Basic Games
Your games will depend a lot on what your theme is but there are some basics that can apply to just about any theme.
For the purpose of this section I am going to use 4 themes – planes, dinosaurs, princesses, and barnyard.
Pin/Tape Something on the Something –
You’ve all heard of pin the tail on the donkey. There is so much about it to love, a blindfold, turning in circles, an audience, and a prize to boot. Pin the tail on the donkey is a great generic game but what if you want something that fits better with your theme?
Just print out or draw a picture of anything that matches with your theme and make parts of it to “pin” on. Draw a dashed line over the part that will be put on. With notebook paper (or any other thin paper) trace over that part and you will have a template to cut out all the parts you need. You can cut them out of colored construction paper, cardstock, or just regualr printer paper. Put doublestick tape (or you can just roll over regular scotch tape) on the backs of them and line them up beside your picture.
Planes – Pin the tail on the Plane, Pin the Wing on the Plane, Pin the Propellor on the Plane (or Helicopter), Pin the Parachute on the Sky Diver
Dinosaurs – Pin the Tail on the T-Rex, Pin the Horn on the Triceratops, Pin the Dino Egg in the Nest, Pin the Wing on the Pteradactyl, Pin the Tusk on the Wooly Mammoth, Pin the Tooth on the Saber Tooth Tiger
Princess – Pin the Crown on the Princess, Pin the Jewel on the Crown, Pin the Shoe on Cinderealla, Pin the Ring on the Princess
Barnyard – Pin the Tail on The Pig, Pin the Udder on the Cow, Pin the Tail on the Horse, for this one you could even go with the classic Pin the Tail on the Donkey
Find Something –
Every child loves an Easter Egg Hunt so why not have the same fun more then once a year. You can do this one a few different ways. There is the standard find little eggs (or other themed containers) with treats in them. You can let them loose to find as many as they can or have them in a small area (in straw or sand for example) where they can each find one. You could also have non prize items to find and give a prize to whoever finds the most or whoever finds the one that is different from the rest. Another idea is to have teams in which they are only looking for a certain color that then needs to be placed in a designated area.
Planes –
Find the Sky Divers – You can find sky divers at www.orientaltrading.com
Find a Plane in the Straw – Either buy a small toy plane for each child or just cut out several paper ones and hide them in straw
Here is a great example of using what you already have. I have more pine straw then I could ever want so it is used in abundance
Put the Planes in the Airport – Divide your group into teams, have a decorated box in a different color for each team (just paint it that color cut out a small “doorway” and write airport on it) Each team finds all of their color planes and returns them to their airport
Dinosaurs –
Find the Dino Eggs – You can buy dinosaur eggs or just buy small dinosaurs and put them in regular Easter eggs
Find the Fossils – Paint bone shapes on small rocks and bury them in your sandbox. You can also sometimes find candy bones on after Halloween clearance
Find the Baby Dinos – Scatter small dinosaurs around and have some of your child’s larger dinosaurs set out, then let the children return all the “baby” triceratops to the big “Mama” triceratops, etc
Princess –
Find the Jewels – Hide small stones that you have painted with shiny paint
Find the Royal Gold – Hide gold coins in sand, straw, colored macaroni, anything you have plenty of
Fix Your Crowns – Hide stick on earrings that they can attatch to a paper crown
Barnyard –
Find the Chicken’s Eggs – here’s another one where you can just use regular Easter Eggs
Find the Grapes in the Slop – this would be a delightfully messy game. Put chocolate pudding, water, oatmeal, crushed cookies, and little cut bits of cut up food (and grapes!) in a big tub and have them dig in to find the grapes
Put the Chicks in the Coop – you can either just use Easter Eggs or buy chenille chicks. Make little nests from straw or hay all in a row. You can make enough nests so that everyone (or every team) has one and say the first one that gets X amount of chicks in their nest wins.
Throw Something in Something –
This needs little explaining, throw a themed object into another themed object. You don’t have to build something special to throw your object into, just decorate a box and cut out a hole. It’s really that simple.
Planes – Throw the Plane in the Hanger, Throw the Pilot in the Plane, Throw the Plane Through The Cloud
Dinosaurs – Throw the Pteradactyl in the Nest, Throw the Dino in The Cave, Throw the Food in the T-Rex’s Mouth (maybe other little dinosaurs, they are meat eaters after all)
Princess – Throw the Princess in the Castle, Throw the Crown in the Treasure Box, Throw the Fish in The Moat
Barnyard – Throw The Chicken (or any farm animal) in the Barn, Throw the Pig in the Mud, Throw the Apple in the Horse’s Mouth
Match Game –
This is another one that can be done many ways. You can spread your objects out in one area and have everyone run to see who gets a match first or the most matches. You can pass out one object to each child and spread out (or even hide) the matching objects. You can do a big memory game and let them take turns.
Planes – Matching Planes, Big Clouds with different patterns or words on one side
Dinosurs- Matching Dinosaurs, Dino Prints with differnt designs on one side
Princess – Matching Princesses, Matching Crowns, Princess hats with different designs on one side
Barnyard – Matching Farm Animals, Matching Garden Veggies, Eggs with different chicks on one side
Veggie Patch Match game for a Barnyard party
Musical Something -
We all know the game Musical Chairs. To make it themed get rid of the chairs and use mats on the floor.
Planes - Musical Clouds, Musical Pilots, Musical Planes
Dinosaurs - Musical Dino Prints, Musical Dino Eggs, Musical Dinosaurs
Princess - Musical Princesses, Music Crowns, Musical Castles
There are of course many more games that would work for any theme but hopefully these basic ideas will get you started. Just remember any time you see or hear of a game that you think might be fun, you can probably rework it to fit your theme.
For the purpose of this section I am going to use 4 themes – planes, dinosaurs, princesses, and barnyard.
Pin/Tape Something on the Something –
You’ve all heard of pin the tail on the donkey. There is so much about it to love, a blindfold, turning in circles, an audience, and a prize to boot. Pin the tail on the donkey is a great generic game but what if you want something that fits better with your theme?
Just print out or draw a picture of anything that matches with your theme and make parts of it to “pin” on. Draw a dashed line over the part that will be put on. With notebook paper (or any other thin paper) trace over that part and you will have a template to cut out all the parts you need. You can cut them out of colored construction paper, cardstock, or just regualr printer paper. Put doublestick tape (or you can just roll over regular scotch tape) on the backs of them and line them up beside your picture.
Planes – Pin the tail on the Plane, Pin the Wing on the Plane, Pin the Propellor on the Plane (or Helicopter), Pin the Parachute on the Sky Diver
Dinosaurs – Pin the Tail on the T-Rex, Pin the Horn on the Triceratops, Pin the Dino Egg in the Nest, Pin the Wing on the Pteradactyl, Pin the Tusk on the Wooly Mammoth, Pin the Tooth on the Saber Tooth Tiger
Princess – Pin the Crown on the Princess, Pin the Jewel on the Crown, Pin the Shoe on Cinderealla, Pin the Ring on the Princess
Barnyard – Pin the Tail on The Pig, Pin the Udder on the Cow, Pin the Tail on the Horse, for this one you could even go with the classic Pin the Tail on the Donkey
Find Something –
Every child loves an Easter Egg Hunt so why not have the same fun more then once a year. You can do this one a few different ways. There is the standard find little eggs (or other themed containers) with treats in them. You can let them loose to find as many as they can or have them in a small area (in straw or sand for example) where they can each find one. You could also have non prize items to find and give a prize to whoever finds the most or whoever finds the one that is different from the rest. Another idea is to have teams in which they are only looking for a certain color that then needs to be placed in a designated area.
Planes –
Find the Sky Divers – You can find sky divers at www.orientaltrading.com
Find a Plane in the Straw – Either buy a small toy plane for each child or just cut out several paper ones and hide them in straw
Put the Planes in the Airport – Divide your group into teams, have a decorated box in a different color for each team (just paint it that color cut out a small “doorway” and write airport on it) Each team finds all of their color planes and returns them to their airport
Dinosaurs –
Find the Dino Eggs – You can buy dinosaur eggs or just buy small dinosaurs and put them in regular Easter eggs
Find the Fossils – Paint bone shapes on small rocks and bury them in your sandbox. You can also sometimes find candy bones on after Halloween clearance
Find the Baby Dinos – Scatter small dinosaurs around and have some of your child’s larger dinosaurs set out, then let the children return all the “baby” triceratops to the big “Mama” triceratops, etc
Princess –
Find the Jewels – Hide small stones that you have painted with shiny paint
Find the Royal Gold – Hide gold coins in sand, straw, colored macaroni, anything you have plenty of
Fix Your Crowns – Hide stick on earrings that they can attatch to a paper crown
Barnyard –
Find the Chicken’s Eggs – here’s another one where you can just use regular Easter Eggs
Find the Grapes in the Slop – this would be a delightfully messy game. Put chocolate pudding, water, oatmeal, crushed cookies, and little cut bits of cut up food (and grapes!) in a big tub and have them dig in to find the grapes
Put the Chicks in the Coop – you can either just use Easter Eggs or buy chenille chicks. Make little nests from straw or hay all in a row. You can make enough nests so that everyone (or every team) has one and say the first one that gets X amount of chicks in their nest wins.
Throw Something in Something –
This needs little explaining, throw a themed object into another themed object. You don’t have to build something special to throw your object into, just decorate a box and cut out a hole. It’s really that simple.
Planes – Throw the Plane in the Hanger, Throw the Pilot in the Plane, Throw the Plane Through The Cloud
Dinosaurs – Throw the Pteradactyl in the Nest, Throw the Dino in The Cave, Throw the Food in the T-Rex’s Mouth (maybe other little dinosaurs, they are meat eaters after all)
Princess – Throw the Princess in the Castle, Throw the Crown in the Treasure Box, Throw the Fish in The Moat
Barnyard – Throw The Chicken (or any farm animal) in the Barn, Throw the Pig in the Mud, Throw the Apple in the Horse’s Mouth
Match Game –
This is another one that can be done many ways. You can spread your objects out in one area and have everyone run to see who gets a match first or the most matches. You can pass out one object to each child and spread out (or even hide) the matching objects. You can do a big memory game and let them take turns.
Planes – Matching Planes, Big Clouds with different patterns or words on one side
Dinosurs- Matching Dinosaurs, Dino Prints with differnt designs on one side
Princess – Matching Princesses, Matching Crowns, Princess hats with different designs on one side
Barnyard – Matching Farm Animals, Matching Garden Veggies, Eggs with different chicks on one side
Musical Something -
We all know the game Musical Chairs. To make it themed get rid of the chairs and use mats on the floor.
Planes - Musical Clouds, Musical Pilots, Musical Planes
Dinosaurs - Musical Dino Prints, Musical Dino Eggs, Musical Dinosaurs
Princess - Musical Princesses, Music Crowns, Musical Castles
There are of course many more games that would work for any theme but hopefully these basic ideas will get you started. Just remember any time you see or hear of a game that you think might be fun, you can probably rework it to fit your theme.
