These back-to-school Minute to Win It games are the perfect way to break the ice, build teamwork, and get kids moving with quick, silly challenges.
Back-to-school season doesn’t have to be all paperwork. Why not kick things off with laughter, energy, and hilarious adventure? They’ll be talking about it all year long!
Ready, set… game on!
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Hilarious School Minute to Win It Games for Kids
Try these back-to-school games at home with school supplies or in the classroom. Either way, you’ll have a blast!
1. Eraser Stack Attack
Supplies: Pink erasers
How to Play: Stack as many pink erasers as possible on top of each other in one minute without them falling over.
Don’t have lots of erasers? You can use anything stackable – applies, glue sticks, whatever you have!
2. Pen Pitch
Supplies: Pens, pencils, or markers, cups
How to Play: Toss unsharpened pencils or pens into a cup or small basket from a short distance. The most pencils landed in 60 seconds wins!
Pro Tip: Tape the cup to the surface so it doesn’t tip over!
3. Walking Book Report
Supplies: Books
How to Play: Balance a hardcover book on your head and walk a short distance (like across the room or to a chair and back). See who can go the farthest without dropping it.
4. Clip It Quick
Supplies: Binder clips, string or ruler
How to Play: Spread binder clips on a table and try to clip them onto a string or ruler using only one hand.
5. Alphabet Soup
Supplies: Alphabet letters
How to Play: Using your alphabet letters, race to find and arrange the letters A–Z in order as fast as you can in 60 seconds.
Make it harder: Got bigger kids? Race to do it backwards
6. Color Me Crazy
Supplies: Crayons, chopsticks or tweezers, crayon box or jar
How to Play: Using only chopsticks or tweezers, pick up as many crayons as you can and transfer them to your container. The player with the most crayons transferred in a minute wins!
7. Back to School Bell Ringer
Supplies: Small desk bell, ping pong balls
How to Play: First, place the desk bell at one end of a table.
Then, players must bounce ping pong balls to try and ring the bell from the other side!
Make it easier: If this is too hard, create a relay where players complete a set of simple actions to ring the bell the fastest (i.e. run to the couch, write your name, etc.)
8. Sticky Note Scramble
Supplies: Sticky notes
How to Play: First, stick 10–20 sticky notes onto your body. When the time starts, race to remove and stick them onto a board or table in under a minute.
9. Highlighter Hunt
Supplies: Highlighters
How to Play: Hide 10 highlighters around a space and give players 60 seconds to find as many as they can!
10. Backpack Relay
Supplies: Backpacks
How to Play: Players put on an oversized backpack, run to a desk, unzip it, grab one school supply, zip it back up, and run back. Then the next teammate goes. The team that completes the relay the fastest wins!
11. Paper Clip Chain
Supplies: Paper Clips
Unbend paper clips and link as many as you can in 60 seconds to create a chain.
12. Tissue Pull Minute to Win It
Supplies: Tissues
How to Play: Using one hand, see how many tissues you can pull from a tissue box in a minute.
Related:
13. Back to School Charades
Supplies: Back-to-school words
How to Play: Each player has one minute to act out as many words or phrases as possible while the other players try to guess them. The player who gets the most correct guesses wins!
School charades words: Riding the school bus, the bell rings, sharpening a pencil, eating lunch in the cafeteria, writing on a whiteboard, opening a stuck locker, wearing a backpack, taking a pop quiz, answering a question, passing a note.
14. Back to School This or That
Supplies: Back to School This or That Printable
How to Play: In 60 seconds, ask the questions on the post or fill out the free printable. After time is up, the group with the most matching answers wins.
15. Back to School Blitz Fitness Challenge
*Great for getting the wiggles out!
Supplies: Nothing!
How To Play: See how many reps kids can do of each of these in a minute.
1. Pencil Jumps – Do jump squats or jumping jacks every time someone says a “school word” like “homework” or “teacher.”
2. Backpack Squats – Hold a (light!) backpack filled with books and do squats — it’s like weighted squats with a school spin.
3. Alphabet Stretch – Stretch into the shape of each letter in the alphabet — bonus if you can spell school-related words like “READ” or “MATH.”
4. Recess Relay – Set up a mini obstacle course with school items (cones = lunch boxes, jump over a “backpack,” crawl under a “desk”).
Want more fun for the first week of school? Don’t miss:
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Don’t forget to save these back to school minute to win it games for later!
