Children's Party Games
You can adapt any of these games to fit any holiday activity.
Chinese Whispers
Sit everyone in a circle. Whisper a long phrase to one
person. They, in turn, whisper what they heard to the
next person, and so on. The last person announces what
they heard.
Pass the Parcel
Wrap a bar of chocolate (or some other gift), in a layer of
paper. Now wrap it in another layer and repeat until you
have about 10 layers. Finally wrap it in gift paper (so it
looks nice).
Sit everyone in a circle and play a short snippet of music.
When the music stops, the person holding the parcel
removes ONE layer of wrapping. Repeat until the last
layer of wrapping has been removed.
The winner keeps the present.
The Chocolate (or Jelly) Game
Sit everyone in a circle and place a tray in the middle
with a hat, scarf, gloves, knife and fork, die and a
wrapper bar of chocolate.
In turn, players throw the die. If they throw a SIX, they
must put on the Hat, Scarfe and Gloves before they start
to unwrap the chocolate with the knife and fork, ad then
start to eat it.
To speed up the game add a second die and require a
Double SIX.
The Jelly Variation is to turn out a set jelly onto a plate
and eat it with the knife and fork.
Musical Chairs
The old favourite. With one fewer chairs than people, a
short snippet of music is played while the people move
around the room. When the music stops everyone tries to
sit on a vacant chair. (Only ONE person per chair) The
person who doesn't find a chair is out. One chair is taken
away and the game continues until only one person (The
Winner) is left.
Memory Game
On a tray, place about 10 to 15 small items (e.g. pencil,
watch, comb, shoe lace, spoon, toy car, etc.) and cover
with a cloth.
Sit everyone in a circle.
Place the tray in the middle of the circle and remove the
cloth for 60 seconds. Everyone has to remember the
objects. When the time is up, replace the cloth.
In turn, each person has to name an object on the tray.
The first person to fail to name an object, repeat an object
or name something not on the tray is out. The tray is then
removed and some or all of the objects replaced, and the
game re-started with the person following the one who is
out. If the game is too easy for the group, add more
objects or reduce the time.
Musical Statues
This is like Musical Chairs, but when the music stops, the
players have to keep still. Anyone who moves, quivers,
shakes etc is out. The winner is the last one still playing.
Listen and Move
Place party shapes on the floor in a circle. For example if
your theme is Knights the shapes could be shields,
swords, and castles. Children walk around circle while
listening to music. If the music is loud the children move
fast. If the music is quiet the children move slow. If the
music stops, the children stop on the closest shape.
Young children like to play it this way.
To make it more challenging for older children have 1
less shape than the number of children. Continue remove
shapes as the children are 'out'.
Port and Starboard
On the command (from the list below) the children have
to do the appropriate action. After a while, start
removing the last player to comply, untill only one
remains.
• Port (Run to one side tof the area)
• Starboard (run to the other side)
• Captains Comming Aboard (Stand to attention
and Salute)
• Submarines (Lie on the floor)
• Hoist the Mainsail (run on the spot - like climing
the rigging)
• Mess Deck (Sit cross legged on the floor - ready
for lunch)
• Davey Jones (Climb a tree, stanbd on a chair -
anything so that you are not on the floor)
• Up Periscope (Stand up straight and old hands to
eyes as though looking through binoculars)
Mummies
Split the patry goers into teams of three and give each
team a toilet roll. Two persons then wrap the third in the
toilet roll so that they look like an Egyptian Mummy.
The winning team is the one who in a set time (say 2
minutes) have the neatest and most covered Mummy.
Stations
Everyone stands a circle (except one who is standing in
the middle) and has been told to remember a different
station name. The person in the middle calls out two
names. The stations have to change places quickly,
before the person in the middle can get to one of the
empty spaces. Who ever is left without a place is the
person in the middle for the next game.
Pass the Orange
Arrange for teams of about 8 to stand in a line, one
behind the other (arranged boy, girl, boy,...). Give each
team an orange which the first person should tuck under
his chin. This should be passed to the person behind.
When the orange gets to the last person, they come to the
front of the line and start again. The winnnig team is the
first one which gets their starting person to the front
again.
Sleeping Pirate
All the children (except one - The Pirate) sit Cross
Legged on the floor in a circle. The pirate sites Crosslegged
in the middle of the circle, blind-folded, with a
large bunch of keys on the floor in front of him.
A child is nominated to creep up and take the keys and
then return to their place, without the pirate hearing
them. The Pirate has three goes to point to where he
thinks the raider is. If he is sucessful, the raider becomes
the Pirate.
Balloon Pop
Place notes inside un-inflated balloons,1 or 2 of the notes
should indicate that this balloon is a winner. Inflate the
balloons and hang them around. Let each child pick a
balloon then pop it to see if their note is a winner.
Balloon Relay
Divide the children into 2 or more equal teams and stand
them in a line. Give each team ten balloons in a basket.
The first in each line takes a balloon and runs to the other
side of the room/yard/area and sits or stomps on the
balloon to pop it. After poping the balloon they run back
to the line and tag the next person who does the same
thing. The game goes on until one team has poped all of
their balloons. The winning team gets a small prize (like
a ribbon) while EVERYONE gets a small toy.
Toy Walk
This is done like a cake walk. Have numbers on the
ground for as many children (1-10). Walk on the
numbers until the music stops. Have numbers on some
small toys. If a child is standing on the number of the
toy, they win the toy.
Whistling Crackers
You give every child 3 soda crackers. When you say
"GO" every child puts all the crackers at once in his/her
mouth. The first one to whistle wins. (You can also
substitute the soda crackers with peanut butter but make
sure there are no Allergies).
Can You Guess
Put several small items into a brown paper bag. Blindfold
one person and hand them one of the items in the bag.
Give them a few seconds to guess what the item is. If
they are unsuccessful they are out. The last one wins.
Stuck in the Mud
One person is 'IT' and has to run round touching as many
people aas they can. When they have touched someone,
that person has to stop and stand with their legs apart and
their hands outstreached, until someone crawls through
their legs. If you've been caught three times, then you are
out. The game ends when everyone left is standing still.
Ducky Ducky
Everyone sits in a circle except one who is given a pillow
and blind-fold. They then go and place the pillow on a
persons lap, sit on it and say ducky ducky. The person
should say"quack quack" this can be done only 3 times.
If the blind person guesses the name the person, they
should now be given the blind fold and the game run over
again - after everyone has changed their places.
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