One-Minute Games With Straws

Press Pick another game for a straw game with its props and goal, then start the 60-second clock.

One-Minute Games With Straws

  1. Straw ChopsticksYou need: 2 drinking straws, 10 craft pom-poms on a plate and a cup. Goal: hold the straws like chopsticks in one hand and move the pom-poms into the cup. Eight in the cup at zero win. The other hand may hold the cup still and nothing else.
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Next step One-minute games for the family

How it works

These 29 one-minute games with straws need a box of drinking straws and little else. On Minute to Win It, a TV show, each stunt lasts 60 seconds, as here; the show did not make or approve this list.

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One box of straws

One box of straight straws covers most games, and a few bendy ones cover two more. Blow it holds 10 games: the straw is only blown through, with nothing inside it, and each player keeps their own.

Build, balance and carry

Build and balance holds 10 games, from a log cabin to a pole as tall as the player. Pick up and carry has 9, where straws work as chopsticks, hooks and tongs. Nobody has put a stopwatch on these targets, so shift each number after one try.

Tips
  • The American Academy of Pediatrics lists coins and small balls among household choking hazards for infants and young children.

Questions and answers

Do players suck anything up with the straw?

No. In every blowing game the straw is empty and air only goes out. In Finger-Cap Water Carry a fingertip holds the water in the straw. Nothing is eaten, and no game lifts anything by suction.

What else do I need besides straws?

Mostly paper cups, craft pom-poms, cotton balls, rubber bands, index cards, coins, paper clips and tape. A few games add one more thing, such as a shoelace, a key ring or a baking tray of water; each game line starts with its prop list.

Which straw games are easiest for young kids?

Easy for kids (5 and up) holds 9, such as Cup Off the Cliff, Straw Log Cabin and Straw Pick-Up Sticks. Those three use only straws and paper cups.

Which games work for teams?

Pairs, teams and the whole room holds 8: Straw Soccer and Rally of Ten for two, Down the Bench and Back and Key Ring Down the Line for four, and Circle of Straws for everyone at once.

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All 29 games

Blow it 10

  • Cup Off the Cliff You need: a drinking straw and 3 paper cups standing upside down in the middle of a table. Goal: blow through the straw to push each cup to the far edge and over it. Three cups on the floor at zero win. Hands stay behind your back, and the straw never touches a cup.
  • Down the Bench and Back You need: a drinking straw for each of four players sitting along one side of a long table, and a cotton ball. Goal: blow the ball along the table from the first player to the last and back again. Each player may blow only while the ball is in front of them. Two full trips win.
  • Drive the Drop You need: a drinking straw, a sheet of wax paper with a wavy pencil line drawn across it, and a few drops of water. Goal: put one drop on the start of the line and blow it along to the far end. A drop that splits or leaves the line by more than a finger width starts again.
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Blow it, continued

  • Five Tents Down You need: a drinking straw and 5 index cards folded in half and stood up as tents in a row, a forearm’s length from the table edge. Goal: with your chin behind the edge of the table, blow each tent over through the straw. Five down before zero win.
  • Pom-Pom Through the Straw Gate You need: a drinking straw to blow through, 2 more straws stood upright in lumps of modeling dough a hand’s width apart, and 6 craft pom-poms. Goal: from the near edge of the table, blow the pom-poms one at a time between the two posts. Five through the gate win. A post knocked flat is stood up before the next shot.
  • Rally of Ten You need: a drinking straw each, a ball of tissue the size of a grape, and a strip of tape across the middle of a table. Goal: working together, blow the ball back and forth across the tape. Ten crossings in a row without the ball leaving the table win. Count the crossings aloud.
  • Reds Left, Blues Right You need: a drinking straw, a strip of tape down the middle of a table, and 5 red and 5 blue paper circles mixed along it. Goal: blow every red circle to the left of the tape and every blue one to the right. All ten on their own side at zero win. A circle blown off the table goes back on the tape.
  • Straw Soccer You need: a drinking straw each, a cotton ball, and 2 goals marked with tape at the two ends of a table. Goal: drop the cotton ball in the middle and blow it through the other player’s goal. The first to three goals wins, or whoever leads at zero. Straws stay a hand’s width away from the ball.
  • Straw Wind for a Paper Boat You need: a drinking straw, a small folded paper boat and a baking tray with a finger’s depth of water in it. Goal: blow the boat from one end of the tray to the other and back again. Two round trips win. A boat that sinks is replaced with a dry one at the end it left from.
  • Tissue Square Hover You need: a drinking straw and one square of tissue paper the size of your palm. Goal: toss the tissue up and keep it in the air with puffs through the straw. Twenty seconds off the ground, counted aloud by the judge, win. Stand in a clear space and look where your feet are going.

Build and balance 10

  • Bendy Chain Lift You need: 8 bendy drinking straws, each bent into a hook. Goal: hook the bent neck of one straw over the next to make a hanging chain. Lift the chain by the top straw: six straws hanging free while the judge counts to three win.
  • Bridge That Carries Ten Coins You need: 2 cups standing most of a straw’s length apart, 8 drinking straws and 10 coins. Goal: lay straws from rim to rim as a bridge and set the coins on the middle of it, one at a time. Ten coins resting on the bridge at zero win. A collapse means the bridge is rebuilt.
  • Bundle Pillar Holds a Book You need: 12 drinking straws, 2 rubber bands and a paperback book. Goal: band the straws into one tight bundle, top and bottom, stand it on end and rest the book flat on top. The book stays up for a count of five with no hand near it.
  • Circle of Straws You need: a drinking straw for every player, and the players standing in a circle. Goal: each player holds a straw against the next player’s fingertip with one pointed finger, all the way around the ring. Take three steps in and three steps out together. A circle with no straw on the floor at zero wins.
  • Fingertip Straw Walk You need: 2 drinking straws and a partner. Goal: face each other and hold each straw between one of your fingertips and one of your partner’s, pressed end to end. Walk once around a chair, sit down on the floor and stand up again without dropping either straw.
  • Into the Bottle From Nose Height You need: an empty plastic bottle standing on the floor between your feet and 10 drinking straws. Goal: stand up straight, hold each straw upright at the tip of your nose and let it drop. Three straws in the bottle win. No bending at the waist.
  • Paper Clip Seesaw You need: a cup, a drinking straw laid across its rim and 8 paper clips. Goal: hang paper clips on the two ends of the straw, one at a time, without the straw sliding off the rim. Four on each end with the straw still balanced win.
  • Pole as Tall as You You need: a handful of drinking straws. Goal: pinch the end of one straw and push it into the next, and keep joining until the pole is as long as you are tall. Lie down beside it to check, then lift it by one end: it has to come up off the floor in one piece.
  • Straw Log Cabin You need: 20 drinking straws. Goal: lay two straws side by side, two more across their ends, and keep going like the walls of a log cabin. A cabin five layers high that stands while the judge counts to three wins.
  • Two Bendy Squares You need: 8 bendy drinking straws. Goal: bend each straw at its neck, pinch its short end and push it into the long end of the next. Four straws make one square. Two closed squares lying flat on the table at zero win.

Pick up and carry 9

  • Bands Over the Standing Straw You need: a drinking straw, 10 rubber bands, and a partner who holds the straw upright on the table by its base. Goal: from the other side of the table, toss the bands one at a time so that they drop over the straw. Four bands ringed win. The holder’s other hand stays under the table.
  • Eight Straws on a Shoelace You need: 8 drinking straws lying on the table and a shoelace knotted at one end. Goal: thread the lace through all eight straws using one hand, while the straws stay on the table. Lift the lace by both ends to show eight in a row.
  • Finger-Cap Water Carry You need: a drinking straw, a full glass of water, and an empty bottle cap an arm’s length away. Goal: dip the straw, cover the top end with a fingertip so the water stays in, carry it over and lift the finger. Fill the cap to the brim. Nothing goes near a mouth.
  • Fold a Napkin With Two Straws You need: 2 drinking straws and a paper napkin opened out flat on the table. Goal: using a straw in each hand and no fingers, fold the napkin in half, in half again, and then carry it across the table and lay it on a plate. A napkin that unfolds on the way is folded again where it lies.
  • Key Ring Down the Line You need: a drinking straw held in one hand by each of four players standing in a line, and a key ring. Goal: pass the ring from straw to straw down the line and back again. Hands touch only the straws. A ring that drops goes back to the first player. Two full trips win.
  • One Chopstick Each You need: one drinking straw each, 8 craft pom-poms on a plate, a cup and a partner. Goal: each player holds one straw. Pinch a pom-pom between the two straws, lift it together and drop it in the cup. Six in the cup at zero win.
  • Straw Chopsticks You need: 2 drinking straws, 10 craft pom-poms on a plate and a cup. Goal: hold the straws like chopsticks in one hand and move the pom-poms into the cup. Eight in the cup at zero win. The other hand may hold the cup still and nothing else.
  • Straw Pick-Up Sticks You need: 20 drinking straws held upright in a fist on the table and let go. Goal: lift straws out of the heap one at a time without moving any other straw. Ten lifted clean win. If another straw moves, the one in your hand goes back on the heap.
  • Tong-Stack Five Cups You need: 2 drinking straws and 5 paper cups standing upside down, spread over the table. Goal: using a straw in each hand as tongs, lift the cups one at a time and stack them into a single tower. Five stacked win. A cup that drops is picked up with the straws.

How this list was compiled: Written by the Game Night Generator editors for this page on 2026-10-03 from general knowledge of party games. We wrote every description ourselves and copied no wording from a television show or from another site's list. Party games are passed around freely, so a mechanic here may also be played elsewhere under another name. The games were written to fit about a minute. They have not been stopwatch-tested, so every target (three cups, five layers, eight pom-poms) is a starting point for the host to raise or lower. A straw here is blown through, built with or used as a tool. Nothing is sucked onto or through a straw, nothing is ever inside a straw that goes to a mouth, and nothing is eaten. Each player keeps their own straw for the blowing games. Facts read on 2026-10-03: the television show named in the introduction gives a contestant 60 seconds a game, from its English Wikipedia article; the American Academy of Pediatrics lists coins and small balls among the household items that are choking hazards for infants and children, at https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/injuries-emergencies/Pages/Choking-Prevention.aspx. Compared by script on 2026-10-03 with every other list on this site: no game name is repeated. Licence: own work