Don't Eat Pete
Here is a simple activity that has been used in our Family Home Evenings many times. "Don't Eat Pete" is a very simple game played with M&Ms on a tic tac toe style board. Of course the reward is getting to eat the M&Ms and every chocolate lover is excited about that.
We have always just made our own Don't Eat Pete board on a piece of paper and ours is very simple. Here is an example.
Of course you can get as creative as you want and I have even seen a book published that had several fun boards to choose from, but we have always just kept it simple.
To set up the game.
- Put one M&M in each of the nine squares
- Decide who will go first and have that person cover their eyes while everyone else decides which M&M will serve as "Pete". You can't choose the one on the smiley face.
- Now that Pete has been identified, the person playing will open their eyes and proceed to pick up one M&M at a time.
- When the person tries to pick up the M&M identified as Pete, everyone yells "Don't Eat Pete!" and that is the end of their turn.
- If the person is lucky enough to pick up all the other M&Ms before Pete, then they get to pick up Pete too!
It is always best to start with the Smiley face first to guarantee that you receive at least one M&M on your turn. Of course this game can be played with many other types of snacks, but I prefer Peanut Butter M&Ms
Variation
One of my daughters doesn't like the yelling in the game, so my wife created an alternative with gold fish crackers and paper cups. She takes nine really small paper cups and fills one of them full of fishys. She places them all upside down and says:
Fishy, fishy in the sea,The child has three chances to lift the cup with all the fishys underneath.
Where oh where can you be
