B'day party - games to play with kids

[pupuce]

DS has his b'day party (4) tomorrow at our house - 6 kids (yes we're keeping it manageable!) coming.
Besides pass the parcel... what games can you suggest? Bear in mind I am not British so you may need to explain the rules of the game. It has to be indoor and we have enough room for a bit of running around. Youngest child is 2, oldest will be 5 1/2.
Thanks

hide loads of duplo and they each have to find a certain colour or shape and build a tower

Jumping popping mats with two teams and a timer was THE hit at ds1s - I'll let you know hte site

Plate of icing sugar with sweets in and they have to pick up the sweets with teeth and no arms - sugar on face...

www.partypieces.co.uk/pages/category/category.asp?txtCatalog=PartyPieces&txtCategory=Party%20Games_Party%20Games

Oh and a pinata is fab

You could do a treasure hunt, hide clues around the place with a prize hidden somewhere. ie. Behind the red cushion, then behind the red cushion is a clue to the next place, do about 5 clues and then have a small prize hidden somewhere.
I'll keep thinking, as a kid we had birthday parties every year, just need to try to remember it was so long ago.

"musical chairs", safer with cushions (or we used table mats for islands at ds' pirate party). Kids dance to music then have to find a cushion to sit on when music stops. You start with one less chair (or whatever) than number of children and eliminate the child who has nowhere to sit. Next round you take another seat away until last round is 2 kids to one seat.

"musical statues" kids dance to music and freeze when it stops, first one to move is eliminated.

We made up a fishing game using cardboard fish shapes with paperclips on the head and a fishing rod with a magnet on string. Kids take turns to try to get the special fish (painted a different colour)out of a bucket of small light balls, polystyrene shapes or similar.

Also used old squash bottles part filled with water to make skittles. (kids decorated them with stickers in the morning which kept them out of mischief whilst we decorated the room).

hth

Dead Fish (also known as sleeping lions) all children lie on floor and keep still. If you are particularily unobservant this can last 5 or 6 minutes - very useful to calm them down pre food or let the food go down after feeding

Traffic lights
Green = run around
Amber = walk
Flashing Amber = move in slow motion
Red = stop

Need to be able to shout for that one!

Good luck it's lots of fun

salut pupuce,
for a quieter game, you could buy some plain gingerbread men and get the kids to decorate them with icing, also with coloured gel pens (not sure what they're called, found at the baking aisle of supermarket), hundreds and thousands, etc.....
Have a lovely time!

I've just printed the list and will start preparing... thank you so much for your ideas
If you have morer ideas - keep them coming - saw another thread just started asking the same thing

I've just printed the list and will start preparing... thank you so much for your ideas
If you have morer ideas - keep them coming - saw another thread just started asking the same thing

Cat and Mouse? All the kids sit in a circle facing in. You choose a person to be the cat who stands out of the circle. The other kids then close their eyes and the "cat" creeps around the circle and gently taps someone on the head. The mouse then tries to race the cat around the circle back to the space. Whoever is left is the next cat! When they're running encourage the cheering!

Have Fun.

ooh I like that batey

Thanks everyone... we did the ginger bread decorations (which lasted for ever - to my surprise and they all took part too!), we did pass the parcel and one of the presents was a game they all wanted to play so they kept themselves very busy!
I will keep the list for next time though!

Hunt the thimble is a great one - we varied it to hunt the cotton reel as during practise the week before my youngest hid our thimble and then forgot where! As the game progresses use "hotter" and "Colder" according to how close the children are. Winner gets a prize, very good for just after birthday tea as no jumping or running involved.

Just to add to this, we had dd1's 4th birthday at our house on Saturday with 8 guests, it went very well, played a lot of musical bumps/cushions, pass the parcel and the piece de resistance was making party crowns - I bought a pack from Urchin that has 30 pre-cut crowns and LOADS of gems etc they all loved making them and taking crowns home. Food was marmite sandwiches, cheese and tomatoes on sticks, sausages on sticks, breadsticks, grapes, then jelly and ice-cream, choc crispy cakes and then the birthday cake. Apple juice and water to drink - some had fizzy water in their juice.

I don't do goody bags and two of the children were utterly gutted, but tough.

.