Family Reunion Games {Jeopardy!}

It’s that time of year!  Family Reunion time!  I have a great family reunion game to share today: Family Reunion Jeopardy!  It’s time to find out just how well you know your family! All it takes is a little bit of research to create this amazing family reunion game. Your family will have a great time while they learn all about their family history. You can’t go wrong!

Family Reunion Games Jeopardy

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Creating a Jeopardy game might sound daunting, but it’s much easier than you think. The first thing you need to do is to make a plan.

1. Who will your game be about?  Everyone at the reunion?  The oldest living people at the reunion?  The youngest?  My family reunion was for all the descendants of my Grandma and Grandpa, so we made the game about them.
2. Who will play the game?  We had a “Survivor” theme throughout the reunion–with the families of Grandma and Grandpa’s children playing against each other.  We let the children–those who knew Grandma and Grandpa best–compete in this game.
3. What will the categories be?  Here are ours:

• When “He” Was a Little Girl {Questions about Grandpa’s early life.}  Grandpa used to tease the grandkids and say, “When I was a little girl . . . ” instead of “When I was a little boy.”
• Sugar & Spice {Questions about Grandma’s early life.}  Grandma was a great cook, so this title fit her nicely.
• Happily Ever After {Questions about Grandma and Grandpa’s Married Life}
• Who Done It? {Guess who this funny story is about}
• You Can’t Take It With You {Things Grandma and Grandpa taught us — Contestants had to name which parent taught that lesson and give a story to go with it}

Now that you have a plan, use Excel or some other program to plan out your game board. (I know these questions and answers won’t mean anything to you.  I just wanted to show you how I did it.)  This plan will come in handy when it’s time to put the cards on the board! Now that you have a plan and questions and answers, you’ll need to decide where you will play.  I had a dry erase board that I had not yet mounted on the wall, so we used that.  I measured the space and did a little math to figure out how large each of my cards needed to be.  Then I printed them all out.  If your reunion is inside, you could even just tape everything to the wall.  If you have access to a chalkboard, magnets are really helpful! (I didn’t use fancy magnets. Those are simple round magnets with stickers on top to make them look cuter.) Except for the categories, you will need three cards for every space on your game board.  See below. Of course, you will also need buzzers!  We used cheap squeeze toys from the dollar store.  They came four to a pack, and I’m pretty sure they are probably dog toys!

Finally, you’ll need a game show host–preferably someone who’s not afraid to act like an idiot!  (Yep that’s me.  Definitely not afraid to act like an idiot.  In fact, I don’t even have to try!  It all comes very naturally.) Play is just like regular Jeopardy.

1. The first player selects a category and a point value.
2. The host reads the question, and the players buzz in to tell the answer in the form of a question.
3. If the player answers correctly, he/she earns the point value on the card.  If the player answers incorrectly, he/she loses the point value on the card and someone else gets to take a turn guessing.
4. We did not do double or final jeopardy.  When all the questions have been answered, the player with the most points wins!

Our family really had a lot of fun with this game.  I hope yours will, too!

Here are some products that might help you with your game:

Thanks for stopping by today.  While you’re here, please browse some of my other ideas!  (Images below are linked.)