sentence:

My name is ___, my husband’s/wife’s name is ___, we live in ___, and we sell ___.

The first two blanks are always filled by names, the third blank by a place, and the fourth blank by anything you could sell (which often leads to silly results).

So, the first player would start with A and say something like this:

My name is Abigail, my husband’s name is Adam, we live in Amsterdam, and we sell apples.

Then the next player would take the next letter, B, and say something like this:

My name is Bridget, my husband’s name is Brandon, we live in Bermuda, and we sell bouncey balls.

Players just take turns, going in a circle, until you go through the whole alphabet. I suppose you could play this game competitively: If a player takes longer than three seconds to fill a blank, they’re out. But me and my sisters always just played for fun and helped each other think of words when we got stuck. It’s a nice, calm activity, if you want one of those. And it can help younger kids with their phonics skills, too.

Variations: Hmm, I can’t think of any variations. Anyone have any to share?

What it is: A guessing game for two or more players.

Best for: 2 players or however many more you want.

What you need: Just your brains.

How to play: One player (let’s call her Tasha) first gets to think of a noun (a person, place, or thing). Once Tasha has a noun picked out, the other players then get to guess by asking questions that can be answered with a yes or a no. If you’re playing by the strict rules, players only get to ask 20 questions, and if they haven’t guessed by then, Tasha wins. If someone does guess what the object is, that person gets to think of the next thing to guess.

So here’s how a sample game might go: Tasha picks the noun “fire hydrant.” Say she’s playing with one person, her friend Leroy. The game might go like this:

Leroy: “Is it a person?”

Tasha: “No.”

Leroy: “Is it a thing?”

Tasha: “Yes.”

“Is it alive?”

“No.”

“Could I hold it in my hand?”

“No.”

“Is it made of metal?”

“Yes.” …

And the game would go on like that until Leroy uses up his 20 questions or until he guesses what the object is. It’s a great game for filling up long hours on car rides or for playing on walks. And you can go by the 20-question limit if you want, but I never really have. We just ask and guess until someone guesses right, then it’s their turn. And if you’re playing with little kids or just playing for fun, you could allow hints, too, especially if it’s taking a long time to guess something.

We also usually play with concrete nouns, things that you could see, touch, or feel. If you want to allow or disallow abstract nouns (like honor, love, capitalism…), you should probably specify beforehand, either way.

Some of the hardest-to-guess objects I’ve played with are confetti, trash bags, stop signs, and…oh, fire hydrant.

Variations: No, because and breakfast combo are some more difficult variations on this classic game. And poodle is a slightly sillier one

What it is: A pretty simple, quiet, indoor group game that’s a lot of fun (and maybe just a little silly).

Best for: Group of at least 10ish.

What you need: Just a room for everyone to sit down in a circle (on the floor is fine). And enough people to play – I’d say about ten.

How to play: First, choose someone to be it. Let’s say it’s Bobby. Bobby leaves the room and closes his eyes and ears while everyone else in the circle quietly picks someone to be the Monkey. Once the Monkey is chosen, Bobby comes back into the room, but make sure everyone keeps the identity of the Monkey a secret!

Bobby stands in the middle of the circle. Then the game starts, and the Monkey starts making repetitive or continuous little hand motions or small movements (like patting their hands on their lap, rubbing their tummy, little dance moves, you know). Everyone else in the circle has to copy exactly what the Monkey does, but carefully, because Bobby’s job is to guess who the Monkey is, while the Monkey and everyone else tries to keep it a secret.

So a good strategy for the Monkey is to choose slow, quiet hand movements that give everyone else a few seconds to catch on. (If the Monkey starts clapping all of the sudden, for instance, it could be pretty easy for Bobby to pick out who the Monkey is.) It’s also smart for the Monkey to change hand motions when Bobby’s back is turned.

A good strategy for the rest of the players is to not stare right at the Monkey, but only glimpse now and then when Bobby’s not looking so he can’t tell who everyone is looking at. It’s a fun balance between being inconspicuous, but looking at the Monkey often enough so you can follow along.

Once Bobby guesses the Monkey, he or she is the new It and leaves the room and a new Monkey is chosen.

Variations: This game is a little like signs, but it’s better suited to younger players because it’s a little simpler. It can still be a lot of fun for older kids or teens, though!

What it is: A classic party game that works great for younger kids. My siblings and I played this at all of our birthday parties when we were little.

Best for: 4 to 10 players.

What you need: Small, hard candy (we always used M&Ms, but Reeces Pieces or Skittles would work great, too) and a Don’t Eat Pete game board. Don’t worry, it’s easy to make one. You just need a grid of nine faces, like the one pictured.

You can get creative with the colors and faces you use. You could probably even have more than nine faces. That’s just the number I’ve always played with. It works well. It’s also best if the grid is large, like on a poster board, but if you want to download a mini version, click here.

How to play: Put the game board in the middle of the room and have everyone sit in a circle around it. Next, lay out one piece of candy on each face. Then choose one person (or have someone volunteer) to leave the room and cover their ears. Say Bobby is the one to leave. While Bobby is gone, the rest of the players secretly choose one of the nine faces to be “Pete” for that round. Then you can call Bobby back into the room. But, shh! Make sure everyone keeps the identity of Pete a secret.

Bobby then gets to start choosing pieces of candy to eat while everyone else watches in anticipation. As soon as he touches the candy that’s on Pete, everyone yells as loud as they can, “DON’T EAT PETE!” Then Bobby’s turn is over and someone else gets to go. Bobby only gets to eat the candy that he chose before he touched Pete.

So then fill up the board with candy again and let someone else go! It’s a lot of fun for little kids: something about the anticipation, the suspense, the colored smiley faces, the candy…I don’t know. But I loved it when I was a kid, as evidenced by this video of me describing my five-year-old birthday party games.

Aren’t I cute? (Many thanks to Aunt Melissa for documenting this precious moment of my childhood. :-))

Printables: Click here to download a mini Don’t Eat Pete board. Have fun!