Birthday Party Games - Naperville,IL

*bean bag toss- into a basket or through a hole in a board, or even back and forth to each other
*relay races
*obstacle course
*musical chairs, dance and freeze when the music is off
*keeping a balloon in the air as a group
*make cupcakes and let the kids decorate them to eat
*treasure dig- let them dig up things in a box of rice or sand
*craft project they can take home- could use fun foam maybe

Here's a few more from http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/birthdays/5.html

1)''Bear and Tiger''- need one stuffed Bear and one stuffed Tiger (or whatever stuffed animals you choose). 2 children on opposite sides hold the stuffed animals. Explain that the Bear is trying to catch the Tiger. Children pass the animals around as quickly as they can, trying to make make the Bear catch the Tiger, or helping the Tiger escape the Bear. No winners, good fun.

2)''Paper Bag Guess'' Label some paper bags with each letter of birthday boy's name and put an object that starts with that letter inside. Pass bags around and children guess contents. Example: ''S'' bag has a sock, etc.

3)''Pistacio Vacuums'' This was originally peanut vacum, but changed due to some children having allergies to peanuts. Supplies needed: A pound or so of pistacio nuts or other small, light objects, drinking straws, cups. Place a spread-out mound of nuts or whatever in the center of the circle. Show how children can use their straws to suck a nut back to their space and place it in their cup. On ''Go'', everyone races to fill their cup.

4)''Snowball Fight'' of ''Clean Up Your Room'' supplies needed: a lot of socks, balled up. Ask children if they've ever been asked to clean up their room. In this game, you win when your side of the ''room'' is clean, i.e. has no socks on the floor. Children can be divided into two teams or even better, adults against kids since it's a pretty even ability game. Lay a rope or something to demarcate the dividing line, (after first having removed the breakables from the room) toss the socks out and yell ''Clean up Your Room!''. This usually goes until everyone is too weak from laughing.

I highly recommend any kind of cooperative ''Treasure Hunt'' for that age group. You can make picture clues (or words, read by an older helper) that lead the whole group, clue by clue, around all over the house, yard, park, or whatever. At the end is a ''treasure'' (candy, party favor, new game to play, etc.) for everyone. R.K.

One game that a friend of mine did at her daughter's party was really fun -- she gave each kid a different colored bag and had hidden different ''treasures'' in her yard, all wrapped in the different colors of each bag. The kids were instructed to find only the treasures that were wrapped in ''their'' color. It was nice because the kids didn't fight over the stuff they found, and it became kind of a cooperative hunt rather than a competitive hunt. Kerry

Do you have a theme for the party or does it not matter what kind of games they are? Also, is it for a boy or girl?

When my daughter was 5 or 6 I had a back yard party. One of daughter's friends said this is the best party ever.

Do you remember the Grand Prize Game from Bozo's Circus? You line up 6 pails and give the child a small ball. They throw the ball in the first bucket and win a prize, then the second and so on. As the go on the prizes get bigger. If they miss they're out.

Scavenger hunt. Write clues on pieces of paper that lead them to a prize. At 5 my daughter and one of her friends could read so they were the team captains.

Water balloon toss.

Who can blow the biggest bubble? Give each child a small bottle of bubbles.

Eat the marshmellow. Tie a marshmellow to a string and hang (cloths line will work). The children put their hands behind their back and try to eat the marshmellow.

If its a hot day, set up two larger pails of water with a large sponge in each, and two small empty containers. Divide the kids into teams. They take the sponge out of the water, run to the empty container and squeeze the water out of the sponge. The first team to fill the empty container wins.

Depending on how many children you can go this individually or teams. Get a small puzzle. Take the pieces and hide them in colored containers (large plastic eggs work well). Each person/team has their own color. First they find all their own colored containers, then they have to put the puzzle together.

Set up an obstacle course.

Have fun!

A different version of musical chairs is that you just take out one chair less than the kids there and whom ever doesn't have a seat gets to be the music stopper. Everyone at a party that I did that at wanted to be the music stopper. Bozo Buckets is also a big hit. A silly one is have them race with a long skinny ballon between their legs. Watermelon seed spitting contest. Simon Says. Usually simple games are the most fun. Guess how many cheerios, m&m's etc..

Lots of great ideas are posted, think I will copy and paste them in a file for me to keep!

Good luck!

I was the room mom for my daughter's preschool class last year, and we decorated sugar cookies. They LOVED it! I gave each child a little dixie cup with frosting in it to use (they could choose which color, I think I had a choice of 3 colors). And then I had little dishes of different kinds of decorations sitting out, as well as tubes of gel icing. It was hysterical to see what they came up with! Granted, it can get a little bit messy so this is best if the party is outdoors.