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Children’s Games


GAME IDEAS FOR CHILDREN 

What makes a child’s birthday party a big hit is the prepared games and activities that you have planned. Select games that are appropriate for your age group. Try out games ahead of time with your child; chances are if they like the game their friends will too. Some games will be hits and others may be duds. Be flexible if the game is not going well, stop the game and move on with a different game.

Consider your space if you are going to play the game inside or outside. What the weather will be at the time of the party. If you are planning all your games to be played outside, have a backup plan for game ideas if the weather changes.

If the children are younger, make sure if you give prizes, that everyone goes home with a prize. They won’t understand if only a few get prizes and they don’t. You might consider not having prizes at all. Instead at the end of the party award all the children with a party favor bag. Here are some children's game ideas for you to consider:

 

Red Light, Green Light

 
Create a goal area and a starting line where all the guests will stand. Chose one person to go first (this can be the birthday girl or boy). That person will become the caller and they will stand at the goal line. They will shut their eyes and count to 10, at the end of the count to 10; they call out, "Green light”. As they are counting, the players advance toward the goal line. As soon as the birthday child calls "Red light” they will open their eyes and all of the players must stop moving. Any player who gets caught by the birthday child still moving must return to the starting line. Players can continue moving when the "green light” is called. The first player reach the goal wins. The first player to reach the goal line will change places with the birthday child and will be the next caller.
Instead of closing your eyes, you could have the caller turn around and face the crowd on red lights (stopping times) and turn away from the crowd on green lights (advancing times).
 
 

Musical Game- Marching Band

 
Okay this one is for the brave parents! Provide noisemakers for the children to play (maracas, tambourines, hand clappers, drums, kazoos, whistles) as they parade around the house, the back yard or around the block for the neighbors to enjoy! Have them play to a tune, like "Mary had a little lamb” or "twinkle, twinkle little star”. It may help a little to understand what they are playing, but don’t count on it….they are having fun and that is what counts…
 
 

Hot Potato

 
Have the child set in a circle. Play music, hand a child a potato or ball to start passing from child to child around the circle. When the music stops the child holding the potato moves to the center of circle and waits until the game is over. Stopping the music often will make for a shorter game and the children will not be sitting out long.
 

 

Mother, May I

 
This is always a hit! You can change the Mother, May I to Birthday child’s name or to the theme party name (Chelsea, May I or Princess May I).
The person who is chosen as the MMI (Mother, May I) stands at opposite end of the other children. The MMI addresses one player at a time to "Take 5 baby steps” or "Skip two steps” or "Take one big step”, take "ten scissor steps” , " Take 3 giant frog leaps” etc. Players must remember to say "Mother, May I” and wait for permission before they can advance. If the player forgets to ask permission and does not say "Mother, May I, then that person must return back to the starting line. The MMI then calls out to another player on the line and continues until one player finally reaches the goal line. That player then becomes the MMI.
 
 

Musical Game-  Dress Up

 
Before the party, get a large black trash bag and begin to fill it with funny clothes, gloves, wigs, large glasses, hats, big red nose any thing you can think of that would be funny to wear. Have the children get in a circle, put the trash bag in the middle. Hand a small ball to the birthday child to start, have the music start to play. As the music plays, have the children pass the ball around the circle as fast as they can until the music stops. When the music stops the child left holding the ball goes to the trash bag, closes their eyes and pulls something out of the bag and puts it on. Start the music up and play until the bag is empty. Take lots of pictures….
 
 

Musical Airplane

Have chairs arranged like inside an airplane minus one less than the guest, play music and have the children walk around the chairs, when the music stops, who ever isn't sitting in a chair is out. Continue until only one chair left and one guest left.

 
 

Musical Game- Gifts

The Children sit in a circle and each has a gift in their lap. Play music and pass the gifts around the circle until the music stops. The gift that lands on the birthday girl or boys lap is the one they will open first. The person who started out with that gift then goes out of the circle and the game continues until all the gifts are opened. Be sure to have a few extra gifts around in case someone forgot to bring a gift so that everyone can play this game.


Miniature Golf

 
Make your own miniature golf course. Use plastic red cups and lay them on there side and stake them to the ground. Create obstacles that a player must golf around, up, around or under in order to reach the hole. If you don’t mind putting a hole in your yard, you can bury an empty tuna can in the ground so it is even with the ground. Use regular golf clubs or a set of children’s golf clubs and balls. The player with the fewer amounts of strokes at the end of the course is the winner.
 
 

Freeze

 
Musical freeze game: Start with having the children favorite songs playing and have the children dance around the party. When the music stops, the children must freeze no matter what position they are in. If a player moves or loses his balance after the music stops, he is out of the game. The last child standing wins.
 
Statues freeze game: Kids are spun and they freeze into a position. Have the birthday honoree go one by one to each guest and pretend to make them come alive with a key. The frozen person must then come alive and do a small skit before the pretend key is removed from the statue. For example, that person might become a ballerina and dance for the birthday guest. The person who does the best job with creating a character with their statue movements wins as selected by the birthday guest. The winner gets to be the next person who spins around people and makes the statues come to life the next time.
 
 

Mummy

 
Divide the children up in groups of two. Give one person in each group a roll of toilet paper. One child will become the mummy. The other child will wrap the mummy in toilet paper until the roll is empty. The group to finish the roll of toilet paper first is the winner. The children will have lots of fun un-wrapping the mummy.
 
 

Guess the amount of candy

 
Fill a jar with candy; M&M’s or skittles are a great choice. Have each child guess how many pieces of candy are in the jar. Have a piece of paper to write down each guest guess. The child who guesses the closest to the actual number wins the jar of candy.
 
 

Scavenger Hunt

 
Hide items around your home or outside. Create a list of the hidden items, divide the children into groups. Give each child there clue and list of hidden items. The first team to complete there list are the winners.
 
 

Simon Says

Choose one child to be Simon or have an adult be Simon. Every time the Simon says” Simon Says” you must do what they say (put your hands on your head, take to steps back, jump on one leg 5 times etc). If "Simon Says” is not said first, do not do what Simon tells you to do, just stand there still. If the child moves before hearing "Simon Says” then they are out of the game.

  

Balloon Game Ideas

 
Pop balloons: Tie a balloon with string around the leg of each child. Have the children try to pop the other children’s balloons with out getting there’s popped. The child left with a balloon around their ankle is the winner of this balloon game.
 
Biggest balloon: Pass around a bowl of round balloons in different colors. Have each guest select a balloon from the bowl. Each guest will try to blow the biggest balloon without popping it. The biggest balloon gets the prize.
 
Balloon Relay: Tie legs together with some tube socks at the ankles . Put a blown up balloon between the legs. Kids line up and at the same time they race to see who can get to the end of the finish line without popping the balloon. If the balloon gets away from the legs, the child picks up the balloon and races back to the starting line and they must start over. Award the first place winner of this balloon game with a prize.

Water Balloon Toss: This is a fun outdoor on a hot day game. Have guests form two lines facing each other. The person you are facing is your partner. You start by throwing a balloon filled with water to your partner. You don’t want to bust the balloon of water or you are out. After each throw, if the balloon did not burst, you will take a step backwards. Everyone in lines does this at the same time. The last group with the full balloon wins this balloon game and wins a prize.


Obstacle Course

Divide the children into groups of 3 or 4. Set up a list of games that must be done in order.

1. Make 2 baskets with a basketball
2. Hula Hoop 5 times
3. Throw a football through a tire swing 3 times
4. Do 20 jumping jacks
5. Setup a mat to have the children walk across on their hands and feet.

Set up stations for each game. Have a home base for each team, they have to come back to home base before the next team player can go to there game. The team that is done first wins.

Telephone

 
All the children sit in a circle. The first person makes up a weird or funny statement to say. For example, "My mother sent me to the store to buy six red skittles and two packages of underwear.” The first person whispers this to the next person. They can only whisper it once, so it must be quite by all other players. The second player whispers what they heard to the 3rd person and it goes around the circle until the last person says out loud what they heard. You can eliminate the player who messed up and continue to play with another saying, until there is one winner left. Or you can just play this for fun and have no actual winners.
 

Snort

 
Pick someone to be a snorter. That person is then blindfolded and handed a large tube such as a wrapping paper tube. All the Children sit in a circle or line and must be quite throughout the game. The blind folded person then puts the front of the tube to a person who must grab it and listen as the snorter snorts like a pig. The person who was closest to the tube then snorts a funny way. It is up to the snorter to try to guess who is the snorter on the other side is without looking or talking. They can snort back and forth until they correctly guess the snorter. The player who was chosen then becomes the next snorter and gets blindfolded while everyone changes places and the game begins again. This is real fun game to mix younger as well as older children.
 

Money Cake


This is something we did every birthday while growing up. You don’t want to try this with very small children, but for children around ages 6-12, this is a fun surprise. Make a cake according to directions and before baking it put in cleaned quarters or dollar coins wrapped completely in foil in the batter. Bake the coins into the cake and frost as usual. The fun part of this is finding the money in the cake. Be careful that everyone knows there is money in there so that nobody will accidentally try to ingest the coins. Quarters and dollar coins are large enough so that you should not have any problems. Although this is not really a game, usually there are several winners!

There are tons of games you can play at a children’s birthday party that are listed on the web when you search for "children’s games”. Tossing games, pinatas, and word finds are all great games that take very little planning. Decide what things your child likes to do at their age & ask them what kind of games they like to play.

Find more game ideas and activities by reviewing the theme parties and children's parties listed on this site.

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