More of Our Favorite Games

M&M/ Dice Game

You will need a straw and paper plate for everyone that is participating, M&M’s, a large bowl, and a pair of dice. Everyone sits in a circle.

Fill the bowl with M&M’s. Pick a person to start and hand them the bowl. To the person on their left, hand the dice and the box top. On your mark, the person with the dice starts rolling. The person with the M&M’s starts sucking up M&M’s with the straw as quickly as they can and setting them on their plate. As soon as the dice roller hits doubles, the M&M’s get passed to them, and the dice are passed to the next person. Continue around the circle until all the M&M’s are gone or for an allotted time.

When we have played this game at family reunions we split into groups of about 8 players and have several games going on at a time.

Thimble Game

One person fills a thimble with water (we have used a bottle cap- just something small). He selects a category (animals, colors, flavors of ice cream, fruits, etc.) and announces the category to the group. He writes down his choice on a piece of paper- so if the category is “colors” he might select “blue. He then walks around the circle holding the thimble in his hand. The players in the circle say a color, if that is the category, and the person that says the color that was written down gets the thimble of water thrown on them. (A thimble holds a lot more than you think!) Then it’s that persons turn to select a category and repeat the process.

?Guess How Many? Game

With a little extra thinking and planning you can come up with some fun “guessing” games for your family reunion. Most popular is how many beans or candies are in a jar, but consider the following variations.

Guess how long a rope or string is.
How many cups in a bucket of water.
Photo of an ancestor- guess their age.
Guess how much something weighs such as a large book or dictionary.
Guess how long a stick or pole is.
Guess how many words are on one page of a book or a 4 inch square of newspaper.
Guess how many inches or centimeters long someone’s hair is.
Guess how tall Uncle _________ is.

Belt Loop Ball Game

Divide the players into teams of 10 people. Each team competes with itself to 'play' the game successfully. It is fun to have different players make up each team every time the game is repeated. Each team stands in a straight line; they are tied together by passing the rope through the left loop of every player's belt. The object of the game is to guide a soccer ball (players use only their feet) from one side of the playing area to another. However, the only players who are allowed to kick the ball are those holding one of the two ping-pong balls. Every time the leader calls "SWITCH" the people holding the ping-pong balls pass them on to different members of their team. Only one kick per time holding the ping-pong ball is permitted. After each team becomes adept at completing the run across the playing area, competitions between teams can be organized.

Match Game

Ask the couples to sit back to back in the chairs and give each of them one boy symbol and girl symbol. (see prince and princess clip art at the bottom of this blog.) Make your teams of couples, brothers and sisters or friends- one boy and one girl.

Ask a question, the contestants each hold up the symbol of the boy or the girl- which ever best describes their relationship. If the couples hold up a different symbol they do not get a point, if they hold up the same symbol they get a point. Below are some question ideas, hopefully they will inspire you to come up with your own original questions. There is no talking during the game.

No Point	Point

Match Game Questions

1. Who is the better driver?
2. Who is best at math?
3. Who’s the most stubborn?
4. Who has the most friends?
5. Who’s the most daring?
6. Who has more pets?
7. Who is the most photographic?
8. Who is the most competitive?
9. Who is the fastest runner?
10. Who sleeps more?
11. Who got better grades in high school?
12. Who’s the moodiest
13. Who watches the most TV?
14. Who gets up earlier in the morning?
15. Who has a healthier diet?
16. Who has the best penmanship?
17. Who's a better cook?
18. Who owns more shoes?
19. Who is the best speller?
20. Who is the most honest?
21. Who’s the best shopper?
22. Who eats the most chocolate?
23. Who works the most hours?
24. Who’s the best air hockey player?
25. Who reads the most books?
26. Who’s the best softball player?
27. Who’s the best singer?

Telling Time Game

This is a great game to play while you are waiting for someone or just passing time until the next activity at your family reunion. As everyone is sitting around waiting, the leader looks at his watch and says, “go.” Everyone tries to guess when a minute is over (or some other time). When someone thinks a minute is up he stands up quietly. The person that stands up closest to the minute time is the winner.

Bloomers!!

This is a very scary game for boys ages 10- 14. Everyone should sit in a circ le. Ask if they know what old fashioned bloomers are. Explain that in the olden days they used to call women’s underware “bloomers”. Hold up a box that is neatly wrapped. (In advance, you should have warpped the box in at least ten different layers of wrapping paper.) Tell your family that inside the box are a pair of bloomers. Everyone will pass the box around the circle while music is being played. When the music stops the person holding the box must open the box and model the bloomers for everyone to see. Be careful how you word your instructions because inside the box is not a pair of old fashion women’s bloomers but a pair (two) bloomers from the garden. The look of relief on the person’s face when he finds out it’s flowers he is modeling and not underware is a joy to see.

Zip or Zap Game

Players sit in a circle. One person is “it” and stands in the center of the circle. The person on each player’s right is “zip” and on his left is “zap”. The center person points to someone in the circle calling “zip” or “zap” and begins counting to ten. Before the count of ten is reached, the player must have given the name of “zip”, his neighbor on his right or “zap” the person on his left, depending on what is called. When a player can’t give the correct name by the count of ten, he becomes “it” and replaces the person in the center.

The Couch Game

You need equal numbers of guys and girls, and form a team of each. You can ask girls to join the guys team if required and vice versa. You will also need a couch, which can be a real couch (which would replace four seats) or four adjacent seats or lawn chairs.

Write all of the players’ names onto pieces of paper and give one slip to each players. You become whoever your piece of paper says you are – don’t tell anyone whose name you have.

Everyone sits in a circle, alternate guy, girl, with four people on the couch and the rest on chairs. Have one extra, empty chair.

The object of the game is to get all your gender onto the couch. The person who is sitting with the empty chair to their left calls out a name, trying to get the opposite gender off the couch. The person with that piece of paper must stand up and move to the empty chair. They then swap their piece of paper with the caller. The next person to call is the one with now empty space to their left.

For example, say that Megan calls out "Jack". Grandpa has the name "Jack" on his paper so he moves to the empty chair and exchanges papers with Megan. So Megan now becomes "Jack". The person who was next to Grandpa now has an empty space on the left and is the next caller.

This goes on until one team has 4 of their own players on the couch.

This game starts off slowly and the games don’t last long but as the players catch on they will really start paying attention and memorizing the names people are exchanging.

Truth or Dare with a POP!

Balloon truth or dare is a fun game for your family reunion or party. For this game you'll need: 10 index cards cut in half - 20 cards total, 20 balloons, a pen, and at least four players for the game. Write down 10 truth questions and 10 dares on the index cards. Carefully place one card inside each balloon and then blow them up. During the course of the game, each player takes turns choosing and popping a balloon. The player either answers the truth question or does the dare found inside the selected balloon.

Lucky Dime Game

You will a lot of balloons for this game and one little dime. Plan on blowing up the balloons in advance and put a dime in only one of them. Let the balloons float around on the floor and have everyone just run around popping balloons until they find the balloon with the dime inside!

Jump the Ravine Game

Make a ravine by spreading out two ropes, long sticks, poles or garden hoses. Soft rope works best so that it doesn’t roll if it is jumped on. Begin with the ropes three feet apart. Players take turns trying to jump over the “ravine”. If they land on or in the middle of the ravine, they're out.

When everyone has jumped once, players move the ropes about another foot apart. The person who is able to jump the farthest without falling into the ravine is the winner.