| Description: | Based on the TV show |
| Party Theme: | End of the Year |
| Type of Project: | Game |
| Materials Needed: | You can Google Minute to Win It classroom ideas, and see what you think would work for whatever grade you’re doing. Make sure it’s not too frustrating for the kids.
We used plastic ping pong balls, plastic wiffle balls, some small rubber balls, a “Chairs” Game (it’s an actual game sold in stores where you try to stack the most little plastic chairs in one stack); empty cardboard toilet paper tubes; 27 paper cups, one a different color than the other 26; 4 metal nuts (think tools) and a pencil; 3 different sized cups (not glass or ceramic); a bucket;clean wastebasket and tissue paper (gift bag type) balls. |
| Step by Step Instructions: | Split the class into groups of 2 or 3 kids each, then have 7-9 stations set up for the kids to rotate around the room. Each child has a 1/2-sheet “scorecard” so they can mark off when they’ve completed a station. You can either have them write down the time it took them to complete task, or make it less competitive and just mark that they went to the station. The teacher used her I-Board and found a full-screen timer. She set it for a minute and said “Go” and 1 child at each station has 1 minute to try to complete the task. Each child gets 1 try at each station.
Make and print directions for each game and post at each station, and make and print a scorecard for each student. Cup Stack: 27 cups of same size, one of different color on the very bottom. Holding stack, move the top cup to the bottom of the stack one at a time until the differently colored cup is on top. Chair Stack: stack as many of the little plastic chairs in the game as you can in one minute. Ping Pong Cups: one minute to hand bounce 3 ping pong balls into 3 differently sized cups on a table (need a parent to retrieve a lot of balls during this one.) Stack of Nuts: one minute to stack four metal nuts on top of one another. Harder? Stack the nuts using a pencil instead of your hand! Ping Pong Tower: one minute to build a tower using 3 toilet paper tubes and three ping pong balls. Start with a tube, then a ball, then a tube, then a ball. Have extra tubes and tape ready in case one splits from being pushed too hard. Breath Bucket: One minute to move 3 balls across a table or desk into a bucket on the floor on other side, using only your breath! Use ping pong or wiffle balls. Wastebasketball: Make tissue paper balls, set a “free throw line” on the floor. Kids have one minute to make as many baskets (use clean wastebasket or bucket) as they can. |
| Additional Comments: | Worked great; dirt cheap; use what you have around the house. Need an adult helper at each station, and some one to run timer — the teacher ran the timer for us. Try to keep kids behaving nicely; some are very competitive. Many other station ideas available online; so you can tailor the game for each grade level. |
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