Party games for six-year olds!

[Gavin Bl]

Hi all
My daughter is 6 in a couple of weeks, and we're having a party at home.

What are good games for this age group - we're looking at pass the parcel, musical chairs, twister, pin the tail on the donkey, and so on.

Any other suggestions? There'll be about 10 kids all told.

cheers
Gav

 

[The Groke]

I always wanted a pinata at one of my parties but having not been born in the States, I never had one.

 

[Strumpet]

*Hide and Seek
*Line kids up, 2 lines. Pass a balloon over heads and back kid runs ro front n sits down...keep going til all kids in the line are sitting. First line is winner.
*Musical statues
*Simon Says


How about doing some face painting too? 2 or 3 simple faces? Kids love that!

 

[Gavin Bl]

Musical Statues - fantastic, I forgot all about that!

 

[Jazzz]

Musical statues is obviously just a sneaky adult trick to get the kids to shut up!!!

[/sulky 6 year old]

edit - oh no, that's sleeping lions. got my kids' games confused

 

[vipper]

Buy a balloon modelling kit off eBay for a couple of quid and get them all to make a dog. Lots of instructions online.

 

[Saffy]

If you're desperate and they're driving you mad, sit them down and get them to decorate fairy cakes and they can take one home in their party bags.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Loads of ideas here;
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A765920


My advice for stuff like pass the parcel is to rig it a bit so every child gets a go with maybe a tiny prize in each layer (sweets can be a bit much on top of all the party gak, so pencil sharpeners, funky rubbers, pencils etc are a good choice).

edited to add a really great idea from the above site....

Pizza!

Are there any children who do not like pizza?

One of the things we did at the last two birthdays (six and seven) for my eldest daughter was to have the kids make their own pizzas. A few days before we rolled out the dough and got it ready for them so on the day of the party, they could put on their own toppings - sauce, cheese, pepperoni, sausage, chopped green peppers, mushrooms, and sliced black olives.
While the pizza is cooking, you can play a party game or open gifts and within 15-20 minutes the pizzas are ready to come out of the oven.

Make the pizzas small little things 4-6 inches in diameter, but enough to fill their bellies. And they're more likely to eat it since they helped to make it. Smiley face pizzas are very popular - with kids using toppings for eyes, noses, mouths and hair.

One of the kids got really creative and made a 'lion' pizza where she put pepperoni around the outside of the crust like a lion's mane and then made a smiley face in the centre.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

....personally I'd not make the bases from scratch..I'd probably buy frozen pizza bases or use french bread (cutting them vertically makes great mini-pizza bases for little hands).

 

[equationgirl]

Get a large bar of chocolate, a knife, a fork, gloves, hat and a dice.

Sit the children in a circle. Put everything but the dice in the middle. Give the dice to the first child.

First child rolls the dice. If a 1,2,3,4 or 5 is rolled, the dice is passed to the next child.

If a six is rolled, the dice is passed to the next child, the first child has to put on the hat and gloves, pick up the knife and fork and use them to get into the chocolate. They continue to battle with chocolate until somebody else rolls a six.

 

[LilMissHissyFit]

^^^^^ That is soooo cool!

what about a 'treasure hunt'
You get some small presents, a fun size mars bar each or something similar and label each with a guests name then you hide them around the house/garden etc.
Then the game is having to find your 'own' present.
If you find someone elses you have to put it back until they are all found. The kids arent allowed to tell each other where theirs are but they will watch each other to see if someone finds something and returns it
Keeps them happy for quite a while that one

 

[Firky]

Get their dad to dress up as batman and climb up Buckingham Palace, the kids will love it

 

[DIMPLES1]

Dead Donkeys

or other local name

Get them all to lie on the floor & the first one to move is out, continue til you're left with one - the Winner

It's a great way to calm down over excited kids & give the adults some much needed peace.

I've gotta say its also lovely, to hear someone having a 'traditional' party, when I all I ever hear is parents trying to out do someone else's birthday party / trip / expedition & costing a fortune....you can't beat classic games & fun.

Hope you have a blast

 

[moomoo]

Our best party for that age group (admittedly it was in June) was when we sent them all into the garden armed with water guns

I did them a picnic on the grass first wand then they just let rip

Some of the mummies weren't too happy when I had to give them plastic bags for their little darlings to sit on in the cars

But they all had a wonderful time................................

 

[marsha bourbon]

I used to play the chocolate game! You can also line them up in two teams and do the pass an orange holding it with your neck/chin, or balloons between knees.
We also used to do a 'game' where you put a baking tray with water in it on the floor, with a bit of paper or something(it must float) either end. Then you get a child either end, saying "when I say go, blow you boat to the other end to win". Get them to bend right down to the tray, then this is the fun part- you go " 1,2,3, go!" slamming your hand into the water and spraying the kids!

 

[Mrs Magpie]

How about doing some face painting too? 2 or 3 simple faces? Kids love that!

Warn parents first...some kids are allergic to face paints and also they're a bugger to wash out of party dresses....if you're going to have mucky rough & tumble tell 'em to turn up in old clothes....from personal experience six-year old girls will go for pink & frilly and more sedate games rather than turn up in non-party clothes.

 

[scifisam]

Blind Man's Buff is the only traditional game I can think of that hasn't been mentioned yet.

Loads of ideas here;
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A765920


My advice for stuff like pass the parcel is to rig it a bit so every child gets a go with maybe a tiny prize in each layer (sweets can be a bit much on top of all the party gak, so pencil sharpeners, funky rubbers, pencils etc are a good choice).

edited to add a really great idea from the above site....

I do that with PTP too - although it means it takes ages to make the parcels!

Th pizza thing's good too, though it would be good to have something else on hand in case a parent hasn't thought to tell you about food issues: wheat/gluten/tomato/whatever intolerance, child is veggie, child is vegan, and so on.

Treasure hunts are fantastic. Even if you don't have much room, really small presents (rings and so on) can be hidden in lots of places.

I saw some Pinatas on sale in Woolworths the other day.

 

[Fuzzy]

i remember playing this party game where there would be a bowl which was filled up with plain white flower. this would be packed down and then upended on a tray/plate like a sand castle. on top a sweet would be placed. then the aim of the game was to take a spoonful of flower away with a table spoon. who ever it was that collapsed the tower of flower then had to pick the sweet out with their teeth/mouth. so the loser of the game would get covered in flower but have a sweet in return. come up with other suggestions instead of a sweet to put on top to make it different.

 

[marsha bourbon]

We played the flour game too, especially good if followed by the water one I mentioned earlier! Just remembered another one, fill a pillowcase with various bits of clothes, wigs, underwear, children stand in a circle passing the bag around while there is music, when the music stops, whoever has the case has to put a bit of clothing on. comedy pictures afterwards.

 

[Gavin Bl]

thanks everyone, now does anyone know where I can get a bigger house for all these children?

 

[Gavin Bl]

All done, preparation carnage till 11:45, 15 mins of weird silence -"oh we're ready" - 2 hours of children carnage - 2:05pm eerie silence after they've all gone.

Party games went well, and I am living on sarnies and cake for a week.

thanks for all the tips on games, here's the motley crew...



my two are third from left, front and back

cheers
Gav

 

[wtfftw]

Musical statues is obviously just a sneaky adult trick to get the kids to shut up!!!

[/sulky 6 year old]

edit - oh no, that's sleeping lions. got my kids' games confused

I was going to suggest sleeping lions.