Animal experience party cancelled last minute, help me entertain 18 children!!

[Nichebitch]

So after a hard year I decide to splurge on an animal experience where a company brings small animals to dd (8y old) birthday party, for all the children to see and some to be handled. Everyone is super excited, activity printed on invites, etc - they called me today to cancel. The party is this Saturday, I called everyone but it’s of course too late to book anything else. They’re going to be disappointed but I still have to do something to entertain! What do I do? This is a group of 18 children

Water fight with balloons, adults have super soakers, water games eg team of five with a bucket each and a cup, running relay with a full cup and timed, team with most water in at end wins etc etc

treasure hunt linked to children’s interests, you write poem clues and kids find prizes along the way eg frogs/dragons/pirates/mermaids, if at home properly bury the treasure.

You could be next level awesome and have grown ups come in dressed as different animals in onesies and teach the children funny dances or animal impersonations eg chickens laying eggs, then throw cream eggs at them or pretend poop then out

Had you booked a hall or something for the animals to visit? You could get a bouncy castle.

Could someone do a puppet show?

Have you also booked a hall? If so a possibility is a nerf gun party or at bouncy castle if all else fails?

Call your local animal shelter and see if you can do a tour?

Google bouncey castle companies or children’s entertainment companies you may be able to get one last minute

Something at a zoo or farm instead? I have no idea how much that would cost in comparison. Presumably a lot more but maybe worth checking ?

buy rolls of wallpaper lining paper, roll across the floor and tape down with masking tape, get children to draw all over it/paint on hands or feet and cover it/roll across it

floor is larva with a giant obstacle course, depending on where you are and your tolerance for the crazy

if you’re not adverse to mess, silly string and toilet roll wrapping up of people is always fun

gingerbead man decorating but with animal biscuits

do you have anyone who has a cute dog? You could recreate a mad science lab where hey play with slime, then presend to create the perfect pet by pouring slime over a puppy toy then put it in a cupboard and your friend walk out with a dog, I did this recently with my class and it was hilarious, they loved it

tshirt decorating with material pens or sharpies, could also do it with strips of material from a torn up bedsheet (boys seem to love making bandannas?!)

water balloon pass the parcel, when the music stops you pop the balloon. can also do it with confetti’s or glitter filled balloons if u don’t want them to get wet

Go to the farm, my DC had a party there, it was £10pp including food which I thought was a great price.

If you’ve hired a hall I would try and get an entertainer, there must be one available.

Bulk buy nerf guns for the party and everyone takes one home as the party bag present.

Sorry I should have said! I have a venue booked, and they don’t allow bouncy castles. It’s a hall in a community centre.
taking notes of all the ideas so far! Thank you

That is terrible, I hope they have offered some compensation as well as the refund?

My kids love that party game where you put hat scarf and gloves on and chop up a bar of chocolate with fork and knife, when you roll a 6?

Will you be at home or elsewhere? Inside or outside? You could buy glitter face paint pens and temporary tattoos and let the children decorate themselves, or blank masks if they are crafty.

Mug or plate painting, nerf gun battles, capture the flag?

I used to love the game where there was a colour on each corner of the room, we’d play some music and when it stopped you had to run to a corner, then the adult with their eyes closed would say a colour eg blue corner and you’d be out. Repeated till only two ppl were left and it was a battle between the champions.

If you decide to lead games I’d invest in a whistle and set boundaries at the start eg when I close the whistle once that means go or stop, if you hear it you must stop, let’s practice…go!…stop!! And make sure u get them to tidy up at the end by investing in sweets to throw at them as prizes and have one hidden somewhere they’d only find at the end if they tidy well eg behind a curtain. You could also turn this into a sweetie hunt like an Easter egg hunt

Hmm we did a science party at that age, make your own slime (I now recommend buying premade slime and just lots of add ins), vinegar, bicarb and balloon on top that inflated with the co2, static from lots of balloons etc. 18 might be too many though. She had more like 12.

Bouncy hoppers off Amazon and races.
hat scarf cutting chocolate up with a knife and fork game
the murder wink game
decorating t shirts with pens etc.
covering plain pizza bases or icing cakes
charades
loads you can do with that age group I’m sure they will still have lots of fun your just be knackered! Any teens you can rope in to help? I used to pay my niece to help as other kids responded better to her than an adult disco musical statues

You could also call your local scouts or brownie leaders and ask them for games that work well as they do this weekly so will have tips.
hope it goes well

That’s really bad, to let you down last minute.

ETA some good ideas below.

Dodgeball for starters to get them to burn off some energy.

Then the colours/ corners game

Then something a bit calmer like wink murder.

A pass the parcel with 18 layers (or however many layers per child) each time a kid wins a layer they then sit out so everyone wins a prize without the faff of trying to time the music just right. Make the last one a good prize.

pizza, hot dogs pringles and crudites for party food. Keep it simple

Then bring out the ice cream 'factory' - several flavours, cones, bowls, sprinkles, syrups, wafers, sweets etc. Every child gets to make their own

Send them home with a party bag - sweaty, full of sugar and junk food and very happy.

In our local hall people have had a magician, craft party, dance party with an instructor, disco that includes games

Lots of good ideas and hope you can get something sorted. Am at a loss though why anyone thinks it’s acceptable for animals to be used as entertainment.

We’ve held numerous parties over the years, games we play…

Shark Attack - kids all have a piece of newspaper (their island) to stand on. You tell them all to move around the islands and not stay still. When you shout “Shark attack!”the kids have to run and stand on piece of newspaper. Each time music play take away one newspaper island. Whoever not on a newspaper island is out. Winner is final child on an island. Alternatively you could play music and when that stops, they have to stand on newspaper island.

Put the kids into teams (18 kids into 3 teams of 6). Get 3 volunteers adults. Give kids a stash of newspaper and sellotape. Give them 15-20 mins to come up with the best newspaper costume. Winning team gets prize. Alternatively best adult wrapped like a mummy in loo roll.

Relay races - spoons with balloons.

Make paper airplanes - further one wins. Can give them 3 goes each.

Kim’s game - tray of random items, kids have a minute to look and then you cover up tray. Either get them to write down items or come up to you individually to say what on tray. Winner is one that remembers the most. You might want 3 trays on the go for this number of kids.

Chocolate game - throw dice - have to score six, put on hat and gloves (use adults gloves as bigger) and cut up chocolate with knife and fork to eat. Can only cut a square up at a time. Kids keep throwing dice until next person get six then they go. A noisy but fun game.

Pass the Parcel - suggest you split into 2 parcels with enough treats inside for every child to get at least one treat. For extra fun you could include a task they gave to do like “Hop on one leg until your next go”.

Throw beanbag into hoop/bucket.

Hope this gives you some good ideas.

Musical statues - play music. When it stops, the kids freeze. Take the last moving kid out every time.

Musical bumps - as above but last child sitting down is out.

North, South, East, West - kids have to run to corner as you call it out. Last one to get there is out.