Minute to Win It Games

So, I came across the idea of Minute to Win It games as a teen program at the library, and it just instantly clicked that this is something I'd like to do. Ridiculous games, prizes, and only 60 seconds to do any of them. Yes! I have a teen advisory board (called ACT - Advisory Committee of Teens) that I started this summer, and they are awesome, because I can bounce ideas off of them, and they can tell me what they want directly. When we planned this fall's programs, I introduced them to the idea of Minute to Win It, and they all took to it.

Tonight's program went over so wildly well that I feel like I want to do one every week! Okay, maybe that's overkill.  But it was so popular, and really got them moving and having fun. I didn't think I would do this again soon, but I'm thinking it will probably need to be done again in the spring.

PLANNING IT: 

To plan it, I just started out on Pinterest. And what did I find? The most amazing website ever! It's got a great booklet of games with the materials listed, and all of the rules, and the how-to videos they use on the actual show. AMAZING.

So, that made planning SO MUCH EASIER, which made me a lot less anxious about doing the program in general.

As for the rest of it - you SHOULD definitely make sure that you do each of the activities before you let the teens do them -- I altered a lot of mine because they weren't feasible/didn't work well in my space/were too hard, etc.  Some I cut out all together because I couldn't get the hang of and didn't feel comfortable telling them to do something that I completely bombed.

I had 9 people come to my program. For the future, I think I would max it out at 12 if it were just me in the room, or if I had another person helping out, 16? It was a great number for my space. 9 was a great number, and especially because I had some great teens in my group.

Materials were REALLY easy, too. Since most of the games involve readily available and often inexpensive household materials, buying materials wasn't a problem. Also, we had a good portion of things already on hand at our library. I don't think I spent more than $20 for any supplies. I began planning about 2-3 weeks before-hand, and it took me about an 1 1/2 - 2 hours to set up the room on the day of.

HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN:

When the teens came in, I gave them each a number (I printed these out on name badge labels with the Minute to Win It logo to make it look nice). This became the order that they played games in. I had a plastic cup that had a popsicle stick with the name of each of the games we could play (I had 14 games - originally 15 but I cut out Whippersnapper last minute). When it was their turn to go, they would pick a popsicle stick, and then they had to play the game on that stick. If a game was multi-player, then the next people in line would also go. For instance, if Contestant 1 picked a popsicle stick that was for 4 players, numbers 2, 3, and 4 would also go at the same time. If players successfully completed the task in 60 seconds, they received a gold token. I had them hold onto all the tokens they won until the end, and then once the room was mostly cleaned up, I let them trade in tokens for prizes. 1 token = a piece of candy. 3 = small prize (leftover summer reading prizes). 5 = free book!

If a multi-player task was difficult, and no one successfully completed it, I would often give a token to the person who did the best or got the furthest in the challenge.

I read the instructions to them aloud before they went, and if there was any confusion about the task, let them watch the video about how they were supposed to accomplish said task.  I also had a Minute to Win It countdown timer on my laptop, which we used as our timer, and also sounds more dramatic!

It took a little over 1 hour to complete the 14 games, which worked out really well. If they got bored when it wasn't their turn (which they didn't seem to be), there were snacks to munch on while they waited. I let them have free play at the end where they all went to a station they were interested in playing, and everyone in the room went at the same time (still 60 seconds). This was crazy, but in a great way. This let them get revenge on a game they didn't pass the first time around, or try one they didn't get to try before. They could also receive tokens for these rounds, and I did three free play rounds, making them reset their stations after they were done.  Although I couldn't monitor each individual game well, I told them that I would take them at their word that they did or didn't succeed, which worked out beautifully.

GAMES WE PLAYED:

Bobblehead – 4 player

Elephant March (altered to using empty bottles, not set quite so far apart)

Face the Cookie - 4 player (altered to use 2 cookies)

Defying Gravity – 4 player (altered to use 2 balloons, and they had to keep one foot on a carpet square)

Matchmaker

Mega Bubble - 2 player

Noodling Around - (altered to fit 5 pieces of round noodles instead of 6)

Nose Dive

Rapid Fire

Suck it up (altered to place M&Ms on tops of water bottles instead of straws)

This Blows

Triple Pong Plop (altered to use 1 plate instead of 3)

Wet Ball

Worm Diving – 4 player (created "fishing rods" out of dowels w/ fishing line and a paper clip)

LAST MINUTE NOTES:

I wouldn't have changed anything about this program! If I had many more teens, I would probably need to have another person helping. I may make the program a little longer next time to give them a few more times to free play, because they really seemed to enjoy that part of it.  I will definitely be doing this again with my teens. My coworker is doing Minute to Win It for the younger set as well, so we'll see how well this works for children, and I'll try to update my post with the results.