Mystery Gift Guessing Game

What You Will Need

a box with a lid
mystery gift (something sturdy, not easily broken, which will be the prize to the winner- in this example we are using a wooden-frog castanet)
length of string long enough to wrap around the box twice and tie



Game Set Up

In secret, place your mystery item in the box and tie the string around the box to secure the lid in place.



Give the children question suggestions, to help them understand how to play the game... such as "Can I eat the item?" "Do I play with the item?" "Is the item soft?" "Is the item colourful?"

You can decide if you want the answers to be 'yes/no' ones or if you want to give more detail to the children.

How to Play

1. Have the children sit in a circle. Pick a place to start, maybe at the youngest child, and give them the box to hold.

2. Chant together as a group:

What could it be?
What could it be?
In the box handed to me.

3. The child can shake, rattle, roll, and slide the box back and forth. Then the child gets to ask you one question about the contents of the box and take one guess at what the mystery item may be.

4. If the child guesses correctly, they get to open the box and keep the item. The game can be continued with a new item being loaded in the box.

5. If the child doesn't guess correctly, the item is turned over to the next player in line who repeats steps 2 and 3.



Additional Details

Some mystery item suggestions are a rubber ball, a bag of chips, candy, a small toy, a small book, etc.

"Who Am I?" Guessing Game

What You Will Need

old magazines
scissors
tape
a group of players

Getting Ready For the Game

1. Cut from the magazines pictures of objects.

2. Keep the pictures hidden from the players. Tape one picture on each child's back. Make sure that the child hasn't seen the picture on their back.

How To Play the Game

1. In turn, each child turns their back to show their picture and then is given the opportunity to ask any other child a question about the picture.

2. The answers must be 'yes' or 'no' only.

3. When the child figures out their picture, tape a new picture to their back.

4. Have the game last about 10 minutes, or until each child has guessed at least one picture.

Additional Details

- At the beginning of the game give some examples of questions to ask such as
"Am I alive? Do people eat me? Am I a hero? Do I have tires?" etc.

- If the party has a theme, use pictures related to the theme. For example a Bob the Builder party could have pictures of a hammer, a screw driver, a bulldozer, etc.

- Use pictures that are geared towards the age group playing. For example, four-year old would have a hard time guessing 'whisk'.