Winter One-Minute Games With Mittens, Scarves and Snowballs

Choose mittens, scarves, snowballs or paper, and the page deals a winter game with no holiday in it and runs the 60 seconds.

Winter One-Minute Games With Mittens, Scarves and Snowballs

  1. Five Knots, One HandYou need: a long scarf and one hand. Goal: tie 5 separate overhand knots along the scarf using one hand only, with the other hand behind your back. The table, your knee and your chin may help. Each knot has to be snug enough to survive a shake at zero.

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Winter One-Minute Games With Mittens, Scarves and Snowballs: how it works

These 39 winter one-minute games use what the cold brings indoors: mittens, scarves, cotton-ball snow and a tray of ice cubes. None needs a holiday, so a class that skips Christmas can play them all. New game deals one and Start timer counts the 60 seconds. The TV show Minute to Win It made the format famous. These games are ours.

Run a round on a snow day

Start with the props you already have. Mittens and gloves has 12 games, and Snowballs and ice cubes has 10, played with cotton balls or crumpled paper. Then untick Next one automatically. Left ticked, it swaps the game at zero, while the class is still counting.

Plan a class party at size 5

Set the size to 5 for a party plan. Lock keeps a game while New games redeals the rest. At a desk, no running has 15 one-minute winter games for a full classroom, and Pairs, teams and the whole class has 17. Print the five for whoever brings the props.

Tips

  • One bag covers nearly everything: four pairs of mittens, three long scarves, 100 cotton balls and a tray of ice cubes.
  • The CDC advises children not to share hats and scarves, because of head lice. Each player wears their own.
  • A scarf is held, tucked or draped, never tied around a neck. Ice games stay on a plate over a towel.

Questions and answers

Are these games from the show Minute to Win It?

They are not, and this site has nothing to do with the show. It first aired on NBC in the United States in March 2010, a game show that gives contestants 60 seconds for each challenge with household objects. Our 39 winter games were made up for this page. No stopwatch has checked them, so adjust a target after round one.

Can a class that skips Christmas use these winter themed one-minute games?

Yes, the list was written for that class. It is about cold weather and nothing else: mittens, scarves, snowballs, ice, penguins, sled dogs and curling. No game uses a holiday prop, a holiday song or food. Cut a Matching Pair, Six-Point Snowflake and Roll a Snowman need only paper, pencils, crayons, safety scissors and a die.

Which games teach something about winter?

Several carry a checked fact. Six-Point Snowflake works because snow crystals have six arms. Ice Fishing With Salt works because salt lowers the freezing point of water, and the melt refreezes around the string. Emperor Penguin Shuffle copies the male emperor penguin, who balances the egg on his feet. Bottle Cap Curling borrows the house, the button and the eight stones from curling.

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All 39 games

Mittens and gloves 12

  • Bundle Up, Bundle Down You need: a partner, and each player's own zip-up coat, knit hat, scarf and mittens on a chair. Goal: the first player puts everything on, coat zipped, then takes it all off again and tags the second player, who does the same with their own things. Both bundled up and back down inside the minute wins. A scarf is draped over the shoulders and never knotted.
  • Draw It in Mittens You need: paper, a marker, a pair of mittens and 6 winter words on slips, such as igloo, sled, icicle, snowman, penguin and ice skate. Goal: wearing both mittens, draw the words one at a time for your team to guess. Three words guessed wins. No letters, no numbers and no talking from the artist. Passing is allowed.
  • Emperor Penguin Shuffle You need: a rolled pair of mittens for an egg and a line of tape ten feet away. Goal: rest the egg on top of your feet, heels together, and shuffle to the line and back without it touching the floor. A dropped egg goes back on where it fell. A male emperor penguin balances the real egg on his feet for more than two months.
  • The Kittens' Lost Mittens You need: 8 pairs of mittens or gloves from the coat rack, pulled apart and mixed in one heap, and 8 clothespins. Goal: as a pair, match every mitten to its partner and clip each pair together. All eight pairs clipped wins. In the old rhyme the three little kittens lose their mittens and then find them again.
  • Mitten Ice Tower You need: a bowl of ice cubes, a plate on a folded towel and a pair of mittens. Goal: wearing both mittens, stack 5 ice cubes into one tower on the plate that stands for a count of three. The cubes get slipperier as they melt, so waiting makes it harder. Keep the ice off wooden tables.
  • Mitten Page Turn You need: a paperback and a pair of mittens. Goal: wearing both mittens, open the book at page 1 and turn one leaf at a time until you reach page 41. Two leaves turned together means going back one. No licking a mitten, and library books sit this one out.
  • Mittens on a String You need: 2 mittens tied to the ends of 5 feet of yarn, and a partner wearing a zipped jacket. Goal: feed one mitten up a sleeve, across the back inside the jacket and down the other sleeve, so that a mitten hangs at each cuff. The jacket stays zipped, and the wearer may wriggle but may not use their hands.
  • One-Thumb Windshield Scrape You need: a mini whiteboard scribbled solid with dry-erase marker before the game, and one old mitten. Goal: wearing the mitten, scrape the whole board clean using only your thumb, the way a windshield gets cleared on a frosty morning. The judge holds the board up to the light at zero, and a streak wider than a pencil loses. The ink will not wash out of the mitten.
  • Six Hats, Two Mittens You need: 6 clean knit hats from your own household and a pair of mittens. Goal: wearing both mittens, pull all six hats onto your own head, one over another, so that every hat covers the one before. They have to stay on while you take a bow. At school, stretch them over a playground ball instead, because hats are not for sharing.
  • Stuff the Mitten You need: one adult-size mitten and a bowl of 50 cotton balls. Goal: using one hand, push cotton balls into the mitten one at a time until 40 are inside, thumb included. The other hand may hold the mitten open but may not push. Count them back out loud afterwards, by tens for a kindergarten class.
  • Turn Six Gloves You need: 6 knitted gloves with fingers. Goal: turn all six inside out, with every finger pushed right through, and lay them flat in a row. A finger left tucked inside means that glove does not count. Turning them back the right way makes a fair round for the next player.
  • Zip Five Coats in Mittens You need: 5 winter coats with zippers, unzipped and hung on chair backs, and a pair of thick mittens. Goal: wearing both mittens, zip all five coats right to the top. A zipper that stops halfway does not count. In a classroom, use the students' own coats, and each player who finishes hands the mittens to the next.

Scarves and knit hats 7

  • Five Knots, One Hand You need: a long scarf and one hand. Goal: tie 5 separate overhand knots along the scarf using one hand only, with the other hand behind your back. The table, your knee and your chin may help. Each knot has to be snug enough to survive a shake at zero.
  • Gee and Haw Dog Team You need: 2 long scarves knotted together for a gangline, four dogs holding it in two pairs, a musher holding the tail end and two chairs set ten feet apart. Goal: walk a figure of eight around the chairs and back to the start. The dogs turn only on the musher's calls: gee for right and haw for left, the old drivers' words. Nobody lets go of the line.
  • Scarf Sit and Stand You need: a partner of about your size and one strong woven scarf, on carpet. Goal: face each other, each holding an end in both hands, lean back until the scarf is tight, then sit down and stand up together 5 times. The scarf never goes slack and no hand touches the floor. Go slowly, and agree a word that means stop.
  • Scarf Tail Snatch You need: a scarf for every player, tucked into the back of the waistband so that most of it hangs free, and a marked-off space. Goal: on go, snatch other players' tails while guarding your own. Anyone still wearing a tail at zero wins. Tuck the scarf in and never tie it, walk fast instead of running, and no grabbing clothes.
  • Tandem Scarf Skis You need: a partner, 2 long scarves laid flat side by side on carpet and a line of tape ten feet away. Goal: stand one behind the other, left feet on one scarf and right feet on the other. The front player holds up the front ends and the back player holds up the back ends. Walk the skis to the line in step. A foot off a ski sends you back to the start.
  • Two-Scarf Chase You need: everyone sitting in a circle and 2 scarves in different colors, which start on opposite sides. Goal: when a scarf reaches you, wind it twice around your forearm, unwind it and pass it to the left. Each scarf is chasing the other. A scarf that catches up, so that one player holds both, wins for the half of the circle it started in. No skipping a wind and no throwing.
  • Walking Scarf Braid You need: 3 long scarves tied by one end to a chair back, and three players holding one loose end each. Goal: braid the scarves by walking. The left player crosses in front to the middle, then the right player crosses to the middle, and so on. Eight clean crossings with no tangle wins. Hold the scarves at waist height.

Snowballs and ice cubes 8

  • Clear Your Side You need: 30 sheets of white scrap paper crumpled into snowballs, a line of tape across the middle of the room and two teams with 15 snowballs each. Goal: throw snowballs over the line as fast as they arrive. The side with fewer snowballs on its floor at zero wins. Underarm throws below the shoulders, paper only, and everyone freezes at zero.
  • Ice Fishing With Salt You need: a bowl of cold water with 6 ice cubes floating in it, a foot of cotton string, a salt shaker and a plate. Goal: lay the end of the string across a cube, sprinkle salt over it, wait about ten seconds and lift. Land 3 cubes on the plate. The salt melts a little ice, the water refreezes around the string and the cube comes up with it.
  • Nose Plow You need: a cotton ball each and two strips of tape eight feet apart on a clean floor. Goal: on hands and knees, push your cotton ball from one tape to the other using only your nose. Blowing is not allowed, and a ball touched by a hand goes back to the start. Everyone keeps their own cotton ball and bins it afterwards.
  • Ruler Snow Plow You need: 30 cotton balls scattered over a desk, a 12-inch ruler and a sheet of paper at one end for the snowbank. Goal: holding the ruler on its edge like a plow blade, push every cotton ball onto the paper. Hands touch only the ruler. Snow that falls off the desk has to be plowed again from the far end.
  • Shovel the Sidewalk You need: 20 cotton balls along a strip of tape on the floor, a square of stiff cardboard for a shovel and a bucket at the far end. Goal: scoop the snow up with the cardboard, never with your fingers, carry it to the bucket and tip it in. All 20 in the bucket wins. One hand on the shovel and the other behind your back.
  • Snowball Long Throw You need: 3 cotton balls, a throwing line and a strip of tape eight feet away. Goal: throw a cotton ball past the tape, with three tries. It is harder than it sounds, because a cotton ball weighs almost nothing and stalls in the air. Overarm, underarm and spinning throws are all legal, and squeezing the ball tight first is good thinking.
  • Snowball Sums You need: a sheet of scrap paper and a pencil for every student. Goal: write one sum on your sheet, such as 7 + 8, and crumple it. On go, everyone lobs their snowball underarm into the middle of the room, picks up another, writes the answer, crumples it and lobs again. Answering 3 snowballs before zero wins. Swap the sums for times tables or spelling words to suit the grade.
  • Ten Drifts of Ten You need: 100 cotton balls in a bag and a partner. Goal: deal the cotton balls into 10 piles of 10 across the desk. At zero the judge picks any two piles and counts them, and both have to hold exactly ten. Counting all ten piles by tens, out loud, is the check for a kindergarten class.

Paper, pencils and dice 6

  • Bottle Cap Curling You need: 8 plastic bottle caps for stones, a long table and a house drawn on paper at the far end: a ring as wide as a saucer with a dot, the button, in the middle. Goal: slide the caps one at a time from your edge. Three stones lying in the house at zero wins. Knocking a stone out is fair. In curling each team plays eight stones an end.
  • Cut a Matching Pair You need: a sheet of paper, a pencil, safety scissors and 2 crayons. Goal: fold the paper in half, trace around your hand in a mitten shape, thumb out and fingers together, and cut through both layers. Then give both mittens the same three stripes. A pair that matches when the judge lays one on the other wins.
  • Relay Snowman You need: a whiteboard or a big sheet of paper on the wall, one marker and a team lined up six feet back. Goal: each player walks up, draws one kind of part and hands the marker on: the three snowballs, the hat, the eyes, the carrot nose, the mouth, the stick arms, the buttons and the scarf. Eight turns and a finished snowman wins. Cap the marker for every handover.
  • Roll a Snowman You need: a die, paper and a pencil for each player. Goal: roll and draw. A 1 is the bottom snowball, 2 the middle, 3 the head, 4 the hat, 5 the stick arms and 6 the face. The body is drawn from the ground up, so you need a 1 before a 2 and a 2 before a 3. A finished snowman wins.
  • Six-Point Snowflake You need: a square of thin paper and safety scissors. Goal: fold the square corner to corner into a triangle, fold that triangle in thirds, snip shapes out of the edges and unfold a snowflake with six arms. Folding in quarters gives four or eight arms, and a real snow crystal has six. The judge counts the arms at zero.
  • Snow Plus One You need: paper and a pencil each. Goal: write down words that begin with snow, such as snowball, snowman and snowplow. Eight real words wins, and those three examples do not count. A dictionary settles arguments. For second grade and below, go around the room saying them out loud and count as a class.

Winter sports and snow play 6

  • Four-Seat Bobsled You need: four players sitting in a line on a smooth floor, knees bent, each holding the shoulders of the player in front, and a finish line of tape ten feet ahead. Goal: scoot the whole sled over the line without breaking the chain. The front player is the pilot and calls the rhythm, and the back player is the brakeman, as in a real four-man crew.
  • Lace the Skate You need: a boot or a high-top sneaker with at least 6 pairs of eyelets, and its lace pulled right out. Goal: lace it criss-cross through every eyelet, put it on and tie a bow that holds when you stamp. A skipped eyelet means unlacing back to it. It is the first job at any ice rink.
  • Six-Arm Human Snowflake You need: six players, clear floor and a judge holding a phone camera high. Goal: lie on your backs with all six pairs of feet together in the middle and heads pointing out like spokes, evenly spaced, then stretch your arms wide until you touch fingertips with both neighbors. Hold still for a count of five. Snow crystals grow six arms, which is why it takes six of you.
  • Ski Jump Landing You need: a takeoff line of tape and a second tape four feet ahead, on carpet or grass. Goal: jump from two feet, land past the second tape and hold the landing for a count of three, with one foot ahead of the other, knees bent and arms out to the sides. Three held landings wins. Move the far tape closer for small jumpers, and jump in shoes or bare feet, never in socks.
  • Slow Melt Snowman You need: the phone propped where every player can see the clock. Goal: stand tall as a snowman with your arms out, then melt. Keep moving the whole time, as slowly as you can, and be flat on the floor exactly at zero. Stop moving, or arrive early, and you are a puddle and out. The last snowman to touch down wins.
  • Twenty Carpet Snow Angels You need: a clear patch of carpet for each player and a partner to count. Goal: lie on your back and make 20 full snow angels. One angel is both arms swept from your sides to above your head and back, while your legs go out and in. Half sweeps do not count. Leave an arm's length between players.

How this list was compiled: Written by the Game Night Generator editors for this page on 2026-09-18 from general knowledge of playground, classroom and parlor games. Every description is in our own words, and no game name or wording is taken from a television show or from another site's list. The list is about winter and not about any holiday: there are no candy canes, ornaments, bells, bows, stockings or carols here, and no food at all, so a classroom that skips the holidays can use every game. No game repeats one from the one-minute game timer page or from another one-minute page on this site: where a mechanic is shared (a tower, a slide, a matching heap), the props are this page's own mittens, scarves, cotton or paper snowballs and ice. Each game was written to be playable in about a minute. The games have not been stopwatch-tested, so every target (5 coats, 40 cotton balls, 3 ice cubes) is a starting point for the host to raise or lower. Screened line by line for the clean-deck rule and for safety: a scarf is draped, tucked or held and never knotted around a neck, hats and scarves that are worn are the player's own, throws are paper or cotton only, and ice stays on a plate. Facts checked on 2026-09-18: the six-fold symmetry and six arms of snow crystals from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake; the male emperor penguin balancing the egg on his feet for about 65 to 75 days from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_penguin; the house, the button at its center and eight stones for each team in an end from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curling; the four-man crew of a pilot, a brakeman and two pushers from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobsleigh; the kittens losing and finding their mittens from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Little_Kittens; salt lowering the freezing point of water from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freezing-point_depression, and the string, salt and ten-second wait of the ice cube trick from https://www.sciencefun.org/kidszone/experiments/ice-fishing/; the words musher and gangline from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushing, and gee for a turn to the right and haw for a turn to the left from https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gee and https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/haw; the advice not to share clothing such as hats, scarves and coats, because of head lice, from https://www.cdc.gov/lice/about/head-lice.html. Licence: own work