Sport day style races for birthday party

[lechatnoir]

We've got 16 four year olds (mainly boys ) coming to our local village hall in a few weeks and we're having a few traditional party games but I quite like the idea of them letting off steam before lunch with a few sports day type races - the hall is big enough & I've got a few adult helpers plus we're not having any formal entertainment so have got 2 hours to kill.

Egg & spoon I think would work OK but beyond that I'm a bit stumped as to what would work for this age group & number of children without spending much money on props etc. Anything other tips & hints would be great as I've never actually been to a sport day before

LCN

Team games

e.g. balloon over the head/under next legs/over next head etc down the line

Football goal and penalty shootout will be v popular esp if you have an adult in goal

'Snake ' races where the boys lie on their stomachs and pull themselves along with their arms. Saves sweeping the hall floor afterwards too

All great ideas thanks very much

The most popular games at dd's last party were a sack race, a three legged race and a 'wheelbarrow' race (the one where one partner is on hands with other holding legs). They were a huge hit, we had to do all the races at least twice, and they then spent ages running around in the sacks.

The other popular game for us goes by the fabulous name of 'bubblebutt' (we got it from someone american) where you have a row of balloons tied to two benches / 2 rows of chairs, two teams, one member of each team at a tie runs up to a balloon & has to burst it only by sitting on it. Once their balloon has burst, they run back to the team, next member goes up, until everyone in the team has burst their balloon - first team to burst all their balloons wins. I don't know if that made sense, but it was very funny.

Old favourites like beanbag on the head, dressing-up relay, pass the orange under the chin. Also jigsaw relay - each team member runs, skips, hops, jumps or whatever to the end of the room and has to collect a piece of a jigsaw. When all pieces are collected, the first team to complete their jigsaw is the winner. I expect you'd be able to pick some up in charity shops.