Happy GamesGiving
Gather ’round the table, it’s that time of year again! Thanksgiving brings us more than just a feast; it’s a time for laughter, togetherness, and making a difference in our communities. What if this year, alongside the traditional festivities, we could also support our local member hospitals through Extra Life while bonding over games with family? Thanksgiving becomes even more meaningful as we merge the joy of gathering with the spirit of giving. In this post, we’ll delve into an array of games perfect for igniting the spirit of camaraderie and supporting a great cause through Extra Life during this Thanksgiving season.
Whether you play games with your family as a fundraiser or just for fun, it will always give you the opportunity to talk about Extra Life and how much it means to you to have everyone’s support. We’d love to hear if you and your friends/family play games this time of year. If you don’t (or you’re looking for new ideas), here are a few that the Extra Life team found interesting:
Minute To Win It
- Face the Cookie: Place a cookie on someone’s forehead. They have to use only their face muscles (no hands) to get it into their mouth. For GamesGiving, try it with pie! And if you do, we want pics in the Extra Life Discord community!
- Defying Gravity: An oldie but a goodie that never disappoints! Give each player three balloons. They have to keep all three balloons up in the air for a minute.
- Bottle to Bottle: Fill one 2-liter bottle with something (Lucky Charms, jelly beans, candy corn, etc.) then tape to another 2-liter bottle at the opening. Players have to transfer all from one bottle to another.
- Shamrock Shake: Tape an empty tissue box to a pair of panty hose, fill with ping pong balls, then tape around someone’s waist. They have to shake until all the balls fall out. (Another good video opportunity for the Extra Life Discord community)!
- Wrap It Up: A two-player game where one person has to wrap the other person in streamers, toilet paper, saran wrap, or something else.
- Traffic Yam: Push a sweet potato across the floor from one side of the room to another with just your nose.
- Nuts & Bolts: Use a chopstick to stack nuts (the kind you use with screws) on top of each other.
- Choosing Cups: Set out 25 cups, filling all of them part way with water. Put a sticker on the bottom of some of the cups. Players have to pick one cup at a time, trying to find a sticker.
If you want more ideas, a simple google search can yield hundreds of minute-to-win-it type games. Let us know which are your favorites and show us your GamesGiving by tagging @ExtraLife4Kids on all socials with #ExtraLife #GamesGiving.
GamesGiving Pictionary
Print and cut the GamesGiving Pictionary card. Divide into teams. One person from the team draws while the others try to guess (you can do this one team at a time, or both teams draw the same thing at the same time in a race to see which team can guess first).
Gratitude Skittles
This is great for helping kids to understand emotions like gratitude.
Supplies: Skittles. The gratitude Game Legend
How to Play: Without them knowing why, let everyone select a couple of skittles. They can eat a few, but need to have at least 1-3 of them for the game. The game is simple. Each person will use the gratitude game legend to determine how they should respond, based on the colors of skittles left in their hand. For example, if someone has a red skittle, they would share a person for whom they are grateful.
Boat Races
Supplies: Under the bed storage container, small corks, fake flowers, and plastic straws (optional)
How to Play: Fill one of those big long under the bed storage containers with water. Give everyone a small cork with a fake flower stuck into it and have them put in on one end of the storage container.
To win, player must be the first one to get their cork from one end of the storage container to the other, by only blowing on it. They can either blow on it alone or through a plastic straw. First cork “boat” to touch the other end wins.
Face the Pie
Supplies: Gummy candy (different colors), pie tins, and whipped cream
How to Play:
Place several gummies on the bottom of the pie tins (make sure there is only ONE blue gummy). Fill each of those pin tins with whipped cream. Players must race to eat through their pies to find the BLUE gummy the fastest.
And of course, they can only use their mouth!
The Goblet Gobble
Supplies: Plastic goblets, orange ping pong balls
How to Play: Place one goblet per team/player on a table on a far side of the room. On the other side of the room, place orange ping pong balls. Players must transfer three ping pong balls from the table to their goblet on the opposite side of the room…but they can only touch (and hold) the ping pong abll between their chin and their neck (gobble gobble)!
Feather Float
Supplies: Small light feathers
How to Play: Give each player a feather. They must blow the feather in the air and keep it floating in the air the longest.
No matter what you do, the Extra Life team wishes you and your loved ones a wonderfully happy #GamesGiving and we want you to know that WE are THANKFUL that YOU have chosen to be an Extra Lifer.