HT Games
Favorite Animal Characters
Encourage children to establish or build appreciation and respect for animals while entertaining them. Announce the afternoon's game of charades will be theme based on animal characters from their favorite movies. For example, Gloria the hippo, Melvin the giraffe or Alex the lion from "Madagascar," or Garfield and Odie from "Garfield" cartoons and movies are all fun, lively characters that give kids actions, gestures and poses to easily replicate. Allow players to include sounds in their expressions of the animals. Encourage players to also come to the party dressed as their favorite movie character.
New Movie Releases
This version of charades is particularly good to play during the fall/winter holidays and the summer season due to the fact that the vast majority of kid-friendly movies release during these time frames. To play this game, select at least three movies that are due to open soon. Collect information, facts, photos, posters or magazine ads, catch-phrases, logos or abstract images that relate to the movies. Before your charades game, you can have the kids participate in an art project where they draw or paint their own pictures of personal favorite characters, places, buildings and activities that characters do. Then use these illustrations during the charades game. If you have various levels of ages playing, make sure to include images that have more detail as well as ones that ensure the older youths will be challenged when guessing answers.
Classic Family-Friendly Films
Just as much as a parent enjoys sharing personal childhood tales and experiences with her own children, the kids often consider hearing about these details boring and unimportant. Relive personal, youthful moments with your kids through classic family films and sneak in that bonding anyway. To turn these interactions into a game of charades, download, rent or play snippets of these movies for participating children prior to the beginning of charades. Create the guessing cards for the game together, supplying every child with index cards or card stock of her own to write down funny, memorable moments using markers, colored pencils or pictures from magazines or old photos. Suitable, timeless, family-friendly films such as "The Goonies," "E.T.," "The Princess Bride," "Singin' in The Rain" and "The Wizard of Oz" all apply. To really drive home the goodness of a classic era, provide candies and refreshments that reigned popular during your childhood years.