Guess what? The Game Show Network (GSN) is bringing Minute to Win It back to TV! I am privileged to be able to share with you the recent announcement that Apolo Anton Ohno, speed skating champion, will be hosting this addictive and exciting game show.
It’s a new season, with a new host, and all new episodes of Minute to Win It premiering June 25th at 8/7c only on GSN! And see how you can enter to win a $100 Visa gift card, just by reading this post.
I know we loved to watch this show as a family, and my tween and I have been watching episodes on on GSN. She is absolutely obsessed with perfecting the Stack Attack challenge! But, I’m getting ahead of myself. If you aren’t familiar with the concept of the show, you will have no idea what a “stack attack” is. Let me fill you in on this super fun game show. The whole idea is centered around challenges of escalating difficulty using everyday household items. And when I say, everyday items, I mean cups, gum balls, liter bottles, cards, dice, noodles, cotton balls, just to name a few. I personally think it is so clever how the challenges are based on such simple items. It’s all in how they are put together in what is called the “blueprint” for each challenge. I also love, that these aren’t about IQ or how much smarter my 5th grader might be than me. These challenges require patience, practice, perseverance, and in many cases luck. Here is the kicker, each game or challenge needs to be completed successfully in 60 seconds. Each contestant has exactly one minute to win that level’s prize. It it nail-biting fun!
Summer vacation is finally here, and my niece has been visiting for a couple weeks. Since I had my two favorite resident tweens together, it was the perfect opportunity to have a little family fun, and orchestrate a Minute It To Win It Tween Challenge Day.
We had a blast planning our adventure. We watched a mini marathon of Minute to Win It episodes, and each girl made a list of their favorite games they wanted to try. Then we researched online to review all of the challenge blueprints for more inspiration. Then it was off to the store to get our “everyday” items for the 10 challenges we were going to play. Here is what we came home with and gathered from our house to begin the Minute to Win It Tween Challenge extravaganza:
As you can see, we gathered quite the variety of random objects. Then we set up a “bootcamp” of sorts around the backyard and in our dining room. We created stations, almost like an obstacle course, set up with a variety of Minute to Win It inspired challenges. Here is a peek at the challenges my tweens tackled. (Note: I modified some of the challenge objectives from the original show to accommodate kids and availability of items):
Stack Attack
- Objective: Stack 28 plastic cups in a pyramid shape, and unstack them all back in 60 seconds or less.
This one was my tween’s favorite, as mentioned above. I captured her challenge on video, with my niece in the background holding the timer. Talk about down to the last second!
Face the Cookie
- Objective: Using only your facial muscles, each player must move a cookie from the top of their head, down their face, and into their mouth without dropping the cookie.
This was HI-larious to watch! I just had to capture it on video. I challenged each of the girls at the same time to complete the cookie challenge. Check out the funny results:
Noodling Around
- Objective: Using a long piece of spaghetti in your mouth, stack 6 penne pasta in a row in 60 seconds or less.
This one the girls actually find really challenging. It wasn’t that it was difficult to do, it was definitely hard to achieve in the time frame.
Card Ninja
- Objective: Using regular playing cards, player must stick one card into the side of cut watermelon.
As you can see, this one was even more challenging. We all tried this one, and only got a couple cards actually stuck in the side of the watermelon. You definitely had to the right flick of the wrist and the perfect angle of the card to hit the watermelon and stick.
Baby Rattle
- Objective: Player must shake gumballs from an empty 2-liter bottle into the other bottle on the bottom.
This one was fun to make, and probably the easiest challenge to complete.
A Bit Dicey
- Objective: While holding a craft stick in your mouth, player must stack 6 dice on top of each other on the end and hold for 3 seconds.
Each girl mastered this one pretty quickly. You can just see the focus in their eyes.
Spoon Frog
- Objective: Propel a spoon into a cup using another spoon as leverage. Must fill 3 cups within 60 seconds.
My niece was a pro at this one. I caught her 60 second accomplishment on video:
Sticker Picker Upper
- Objective: Player must roll an egg on a round platter using only one hand and pick up the 3 stickers upside down on the tray without the egg falling off.
We had many “accidents” with this one. Good thing we used hard boiled eggs for the challenge. = )
Sticky Situation
- Objective: Launch a ping pong from one table to the other to stick one onto a piece of bread with peanut butter on top.
This was one of the funnest challenges, I think. I got pummeled with plenty of balls while trying to get the perfect shot. Good thing they were ping pong balls.
Nose Dive
- Objective: Transfer cotton balls from one bowl to the other using only petroleum jelly on the end of your nose.
This one, I challenged each girl to see who could get the most cotton balls into the ball in 60 seconds.
Here is the hilarious challenge caught on video:
Are you inspired yet to try some of your own Minute to Win It challenges at home? We ended the day with each girl requesting a Minute to Win It themed birthday party for their next milestone! Guess what? You could win too! Simply add a comment onto this post and you will automatically be entered to win a $1oo Visa gift card to use towards your own “family fun night in”. What are you waiting for? What “Minute to Win It” game would your family play? Tune-in to the premiere of Minute to Win It on Tuesday, June 25th at 8/7c only on GSN with your family. For more information, connect with M2WI on Facebook and Twitter and visit the GSN website.
Sweepstakes Rules: No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods: Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winner will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. The Official Rules are available here. This sweepstakes runs from 6/18/13 – 7/17/13.
I’m a public librarian, and have held three Minute to Win It programs for Tweens. The challenges are a great way to get kids off the couch and having fun together. I encouraged the tweens to support the efforts of their teammates, and celebrate all victories and attempts too. They were great about not giving up on a challenge until the last second. The library programs were well attended and enjoyed — I’m glad it’s back on TV, so I can run the program again!
That sounds like such a fun program Debbie! Have fun!
Sooooo cool!!! I wish I would have done this for my Bday party which was 1 month ago, it looks sooo much fun!!!!!!! But I can do them when I go to Spain with my friends…
Enjoy! Thanks for the comment Mya!
This is fabulous — I can’t wait to try it with my kids.
Sounds fun. From the Minute to Win It site, my kids would like Jingle in the Trunk.
Sounds fun!
tweet–https://twitter.com/mami2jcn/status/349490470977683456
The sticker picker upper game looks like fun. My kids would love to do this! And so would I!
Thanks for the great comment Lizzy. Have fun with your own kid Minute to Win Challenges = )
I tweeted about this at https://twitter.com/LizzyAllen123/status/349528496294465536
Looks so much fun! My family would love to play Jingle in the Trunk
https://twitter.com/ElenaIstomina/status/349554087349583873
here is the correct tweet:
https://twitter.com/ElenaIstomina/status/349555447893721089
Love all the games. I want to try Face the Cookie 🙂
jslbrown_03 at yahoo dot com
https://twitter.com/LuLu_Brown24/status/349567578601033729
jslbrown_03 at yahoo dot com
Definitely nose dive!
https://twitter.com/OneFrugalGirl/status/349588932943556608
I think we would like to play Stack Attack or Rapid Fire!
FAce the Cookie sounds like fun! Thanks for a chance to win, too! kmassman gmail
We love game night around here- this would be so much fun! I think we’d like to try Spoon Frog.
chambanachik at gmail dot com
We would love Junk in the Trunk game.
-https://twitter.com/tcarolinep/status/349732918198927360
I think we need to try Card Ninja. Looks fun and challenging!
i think we’d like the face the cookie game
https://twitter.com/karinaroselee/status/349989995299340290
Junk in the trunk looks hilarious. Thanks!
These games look like so much fun. I think that they’d like the Face the cookie game.
Thanks so much.
I tweeted: https://twitter.com/peg42/status/350392697133072385
That looks like a lot of fun.
austma7@aol.com
I love the Minute to Win it challenges. Ready Spaghetti, here we come 🙂
Card Ninja looks like a game everyone would like.
Tweet
https://twitter.com/clc408/status/350647705141383168
My kids would like their A Bit Dicey game, they would love trying to balance more dice than each other.
tweet
https://twitter.com/kellysaver/status/350703952704180224
Looks like everyone had fun! 🙂
twitted this today, 28/06
Love the show and play all the time in this house. hanky panky is our fave game!
(except now I have Ziploc bags full of tissues)
tvollowitz at aol dot com
This Blows looks like so much fun. I love games that can be played by all ages and with easily available materials
I think the cup stacking game, Stack Attack, would be fun and something everyone would love to play 🙂
Tweeted 🙂 – https://twitter.com/Enter_Now/status/350959696057864192
This sounds like so much fun but I’m not sure we are organized enough in this household to orchestrate our own games.
twitted this today, 29/06
We’d like to play Face the Cookie – thank you.
Tweet https://twitter.com/JalapenoMama/status/351102885678940160
wed like to play baby rattle!
https://twitter.com/DesMoinesDealin/status/351184993470513153
face the cookie looks so much fun
fresh fruit, twitted this today, 30/06
THese games look like so much fun
The Baby Rattle game looks like it would be fun. Something that all of my children could play.
the stack attack game
we like Sportcraft
https://twitter.com/Merle0304/status/351778762473476097
looks like fun!!
tweet: https://twitter.com/akronugurl/status/351788326010892289 .
LOVE this show! I am planning a day of fun for my neice and newphew that are 10 and 12 so I think all of these games are a MUST! Thanks for posting 🙂
twitted this today, 01/07
I’d love to do the ready spaghetti!
my kids would like Face the Cookie if they got to eat it afterwards pry.school.1@gmail.com
twitted this today, 03/07
Stack Attack would be fun
We would love to try out spoon frog!
Thanks for the chance to win!
wildorchid985 at gmail dot com
tweet–https://twitter.com/WildOrchid985/status/352723402496282625
wildorchid985 at gmail dot com
twitted this today, 04/07
the Nose Dive sound funny and fun
https://twitter.com/purplelover04/status/353161270289121283
twitted this today, 05/07
Like like fun, I think my kids would love to play Noodling Around.
https://twitter.com/susan1215/status/353331579109642240
twitted this today, 06/07
Love the show! Want to try this for my 35th bday this year. 🙂
Face the Cookie
dolniaks at consolidated dot net
We’d like to play the Iron Board Man!
https://twitter.com/myfolly/status/353866825924214786
nose dive looks fun and funny
rapid fire for my fam
twitted this today, 07/07
Chocolate Unicorn or Bobbleheads sounds like fun.
twitted this today, 08/07
All of these games look like things my kids would love to try!
stack attack and card ninja look fun
we’d like face the cookie
nannypanpan@gmail.com
What a fun day you had. My family would definitely love the Face the Cookie! hehe…with food involved. My kids would get excited just by seeing the cookies. hahah….
amy [at] utry [dot] it
tweeted:
https://twitter.com/uTry_it/status/354864586643611648
amy [at] utry [dot] it
stack attack looks like it would be fun once my daughter gets older!
Chocolate Unicorn would be fun and easy for the younger players.
smchester at gmail dot com
I think my family would have a great time with Noodling Around. We’ll have to give it a try.
I’d like to play Face the Cookie!!
Junk in the Trunk game
We would love to try the Mad Dog game
we would like stack attack
i tweeted https://twitter.com/bellows22/status/356268794299162625
We would like to play spoon frog.
Any game involving a cookie would be a big hit at my house.
Tweeted.
https://twitter.com/Jayne_Martin/status/356451913153265664
My sons chose stack attack
This Blows looks hilarious! Think I’d need to clear out my living room of all the fragiles first before trying though!
i tweeted
https://twitter.com/kolpin4680/status/356526117055758338
That is such a neat idea. Very cleaver… Might have to try some of these with the kids I babysit for, they would have such a blast! Thanks for the wonderful idea!
looks like lots of fun games!
Face the Cookie would be fun 🙂
https://twitter.com/disneyfan40/status/356947361676795904
I think face the cookie game would be a blast eaglesforjack@gmail.com
https://twitter.com/eaglesforjack/status/356952188494430208
Face the Cookie looks great fun… and you get a cookie! win/win
I’At 82 I’m too old for these games, but I would love to watch friends or family play them!
Noodling Around looks like it would be a lot of fun to play.
This is such a great idea, I’m going to do this with our scout group!
This looks like so much fun, can’t wait to play with my family!
I think my family would most enjoy Noodling Around. It looks fun and silly and easy enough that my younger sons will enjoy it too.
tweeted https://twitter.com/ktkatiektkatie/status/357223414097911809
My family would love to play stack attack!
We would like to play This Blows
My family would love to play Jingle in the Trunk
https://twitter.com/Hotsnotty2/status/357271651467010049
My boys would love the Rapid Fire game!!
tweeted
https://twitter.com/eswright18/status/357272166179414016
I like the card ninja
Stack Attack because they know I’ll lose.
https://twitter.com/ky2here1/status/357312971879350274
My family would love to play stack attack!
https://twitter.com/wallindeb/status/357340757981544450
My family is addicted to Wrap It Up 🙂
Mad Dog looks like fun. Noodling Around is about my speed.
Tweet – https://twitter.com/willitara/status/357402052793602048
id love to play nose dive it looks real fun 🙂
https://twitter.com/klp1965/status/357498867924729857
Because I hate to lose, I would pick the Baby Rattle game! LOL
I tweeted here: https://twitter.com/MsTofuFairy/status/357514153923067904
I really think that we would have fun playing Chop Stack (Level 7), they all look like a lot of fun!
I think my children would have a blast with Spoon Frog.
lisalmg25 at gmail dot com
I Tweeted; https://twitter.com/lisalmg/status/357541280605143041
lisalmg25 at gmail dot com
Thus sounds like fun. I would love to have a family fun night in. Thanks.
we would play nose dive
Stack Attack looks really fun!!
https://twitter.com/shopwithmemama/status/357573666256592896
We’ve had a minute to win it game before at work…was a blast.
Noodling Around is fun.
ericacarnes(at)gmail(dot)com
Id love to play the bottoms up game
pokergrl8 at gmail.com
https://twitter.com/aes529/status/357609310806753282
we would like Sticky Situation
https://twitter.com/thomasmurphy40/status/357610025289650178
Noodlin’ Around sounds great!
tweeted
https://twitter.com/lieutcrunch17/status/357611655254904832
I think Jingle in the Trunk would be lots of fun to play.
Thanks for the contest.
https://twitter.com/slehan/status/357629175370227713
I would like to play the Hanky Panky game
Nose Dive sounds silly enough to be lots of fun.
tweeted
https://twitter.com/FernGlade/status/357642864043376643
Jingle in the Trunk sounds like great fun.
I tweeted this at https://twitter.com/leedhowell/status/357645205484212225
A Bit Dicey looks challenging and fun!
tweet
https://twitter.com/abrightbabe/status/357649268779122688
Spoon frog looks like a lot of fun
tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com
Nose dive looks like it would be fun with the family!
Great post, we are trying this for sure!!
Fantastic pictures and videos! I will use these activities as a back to school pre- writing activity. We will play these games and then write about the fun and results. Can’t wait!
So glad I found this on Pinterest today! We planned a last minute b’day party for my daughter tomorrow who is turning 9. We were trying to come up with a fun craft or something to do with the girls during the spend the night party. This is right up my daughters alley!! We can’t wait to pull it all together and have fun with the girls!!! Thank you!
Great ideas!
I tried some of those activities at the center where I work. I set up like 17 station of minutes to win it. They enjoyed it a lot. We played the nose dive, junk in the trunk, stack the dice, the elephant march and I had marshmallows they had to throw in partner mouth blind folded. I had a station where they had to find the gummy bears in whip cream on paper plates.It was messy but fun.
We had a minute to win it party last year and are doing it again in June for my daughters birthday ツ
All of these games look super fun and gave me fun ideas for our next school carnival!!!! Thanks!
How fun! We have been looking for something like that is for a summer fun party. Thanks for the great ideas!!
Fun ideas! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for sharing. I found this on Pinterest and am going to set these up for fun rotation activities with my class for ‘end of term’ celebrations.
Thank you so much for sharing! I am doing homeschool summer school with my kids, and Fridays are our “fun days”. This is perfect!
Hi. I love that you explained great kid appropriate minute-to-win-it ideas. We’re having a minute-to-win-it birthday party for my 10 yr old twin girls (with up to 10 guests). They’re so excited. Just wondering if you had ideas about what to do for prizes? Should we give out points to the winner of each game and then award the prizes at the end? Should we use two teams or individual teams of two? Just want to find the best and easiest (budget friendly option). Thanks!
Good question Leila! I would probably do teams, and rotate and have one girl from each team do the activity. And honestly, the fun is playing the game for sure! You can make homemade medals or prizes like when we did our Olympic party for a truly budget friendly version: https://club.chicacircle.com/olympic-birthday-party-ideas/
And then I would have a prize or a birthday party treat bag for each guest. Hope that helps!
Have fun!
This is the theme my soon to be 10yr old requested for her party. After reading this I’m excited to start planning.
I’m so glad you found us Julie!
I found this while researching games to play in our staff meeting. This is a great post and I love the videos. I can see why the girls would really enjoy doing these games. I’m sure this will be a big hit with our department as well!