Cart is empty
I am a mom of 2 boys. Thus, there are two mandatory birthday parties at my house every year. In addition to Cake cutting, snacks, balloons, friends, and gifts, I want to celebrate their birthdays in a special way. I want my children and their friends to enjoy the day. Thus, the idea of party games came to me. I decided that I would choose some age-appropriate games for them to play and give them some surprise gifts. Here are 10 birthday party games for kids which are on my list.
Picture Bingo :
We all know Bingo, right? If there are children below 5 years are playing the game, it is better to go with picture bingo instead of word Bingo. There are a lot of free websites which can be used to generate Bingo card templates with the pictures that we want like animals, birds, alphabets etc. If we can take a print out of these Bingo cards along with call-out sheet which has all images, we are ready to start the game. Bingo will easily take 30 mins of time and kids will surely love this.
Instructions and the printable BIngo cards can be found here.
Make a Garland :
This game is good for below 7 years old. Each kid is given a cup with beads and one craft stick. They have to insert beads into the stick as many as they can within a half minute. So, if we have enough cups and sticks, this game can be played by multiple kids at the same time. Whoever makes a long garland with more beads win. You can get all this craft material in any Dollar store.
Separation Anxiety :
This is another game with multicolor beads and cups. You can also play this with colorful pins and cups. We give a cup with multicolor beads/ pins to each child. We should provide enough cups/ just disposable classes for all colors available. Within a minute or half a minute, kids have to separate beads/pins to each color cup. All blues in one cup, all reds in another, so on..
Whoever could separate more beads/ pins correctly will win.
Castle with cups :
This is one more “One Minute” game. And we just need paper cups, nothing more than that. We can ask kids to form a castle with cups placing one above the other with a base of 5 cups minimum. Whoever builds to more height without any cup falling, wins.
Cups – One over the other :
Handover at least 15 red cups and one blue cup – all placed one above the other with the blue cup on the top to each kid. With the timer on, each kid should remove one cup from the top and keep it at the bottom, remove next cup from the top and keep it at the bottom and so on until the blue cup comes to the top. Whoever does it quickly, will win. We can get the colored cups in any dollar store.
A bowl with balls :
You need a bowl/ disposable lightweight bowl, cotton balls and a disposable spoon for this. The kid has to place the bowl on his/ her head and can hold it with one hand. With the other hand, he/she should take one cotton ball at a time with the spoon and put them in the bowl. Since cotton balls easily fly off and fall, it takes time to focus and win. If any cotton ball falls down, it should be ignored and the game should be continued. Within a minute, whoever can put more balls in the bowl will win.
Flying Fish :
This is a super fun game with just a plain paper cut as fish and a paper plate. You make a fish with plain white paper (by cutting it in the fish shape) and place it on the floor. Each kid has to sway the paper plate to move the paper fish. With the air generated by the paper plate, the paper fish will move. They win if they can move the paper fish to a certain distance.
Duck Duck Goose :
Managing more than 10 children is tough as they become naughty and talk with each other. I asked for other parents to help though. Group/ team games are always better than individual games as it is easy to manage them while all of them focus on the game.
Duck Duck Goose is a classic game where all kids sit in a circle and one person who is a Goose will walk through the circle. While The Goose is going through the circle, he/ she will touch each kid head saying Duck/ Goose. The chosen person should try to catch the Goose before he/ she sits. Check this wiki link for detailed instructions of the game.
Musical Chairs :
This is another classic game that always works in any party. We arrange chairs (one less than the number of kids) and play music on TV while kids walked around slowly. We pause the music in the middle, kids have to sit in the chair near to them leaving one behind who is out of the game. Here is a link on detailed instructions for the game.
Lemon and Spoon :
Who doesn’t know this classic race game? This is inexpensive too with just spoons and lemons. For younger children below 2 years age, you can try cotton ball on the spoon. This classic race game is fun for all the kids.
So, those were my party game ideas which are not expensive to organize or implement. What do you say?
Mahathi Ramya is a mom of 2 boys, a blogger, software testing professional and a classical dance teacher. She writes on books, travel, and parenting. She loves writing, traveling and painting a lot. You can find more of her work on Fantastic Feathers.