Activity Instructions

Game: Jenga

Type of Game: Table Top Game

What's This?

Jenga broke into the gaming world in the 1980s when Hasbro began marketing and distributing the game. The name 'Jenga' is based on a Swahili verb meaning 'to build.' The game makes use of 54 identical small wooden blocks with each block measuring three times longer than it is wide. Jenga can be purchased with un-colored wooden blocks or multi-colored blocks.

Difficulty: Easy

Players: 2+

Equipment: Jenga game, sturdy table or other flat stable playing surface

Instructions:

  1. Set up the game for play. Layer the wooden blocks in the plastic frame that comes with the game. You do not have to use the plastic frame to set up the game but it makes it easier. Place the layer with three blocks laying side by side. Add the next layer so that each of the three blocks lays across the three blocks underneath it (each layer going the opposite direction).
  2. Continue alternating layers of blocks until all of the blocks are used.
  3. Place the tower on the table or other playing surface carefully so the blocks remain intact. Slide the plastic frame away from the blocks. You do not need it to play the game. It is only for helping you set up the blocks.
  4. Start the game by letting the person who built the tower remove the first block of her choice from anywhere under the top layer and then place the removed block on the top layer. A block is removed by carefully poking/pushing the block so that it projects out the other side of the tower. Do not allow the block to fall down. Grab the block from the other side and gently pull it out from the tower. Then, place the removed block on top of the Jenga tower going the opposite direction from the blocks that are underneath it.
  5. Take turns among participants, with each person removing and placing one block on his/her turn.
  6. The player responsible for causing the tower or any portion of the tower to fall loses the game. The last player successfully moving and placing a block before the tower fell is the official winner.