Cornhole and Jenga games can be great team-building games, and we like watching the results of a good competition with friends. With a few sets of custom game pieces, you'll create an exciting, competitive atmosphere. The Best Way to Make Games Work A group of family or friends may have many interests. You don't want them to start to argue, but you can easily keep the peace by suggesting a simple game you play together. We're not just talking about traditional team games, but simple contests you can play to make an afternoon in the living room more fun. Group activities, though, can be hard to start. If you try to think of a group activity or event, many options quickly spring to mind. But if the group has to come up with the activity itself, the activity can be more fun and more unique. We've already mentioned that an old-fashioned game of Monopoly can spark a round of laughter and silliness. So what happens if you just tell your friends to stop being silly and start thinking of fun games? For a few of our group activities, we've created a simple and fun list of game ideas. You can find the games online at the following websites: The team games at Hoop Shoots Scavenger Hunt Guess Who? Twenty Questions Trivia Two Truths and a Lie Hot Potato Two Truths and a Lie (Again) Sharing Secrets The Game of Life My Family Name That Animal Simon Says I Never It takes just a little time to make the game a success, and it can be a good activity for a family reunion or a party. Make Learning More Fun with Simple Games Learning can be so much more than reading from a text book and making flash cards. Games and activities can add excitement to learning. You can also have fun doing a little history or science in the process. With the right games and a little creativity, you can create lots of opportunities for fun while you learn. In fact, we've made some suggested activities using games you've seen before that are a lot of fun. The Diner Game If you play this game with small groups, one member will start the game by choosing a color — blue or yellow. Then she announces the food that goes with that color, such as a steak or a salad. The rest of the group has to guess the food. If the person wants to be tricky, she may get in groups of two and each teammate will be wearing a different color shirt. The member wearing blue will have a salad and the member in yellow will have a steak. The rest of the group must figure out the color and food of each team. This activity has been called "the funniest game ever invented," and it gives you a lot of flexibility. You can make the game more difficult by changing the food list, or more creative by picking colors that don't necessarily go with food. You can even turn this into a learning game. For example, if you are learning about different animals, you can name them. Then, as a group, you'd have to figure out which animal is missing and why. The Red Light, Green Light Game This game uses nothing but common objects found around the house and on the family table to create an interesting conversation. Divide the group into pairs and have the leader of each pair pick a common object: • one glass • one fork • one spoon • one napkin Divide the group back up and explain that the group will now be playing "Red Light, Green Light." There will be one light in the room, but with just one light, you can't play a complete game. You will start by placing the object in front of you. The object is to have the other player ask a question and answer in three words or less. Once you've answered, that person will put the object in front of him. If someone accidentally forgets to answer in three words or less, the object gets passed on. That person has to come up with a new object — or use a sound to help you figure it out. This is the fun part: when you don't want the object to get passed on, you can make it easier for the next person in the game by giving a sound. For example, if you are stuck on an object that looks like a glass, you may shout "Glass! Glass! Glass!" This will help the person know what you're talking about. The Three-Second Game With this game, the object is to make your friends laugh. It's like Charades, but faster and with one less person — the other person is playing your teammate. This game can be made more difficult by using gestures to help the team. The three-second game makes an excellent icebreaker. Set up a space with four chairs. One chair will be the judge's chair, and the others will be the chairs of teammates. One person will be on the floor, but everyone else will be standing. On the count of three, all of the players will have to run to their assigned seats in the order they were sitting. They will then look at the judge. The judge will announce a word or phrase that has three letters in it. For example, if he were to say "C.I.A.," then everyone will have to think of a place that begins with "C" and has "I" in the middle and "A" at the end. They will have to run to their seats and say what they think it is. That's the game: three seconds to figure out the phrase. This activity will keep your guests laughing, and they will have to focus more on your event than on the words themselves. It's also a great icebreaker that will get your guests mingling. Playing cards One fun thing you can do with cards is to read and play cards that have unusual messages. For example, you can make up a card with an unusual statement and then ask your friends to choose a card from the deck. Everyone else can guess which card it is and see if they can tell what the statement is. You can also do this with a deck of normal playing cards. Instead of picking one card from the deck, you'll pick two — you'll pick one card and your opponent picks a second card. Your goal is to make your opponent guess the identity of your card. Playing this game together can be a fun activity for a few games, but even if you keep playing a few rounds, the game can be challenging. How to Get Your Group to Keep a Secret As we've seen, sharing a secret can be a great way to get your guests involved. If you want to keep things from your guests, though, you can come up with a great way to make sure that your guests are kept quiet. Think of the perfect secret and get some good clues that hint to what it is. Then when the time comes to share the secret, ask your guests to close their eyes. You can even encourage them to use their imagination and figure out what the secret is. If they guessed wrong, then you can have a new secret. Otherwise, you can let them in on the secret. If they guessed right, then you can either show them the secret or reveal it with some trick that will make everyone guess the secret without seeing it. The object of the game is to figure out the secret. Have a little fun and ask them what they think it is. Remember that there can only be one secret — try not to give them more than one hint, or you may make it even harder for everyone to guess. The more creative you get with your secrets, the more interest you'll have. Try using the same strategy when making a simple game out of telling your guests what your secret is — have them guess. The One-Word Game With this game, you can keep your guests' attention as you unveil a secret that just one person will know. But before that, you need some objects to play the game. The object of the game is to get to know one another, but you don't want anyone to know too much about you. With that in mind, get the group together for an activity, such as charades. Everyone should be wearing a shirt with a number on it — let's say it's shirts with numbering from 0 to 10. Then you can turn this simple game into an interesting icebreaker. Give each member of the group a secret message word and then give your guests a list of items, such as: • A: A car • B: A bird • C: A city • D: A dog • E: A flower • F: An eye • G: An instrument • H: An insect • I: An injury • J: A juice • K: A letter • L: A lighthouse • M: A plant • N: A nose • O: A person • P: A pirate • Q: A question • R: A rose • S: A star • T: A tree