15 mins at beginning of 5yr olds party - what to do?

[AllyH]

We've got an entertainer for a 5th joint party and have said that the party starts 15mins before the entertainer starts his stuff, but what can we do as the children arrive to keep them entertained?
Realise the boys will want to run round but maybe not the girls and they will all be arriving at different times.

Any ideas?

Tks

I used to find that if there were plenty of balloons around that always kept them going, even girls. You could always give little prizes for the ones who keep them in the air long enough. I don't know that you can do much that's very organised as they won't all arrive exactly 15 minutes before, presumably, so you'll be answering the door and taking coats and so on.

I give mine printed coloring sheets and tell them that once they coloured I will laminate them, then give them back with the food to use as their place mats.

they also get to take them home as a gift.

done it a about three parties now (when there has been an entertainer) and it has gone down a treat

What about a treasure hunt style game?
Make a list/picture card of objects hidden around the room and give one to each child as they arrive. They then find the things on the list.
When we did this with Brownies we hid pictures of the Six emblems in the hall. You could maybe use pictures of cars/trains/flowers/kids tv characters?
This would get the running around out of the way.

Hope this makes sense
Good Luck with the party

Get some old board or heavy paper picture books, cut the pictures in half, in a random shape. Place one half of each picture around the room, hand each child one of the other halves and send them off to find the rest of the picture.

Get them to make their own party hat/crown - they can dry while the entertainer is doing his/her thing and they can wear them for tea or to take home. You can just cut out flat pieces of card,long enough to fit and cut the pointy crown bits out, then when they've decorated them (sequins/bits of coloured foil/cellophane/glitter/pens, just staple the edges toegether et voila ! Did this for ds's 4th birthday. You can give a prize for best crown at the end too !

Hude bowl of smarties/raisins and a straw each, they suck up the sweets etc with the straws and get to eat what they 'catch'

Forgot to say the party's for 40+ children! And in a large hall, so guess something like hiding things would be a good idea! And lots of balloons to play with.

Keep them coming though as any extra ideas is great - thanks

Surely they can amuse themselves for 15 mins?

It's good life experience

We had a party for dd & ds on the 22nd Dec & even though there was a bouncy castle most of them spent a chunk of the time playing something called 40 40 or duck duck goose....

kids play

why organise?

40+ children.....

you are a saint!

ok......laminating place mats may not indeed be practical!

treasure hunt would be a great idea as some have suggested.....or maybe get them to make their own name badge to wear......with 40 odd kiddies I would need them all in name badges!!!

put music on for dancing - get someone to judge best dancer, or play musical bumps/statues - people can join in as they arrive

my eldest is coming up to his 7th birthday

I have never organised a party game in my life

ever

the most I did was a table of creative fish plates and glue for his 3rd

they just play

stick some music on

I ws trying to say what Twiglett said

Most of the kids came to ours were kids from school who were like little springer spaniels... I doubt very much they would have been open to organised games...they just wanted to run around & let off steam!

In fact they were running around so much we ran over our time in the hall & they didn't get a slice of cake... oops

Put some music on and let them run around .

we had free play at ds's 4th party for 2 hours.

the kids loved it.

let them run around.

i'm 100% with twiglett on this one.

let them go berserko for 15mins and then hopefully they may have expended enough energy to allow them to sit for the entertainer!

15 mins is not very long at all - it will be gone before you know it, plus there may be latecomers to welcome.

surely by the time they get their coats off, opne pressies etc itll be 15 mins up

not every single second has to be planned! they will rebel agaisnt any organised activity anyway.

i agree with twig

Just wanted to create a good impression with the parents dropping them off! Especially for those children who aren't so confident and don't want to leave their parents so that it makes it easier!

Could you get a pile of old hats, scarfs and tell them they need to chose one to wear. then they need to write a sticker with their name on it and the kind of pirate/dinosaur/princess (or some such thing) they would like to be. This would be a good thing to do as they first arrive and break the ice and get them to play freely.

if a child is not confident and doesn't want to leave the parent the parent should stay

do you really want a party of 40 kids with a bunch of super-sensitive children clinging to your heels or weeping in the corner

you can do stuff if you want to but I wouldn't .. I think you're doing plenty already entertaining, feeding and giving them going-away gifts tbh

If there are balloons they'll be more than happy inventing games with them or just hitting each other over the head with them. Agree that you don't need more than that

Why not just get the birthday children to open the presents while the others watch, 15 mins isn't very long.

Well in the end some children played and for the others we had a sheet of childrens tv characters with the pictures placed around the hall and the children went off trying to find the ones they liked best. It was definitely worth doing and would do the same again in future - one little boy even wanted to get his coat so that he could put one of the sheet of the pictures in it to take home!

Great party all round really!

Thanks for all the suggestions.