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Planning a birthday party and organizing easy party games for kids can be either a very exciting moment or your worst nightmare. Especially if its your kids party because as a parent you would like to keep those little monsters entertained as much as possible.
In our situation, my wife has been planning our daughter’s 8th birthday for over a month. With all the brainstorming on various birthday party ideas we finally narrowed down to the theme as “Sparkle and Shine” as our little one loves everything that shines and glitters she has taken that from her grand mother. Well apart from being involved in some decisions, the entertainment portion (i.e., party game ideas) fell on my shoulders. My wife’s justification for it “Oh you are creative, and you love working on your DIY projects, but please finish them this year OK, cause her birthday is in a month”
Somedays I wonder if she is complimenting me or just that her passive-aggressive tone is getting clearer. Well in all honesty I do make things harder for myself as I am a bit of a perfectionist, and my wife swears up and down that I have some form of OCD.
Since it was going to be around 20 kids packed into our home all looking forward to the event, I had no choice but to step up. We decided to narrow it down to 5 games and I thoroughly refused to do the mind-numbing staples or rather classic party games that have been on every kid’s birthday since the 80s such as musical chairs, passing the parcels (or Hot Potato), Simon says or anyother birthday party game that declares a winner when the music stops.
My problem has always been that I am extremely ambitious and back myself into a corner but this time I had not only the time (a week-long break due to a national holiday in Oman) to complete these DIY games but also a clear idea of what games I wanted to build and re-imagine.
The mini battalion of kids that were coming to this party were between the age of 6 to 19, so the goal was to make it not only easy for the smaller kids but also engaging for the bigger ones. The kids party game that I shortlisted were as follows:
- Plinko
- Ring Toss
- Mini Golf
- Balls and Cups
- Bean Bag Toss
On the off chance that if the kids were having too much fun and wanted to play more games, I had two more games as a backup in my pocket (toilet paper roll race and stacking cups 😎)
My Amazon Birthday Picks
Here’s a list of things we ordered for the birthday party as decorations and party gifts for winners from Amazon.
5 Easy Party Games for Kids
Here’s a complete run down of the best indoor games or rather easy party games for kids we had organised for the kids at our daughter’s birthday party with the theme Sparkle and Shine.
Note: Each of these games are made with reusable items/ materials and toys that we already have. Things that we did not have such as huge cardboard piece, we purchased those from the local stationery shop.
1. Plinko
What is Plinko?
It is a game where you have a board that has pegs placed on it and you start at the top where you drop ping pong balls to try and land them into the slots at the bottom of the board. Each slot has different points, so the idea is to see which player gets the highest number of points after they have played all their allocated balls.
The trick with this game is that while constructing it you need to make sure that the random element always stays true so that there is no way to always get the maximum number of points after each turn.
Materials needed for Plinko
- Rectangular Cardboard
- Ping pong balls
- Glue gun
- Thermocol / Styrofoam cylinder pegs
- Ruler & Pencil
- Measuring tape
- Colour paints/markers
Note: If you have a skill set for woodwork, then this game structure can be made from sheets of plywood. Plywood can be used for the main backboard and the frame. For the pegs, use can use nails that the ping pong balls can bounce on.
The spacing of the pegs is very important as you want the ball to travel smoothly from top to bottom and once you have done the measurements correctly, keep in mind that one row of pegs should be of even number and the other row should be odd basically alternating between even and odd.
If you plan on decorating the backboard or the sides, I suggest you do that first before you glue down everything in place. Before you start the game do one quick demo of what is expected from the kids to cross check if you have done everything right.
2. Ring Toss
What is Ring Toss?
Well, you have probably played this at the local carnival or fair. The idea is quite simple each player will be given rings and they need to land them on the pegs to score points. The twist I used on this game is that I used neon glow sticks to make the rings and I had rings of three sizes (Large, Regular, and Small). I had ordered these from Amazon, you can view them on 👉 My Amazon Birthday Picks.
To add some variety and strategy I created pegs/stands of different heights and each peg/stand was worth certain points based on the height. The smallest being worth the most and the tallest worth the least. I even added another layer of strategy with the rings. Since I had created three different sizes for the rings as well. The smallest one was worth triple, the regular one was worth double and the largest one was worth single or the base value of whatever peg/stand it landed on.
The reason I made it a little more challenging was to incorporate the bigger children and to give the younger ones a good fighting chance to score big. I had also made two of each ring type to give more opportunities to score some points.
Materials needed for Ring Toss
- Rectangular Cardboard
- Glow Sticks
- Glue gun
- Thermocol / Styrofoam cylinder pegs
- Ruler & Pencil
- Measuring tape
- Colour paints/markers
Note: If you want the game can also be played vertically (as in you could securely hang it on the wall) but then you would need to make sure the pegs are longer so that there is a fair chance for a child to score.
I wanted to make it fun and simple for the kids to understand so I decided to place it horizontally on the floor and I made sure the kids had a clear sight of the smallest peg/stand so that it was not unfair to score the bull’s eye.
Given all the added layers I was quite sure the kids would get a good kick out of it and sure enough, it was a blast for them.
3. Mini Golf
What is Mini Golf?
As the name suggests it’s a miniature golf game. I didn’t have the time or the space to build an actual miniature golf course (which would be cool, maybe next time 😉) but the idea that I had was to build a back wall that had different cut out sizes on it that you had to aim and try to get the ball in. Each different size would be worth different points and I thought it would be something different and unique that the kids would not have seen before.
Materials used in Mini Golf
- Rectangular Cardboard
- A kids Gold Putter
- Glue gun
- Ping Pong Balls
- Ruler & Pencil
- Measuring tape
- Colour paints/markers
Note: If you want to make it extremely challenging or more interactive you can place a few toy obstacles on the course. Just to add that little extra element of drama.
Making the backdrop was quite simple just needed to measure and cut out a long rectangle of about 100cm by 30cm. At the base design the width and shapes of the cut-outs you would want to add. Also, remember you would need a similar length piece for the base as well so that your backdrop stands up correctly.
4. Balls and Cups
What is Balls and Cups?
This game is quite simple and tricky at the same time. Take a rectangle piece of cardboard and draw a design on it (I tried to make mine look like flowers) the actual flowers I used plastic cups and drew lines for the steam and tried to simulate grass with cups as well.
For the centre of each flower, I used a colourful cup that was taller and I placed a peg underneath it to make it challenging and to make it stand out visually. The rules are quite simple, at a pre-determined distance each player needs to try and land the ping pong balls into the cups. You can either bounce the balls or try to have a go and land them directly inside.
If you land the ball in the standard cups it is a single point and if you land them in the colourful centre taller cups the points are doubled.
Materials used for Balls and Cups
- Rectangular Cardboard
- Plastic Cups of different sizes
- Glue gun
- Ping Pong Balls
- Ruler & Pencil
- Measuring tape
- Colour paints/markers
Note: If you want to make it more challenging and if you have the time try adding another layer (height) to make it more vertical so that you need to aim higher and each toss has more of a risk element to it.
In order to make it easier for the smaller kids I placed the finished board on the ground and against a back wall so that they could make back shots and increase their chances of scoring a point. Going about the noise decibel of this game, I believe the kids enjoyed it a lot.
5. Bean Bag Toss
What is Bean Bag Toss game?
This Last one is quite similar to corn-hole toss, but the difference being that the main playing board isn’t there instead replaced by playing squares of different shapes that you need that bean bag to land on.
Just as with the previous games, I wanted them to be fun and accessible for all the kids. So my general idea was to have a chair placed on the floor where the kids would sit and at varying distances place these cardboard boards of different sizes and the kids would need to toss the bean bags and try to land them on these boards.
Of course, each board would have different points based on its size. I added the pegs on the 4 corns of each cut out so that it would add another element that could use as a back shot for example.
Materials used in Bean Bag Toss
- Rectangular Cardboard
- Bean Bags (5 of them should be enough)
- Glue gun
- Thermocol / Styrofoam cylinder pegs
- Ruler & Pencil
- Measuring tape
- Colour paints/markers
Note: If you want to make it more challenging then spread the boards out even further and try to have different shapes for the cut-outs to make it more challenging.
We used our own DIY bean bag by using chickpeas and a cloth and then stitching them in a square shape.
Overall I felt these easy party games for kids were enjoyed to the fullest by them as our house was noisy and chaotic at times but hey that means the plan worked. There were also true moments of tension while the little ones tried to use different strategies to work out the best course of action for them.
In the end, all the kids left happy and are now looking forward to the next party and are even more excited about what games I could come up with. In a way that feels cool being the fun Mr. Z and all but suddenly I feel this sense of dread and pressure that I have added on myself to come up with even crazier, fun birthday party games for kids next time.
Oh, what have I done! 😈 well I always like a challenge and there is plenty of time for the next event 🤞. If you are looking at breaking the classic kids party monotony then do try any of these games and let us know what was the reaction of the kids and if you are worried that all these DIYs go to waste, trust me they dont. We had kids love these so much that some even requested to take these home.
P.S: These games could be extremely fun with a group of adults wanting to try something new. All you need to do is play music, add some delicious food and drinks and then who knows you could just make the party even more lively.
Return gifts for a Kids Birthday Party
If you are looking for slightly cheaper return gifts to purchase in bulk for kids birthday party then the below options would suit your need.
Here’s a short video on the the arrangement we had for our daughter’s 8th Birthday with the theme Sparkle and Shine.
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