Hobbies And Interests
Catch that Balloon
Arrange the children in a circle and assign each child his own number. Choose one child to be "it" and get him to stand in the middle of the circle with a balloon. "It" throws the balloon while calling a number, and the person whose number he calls must rush to catch the balloon before it hits the ground. If the kid trying to catch the balloon succeeds, "it" must return to the middle of the circle and call another number. If the balloon hits the ground before the child can catch it, that child becomes the new "it" and moves to the center of the circle.
Balloon Target Practice
Mark a target on the floor with a piece of tape. Line up the kids about 10 feet from the target and give each child her own uninflated balloon. Make sure that everyone gets their own color so that they can easily identify their balloon later. Instruct the kids to inflate their balloons, and when everyone is ready, get one of the children to yell, "One, two, three, GO!" On "go," all the children release their balloons, trying to aim for the target on the floor. The closest balloon gets five points. Any balloons that hit the target directly get 15 points. Play as many or as few rounds as you like, until your crew starts to get bored of this game.
Outdoor Relay Fun
If the weather permits, take the party outdoors and have the kids work their way through a relay race or obstacle course. Set up a course that requires children to walk along a hose, crawl underneath lawn chairs or walk with a ball between their knees. On extra hot days, add a sprinkler to the course. Split up children into two teams, timing each team as they go through the course one player at a time. The team with the fastest time wins.
Another popular relay involves water and sponges. Split up kids into two teams, giving each team a sponge, a bucket full of water, and a pitcher. Line up the two teams, placing one empty pitcher near the front of each line and the buckets of water about 20 feet away. Beginning with the first child in line, have each kid run to their team&'s water bucket, soak the sponge, and run back to squeeze the water into the pitcher. The first team to fill their pitcher wins.
Mystery Winker
Choose one detective and ask him to leave the room. Have the rest of the children sit in a circle and close their eyes. Tap one child on the head--this child will be the mystery winker. Ask all of the kids to open their eyes and call the detective back. The mystery winker begins taking victims by winking at other children in the circle, who have to fall over and play dead if they notice they&'re being winked at. The detective stands in the middle of the circle and gets three guesses to identify the mystery winker. If the detective successfully identifies the mystery winker, begin a new round with a new detective and new winker. Otherwise, start a new round with the same detective but select a new child to be the winker.
20 Questions
Choose one child to be "it" and have her leave the room. While "it" is gone, the other kids sit in a circle and pick an object in the room. When "it" returns, she can ask up to 20 questions to get information about the secret object and guess what it is. "It" can ask yes or no questions about the object&'s size, shape, color, function and anything else she can think of. The round ends when "it" takes a guess at what the object is, whether she gets it right or not.