Party goers earn points for getting the correct answer to questions about the life of the person(s) being celebrated.
How Many Participants
10 to 1000
Equipment
- Large Easel Paper or Poster Board
- Markers
- Straight edge
- File cards
The Set Up
On a large sheet of easel paper make a simple jeopardy grid with 5 to 8 boxes down and across. Along the left side write in increasing point values, i.e. 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500. Across the top create categories that fit with the celebrants life (include one other/potpourri/hodgepodge category). For example if Tina’s 50th birthday is being celebrated categories could be: Tina’s Tiny Times (the first 2 decades), “All Growd Up”, “Tina’s Travels”, “Fun with Family and Friends,” “Odd Jobs”, “Memorable Moments,” “ Fantastic Firsts”, “Tina’s Tunes”, “Seriously Studious Studies”, “Tina Trivia” …. On the front of file cards write question about the life of the celebrant(s) on the back write the answers. In the category of Tina’s Tiny Times – a question might be “The cousin that shared Tina’s crib for the first 9 months of her life.” On the back of the file card write the answer “Who is Susie Jones?” One question and answer card is created for each block on the grid. Question are gently taped to the grid putting the easiest question in the lower point boxes and the harder in the harder point box.
The party attendees are broken into two or three large groups. Each group has a spokesperson.
Game facilitators (who could be one or several people) play the following roles:
- A host: who directs the game and reads the questions.
- A judge: who decides if the answers are accurate enough
- A scorer: who keeps the score (if scoring would be fun for the group)
A timekeeping tunes is learned by all the “Jeopardy Song” or “Happy Birthday” or any other song that would be fun that gives a group 15 to 30 seconds to elicit the answer the correct answer to the question.
The Play
The spokesperson for one group chooses a category and a number- IE Tina’s Tiny Times for 600. The host pull that question of the chart and reads it out loud. The group discusses (call, shouts) their best answers as the other group sings/hums the designated timekeeping song. At the end of the song the spokesperson uses her/his best judgment to give an answer. If the answer is correct that team scores the points, if not, the next group gets a chance to “snatch the points” by getting the correct answer. Questions rotate back and forth between groups. If a group “snatches the points” they get first crack at answering the next question.
Notes
Questions can be gathered and the game can be set before the party – or party goers can be given a file card and the opportunity to create a question and answers (if so the host can collect those cards and attach them to the grid or the party-goers can make their best guess as to where on the grid their card belongs.
The goals are to connect, have fun and to celebrate the person(s) the party is being thrown for. To that end:
- As always, adapt the game to fit the moment.
- The game can be played all at once or broken up into smaller moments during a party.
- Choosing friends who have a boisterous sense of adventure, playfulness, humor, to play the host, judge, timekeeper, spokespersons will help the game flow along joyfully.
- The more questions (i.e. boxes on the grid) the longer the game – the fewer, the shorter, but play just as long as the game seems to be bringing the celebrant and the guest fun/connection.
- Sometime the host simply decides to read some of the questions and let the whole group guess the answers.
