Easy, fun, but non-competitiive indoor party games for 4 year olds

[treacletart]

Ive offered to help my very pregnant friend out by organising the party games for a half a dozen 3 and 4 year olds tomorrow afternoon. She's arranged for a real fire engine to come and give them a tour for an hour! I'm sure that'll be a huge hit. But when it comes to the games, if they're anything like my DS, they'll all be horribly competitive and dreadfully bad losers. I've been thinking along the lines of no win/no prize musical statues. Or bash the balloons from one side of the room to the other - any one got any other ideas?

pass the parcel always goes down well. with a pressie in each layer. Although sometimes they loose interewhen they get their gift!!
ont think they need many games and are quite happy playng..especially if there is a real life fire engine.
What about a pin the ladder on the engine or put the hat on the fireman?

Musical hats goes down well - have a selection of hats and they grab a hat when the music stops. Have equal number of hats/children and let them swap around.

Would love to hear how the fire engine works out, it sounds fab.

oooooh some great ideas here. You're right, pressures off the games, with the fabulous fire engine plan, but I'd like to do it well for my mate.

With pass-the-parcel at this age you need to rig it so everyone gets to open a layer.

We do musical chairs (or cushions) but we don't take a chair away each turn. The game is just to find somewhere to sit, nobody gets "out". Or musical statues, where they all strike a silly pose when the music stops.

Sing "If You're Happy and you know it".

Get a photo of them all in front of the fire engine and she can use it as a thank-you card.

And how did she get a fire engine to come?

I'd never heard of it before, but apparantly it's something our local fire service do - at a cost of course - I think this is well over £100 - and they can only take 7 kids and an adult. She was a bit wary of spending so much, but when you think of how much gets spent on instantly forgettable dos for large numbers, I think it makes sense to do something really memorable for a small number. Especially at this age.

decorating biscuits with icing