Ideas needed for party games for a 4 year olds party

skyeandeviesmummy · 26 November 2007 at 12:41PM

Hi,

I need some ideas of what party games I could have at my 4 year olds birthday party. There will be 17 children :eek: going most of those between 3 and a half and four. We hired a hall (had to due to lots of problems with alcoholic neighbours, v.long story). I thought about maybe setting up a table and letting them make things, although what I am not sure. Also thought about pass the parcel but other than that I am stuck. Its a 2 hour party and I suppose they will only eat for a max of 20 mins. Any ideas gratefully received as it is a week on Friday!

Thanks in advance!

pennypinchingmum · 26 November 2007 at 1:50PM

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.

buyitall · 26 November 2007 at 2:18PM

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.

haylibo · 26 November 2007 at 4:09PM

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

haylibo · 26 November 2007 at 4:10PM

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

pobby_2 · 26 November 2007 at 4:42PM

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!

GJNL · 26 November 2007 at 5:13PM

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!

flis21 · 26 November 2007 at 5:16PM

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.

earthmother · 26 November 2007 at 5:20PM

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.

undercover_angel · 26 November 2007 at 6:26PM

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

skyeandeviesmummy · 26 November 2007 at 8:09PM

Thanks everyone there are some brilliant ideas! :beer:

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?

Ideas needed for party games for a 4 year olds party

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