'Secret Agent' party for 6yos - anyone care to come up with 'missions' for me?

[stealthsquiggle]

Pleeeeeease?

It has to be missions, not training, as apparently they "don't want to train to be secret agents, we want to just be secret agents"

so far my thoughts are:

designing/completing their own IDs
sneak up on the supervillain (grandfather's footsteps)
..and vague thoughts about some sort of dressing up race

They will be in teams (I think) and each team will be trying to find all the bits of a code which will unlock something (a box-based safe) which will contain their party bags - I was thinking of them collecting bits of jigsaws.

All inspiration welcome!

[mrsflowerpot]

We did this for ds this year (he was 7, so similar age).

We designed a spy ID card on the PC and had them all set up, then as they arrived we took their pictures wearing those fake glasses/nose things - DH scanned them into the ID card and we fingerprinted them too onto the card. They were a big hit and they were all carrying them at school on the Monday!

We did grandfather's footsteps - that was a good one.

Treasure hunt - this was fab, we did lots of clues and split them into teams (MI5, CIA and KGB but that was more for our own amusement) and they had to solve codes etc around the house and find their way to their own treasure. If anything, we made this too short as it was the hit of the party.

The blindfold game where they have to guess who is standing in front of them by touch was a 'spy instincts' game.

Pass the parcel had spy missions in the layers, that spun that one out a bit.

Code breaking one - my sister set that one up and I can't remember what she did but it was a hit. They were in teams and they had to work out the code first (not all the letters were in the key that she gave them) and then solve the code to find a prize.

If you have space, do a 'laser beam' maze with red wool - they have to get through the gaps without touching the beam. We put the tea table the other side of the maze and they went through one at a time.

Oh, we made the ID cards 3 different colours and that's how we split them into their teams - no arguing about who went in which group.

[stealthsquiggle]

Wool maze a la 'entrapment' was one I had vaguely thought of - plenty of room as we will be in a village hall - I might give that to DH as a project.

Code-breaking - could you possibly ask your sister what she did - I am struggling to decide what level to pitch it - similarly, can you recall what sort of things the 'spy missions' in the Pass the Parcel were?

Treasure hunt - down side of being in a village hall - lack of 'landmarks' to make clues from.....need to think more about this.

[mellyonion]

sounds fab!!

could you do that game where you put a number of things on a tray, let them look at it, then secretly remove one of the items and they have to guess what has gone?

how about taking pictures of obscure parts of your house..ie, a corner of a bedroom, a close up of the top of the tele etc and they have to find out where it is in the house...

how about puzzles...like who is the odd one out....with photos of film characters...like have 3 magicians and one scientist sort of thing...or 3 famous dogs, and one cat type of thing?

ummmm. will keep on thinking!

[mellyonion]

www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/break-the-code/code-2.html

[mellyonion]

www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/word-find/basic-1.html

[mrsflowerpot]

spy missions in pass the parcel were just basic forfeits really - stand on one leg to show your agility, everyone else shut their eys and you have to creep round undetected, dress up in the spy gear in less than 30 seconds (actually that's one you could spin into a game), and then just some that weren't really that secret-agenty, they don't notice after a while!

The codes, she gave them a key with pictures for letters but not all the letters of the alphabet in there, then she had a few simple phrases in code that they had to crack that would help them work out what the missing letters were. Then they had to find the full code to crack that told them where the prize was - she had them go and hunt for the full code and what I can't remember is how she got them doing that if you see what I mean, but that's not important really, you could set it up however you wanted, maybe make the initial clues point them in the right direction.

[FluffyMummy123]

Message withdrawn

[Blackduck]

DS went to a spy party early this year - one 'game' was they were in groups and had to dress one member for a mission (fancy dress), the items were scattered all over the place and they had to do it order and get the person dressed up.

[DrNortherner]

My ds is 6 and he would LOVE this party. He had a spy cake for his birthday in April which he asked for - it baffles us at first what to put on it!

[mrsflowerpot]

It was brilliant but my god it was knackering. Ideally you need a primary school teacher with a passion for laminating things (my sis) to help you out.

[stealthsquiggle]

Cake is sorted (thanks to Califrau, who found this for me

I have a magnifying glass-shaped pinata + pull kit to factor into a game somewhere.

I have just found a selection of code books etc on Amazon which I will debate with my conscience order on DH's credit card.

Party bags will be (if I can afford them) cool mini backpacks which I will stencil 'Top Secret' + DC's name onto

[stealthsquiggle]

bumping for further inspiration (it's for Cod's DS3 as well as my DS, honest )

[SoupDragon]

Treasure Hunt is a must. Easily linked into the code breaking exercise (simple symbol-for-letter codes would work, they use them on Club Penguin IIRC. You write the letters in a noughts & crosses grid, when that's full they're written in a board with a dot in each corner and then with, er, something else in the corner of each cell.
A = |
B = ||
C = |_ etc

[SoupDragon]

J would be the A symbol with a dot in it.

[stealthsquiggle]

I get the code SoupDragon - but would all 6-7yos? Actually, come to think of it, since they will be in teams, it only needs one per team to get it (and teams will be 'engineered' by me). My worry (can you tell I obsess about these things?) would be the PITA less academic ones 'disengaging' if there is too much code-breaking.

I need to recce the village hall to work out if there are enough 'landmarks' for a treasure hunt. My other thought would be for each clue to point them to an adult helper who would give them the next clue?

[spicemonster]

Could you put in landmarks? Stuff that would be easy to bring - picture on a wall, pot plant, chair, brightly coloured jacket etc. You do really need to know the lay of the land beforehand to write the clues. Having said that, if it's in one room that's going to be tricky. To avoid one group just following the one they've seen guessing the next clue, it probably makes sense to ask adult helpers to give them the next clue once they've broken the clue on the one they've got (I've always done treasure hunts for adults and you won't believe the number who cheat! )

You could mix the clues up - one could be a code breaker one, the next could be missing letters and then that spells out a word? Or a simple riddle?

[ChasingSquirrels]

these sound fantastic, it is ds1's 6th on Wed and we were just having a traditional type party with games, tea and a treasure hunt - but I am SO SO tempted to do a spy party now.

[mellyonion]

how about a game where they have to guess the person using only yes/no answers?

ie...are you male?
are you a footballer?
are you an actor?

that kind of thing....you could put names in a hat of the most obvious tv characters...basil brush/micky mouse/harry potter etc.. and take it in turns to guess eachothers name?

[IlanaK]

Sorry ,not read the whole thread, but I did this for my 7 and 4 year olds (joint party) this year and it was fab!

I asked all those coming to email a photo to me ahead of time and I made ID cards using some premade ones from Rymans. They said "Secret Agent...child's name" and looked great. The invites were made on my computer and said "will self destruct" and other spy type things.

As for games on the day:

1. a version of chinese whispers but with secret spy messages.
   
   
2. bomb disposal - lots of black balloons filled with confetti. Kids released into the room with toothpicks and pop them all.
   
   
3. target practice - water guns and a target
   
   
4. decoding a secret message - paper pieces hidden around the flat with a letter on the back of each. Find them and put them together to make a message (we had it spell out "time for food")
   
   
5. mission - sent them off with a list of questions to answer that meant they needed to go all over our block of flats
   
   HTH

[IlanaK]

Forgot to say, for party bags I did "spy kits"

I bought black sacks on ebay and stuck printed labels on with the child's name and spy kit. INside I put useful spy equipment which I mostly bought from ebay. Things like mini magnifying glasses, small measuring tapes, spy glasses, mini compasses, disguise (plastic nose/mustache/glasses thing).

I also just remembered another game we did:
we had three boxes of dressing up clothes at one end of the room. ONe had hats and head gear, one had things like tops/vests and the third had things to hold (swords, tools etc). The "spys" had to line up at one end of the room and in turn run to the other end and chose a disguise and put it on. Once they had all done this, they had to adopt disguised walks and move around the room. It was hilarious!

[stealthsquiggle]

Lots of great ideas here - thanks all.

Need to write myself a timetable. A lot of party bags, etc, is going to be decided by whether or not a planned trip to the US to buy stuff for business comes off..

[SoupDragon]

Stealthsquiggle, DS2 got the code on Club Penguin when he was between 6 & 7. I think given an example, most would catch on.

with Ilana's Bomb disposal suggestion, could you put things inside the balloon (or in one of them) that they have to find by popping the balloons??

[SoupDragon]

You could print some clues in a really tiny font so they have to use a magnifying glass found earlier on in the treasure hunt.

[stealthsquiggle]

Nice ideas Soupdragon. They could get their magnifying glasses in the pass the parcel, maybe?

I really like the popping balloons to find stuff idea, and I know they would enjoy it - I will just have to find a way of dealing with my DM, who loathes balloons being popped

Perhaps I can send her with DD (who is also not keen) to be 'busy' elsewhere and do that bit first in the room which will then be used for tea (why does life have to be so complicated?)

[Buda]

What a fab thread! Thank you! I am totally without imagination and creativity but would love to do something like this for DS. Unfortunately he had his birthday in August! Will bear in mind for next year!