Party games for 6 year olds

[Wandaaa]

DD is having a birthday party at home with 7 friends, girls and boys, we're having the usual pass the parcel and musical statues etc, but ideas for anything a bit different would be great, although haven't got loads of space for team games.

I read elsewhere of splitting into 2 groups and giving each group a pick of various props and they have 5 minutes to come up with a short play including each prop. Do you think a group of 5 and 6 year olds would be able to manage this?

Ooh marking my place as we have a similar situation coming up soon, so interested in responses.....I was thinking of getting a magician in....

A treasure hunt went down really well at DS1's 6th birthday party in the summer - they did it as a group (12 or so of them), all looking for the clues together (hidden in things like socks - we put loads of socks round the garden which they spent ages searching, then hinted that they might find socks somewhere else and it was actually in a sock somebody was wearing - books, under a table etc etc).

They also enjoyed popcorn races (2 teams, each team has a full tub at one end of the garden/room and a beaker and they transfer the popcorn to an empty tub at the other end in a relay).

The mummy game (wrapping somebody in loo rool) great too. Forfeits in pass the parcel went down well, although we were pretty gentle with them as they didn't like doing anything embarrassing!

HTH.

We did that last year, hired a hall, invited the whole class, magician was excellent, he did party games, food then show, even paid for someone to do the catering, definitely worth the money. Can't afford it this year and have agonised over only inviting a few friends from school.

Planning on the mummy game. How many loo rolls per mummy and did you give every one a turn at being the mummy. Forfeits for pass the parcel, excellent.

One loo roll per wrapper is enough, and don't buy really cheap stuff, it just breaks! We had teams of 4 or so, with one mummy and 3 wrappers.

There are good ideas for forfeits on here if you search. Most of the kids at my DS's party would have been mortified to be asked to sing a song, song example, but things like tickle the person on your left, or draw a person while blindfolded were good fun.

At DD1's party we had a 'crazy dancing' competition which was a lot fun: self-explanatory really - the person who does the craziest dance wins

General Post - though you will ideally need two adults, as it takes them a while to get the hang at this age. It worked at ds's 6th though.

You need 6 seats or cushions in a circle (i.e. one less than the number of children) and room to seat them a little way apart from each other.

Everyone needs to think of a town or place that is 'theirs' (obviously this could be Saturn, America, 'my bottom' or other hilarious 6-year-old comedy gold). One adult is the Postmaster. The 'extra' player (I'd recommend that this is an adult for the first go) stands in the middle of of the circle.

The Postmaster says 'I WANT TO SEND A LETTER FROM SATURN TO AMERICA'. The people who are those places try to change seats, while the person in the middle tries to get into one of the seats. Repeat.

Every now and then, the Postmaster says 'GENERAL POST' and everyone has to change seats.

In 'classic' General Post the person in the middle is blindfolded, and the two people who are changing seats have to clap before they get up. I haven't tried that version yet.

Kim's Game - i.e. some things on a tray, they look, you cover, you take one away while they close their eyes, they have to guess which, you keep going until all the things are gone. You could try something like 10 things at this age? Very good to have ready prepared on a shelf for emergencies when you still have half an hour before tea and have done all the games!

Stand up sit down - stand by the light switch, preferably so noone can see you - everyone has to stand up when the light is on, sit down when it is off or vice versa. Short but sweet.

Re your play idea - in my own opinion they are too young for this, but i have not tried anything like this. What about having the same props, and one team/person just has to act out what the prop is, so that the other team/rest of them guess what it is? TBH ds, who is only just 6, could do this but would struggle with anything much more complicated.