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Valentines Minute to Win It Games
If you hadn’t guessed it already, I love minute to win it games. Why? Because they’re typically inexpensive, easy enough that all ages can play but fun for both kids and adults, and they’re short and sweet. My son’s school has three parties a year – Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and end of the year. A few years ago we did some of these Valentine’s Day games for kids and the year before that we did some of these other Valentine’s Day party games. And of course, Valentine’s Day bingo – bingo is always a hit with the kids! Instead of doing something we’ve already tried for this year’s party, I thought it’d be fun to come up with something new. So this year we’re doing these Valentines minute to win it games – all using basic conversation hearts you can get at the grocery store during Valentines season. Don’t worry if you’re not looking for games for kids or a classroom party, these games work for all ages. I played with my son, my teenage nephews, my adult siblings, and even my parents and everyone had a blast! Just make sure to read my notes for making the games harder/easier in the game descriptions below!
How to Play These Minute to Win It Valentine Games
You can play all of these games or just pick a few. Play them minute to win it style or don’t. If you’re going to play these minute to win it style, you’ll want to choose one of the three options for play: Want more help on setting up a minute to win it games? My minute to win it games guide has way more details including what type of group the above scenarios are best for, scoring rules, a free printable scorecard and more.
Minute to Win It Valentines Games
Alright, time to get to the games! I’ve included how to play each game, what you’ll need for the game, what age its best for you, and a note to make it easier/more challenging as applicable. One note – the supplies listed for each game are based on one person playing the game. If you are doing the head to head or team challenge mentioned above, make sure you have one set of the supplies listed for each person playing.
1 – Eat Your Heart Out
What you’ll need:
Plain (not frosted) cupcake Cupcake frosting Conversation hearts Paper plate Plastic cup
Remove the top center part of the cupcake (you could use a cool tool like this to do it or just do it by hand) and set aside. Place a conversation heart in the middle of the cupcake then put the top part back on. Frost and decorate the cupcake like normal. How to Play: Give the player one of the cupcakes with the heart inside on a paper plate. Player must eat their way to the cupcake with no hands trying to find the conversation heart. Once they find it, they must put it in the plastic cup to finish the game. Change it Up: Too easy for adults? Add some sort of filling into the middle of the cupcake with the conversation heart. Pudding, cream, jelly, etc. It’s harder to find a little heart in the middle of filling than a cupcake.
2 – Heart to Heart
What you’ll need:
Five conversation hearts
How to Play: Player must stack five conversation hearts end to end (not laying down) up and have them stand for three seconds to win. Change It Up: Make it more challenging for adults by increasing the number of conversation hearts they have to stack. Playing with really young kids, let them make a pyramid or stack the hearts on their flat side.
3 – Pour Your Heart Out
What you’ll need:
Five conversation hearts – make sure they only have sayings on one side, not both sides. Sweetheart Hearts for instance are perfect for this. Plastic cup
How to Play: Give the player a cup with five conversation hearts inside. To play, the player must roll the conversation hearts out like dice and try to get all of them to land words side up (see why you need one-sided hearts not double-sided??). If they don’t, they must put the hearts back into the cup and roll again. Keep rolling until you get all of them words side up. Change It Up: Make it easier for kids by giving them ten conversation hearts and a cup. When they roll, they can move aside any hearts with words face up and just put the other hearts back in the cup and roll those again. Keep rolling until they get all ten with words face up.
4 – Tug at Your Heartstrings
What you’ll need:
Twenty different conversation hearts – four of five different colors (e.g., four blue, four green, four pink, four purple, four yellow). A short piece of string A plastic cup
How to Play: Give the player the cup and piece of string with all of the conversation hearts inside. To play, player must pour the hearts out of the cup onto the table in front of them then use the string only (can’t touch the hearts with anything but the string) to sort all of the hearts into groups by color. Change It Up: Make it easier for younger kids by giving them less hearts or simply getting rid of the string and having them sort the hearts with their fingers, kind of like the M&M sorting game in these fall party games.
5 – Heart On Your Sleeve
What you’ll need:
Eight conversation hearts
How to Play: Player must hold their arm out and stack eight conversation hearts on top of each other on top of their arm/sleeve. Change It Up: Make it easier for younger kids by decreasing the number of hearts to stack.
6 – Jar of Hearts
What you’ll need:
Glass jar (I used a cookie jar like this one) Bag of conversation hearts Ping pong balls Valentine’s Day bucket (or any bucket, bowl, or container)
How to Play: Dump the bag of conversation hearts into the glass jar and place the jar at the end of a table. Place the ping pong balls in the bucket and place them on the opposite side of the table. Player must bounce ping pong balls across the table and get it to land in the jar. Change It Up: Make it more difficult for adults by increasing the number of ping pong balls they must get in the jar in a minute or putting the jar further away from the player.
7 – Have a Heart
What you’ll need:
Plates Conversation Hearts Straws (not the paper ones that suck…ha!) Valentine’s Day bucket (or any bucket, bowl, or container)
How to Play: Put the conversation hearts on the plate at one end of a table. Place the bucket at the other end. Give the player a straw. To play, player must use the straw to transport the heart from the plate to the bucket at the other end of the table simply by sucking it up. Change It Up: Make it easier for younger kids by placing the bucket (or simply another plate) right next to the first plate so they just have to transfer it a few inches, not a few feet.
8 – Heart of Dixie
What you’ll need:
Six little Dixie cups Conversation hearts Water
How to Play: Fill the the Little Dixie cups half way with water (this will keep them from moving/getting knocked over) and place them in a pyramid formation at the end of a table – 3 further away, 2 next, and 1 closest to the other end of the table. Place a bowl of conversation hearts at the other end of the table. Player must toss the conversation hearts from their end of the table and try to land them in the Little Dixie cups at the other end. Player must toss them in all six cups to win. Change It Up: Make it easier for younger kids by moving the Little Dixie cups closer and requiring them to make just one heart in any of the cups.
9 – Heart in the Right Place
What you’ll need:
Conversation hearts Pair of wood chopsticks (make sure the ends are squared off/flat, not rounded) Valentine’s Day bucket (or any bucket, bowl, or container)
How to Play: Put the bucket at one end of the table and the hearts and chopsticks at the other. To play, player must put one chopstick in each hand (can’t hold them in one hand like regular chopsticks) and transfer the heart from their end of the table into the bucket at the other end. If they drop the heart, they must go back to their original end of the table and start again. Change It Up: Make it easier for younger kids by placing the bucket (or simply another plate) right next to their conversation hearts so they just need to move it a few inches not across the table.
10 – Heavy Heart
What you’ll need:
Kitchen scale Plastic cup Conversation hearts Valentine’s Day bucket (or bowl)
How to Play: Put the conversation hearts into the bowl and put the bowl and the cup at one end of a table. Put the scale at the other end of the table. To play, player must fill up the cup with enough conversation hearts (including the weight of the cup) to weigh 2 ounces, give or take .1 ounces (so within the range 1.9 to 2.1 ounces). You could also do 3 oz, 4 oz, etc. if you want to make it a bit more challenging. Once player thinks they have the correct amount of hearts they must go put the cup on the scale (without looking at the scale). Someone who is not playing will look at the scale and tell them if they cup is too heavy or light. If it’s too heavy or light, they must go back to the bowl of hearts and try again. Continue weighing their cup until they get it within the correct weight range. Change It Up: Make it easier for younger kids by letting the kids see the scale and how much the cup weighs each time (so they know how far off they are) instead of just being told too heavy or light.
11 – Listen to Your Heart
What you’ll need:
Cups (optional – with lids) Conversation hearts Blindfold (optional – only need if you don’t have lids) Sharpie marker
How to Play: This is one of the most fun Christmas games if you do it with jingle bells! Place different amounts of conversation hearts into each of the cups and put the lids on the cups and put them in order of the most to the least hearts inside. Write the number of the cup’s spot in order on the bottom of the cup with the Sharpie so you know the correct answer. To play, mix up the cups and put them in front of the player. Player must simply shake, weigh, and feel the cups to put the cups in order from the most hearts to the fewest inside. No taking off the lids or pouring out the cups. They have one minute to make their order guess and if they’re correct, they win. Note: If you don’t want to get lids for the cups, simply blindfold the player so they can’t see what’s inside. Change It Up: Make it easier for younger kids by playing with cups with no tops and no blindfold. They still can’t dump out and count the hearts inside the cups but they can look into the cups and see how many hearts are inside (15 vs 20 can still be visually similar).
More Valentines Minute to Win It Games
Need more games to play with conversation hearts? Try any of these!
Minute to Win It Prize Ideas
Make sure you have prizes for your winners – either individual winners or teams! If you’re doing individual game winners, you could do bigger prizes. If you’re doing teams, do something they can split like a bag of candy or a a basket full of small little prizes they can share. Here are some prize ideas to get you started!
Valentine Bingo Prize Ideas for Kids
Valentine’s Day Stickers Valentine’s Day bag filled with treats/favors Bag of Cupid Farts (cute candy that kids will LOVE) Valentine’s Day slap bracelets
Valentine Bingo Prize Ideas for Adults
Godiva (or any other) chocolate Spa gift basket Valentine’s Day Gift Basket like this one The Man Can (gift basket for men) Heart Jewelry
More Valentine’s Day Party Ideas
Valentines Day Bingo Valentine memory game printable Valentine party games 30+ Valentines Day games Valentine’s Day scavenger hunt