Minute to Win It

A Minute to Win It themed night is a great way to include parents in the programming for a night. Admittedly, I don't use many actual Minute-to-Win-It games, but there are plenty to choose from so you definitely could spend a meeting playing only these games. The great thing about them is that they use household items that are readily accessible.

Each girl brings along an adult (Mum, Dad, older sibling) and then the games begin. I like to use a range of games that have the girls and their family member working as a pair, working together in a Patrol and even competing against each other!

Here are two meeting programs I have used on bring-a-family member nights:

Challenge Night Program #1
Animal Toothpicks
Breakfast Scramble
Stretcher race
Spaghet Me Knot
Defying Gravity
Balloon toss
Bucket toss
The War of Tug

Challenge Night Program #2
Hula hoop challenge
Breakfast Scramble
"Egg" and spoon race
Stretcher race
Tallest tower
Newspaper Hockey
Streets and Lanes

I have all the games typed onto index cards and clipped to a lanyard - one for each Leader - so that everybody knows the order of games, the rules, points and the equipment needed. It's much easier to stay on task this way. 

And now the games!

Animal Toothpicks
This game is a great icebreaker! The aim of the game is to be the Patrol that finds the most toothpicks. 

Before everybody arrives, hide MANY toothpicks all around the Guide hall - remember that adults will be playing, so conceal them at different heights and with varying levels of difficulty. 

Once you are ready to play, divide into small Patrols - no more than four people per group. I had two Brownie Guides and two adults per Patrol. Each Patrol must select an animal. The sounds that this animal makes is now the only noise these players may use. eg. If the Patrol chooses a cow, they may only communicate by saying "moooooo". 

Elect a 'collector' for each Patrol. Only this person may touch the toothpicks. Everybody else in the Patrol is a hunter.

Once the game begins, only the hunters may search for toothpicks. When they find one they must make the noise of their animal so that the collector can come and pick up the toothpicks.

Continue play until all the toothpicks are collected. This game should run for 5-10 minutes.

Points: 2 for 1st place, 1 for second place.

Breakfast Scramble
This is actually a Minute-to-Win-It game and involves preparation before the day. I spent a good month collecting cereal boxes from the Brownies, family and friends. And then I had my family assist with cutting them all up! Any size cereal box will do but it needs to be cut up into 16 equal sized pieces. Cereals with cartoons such as Rice Bubbles are easier to piece together, so you can always use the back of the box as an extra challenge!

This game is played in pairs. The Brownie Guides with their Mum or Dad (or whoever they brought along). They have one minute to piece the puzzle back together. It's harder than you might think!

I had a big stop watch on my iPad for this game. 

Points: 2 for completing in one minute or less, 1 for completing the puzzle after the 1 minute

Stretcher Race

My girls are a huge fan of holding stretcher races, so I modified the usual race. Instead of carrying another person they carried a soft toy and instead of a blanket we used tea towels. it was hilarious to see the parents carefully carrying a doll on a mini stretcher. Definitely a hit!

No points awarded.

Spaghet Me Knot
I really don't recall if this is an official Minute-to-Win-It game or not... It was an individual challenge to tie a reef knot and/or double overhand in cold cooked pasta.
Preparation: cook pasta prior to meeting, fettuccine works best.

Defying Gravity
This was played in pairs with the girls and their family member.

Bucket Toss
Played in pairs. Team members must stand 2 metres apart. One holds a bucket on their head. The other must try to throw 3 ping-pong balls into the bucket. Unlimited turns for this as it was quite difficult for the girls. The parents quickly learnt to crouch down and move to try to assist with the catching.

Hula Hoop Challenge 
This is a group activity and we use it for teamwork nights. Everybody stands in a circle holding hands. A hula hoop must be passed around the entire circle.

"Egg" and spoon race
A relay race using ping-pong balls as the "eggs".

Tallest tower
A Patrol activity with Patrols being a mix of adults and Brownie Guides. Everybody is given the same equipment. Plastic cups, boxes, masking tape, straws etc. Just random supplies collected from around the Guide Hall. Give them a time limit to create the tallest tower.

The War of Tug
Just your regular tug of war game. The Brownies LOVED competing against all the adults! And the adults were incredibly competitive!

Minute-to-Win-It
As you can see from the games listed, my Minute-to-Win-It night very quickly turned into a general games night! However there are so many great MTWI games you can find online. Depending on the access you have to technology, you can even play the instruction videos which were used on the Minute-To-Win-It game show. They are all available to download from Youtube. 


Prizes:

I have run this night with and without rewards and either way works fine. In fact, I prefer it to be a night of fun rather than worrying about counting points. But if you are interested in a point system you can score each game and give out a prize to the overall winners at the end of the night or you could have lolly prizes after each game as explained below.

Each participant was given a plastic cup with a white sticker on the front to write their name (as pictured below). At the front of the room I created a lolly buffet, with bowls full of various types of lollies. After each game was played I awarded points, sometimes to those who won overall and sometimes to everybody that completed the activity successfully. As the points were awarded the players had to use them immediately at the lolly buffet by collecting the lollies in the cup with their name. The lollies were to be taken home to eat.

This is the point system I used:
M&Ms: 1 scoop = 1 point
Gummy sour worms: 1 worm = 1 point
Jelly beans: 1 scoop = 1 point
Candy hearts: 1 scoop = 1 point
Chewy candy: 1 lolly = 1 point
Lollipop: 1 lollipop = 2 points

I hope that this gives you some ideas to run your own Minute-to-Win-It games night! They are a lot of work depending which games you choose, but are always a huge hit with my families!

Minute to Win it resources:

• Ideas on Pinterest
• Game instructions
• Instructional videos on Youtube
• Minute-to-win-it party - this blog has many great themed party ideas

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With Mother's Day just around the corner, perhaps this is something you could do with your unit!

A rainbow of colours

The Brownie Guides absolutely love craft and luckily for them, so does their Leader! We generally make one large project each term, usually for an event or badge, so I am always on the lookout for quality and affordable supplies to use. I generally shop around and buy items on sale, but lately i've been frustrated with kids poster paint i've been buying. Yes, it is wonderful that it's washable, but it is completely hopeless when mixing and creating true, bold colours. I finally decided that buying  some good quality paint was worth the investment. Not only was the poster paint not producing quality products, it was so washed out that I was having to spend weekend repainting craft projects with multiple layers to achieve the desired colour!

Last year, I discovered that there were warm and cool primary colours which turned a lifetime of learning completely upside down. Suddenly it made sense why mixing a red and blue paint didn't always create the desired shade of purple, I wasn't using the correct cool and warm variations!

Wanting to pass on this knowledge to the girls, I purchased them lovely new paint from Clever Patch in warm and cool shades. I purchased only the necessary colours: black, white, cool blue, warm blue, cool red, warm red, cool yellow and warm yellow. With this paint the Brownie Guides can now create an array of lovely new secondary and tertiary colours!

I also made a color chart as a starting point to assist the Brownies with creating colours. The chart displays the colours produced by mixing equal amounts of the primary colours shown. By looking at the chart, the girls can deduce that by adding more lemon yellow and less ultramarine, they will achieve a lighter shade of green. They have used the chart with great success which makes me very happy! They also love the new paint and think it is very fancy and professional. Definitely a worthwhile purchase.

Icebreaker: Spiderweb

We have had so many new members join the Brownie Guide unit over the past year that I been feeling out of touch with the girls. When the unit was smaller (years ago now!), I knew each birthday, joining dates, family members, interests etc. off the top of my head. Those girls are now Guides and I can still recall that information. However, with a bigger unit, it can be more difficult to get to know the girls and keep up to date with everything.

I felt that we needed a bonding game of sorts, so that we could all learn some new things about each other. Over the years, i've played many variations of the spiderweb, but this version I discovered at Great Training.

Image credit: Tried and True Teaching Tools

How to Play:

Everybody sits on the floor in a circle. One Guide holds a ball of wool. They begin by introducing themselves and then sharing something interesting or unusual about themselves.

eg. My name is Karen and I have a cluster of freckles on my arm that looks like the Southern Cross.

The girl keeps a hold of the end of the ball of wool and throws the remainder of the wool ball to another Guide across the circle. The game continues with each Guide stating their name and then something about themselves. Before throwing the ball of wool the player must hold onto the piece of wool, so that once everybody has had a turn and is holding wool, a sort-of spiderweb shape is formed.

Nobody wants to be stuck with a huge knot of wool at the end of the game, so now the game is reversed. Going in the opposite order, the Guides must now introduce the player before them and share the interesting or unusual fact they learnt about that girl.

eg. This is Melissa and she can play seven musical instruments.


Outcome:

The girls had so much fun playing this game, much more than I had anticipated, as we played for almost 40 minutes! The Brownies just loved telling everybody something special about themselves and often then demonstrating or elaborating on their stories! Some girls shared their language skills, another had double jointed fingers, one had new pet guinea pigs and another's Grandmother is a former Girl Guide Leader. So many wonderful things to learn and i'm so glad that I made time for us all to share with each other.

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What friendship games do you play in your unit?

Cupcake bunny

This adorable rabbit cupcake was made by a fellow leader. Isn't it sweet?

The eyes and nose are made from mini M&Ms and the ears are a strawberry and cream jube cut in half. Simple! Definitely a cupcake you could make and decorate with all age groups.