Top 5 party games for 4th birthday party

[EmmalinaC]

DD1 is 4 next weekend. We are having a party in a local church hall. We have decided to do entertainment and food ourselves and are feeling slightly terrified at the prospect...

Can anyone suggest 5 great party games for this age group? (Will that be enough to fill 1 hour?!)

We are expecting approximately 20 children (80% of them are girls) and they will all be dressed as princesses and pirates at DD's request, so any themed ideas would be fab.

I've looked at some older threads but a lot of them seem to be for smaller party sizes - I imagine games like pass the parcel are a bit boring for 20 children, even with 2 parcels!

Also, is it acceptable for children to be 'out' these days? As I imagine musical statues/bumps work really well with this age group.

Thanks!

Am having a 4th party for dd1 this weekend with same numbers (including boy/girl split). I haven't done a party before but am going to attempt (!) the following (theme is fairy tales) -

-treasure hunt - children given a picture of a scene from a fairytale and have to find the 5 others that match theirs, all 'hidden' around the room (everyone wins a 'treasure')
-pin the beard on the dwarf

• pass the parcel with 2 parcels, each layer has a packet of haribos to keep them happy and quiet while the game continues

When they arrive, I've got a load of colouring sheets for those who want to sit down at first and will provide a load of balloons for those feeling more energetic to play with.

Depending on the mood of the party and how the other games pan out, I may also do What's the time Mr Wolf, sleeping lions, musical bumps/statues, dancing competitions.

When's your dd's party? I'll let you know which of our games worked and which failed on catastrophic scale!!

Thanks. I think we'll definitely use the treasure hunt idea and will try a pass the parcel filled with sweets! DD's party is 12th June so would love to know how yours turns out.
She has insisted DH and I also dress as pirate and princess

Oooh and what are you going to feed them? I have ordered party boxes (pink, obviously) and intend to put a cheese roll, bag of Pom Bears, Kit Kat and carton of apple juice in each one. Then when they've eaten their meal they can use the boxes as their going home bags.

Actually that sounds like a packed lunch. Do you think it should be a bit more 'fun'?!

Sleeping fishes/lions is great.

Mummy game is also really good. Give each of them a roll of toilet paper and put them in groups of 2s or 3s to wrap it round a willing grown up and see who does the best job.

Musical statues/musical bumps.

Pin the something on the something depending on your theme.

Dancing/music and put a bubble machine on if you have one.

Give them stickers for prizes for games.We have in the past had a load of balloons blown up and around for them to play with when they first arrive.

Lunch sounds good, maybe you could have some iced gems, party rings and or cakes for them to eat too.

Forgot to answer, when they are out give them a sticker or small sweet and tell them they are a helper to see who is out next.

What Time is it Mr Wolf is a great fun game that my 4 year old loves.

Agree with gegs773 re. the stickers/sweets/helper thing as they get very upset when they're out.

On the suggestions of others, I am adding stickers to my shopping list tomorrow!

Dd's party is on Sunday so I'll let you know if we've survived...

My dd is having a party in July and is 4. We are doing dancing and bubbles in garden, with ballons and some colouring in the garden, then pass the parcel, game?, food and pin the tail on donkey.

I was going to invite 15ish and go for 11.30 t0 approx 13.30. Does that sound ok? It is in our house and garden (not huge). Can someone remind me about mr wolf and sleeping fishes and lions?

here are some ideas.

Use musical statues/sleeping lions to your own advantage i.e. when you think they all need a bit of calm well into the party. You get to retrench, they feel better. Get helpers to go amongst them for fairness in judging if you can. Don't under estimate their ability to stay still, that's the point, it's a useful skill and there will be a winner!

nondomesticgoddess how did your DD's party go? Hope you all had lots of fun! And, now that you have the benefit of hindsight, do you have any other tips?!

Hello again! well, we survived and it was really fun. I couldn't believe how quickly the time flew by. The children were amazingly well behaved. This is what we did -
3.30 arrive, colour, play with ablloons

3.50ish Treasure Hunt (ok and every child won something so they liked that!), Pin the beard on the dwarf (I couldn't believe how well they waited before and after their turns - better than I thought it would be), running games like What's the time Mr Wolf (v. successful), Sleeping Lions (as they were called out they went to the table to eat their tea so no-one was standing around)

4.45 tea

5.00ish pass the parcel (we had to do it here becasue we realised we didn't have matches to light the candles so dh had to go home to get some!)

5.10ish cake, singing Happy Birthday, ice cream and jelly

My mum and dh were on hand to set up the table while I did the games. I couldn't have done it without a lot of help from them and from the other adults who stayed (about half stayed).

I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was a real relief to see how much the children enjoyed some good old-fashioned party games.

My biggest top tip would be just to make sure you're as organised as possible before the children get there.

Good luck this weekend and let us know how it goes!

Oh, I should also add that some children did not take not winning well and we did have a few tears but luckily it was relatively easy to jolly them along with the next game.

My recommendations for the top 5 Party games for 5 year olds in order of popularity are:

1. A treasure hunt
2. Pass the parcel
3. Musical statues/chairs
4. Sleeping lions
5. Craft activity

I recommend Treasure hunt kits online if you have never organised a treasure hunt before - you'll love these.

I dont know how big the hall is but my DS had hours of fun with his friends for his 3rd and 4th birthday with one of those big parachute things. All the kids really loved it.

Musical islands - similar to musical chairs. Cut out paper or card in the shape of islands, and when the music stops they all have to jump on an island.
You can make some of the islands big enough to take a few children.
At the parties I've been to, the children usually get a consolation sweetie or sticker when they are 'out'.

Emmalina - how was the party???

nondom sorry it's taken me so long to reply - after the party we were completely shattered and then we went on holiday.

FWIW the best game of the party was definitely What's the Time Mr Wolf. They loved it! We could have played it for hours with each of them taking a turn as Mr Wolf.

We tried the parachute but they didn't really get it.

The other games they loved were the Obstacle Course (through a hoop, crawl through a tunnel, run round a chair and put the ball on a bucket and then win a sweet) and the musical bumps/sleeping tigers medley.

We also did a craft activity but it was more of a challenge for the parents than the children as it was a bit tricky

Thanks so much to everyone who posted. You gave us some much needed confidence!