These are five very easy party games to play and very easy to set up.

Aimed mainly at children in the 5 to 10 years age range.

The wonderful thing about most party games is that they’re easy to set up – if you have time. Not so easy with children or babies around and hugely dependant on how many children have been invited.

1. Anything musical – musical bumps, musical chairs, musical statues.

For all three you will need music of some kind – the louder and livelier the better. The idea in each is to try to catch someone out.

Musical Bumps 

Play the music and tell the children to dance or march around the room. After a duration pause the music, the children have to sit down as quickly as possible. Usually the children seem to fall so fast it is nigh on impossible to tell which is last to sit. Tell the one you think is last that they are out. Depending on the children, you may be able to pass on the ‘choosers’ role to the one who was out and let them pause the music. Repeat until there is one winner.

Musical Statues

Very similar to the one above but once they have stopped they must stand as still as possible. This can be very tricky to choose. Sometimes, pulling faces or blowing on noses helps!

Musical Chairs

The hardest of the three to set up, especially if you have a lot of children.

Place enough chairs per child, minus one, in two rows back to back. Play the music and tell the children to march round the chairs. When you pause the music at random they have to scrabble for a chair to sit on. The child left standing is out. Take away another chair. Begin again.

2. Simon Says

This is very easy. Stand in front of the children and call out instructions, such as ‘Simon Says – Hands on heads’  Or you can choose to say ‘Hands on Heads’ without saying the precursor, Simon Says. If any of the children move on any instruction without ‘Simon Says….’ then they are out. This is a slightly quicker game as several children (possibly all) may be out at once.

Please see our post on Simon Says here for variables.

3. Sleeping Dragons

You choose a child to be a Prince or Princess. The ‘Dragons’ lie on the floor very, very still and quite close to each other with their eyes closed. The Prince/ss has to tiptoe through the Dragons from one side of the room to the other. If they touch a Dragon, or if a Dragon thinks they have been touched, they must roar, or put up their hand. If the Prince/ss is no where near them then they are out. If the Prince/ss is near them then they are out. If the Prince/ss gets to the other side of the room then they get a prize.

Slight alternative:

Once the Dragons are ‘sleeping’ place a piece of paper (not too large, or small) on the Dragons’ backs. These can also be coloured so that you can call a colour to be collected. Or if you have the inclination, print with pictures of things the Princ/ss would want to collect. i.e. a crown, sword, trusty stallion. The Prince/ss has to retrieve the paper without waking any of the Dragons.

The colours or pictures can then relate to a prize.

4. Blind Mans Bluff

This is one of my favourites when I was a child. It’s so simple and still so much fun. Wrap a scarf around one child’s eyes, fairly tightly. Tell the children to turn the one blind folded three times, and one for luck. The child blindfolded then has to ‘catch’ another child. Once they have, they need to feel their face and shoulders and try to guess who it is. No talking allowed. No prizes necessary.

Still gives me goose bumps.

5. Hunt the Thimble

What could be easier and simpler? And this can be played at any time! Just remember to carry a thimble…. or a key makes a good substitute for a thimble.

First get all the ‘hunters’ to either close their eyes or leave the room. Hide the thimble and call them back into the room to get hunting. The person to find it gets a prize and/or can be the next to hide the thimble. If it carries on too long, then a simple “warmer, warmer, cooler,cooler” to help a hunter as they get closer or further away from the thimble.

More easy party games to play can be found here.