Author: Cheree Larson

Spit in Your Eye

This is a good game for all ages. You’ll want a group of at least 5 people.  I think 7-12 is ideal.

 Supplies: Thimble or teaspoon and a cup of water.

Game Instructions:  Players are all seated except for one person. That person stands in the middle with a thimble or tablespoon of water. He thinks of a category and a specific answer within his category. For example, the category is Languages and the specific answer is German. He announces his category to the group. The person with the water goes around to each player asking for an answer. When someone says “German”, the water is thrown at that person and he is now “It”. Other examples of categories are Sports, Makes of Cars, Cold Cereal, Musicals, and Superheroes.  If someone repeats an answer that was already given, they also get “spit in their eye” for not paying attention.

 

Roll the Bones

This is a good game for ages 7 – adult. You’ll want a group of at least 5 people. 

Supplies: Five dice for each player and a flat surface.  A table is ideal.

Game Instructions:

Distribute 5 dice to each person. Identify one person to be the lead caller for round one. Each person rolls their own group of dice, quickly covering them with their hands so no one else can see what they have rolled. (Notice the cupped hands around the dice in the photos.)

Players then go around the table, in order, calling out their bids. For example, the lead caller might begin by announcing, “Seven twos”. This bid indicates that the bidder believes there are a total of 7 dice that are twos or ones on the table. Ones are wild. The players decide if they want to increase the number of twos or match/increase a different number. The second bidder may call, “Eight twos.” The third may say “Eight threes”. Once the bidding reaches sixes, matching is no longer an option. If the bid was “Eight sixes”, the next bidder would have to say nine or more of another number. Of course, no one has to match. They can go from seven twos to thirteen fives immediately.

If a bidder does not want to increase his bid, he can challenge the previous bidder. When this occurs, everyone shows their dice. The total number of ones and bid numbers on the table are counted. If the bidder is correct, the challenger loses a die. If the bidder is incorrect, the bidder loses one die. For instance, if the last bid was thirteen threes, and there are eight threes and six ones = 14 dice, the person who challenged loses one die. When a dice is lost, it is set aside for the remainder of the game.

Once a player is out of dice, they are out of the game. After each round, play begins again with the person who last bid or challenged. The last person with dice wins!

Ultimate Spoons

spoons game

This is a good game for ages 5+. You’ll want a group of 4-10 people.

Supplies: 1 Deck of cards, a spoon for all but one person participating. If you have 8 people, you’ll need 7 spoons.

Game Instructions: This is the classic game of Spoons but with an element of Hide and Seek thrown in the mix.

First, I will describe the standard game of Spoons: Divide your cards into stacks of each number. (stack of Aces, 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, and so on). Set aside the royals. You will need a set of one number for each person playing. If you have 6 players, you will use six numbers (like cards 2-7). Shuffle these cards, then deal 4 to each player. Place spoons in the middle of the group- one less than the number of players. So, if you have 6 players, place 5 spoons in the middle. The players then begin passing their cards, one at a time clockwise. They pick up a card and they can choose to keep it or pass it to the next player. Once someone has four cards of the same number, they quietly pick up a spoon. The other players try to pick up spoons quickly. The person left without a spoon gets an S (like in the basketball game Horse). A player is out of the game when they have spelled SPOONS. For a shorter game, spell FUN.

In Ultimate Spoons, you need an extra person (who is not playing) to hide the spoons in the house. They hide them all together. Once a player has four cards of the same number, they take off looking for the spoons. The others join in and the person left without a spoon receives a letter. Note: When a player finds the spoons, he takes one but does not tell the other players where they are hidden.