i recently had a party for my 4 yr old. We played loads of games. The ones that went down best were rasberry blowing competitions, Scary noises competition, simon says, silly face competition and guessing whats in the bag (put a spoon or any little item in the bag and ask children to guess what it is by just feeling it).

Something else that worked really well was cutting a lge shape out of an a4 sheetfor each child putting there names on it. Everytime i needed them to sit or stand i asked them to do so on there (in this case hats and bats shapes) And they did it. I could lay the shapes out as i needed the children and just ask them to go to there shape.
Hope this helps.

When my sons were that age, I managed to talk my husband into doing a magic show for them - that lasted about 20 mins and kept them enthralled. It wouldn't have worked with older kids though, he wasn't good enough to fool them! Depending on the size of the hall, you could organise some 'relay' type games, where they have to pass a balloon between knees, over their heads etc. Have you tried doing a search on these forums? I'm sure I've read similar threads in the past which were full of great ideas.

If you can print out or make some plain paper crowns you could have them decorate their own party hats...glue, glitter, sequins, tissue paper etc
musical chairs.
pass the balloon between your knees in a line, two or three teams. Can't drop the balloon although they are so little may take some doing but will cause lots of giggles.
Pass the parcel...they don't usual care what they win and you can have a challenge under each layer such as 'moo like a cow' and a little sweet or two as they aren't great at waiting for the end at that age. Having two parcels going round will help. Newspaper will do as wrapping.
Hiding stuff around the room before they arrive and having them find it is good fun. We played a game 'the queen's jewels' with brownies which I have waffled on about on another thread but any items with any list will do and a good way to start them playing in teams.
Musical statues for a good laugh at that age.
First team to dress their 'snowman'. four teams-ish, four lots of hats, scarves and gloves. First team sends someone to hop to collect their hat, hops back and then they pop on snowman, next skip, next walk backwards etc.
HTH

And if it all gets too much...sleeping lions :-)

Some good suggestions already so not too much to add.

At my four year olds musical statues and pass the parcel went down the best.

Like the make your own crown idea.

Yellowmoon.org have some lovely craft ideas. We've just got a make your own christmas bookmarks kit given to us. That would be nice especially with christmas coming up.

Good luck!

If you buy some plain white paper plates you can get them to draw pictures on them and then use them for their party tea, have spares in case of mistakes!

What about pin the tail on the donkey? Or a version of it (pin the nose on the clown etc.) that always goes down well.

A craft table is always great - my 4 year old's party in September was a Teddy Bears Picnic, so we made bear masks (paper plates with the eyes already cut out) and did 'beary' colouring and collages (lots of bear shaped and coloured bits and pieces, a big tub of crayons and some Tesco pritt stick (10 sticks for a pound on the end of aisle displays)).

If you google colouring images, you'll get loads of printable pages for whatever theme you want.


Eye Spy was a good game to keep them quiet for 10 minutes while the tables were set out, or for the last few minutes of the party - we tied it into the Brown Bear Brown Bear story and had put pictures/toys around the hall that fitted into the story. You could do the same with stories such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar or There Was An Old Lady (which can also be sung of course).

Simple games like follow the leader and the hokey cokey are good for this age group.

We also played a variation on corners/islands - which is basically to choose 4 'things' (coloured paper islands, or toys/signs/people etc around the room), play music and get the kids dancing, and when it stops everyone has to go to one of the 'things'. An adult (who hasn't been looking) then calls out one 'thing', and everyone there is out (give them a consolation sweet, or medals are popular). The last one in is the winner.

Definately let them make there own party hats, I'm a nursery nurse and have organsised soooo many children's parties its untrue (just sorting our xmas one out at the mo)

Most of my ideas have been said, pass the parcel is good but depending on how many children there will be; sometimes at 3 they get bored and fidgety towards the end. Musical Statues and Musical Bumps are good.

Give them some time to just dance and throw out a couple of bin liners of balloons for them to just play with.

At the end of our parties we always do a little chill out session with feathers that the children can blow around and then we get them all to lie down, turn out the lights and play some soft music. Then we use a large piece of material and walk amongst them on the floor wafting the fabric up and down (like a parachute) so it creates a draft over them. They love that and they lie so still and really chill out!

Speaking of parachutes, do you have one/access to one (borrow from nursery or the hall or local beavers/rainbows group) There are some fab games to play with parachutes and it entertains them for ages. If you decide to go with this,let me know and I'll post some games if you like.

Hope your lo has a really fab birthday!

Tracey xx

Thanks everyone there are some brilliant ideas!

Tracey (Undercover angel) I might be able to get hold of a parachute Ill have a word with my DD nursery group. What sort of games could you play with it?

There's been some really great ideas already so not sure what's left.

Depending on what you're serving them, maybe they could be involved in preparing some of the food. Sandwich making always goes down well here. Pin the tail on the donkey (we'll do nose on snowman for Xmas). If there wasn't so many I'd suggest doing some of the decorate yourself plates which they could take home to be baked in the oven and set. (A really nice keepsake) but maybe too pricey. Mine also just love dancing and moving around. Dancing games, musical statues, musical chairs, funny dancing competitions all go down well.

Tracey, I'd also be interested in knowing things to do with a parachute. I bought one on offer ages ago and it's just been sitting under my bed. I'd really like some fresh ideas of what to do with it once the weather picks up again.

At a recent party I played magic numbers, pass the parcel (with two parcels to make it a bit quicker) and corners.

Magic numbers - write a number on a piece of card for each child - 1 to 17 if you have 17 children and spread them out over the floor. When you play the music all the children run around when the music stops they have to sit or stand on a number. You then call out a number at random to be the winner. Easy rules, children get to run around and only winners no losers as such.

Corners - Four pieces of card with a character from Scooby Doo stuck on each one. Place in each corner. Children run around when the music is playing and when it stops they run to each corner. Someone who isn't looking calls out a character and those children are out. Continue until only one child remains.

I had a two hour party - half an hour free play - half an hour playing organised games - half an hour free play - pass the parcel (to calm them down) then food. Seemed to work ok.

Good luck.

PARACHUTE GAMES for those who are interested.

I'll list a few off the top of my head, but we have a book at nursery that has loads in. I'll try and find it out and post a few more when I get chance.

Popcorn- place loads of small balls on the top. Pretend its popcorn and start off 'poppin' it really slowly getting faster and faster till it is really 'popping'

Pass the Parachute- Sit down and try passing the parachute around the circle (kinda hard for littlies though)

Mouse Trap- Ask the children to look at what colour 'segment' of the parachute they are holding, then everyone pull the parachute up into the air, as this is being done, the adult shouts out a colour. Everyone holding that colour runs under the parachute and finds a new space. Everybody else counts down 5,4,3,2,1 then quickly brings the parachute down and shouts Mouse Trap and captures anyone left inside.

Roll the Ball- Place one large ball on the parachute and move it around slowly, getting faster but trying to keep the ball on the parachute.

Mushroom Tent- Everyone raises the parachute into the air and then drops it back down, as they drop it down, everyone steps inside and sits down on the edge, creating a mushroom like dome. We sometimes have little stories and songs inside ours.

Shark Catcher- This is fabulous but boisterous!!! Everyone lies down around the circle with their legs and lower body underneath the parachute. There is one person in the middle of the circle underneath the parachute (this is the shark) There is also 1 or 2 people standing around the circle (they are the lifegaurd(s). The shark has to go around the circle trying to pull the people lying down underneath the parachute, as they do the person being pulled shouts, "Help-Shark" and the Lifegaurd goes to rescue them. Once you have been pulled under, you become a shark too.

Blimey theese sound complicated when they're typed out but they're not honestly. There are sooooooo many more games but my minds gone a blank other than the usual shaking it around and singing "Jelly on a Plate" and asking the children what it reminds them off "Jelly, The Sea, Clouds e.t.c"

Anyway if anyone is interested I will have a look for that book when I get the chance.

Hope theese help!

Tracey

My posts are getting sooooo long! lol

In my experience games where children are 'out' (eg musical bumps or musical statues) and they then have to go and sit away from the 'action' get terribly boring for the children who get out early on. Often the same children are out early in each game and they can then start to misbehave if they feel bored and resentful.... two strategies I've used to overcome this problem are:

1) Only play co-operative games where children don't get 'out' (lots of the parachute type games suggested by undercover-angel are excellent). Any 'games' where children make or do something in teams or pairs (difficult with 17 I know ) are good. There's a wonderful book (not sure if it's still in print) called 'The Co-operative Sports and games Book' by Terry Orlick.

2) If you do want to have games like musical statues then don't make children 'sit' out. Instead, 'draw' a line down the centre of the hall (use masking tape) or a line of chairs. All children start off in one half of the hall. When they are 'out' they go to the other side but can continue to dance and play... just aren't in the competition bit any more.

Other things little ones like are singing games like 'Here we go round the mulberry bush' 'The farmer's in his den' and 'The wheels on the bus'.

To be honest, the younger ones at three and a half is a bit young to play organised games for very long. If all else fails... and they start to get a bit too OTT have a Telly and DVD on standby!

My son is going to be 4 soon and for his last birthday we hired a hall. We found that hiring a bouncy castle and asking every one to bring a ride on worked really well. The games we played were good old 'Pass the Parcel', musical statues and singing nursery rhymes. The children loved it. Also I would recommend getting one of those huge parachutes (Tescos sell them really cheaply). The kids loved holding it and running underneath. You don't need to spend alot of money or do complicated things at their age, they will still love it. Good luck.

Hi there,

We just had a wonderful low cost party at home. We bought a treasure hunt party game from Lello and Monkey (online) and invited a dozen of my 4 year olds friends. It's quite hard to keep a party going for 2 hours, you need lots of party games, but the treasure hunt was the star of the show. Lello and Monkey also have FREE crafts and games to download from their website in a choice of themes. We paid £5.99 for the safari treasure hunt game and the make your own animal masks and pin the tail on the elephant game were free, including a suggested 2 hour party itinerary! Fool proof and wallet proof.

Hope this helps

Jill

Musical chairs, Statues where you play music then it stops and you have to catch the one still moving, can't remember what its called but the kids are behind you and they creep up slowly and you turn around to catch them out. My children are 23 and 20 so I have forgotten most of the games, the best party at home was giving the kids all the pillows and cushions and having a massive pillow fight ;o)))

yeah...it was a good game

The original post was 2007! They’l be celebrating a sixteenth soon. Party games are not needed.