Top tips for party for 5yr ds pleassseeeee!!

[mamalocco]

What am I going to do with a reception class load of kids on Friday afternoon for an hour and a half? Yes, I know I could have gone to soft play, or hired an entertainer or just invited 3 kids for tea, or not had a party at all, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Have food/party bags sorted. But need some inspiration for games. Don't like pass the parcel (can't be doing a layer for each child), or musical bumps/statues (don't want to be the bad guy deciding who is 'out'). Can't be too complicated since most of them are only 4 or 5, nor need too many props.
Plus what do you do with the ones that are 'out' of the game?
ANYTHING else you can think of that might save my sanity (and no cancelling the party at this stage isn't an option!!).

If you play games and don't want upsets over who is out or not - Katzg used a good idea. Instead of telling children they were out, the "losers" got a sticker each but were able to keep joining in - because let's face it it is boring if you spend the whole time "out" at a aprty and some children can have this happen. The winner got a bigger prize.

What about doing some craft things with them - one of the things I am planning to do at DD's party is to make her a party scrapbook. The craft table will have some card templates on with space for name and also a picture of themselves. Will then give them crayons and sticking/pasting stuff for them to create their pictures of themselves. I plan to take photos during the party to put on alternative pages. DD can hae this as a memnto of her day then.

Snow permitting am off to buy stickers tomorrow. V. good idea.

Not sure about the craft table - think its perfect for dd's party later in the year but am worried that ds and friends will need to do something quite physical.

Thanks for this. Any more ideas?

Hope it snows! Then you can get them all wrapped up and send them outside for a snowball fight and snowman building - then back insdie to dry off with a warm tea!

How about getting lots of toys out and giving them a good length of time in free play?

Our school have already informed us that they will be closed tomorrow - snow had better disappear by Friday or no-one will come (it's straight after school!).

I did think about just letting them run around - have 100 ballons for dh to blow up Friday morning! But thought I'd better have a couple of semi-organised games to play.

What about bubble wrap game? Go and buy a big roll of bubble wrap and ct into biggish rectangles. Put the children into small teams. First team to pop all the bubbles is the winner!

Pinata seem to go down well too.

Kids love the mummy game. Basically just buy ALOT of loo roll and the kids pair up to see who can wrap up their partner first.

dd2 has been to 4 parties for 5 year olds already this year. Boys and girls alike seemed to enjoy lots of dancing. One mum did "dance like a robot, dance like a monster, dance like Bob the builder, dance like a lion, dance like your teacher" which was really funny to watch! Some children did the same dance for all of them but others were really inventive.
Another game was the children dance until the music stops then they have to crouch in a ball on the floor. Mum quickly covers one of them with a blanket and claps her hands. The other children all get up and the first one to identify the one still hidden under the blanket gets to help mum cover a child in the next round. (only works if all the children know the names of all the others)
Passing a long thin balloon around the room without touching it with your hands was fun - I suppose you could do a race between 2 teams?
And of course, sleeping lions is always good!

Thanks for these ideas. Just have to hope the snow melts abit, the school reopens tomorrow and some of the kids turn up!!

Craft table is great idea, I always print off loads of colouring pictures of the web - star wars, power rangers, animals etc.. At DS1 5th birthday, loads of them wanted to have a little rest and do so colouring. Great because it needs so supervision.