party games

so jake turns four next month and I am planning his party. he is having a Go diego go theme - whcih translates to jungle animals. He is inviting five little friends from daycare so there should be six of them, Taine and a seven year old. Am trying to think of party games suitable for them.

so far we are having pin the tail on the lion (possibly monkey), pass the parcel and possibly a treasure hunt. Was considering have one more up my sleeve as a just in case. I like the thought of a game which they can all play and there aren't so many "outs" - like in musical chairs.

Any ideas?

I went to a birthday party with C and they did a version of musical chairs (or cushions) , when they took one away , instead of that person being out , they had to sit with someone, basically all the cushions are gone until all the kids are sitting on one....amazing how funny they find it .

Its not a winner or loser game, (tho personally i wouldnt have minded if C had lost, im bringing her up to know that there ARE winners and losers in life, and you chose what you want to be ...but i know some kids take it quite rough, and bugger that, all those crying kids )

Candlesticks is kind of like freeze tag.  Someone is "it" and every person he/she tags has to freeze with their legs apart making a candle base (or tunnel).  To get unfrozen someone else needs to crawl between their legs. 

I play this with the kids in my sacraments group to get rid of their energy they love it and everyone wants to be "it" (some even do the dishes for me if I'll let them be "it").  For larger groups you can have 2 or more "its".  For mixed groups, when their are little girls wearing skirts, we tap their heads rather than crawl between legs.

 

Dragontails is a game I played as a kid.  You get long strips of newspaper or butchers paper and attach them to the kids trousers with safety pins.  The aim of the game is to remove others dragontails by stamping on them (no hands allowed) and keep your own tail intact.  At the end of the game the child with the longest tail wins.

those sound good.

Kelly, i agree with the winners thing, but yeah, the thought of screaming children was more than i could handle - and i figured that once you are "out", then you wander off and get into something you shouldn't - hence other games


Pinata's and I have a liooooong history. that involved me making them a bit too hard for the kids and ended up having to be hacked into with the scissors - this occured like five times. i've given up.

other stuff maybe goers though!!! thanks

You could have a teams race through an little obstacle course - include stepping through some hoops or running in and out of some markers, an egg and spoon race, sack jumping.

I was quite impressed at a 3 year olds party with kids aged 1-5. They played pass the parcel with only one winner (everyone else got a lollie) and there were no tantrums. I think I was more gutted than Keira that she didnt win.

I have only ever seen it played where a guest wins, I guess the birthday kid has already had lots of presents. But then it may be easier for other kids to understand if the birthday child wins and gets just another present.

if you do pass the parcel we always put a little task in each layer, makes the game a little more interactive, just something simple or silly, dance like a chicken, poke your tongue out and count to ten, and a lollypop, makes it last longer too..

I've usually seen a guest win.

OK now 'duck duck goose'... who wants to explain it to me? I used to run a chns group, and we'd start each sesh with a game - well, one week they wanted Duck Duck Goose, so I got them to show me how it's done - a bunch of 5-year-olds in a circle with one wandering about endlessly saying 'duck' each time he bops someone on the head (he he - it was a group for anger management!)... I just didn't get how that was fun! They were only 5ish, so what were we missing? Something, obviously.