Initial considerations
Unless only one person comes, you’ll require some ideas for party games which are suitable for a group of children in order to keep them entertained.
Deciding on which group party games to include will depend upon a few things, including:
+ the games the birthday girl would like to have played
+ whether there is going to be enough adult supervision
+ which games the group would like to play
+ whether the area for games is suitable
There are two main types of games that can be played in a group: games with teams and games without teams. It’s better to have a balance, and to ensure that the teams are frequently mixed up to keep everyone fresh and avoid anyone being left out.
Sometimes, not everyone can be included in every
group party game. For instance, a player may wish to sit out of a game. If there’s no way you are able to persuade them to take part, you should think about splitting the group into smaller groups so that everyone is involved.
Here are several ideas for team group games:
My girls love playing “Softball”. This is basically baseball, but using a soft sponge ball and a tennis racket. Each team takes it in turns to bat and field.
“Tag” could be adapted so that each team has one tagger, who has to tag the members of the other side (including the other tagger). When someone is tagged, they can be freed only if a member of their team circles them five times. However, if someone is tagged more than three times, they join the other team (and/or become a tagger). It’s up to you to decide how you want to differentiate the teams, but I normally get one team to put roll their sleeves up.
Another game which is a lot of fun is “Racing Fancydress”. The group is split into two teams and a small track (maybe ten metres long) is measured out. This is basically a relay game, so each person runs the track and back, before slapping the hand of the player next in line who is required to do the same thing until all players have run the track. But, I really like to adapt the rules by putting some items of clothing for each team (e.g. a vest top, a pair of stockings and some big skirts) at the beginning of the track, so each runner has to change into (and out of!) the clothes.
My girls love “Stitched Together”. This is where the team has to thread a long piece of rope through everyone’s clothes (e.g. pants, tops) to tie the team together. The winning team is the one which is the most tightly stitched together.
One of my daughters’ favorites is “I’m A Princess: Dress Me!”. I provide a few old rags or some of my throw away clothes, and each team has to dress one of their team up as a princess. It’s a race against the clock and if both teams succeed at the same time, you will need to pick which girl is the most princess-like!
Games that the whole group can enjoy include:
“Wink Singer” is a game that my daughters love. A person chooses to leave the room; such person is the‘Casting Agent’. Everyone closes their eyes and you tap one person on the shoulder. They become the ‘DJ’. Everyone then opens their eyes and the Casting Agent returns. The DJ’s goal is to wink at everyone else in the room before the Casting Agent is able to find out which player is the DJ. When a player is winked at, they must sing a quick sample of their favorite tune (or, if they don’t like singing, they do something which makes it clear to the Casting Agent that they were winked at!).
“Tag” and similarly traditional games are always great fun. Even though you probably played these games over and over again when you were young, they’re probably new to these players!
Blindfold games can also be fun. You could play “Who Am I?” by having someone blindfolded and getting them to guess the other players by the other players singing a line from a song.
A variation of the always popular “Musical Moving Chairs” is “Musical Newsprint”. To play, you will need to cover a large space with open sheets of newspaper. Get everyone to stand around the edge of the newspaper. Instead of a chair being removed each time the music starts, a sheet of newspaper is taken away, until all of the players have to crowd both feet onto the increasingly small space. People lose if either of their feet brushes the floor.
“Laughing Hyenas” is always a crowd pleaser. The players sit in a circle and start laughing. Towards the start, none of the laughs are real, but after some times, they are. Sometimes this game is hard to stop.
Games using Frisbees are also fun. One such game is where the players stand in a circle and the Frisbee is thrown from one of the group to another. Where someone drops the Frisbee, they must place one of their hands behind their back. If they drop the Frisbee again, they have to get down on one knee, and so on. If there are players in the group who are not keen on sports, you could help them cheat! ;)
To play “Rope Gifts” you will need to stick treats to the ends of as many pieces of string as you have players. You’ll then need to tangle the strings together, and then give the ends of each string to the group. Their task is to work as a group to unravel the string and claim their treats.
Have fun!
