Party games and food for a 5 year old

mum2four

I really need help for cheap party games and food for my daughter, this will be her first party with friends from school and i want to make it special. Any suggestions welcome. Thank you!

HelenKA_2

My advice would be to do it as your mother may have. the children just like having fun with traditional party games. Try to plan it pretty much to the minute and have a couple of things up your sleeve incase you need time fillers.

One thing we have always done is at some point after everyone is there we all sit down in a circle with presents in the middle then birthday girl opens them one by one and as she opens I can make a note and we all exclaim and chat together about it. The gift is then passed round the circle for all to look at while the next gift is opened. We really like this because
a)giver is made up to hear nice comments about her present
b)receiver learns to be graciously thankful to giver
c)thank you letters can later be sent with proper comments
d)we get a chance to chat in a group together and get to know each other a bit better
e)it usually takes a good amount of time up

The other thing I have done recently is I make a plain sponge cake in the days before, cut and wrap that before the party so you're not having to try and cut cake for party bags while the children are running wild in your house.

Do very basic food and I prefer to go round with the sandwiches, crisps, carrot stick etc myself so I can ration them - there will be more if they eat but I got so mad seeing children load things on to their plates and leave most of it AFTER mauling it about.

You can get library books with ideas for games.

nuttybabe

Hi

We had a halloween party and played spooky versions of:

pass the parcel (just some lollies in outer wrappers and something from poundland at the end)
musical statutes
musical bumps
musical chairs

prizes being lollies for them all. maybe a fancy dress comp or dance comp??

foodwise:

sandwiches
cocktail sausages
garlic bread
pasta salad
fairy cakes
crisps
jelly (maybe in a shape - i did green hand on red jelly for halloween)
pizza (i used cheap asda ones with a bit of extra cheese on top)

hope this helps

mum2four

Thank you for the suggestions, I think I over complicate things in my mind and need to remember that its for children and worry about what they like.

mum2four

HelenKA, you are so right about food, I always do too much and end up scraping it off the floor, its a good idea to just offer trays of food rather than plates.

HelenKA_2

The other thing I did a few time was make up trays of food and have each child go with mother and named tub - disposable things from basics ranges - and put whta they want in their tub. Set aside till food time, have a picnic with the tubs containing all that the child likes. This seemed to go down very well with the mothers somehow! Put cake into named tub and any winnings from games also. Mother collects tub with child at the end.

ChocClare

I run a Rainbows unit, and these are my 5-year-olds' favourite games:

Hedgehogs: girls all run round in a circle; on the cry of "Hedgehogs" they kneel down on the floor with their hands over their head and make themselves as small as possible and close their eyes tight. You make sure none of them is looking and then cover one child with a blanket. Then you say "who is the hedgehog?" and they have to guess who is covered up. Sounds dull, but they love it and all want to be the "hedgehog" - also it's a laugh as they all stare round the room wildly shouting every name they can think of while the child named (who is usually standing next to them) goes, "No, I'm here."

Duck, duck, goose - sure you know how to play that.
Hot chocolate - ditto
Sleeping lions
Any "relay" type games - divide into two teams and then have them take it in turns to get something to the other end of the room, race back and pass it to the next person on their team - eg, balancing a bean bag on their head, ping-pong ball in a spoon, newspaper "fan" fanning a paper fish along the floor - you get the idea
Any kind of balloon game - volleyball or just keeping it up in the air
Penny pinchers - blindfolded child in the centre of a circle of children with a carrier bag full of pennies or foreign coins in front of her. You point to one of the children in the circle and they have to sneak up and pinch the money and take it back to their place. Child in middle removes blindfold and says who she thinks has pinched it - if correct they change places. 5-year-olds are rubbish at a) moving quietly b) getting the money away without jangling it and c) hiding it behind their backs once they get there. A good laugh had by all.

We did Pennies for Pudsey this week so we played coin games and one they really enjoyed (but maybe do it in the kitchen or outside if not freezing):

Get a large bowl or washing-up bowl filled with water and put a 50p piece in the middle of it. Give each girl a penny (or collection of pennies). She has to drop her penny so it lands on top of the 50p piece. This is practically impossible - 15 of us had 5 attempts each last week and only one child managed it - none of the adults did. Even if you "place" your penny on top of the water directly above the 50p piece it will not sink straight down. They loved this!

When we have a games night at Rainbows, I always write a list of as many games as possible so that I've got some in reserve. The kids usually suggest some of their own which is fine, but it's much better to have loads that you don't need to use rather than standing around while they say "what are we doing now?"

Girls of this age also LOVE crafts if you get stuck!

Emstick14

We also had a Halloween Birthday Party for 7 of my DD's friends.

Food we had:-

Mini scotch eggs
Cocktail sausages
Sandwiches - marmite, ham and cheese spread
Carrot and cucumber sticks
Crisps
Strawberries
Grapes
Jelly
and then birthday cake

I have to say that the ham sandwiches were VERY popular and the others weren't really touched but they ploughed their way through the other things. Its better to have just a few options for a small party as it is too easy to go oveboard and then be left with eating party food for the next few days!

Games we played:-

Pass the parcel
Musical statues
Musical bumps
They did a magic trick each - spontanious game from my DD but they all loved it!
Face painting/tattoos

lucy*locket

I agree, kids really enjoy the traditional games and party food, just takes a bit of forward planning to keep them busy the whole time....
Mine played most of the games already mentioned, but another they always loved was the "Mummy" game. I bought loads of cheap toilet roll and the kids wrap each other up like Egyptian Mummies, they think that's hilarious but once they've finished and photos taken, on the count of 3 they BREAK OUT, bursting out of their wrappings, the house will be covered with tissue but great fun! Best kept for last. Not very MSE of course, wasting all that tissue, but worth it once a year;)

mum2one

nuttybabe wrote: »

Hi

We had a halloween party and played spooky versions of:

pass the parcel (just some lollies in outer wrappers and something from poundland at the end)
musical statutes
musical bumps
musical chairs

prizes being lollies for them all. maybe a fancy dress comp or dance comp??

foodwise:

sandwiches
cocktail sausages
garlic bread
pasta salad
fairy cakes
crisps
jelly (maybe in a shape - i did green hand on red jelly for halloween)
pizza (i used cheap asda ones with a bit of extra cheese on top)

hope this helps

Totally agree, re games, that age they love the tradational games and pass the parcel brilliant, just put a small item between layers, there love it.

Food wise

Sandwiches,
crisps
cocktail sausages
pizza (if you want hot food)
hot dogs

I did dds party, she had 26 people, I sent out a menu plan, so each kid had their own food preboxed ready for them.

Ham
Cheese
Egg - sandwiches

Dairylea triangle or babybel

Crisps

cocktail sausages
sausage rolls

choice of crisps

That way it saved wastage, xx

maman

Totally agree abut the traditional approach but depending on how many you're having and time of day/year hot food can go down well (:D). Something like hot dog/burgers/pizza/fish fingers with chips plus a pudding like something with ice-cream or a magnum type lolly. It's not the healthiest but nice for a treat and much easier to work out portions.