Our neighbour Christie introduced our family to the Bag Game years ago and it is always a hit on family game night.   This minute to win it game requires exactly one item and can be played anywhere. It can be played with large groups or small groups and with people of all ages.  It seriously does not get simpler or better than The Bag Game!

We have played the Bag Game both outside and inside. We once played it with an empty cereal box because we didn’t have a paper bag to use. It is a great boredom buster on a snow day and an even better ice breaker at group events or a minute to win it game for youth.

As long as you have a paper bag, this game costs nothing and couldn’t be simpler to set up. We always save paper bags now from stores or take-out at restaurants just for this purpose.

Our family loves this activity. There is always much hilarity that ensues as everyone stands around watching the person whose turn it is. There is laughter and cheering. Sometimes, there are some attempts to distract the person, especially when it comes to siblings!

How to Play The Paper Bag Game

Materials needed:

• paper bag or cereal box

Instructions:

1. Place an empty paper bag on the floor.
2. Standing on one foot, each player must take a turn to retrieve the bag using only their mouth.
3. Once the bag is successfully retrieved, that player tears off the piece of the bag that their mouth touched.
4. In this way, the bag slowly gets lower and lower to the ground.
5. Once a player’s raised foot touches the ground or one of their hands touches the ground, they are eliminated from the game.
6. The last person remaining in the game is the winner.

You will want to play this in a fairly large area so that everyone has room to manoeuvre. We have found that everyone develops a bit of their own style in this game. Some put their other leg way up high and use it as a counterbalance. Some crouch low to the ground with their whole body while others bend their upper half down. One of our sons places one foot on top of the other before crouching down.

The Bag Game Variations

For younger children or those with mobility issues, you can play the game exactly the same way but allow both feet to be touching the ground.

You can choose to have some players be allowed this exception while others play with the traditional rules of the game.

Another variation is to allow each player three strikes per turn or per game wherein their raised foot or one of their hands can touch the ground twice without that player being eliminated.

We have a large family and we enjoy finding family games that we can all do together.  This one has quickly become a favourite.

You’ll notice from the blurry pictures that this is an active game with a lot of movement. There can be some pretty funny contortions, particularly when the bag gets down really low. There have been times in our competitive family when all that was left of the bag was a single piece of paper laying flat on the ground and our son managed to retrieve it!

The Bag Game is an easy activity for large groups with a variety of ages and abilities. It can be played at youth groups, camp, family reunions, Christmas parties, birthday parties, retirement celebrations, or in a classroom.

Click here for more fun family games:

Dollar Store Minute to Win It Games

The Flour Game

Minute to Win It Games

Our Minute to Win It Family Fun Night was so memorable that I planned another one. This time, I chose to use items from the dollar store to keep within a tight budget. I spent less than $15 for all the supplies.

For the decorations, I used our printable Minute to Win It kit which has full instructions for all of the games as well as all the games we played in our original Minute to Win It family fun night.

The supplies I bought from the dollar store:

• 2 boxes of kleenex
• 1 pack of plastic cups
• 1 pack of ping pong balls
• 2 pairs of panty hose
• 1 box of chocolate cookies
• cereal box
• 1 pack of tennis balls

Minute to Win It Games:

Puddle Jumper. To set up for this game, fill three cups with water and line them up, setting a ping pong ball into the first one. The goal of this game is to blow the ping pong ball from one water-filled cup to the next.

Chocolate Unicorn. All that’s needed for this game are chocolate cookies. Each player gets 10 cookies with the goal of stacking them on their forehead. The resulting stack must remain in place for 3 seconds.

Ponginator. For this game, you will need an empty egg carton and ping pong balls. The goal is to bounce ping pong balls so that 8 of them land in the egg carton within one minute.

Hanky Panky. This was hilarious to watch! It is more fun as a head-to-head challenge. Each person must sit with one hand behind their back. They must empty all the tissues out of the kleenex box using only one hand as quickly as they can (if head to head) or within one minute.

Ball Drop. Land three ping pong balls in a single cup while standing on a chair. The trick is to not have the balls bounce out or knock the cup over.

Breakfast Scramble. To set up for this game, you will need to cut the front of a cereal box into pieces. Depending on the size of the cereal box and the age of the people participating in your Minute to Win It challenge, you can either cut the box in 8 or 16 pieces. The goal of the game is to reassemble the puzzle within a minute.

Elephant March. To prepare for this game, put a tennis ball in the end of a pair of panty hose or put a tennis ball in each leg of a pair of panty hose. Set 8 cups up on the floor to create a walkway. To play, the player must put the panty hose on their head and knock over all the cups by swinging their head from side to side. This is a pretty funny one!

A note to all the moms out there: maybe you saw this and it just made you feel guilty because it’s one more thing you aren’t doing with your kids. I see you because often, I am you. I don’t want to have the parties or plan crafts or activities to do with the kids unless I have everything I need and can do it nearly perfectly. So years go by while I have the intention of planning a certain activity with my kids and it just doesn’t happen because I’m not organized enough.

This particular Minute to Win It night is a prime example. After our last one was such a success with the kids, I wrote out a plan for this one, every game written out. And my plan sat there for more than a year. One time, I even got a list for the dollar store written out, but then I realized I didn’t have time to bake and decorate a cake and make special food, so again, it didn’t happen. My kids got older, a full year older as my plan got dusty and my guilt grew.

The other day, I decided that we were going to do this but not perfectly. I wasn’t going to wait until my adult kids could get time off work and join us. I wasn’t going to plan any special food or decorate a cake. We were just going to have fun together and build memories.

Your kids get one childhood. You don’t have to make it magical, but you can make it memorable.

You can read more about our printable Minute to Win It party kit here. The supplies you purchased at the dollar store for these Dollar Store Minute to Win It games can be used to recreate almost all of the games from our Family Fun Night Minute to Win It Challenge.

The Flour Game is also tons of fun for the family!

For the holidays, try the Minute to Win It Christmas Edition games. So much fun!