Check out our free template for Baby Jeopardy on Jeopardy Labs!
Baby Jeopardy is one of those crowd-pleaser games that can work well for various groups, from coworkers to close friends. As in the traditional Jeopardy, players choose the category and point value of a question, and the first person or a team to buzz in with correct answer gets the points! A slight twist is that questions are phrased as clues, and players need to answer in a form of a question. For example, a question would be written as “The first sense that a baby develops,” in which case the correct answer would be “What is hearing?” If that sounds like too much mental gymnastics, you can always drop that twist and use regular questions and answers instead!
Although similar to Baby Trivia in that both games are testing guests’ knowledge of all things baby, what makes this game more lively and a bit more personal is that the guests take turns picking categories and points for each question, getting a little facetime in front of the group. In addition, buzzing in as quick as you can is a fun feature of this game, which can unleash some competitive sparks and banter!
To play in person, you can use a ready-made template from JeopardyLabs, the free online Jeopardy games portal. The easiest way to set up is to pull up the template on your device, connect it to the TV so that everyone can see your screen, and you’re good to go! Alternatively, if you’re feeling crafty and don’t mind spending the time, you can make your own DIY Jeopardy board (check out this tutorial from WikiHow).
To play virtually, pull up the JeopardyLabs template on your device and share your screen during the Zoom meeting.
FREE Baby Jeopardy templates to use:
Before the shower, print out or save the screenshot with answers to the questions by clicking on “Print” from the template’s page. During the shower, open the template, select the number of teams that will be playing (you can split guests into two teams or each guest can play individually), hit “Start,” and have fun!
Playing Tips
- When playing virtually, there are several ways for players to buzz in with their answers. An easy way is to use the chat window on Zoom (or any other videocall platform). Have your players type in any character into the chat as soon as they’re ready to answer. That way you can always tell who was first, second, and so on. After the correct answer was given, the host can type in “Next Question” into the chat to serve as a divider, as the players get ready to buzz in again.
- In a traditional Jeopardy game, players who guess incorrectly lose the amount of points that the question was worth (ouch!). That rule works great if you like to keep the competition fierce. However, if you’d prefer to turn down the pressure and make the game a bit more free-flowing and lively, you could let the guests know that you will not subtract points for incorrect guesses. That way, even folks who are a bit shy would be encouraged to buzz in and have some fun!