Party games for 3-5 year olds

[HoHoHolittlepea]

Wise ones can you share your best party games for this age group.
I've got quite a lot of active ones planned but I also need a couple of ideas of head 2 head type stuff where the children can sit down for two minutes and watch a couple of them play a game. Any ideas?

I tried this with 4 and 5 year olds and it descended into chaos as the rest got board! The quieter ones that work are:
Lego / duplo build
Cake splat
Sleeping lions
Make a mummy (two teams race to wrap a child in toilet paper. This has been played from 3yo to 9yo parties!)
Finish off with a story and cake to calm them all down.

thank you 😁

Musical bumps
For turn taking:
Piñata?
Pin the tail on the donkey
Relay race? So one from each team runs down and puts a bean bag in a bucket. When they get back they sit down at the back of the line and the next one runs, until all the team have been.

The chocolate game:

• bar of chocolate on a plate with knife and fork. Hat, scarf and gloves on the table.
• kids take it in turns to roll a dice
• whenever someone gets a 6, they get to take over with the chocolate. They have to put on the hat, gloves scarf and can eat the chocolate with knife and fork

Fun, but have to warn you that it tends to descend into over-excited (and noisy!) chaos!

I find that a bit of craft works well to calm things down (which I assume is your aim, given that you are looking for less active games)

As simple as colouring people shapes or masks (have stickers and decorations available as well as pens). Or buy some sticker scenes. Or even just some print-outs are fine. I often do this at the start of a party. Children can just join as they arrive and it settles them.

Cup cake decorating also goes down very well. Provide a plain cupcake each, butter icing (choice of colours is fun) and lots of sweets and decorations. Logistically works well after the party tea, but actually it's also appealing enough to get them back to the table and sitting down.

DD and her 4-5 year group friends favourite game is duck duck goose with the added bonus being you only have 2 kids running around the outside of the circle at a time, the other 25 have to sit down.
Make a rule that no one can be duck or goose more than once so everyone gets a go.

If you are looking for craft ideas basic ‘crowns’ made from a strip of card can be decorated with colouring pens, stickers etc.
Not as messy paint and glue. We had to avoid cooking activities as lots of allergies.

And of course, pass the parcel is mandatory - even though it will almost certainly end in tears for that age group, as at least one child will struggle to pass on the parcel. Remember to put as sweet in each layer. Masks sure each child gets at least one of the early layers, then turn your back for the last one to make it properly random. (Remember the colour of your last layer!)

Simon says is also very popular and can be themed, e.g. Elsa says for Frozen, the fat conductor says for Thomas the Tank engine. For very little ones, a prop (e.g. crown or hat) can back up the phrase to make it a bit easier. Don't make it competitive, everyone stays in.

Heads and tails is quick and easy. Everyone chooses if they want to be heads (hands on heads) or tails (hands on bums). Toss a coin. Losing kids sit down, rest pick again. Continue until you get a winner. It’s too fast paced for kids to get bored so you can play a couple of times!