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Party Games for Younger Children

Toppling Tower   Children sit in a circle on the floor. Each takes it in turn to place a block on top of the preceding one to form a tower. Keep going until the tower topples! The last person to place a brick is out. For young children, keep the bricks quite large.   Sleeping Lions   Children lie on the floor. They have to be very still. An adult walks around them, trying to make their laugh (but they must not touch anyone). Any child that moves or laughs is out. The last person left wins.   Pass the Parcel   Wrap a prize in lots of layers of paper – its best to make each layer different. Children sit on the floor and as music plays, they pass the parcel around the circle. When the music stops, the child with the parcel unwraps one layer, before passing it around again once the music starts. Repeat until the last layer is removed and a child wins the prize. It’s a nice idea to put a small sweet in each layer, so every child gets something and keeps them interested.   Pin the Tail on the Donkey   Hang up a large picture of a donkey without a tail. One at a time, children are blindfolded, turned around, and given a separate tail with blutak on. They have to walk towards the picture (with help if necessary) and stick on the tail. Between goes, mark on the picture where each child stuck their tail. The winner is the child who got closest to the correct spot. The picture doesn’t have to be a donkey, but could be anything that fits in with your theme.   Bobbing Balloon   Children try to keep a balloon from touching the ground by hitting it into the air. Children just love to run around hitting the balloon, but you could have two teams competing against each other to make it into a game. The team that keeps it in the air the longest wins a prize.    Musical Chairs   Place 2 rows of chairs back to back, or facing outwards in a circle. There should be one less chair than there are children. The children walk around the chairs whilst music plays. When the music stops, the children have to sit on a chair. The child without a chair is out. Each time a child it out, remove another chair and repeat until there is only one child left – the winner. If you don’t have enough chairs, you could place pieces of newspaper around the room instead, and children have to stand on the newspaper when the music stops.   Musical Statues   Play music and children have to dance, jump, or hop around the room. When the music stops they have to freeze as they are. Any child who moves is out. After a minute or two, the music starts again and the children begin to dance again. Repeat until there is one winner.   Simon Says   An adult gives instructions to the children to do things, saying ‘Simon says’ and the children must do as they are told. The instructions could be put your hand on your head, hop around, jump up high, curl into a ball – almost anything! Every now and again the adult gives an instruction without saying ‘Simon says’, and children must not do anything. Anyone who does the action is out.   Fruit Corners   Put a large picture of a piece of fruit in each corner of the room, e.g. an orange, a banana, an apple, a cherry. Children start in the middle of the room. An adult calls out one of the fruit and children have to race to that corner. The last person there is out. The adult calls another fruit and children race to that corner. Sometimes the adult may say the same fruit, in which case children must stay where they are. For slightly older children you can also call the middle of the room ‘Fruit Basket’, and when the adult calls out Fruit Basket, they race to the middle. The last person in is the winner. You could change the fruit pictures for something which ties in to a party theme.   Ping Pong Racing   Mark a start and finish line on the floor of the room. Children start at one line with a ping pong ball and a straw. They have to race each other to the other line, blowing their ball along the floor with their straw.   More Games   Click here for more games for older children.

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