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Chinese Whispers
Sit everyone in a circle. Whisper a long phrase to one person.
They, in turn, whisper what they heard to the next person, and so on. The last person announces what they heard.
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Pass the Parcel
Wrap a bar of chocolate (or some other gift), in a layer of paper.
Now wrap it in another layer and repeat until you have about 10 layers. Finally wrap it in gift paper (so it looks nice).
Sit everyone in a circle and play a short snippet of music. When the music stops, the person holding the parcel removes ONE layer of wrapping.
Repeat until the last layer of wrapping has been removed. The winner keeps the present.
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Pass the Parcel with Forfeits
As above but every layer contains a forfeit (E.g Sing a song, Eat a teaspoon of Mustard, have your belly button filled with water).
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The Chocolate (or Jelly) Game
Sit everyone in a circle and place a tray in the middle with a hat, scarf, gloves, knife and fork, die and a wrapper bar of chocolate.
In turn, players throw the die. If they throw a SIX, they must put on the hat, scarf and gloves before they start to unwrap the chocolate with the knife and fork, ad then start to eat it.
To speed up the game add a second die and require a Double SIX. The Jelly Variation is to turn out a
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Musical Chairs
The old favourite. With one fewer chairs than people, a short snippet of music is played while the people move around the room.
When the music stops everyone tries to sit on a vacant chair (only ONE person per chair).
The person who doesn’t find a chair is out.
One chair is taken away and the game continues until only one person (The Winner) is left.
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Memory Game
On a tray, place about 10 to 15 small items (e.g. pencil, watch, comb, shoe lace, spoon, toy car, etc.) and cover with a cloth.
Sit everyone in a circle. Place the tray in the middle of the circle and remove the cloth for 60 seconds.
Everyone has to remember the objects. When the time is up, replace the cloth.
In turn, each person has to name an object on the tray. The first person to fail to name an object, repeat an object or name something not on the tray is out.
The tray is then removed and some or all of the objects replaced, and the game re-started with the person following the one who is out.
If the game is too easy for the group, add more objects or reduce the time.
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Musical Statues
This is like Musical Chairs, but when the music stops, the players have to keep still.
Anyone who moves, quivers, shakes etc is out. The winner is the last one still playing.
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Listen and Move
Place party shapes on the floor in a circle.
For example if your theme is Knights the shapes could be shields, swords, and castles. Children walk around circle while listening to music.
If the music is loud the children move fast. If the music is quiet the children move slow. If the music stops, the children stop on the closest shape. Young children like to play it this way.
To make it more challenging for older children have 1 less shape than the number of children. Continue remove shapes as the children are ‘out’.
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Postman's Knock
All the boys gather in a group and each takes a card with a sequential number (One, Two, Three etc).
The girls do the same. The boys then form a line (shoulder to shoulder) facing the girls who are in a similar line (players should NOT stand in order).
First a girl calls out a number and the boy with that number goes across to kiss her.
The a boy calls out a number and the girl with that number goes and kisses him.
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Port and Starboard
On the command (from the list below) the children have to do the appropriate action.
After a while, start removing the last player to comply, untill only one remains.
- Port (Run to one side tof the area)
- Starboard (run to the other side)
- Captains Comming Aboard (stand to attention and salute)
- Submarines (Lie on the floor)
- Hoist the Mainsail (run on the spot - like climing the rigging)
- Mess Deck (Sit cross legged on the floor - ready for lunch)
- Davey Jones (Climb a tree, stand on a chair - anything so that you are not on the floor)
- Up Periscope (Stand up straight and old hands to eyes as though looking through binoculars)
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British Bulldog
Caution: This game can get rough.
All the players (except one) line up at one side of the playing area. The remaining player (The Bulldog) stands in the middle.
When he is ready, he shouts “Go” and all the other players have to get to the other side without being caught.
Any player the The Bulldog can lift off the ground while he shouts “British Bulldog”, joins him in the middle as a Bulldog.
On subsequent runs, the Bulldogs may work together. The winner is the last one to be caught.
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Mummies
Split the party goers into teams of three and give each team a toilet roll.
Two persons then wrap the third in the toilet roll so that they look like an Egyptian Mummy.
The winning team is the one who in a set time (say 2 minutes) have the neatest and most covered Mummy.
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Stations
Everyone stands a circle (except one who is standing in the middle) and has been told to remember a different station name.
The person in the middle calls out two names. The stations have to change places quickly, before the person in the middle can get to one of the empty spaces.
Who ever is left without a place is the person in the middle for the next game.
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Pass the Orange
Arrange for teams of about 8 to stand in a line, one behind the other (arranged boy, girl, boy,…).
Give each team an orange which the first person should tuck under his chin. This should be passed to the person behind.
When the orange gets to the last person, they come to the front of the line and start again.
The winnnig team is the first one which gets their starting person to the front again.
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Sleeping Pirate
All the children (except one – The Pirate) sit Cross Legged on the floor in a circle.
The pirate sites Cross-legged in the middle of the circle, blind-folded, with a large bunch of keys on the floor in front of him.
A child is nominated to creep up and take the keys and then return to their place, without the pirate hearing them.
The Pirate has three goes to point to where he thinks the raider is. If he is sucessful, the raider becomes the Pirate.
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Balloon Pop
Place notes inside un-inflated balloons,1 or 2 of the notes should indicate that this balloon is a winner.
Inflate the balloons and hang them around. Let each child pick a balloon then pop it to see if their note is a winner.
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Balloon Relay
Divide the children into 2 or more equal teams and stand them in a line.
Give each team ten balloons in a basket. The first in each line takes a balloon and runs to the other side of the room/yard/area and sits or stomps on the balloon to pop it.
After popping the balloon they run back to the line and tag the next person who does the same thing.
The game goes on until one team has popped all of their balloons.
The winning team gets a small prize (like a ribbon) while EVERYONE gets a small toy.
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Toy Walk
This is done like a cake walk. Have numbers on the ground for as many children (1-10).
Walk on the numbers until the music stops.
Have numbers on some small toys. If a child is standing on the number of the toy, they win the toy
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Whistling Crackers
You give every child 3 soda crackers.
When you say “GO” every child puts all the crackers at once in his/her mouth.
The first one to whistle wins(you can also substitute the soda crackers with peanut butter but make sure there are no allergies).
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Can You Guess
Put several small items into a brown paper bag.
Blindfold one person and hand them one of the items in the bag. Give them a few seconds to guess what the item is. If they are unsuccessful they are out.
The last one wins.
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Stuck in the Mud
One person is ‘IT’ and has to run round touching as many people aas they can.
When they have touched someone, that person has to stop and stand with their legs apart and their hands outstreached, until someone crawls through their legs.
If you’ve been caught three times, then you are out. The game ends when everyone left is standing still.
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Ducky Ducky
Everyone sits in a circle except one who is given a pillow and blind-fold.
They then go and place the pillow on a persons lap, sit on it and say ducky ducky.
The person should say”quack quack” this can be done only 3 times.
If the blind person guesses the name the person, they should now be given the blind fold and the game run over again – after everyone has changed their places.
