Fourth birthday party game ideas

Soz -- You can run down to your local craft store and buy elasticized thread and large beads and let the girls make their own necklaces. They'll love it! Just tie the ends in a knot when they're finished, and it'll stretch over their head.

Fake pearls and silver- and gold-toned beads are really inexpensive and come in large packages. Plastic beads are also cheap and you can get multicolor packages.

finger painting

Finger painting is a classic. Make a tiara or necklace to take home sounds nice -- does double duty as a goodie bag substitute. Pinata's are always a hit. I'm coming up empty for original ideas though.

Since the hostess and guests will be so veddy, veddy elegant, fingernail polish and facial makeup might be just a bit messy. You might spring for a little glitter for m'ladies hair.

Eva's bead stringing project sounds wonderful. Old shower curtain hooks make a wonderful basis for earrings--hang the hook over the whole ear, don't impale the ear.

Can each of the guests choose a party name? Duchess of __________, Lady ___________, Dame ____________, Countess ________? or just have they draw a title to go with their everyday name?

Remember Snow White? Mirror, mirror on the wall? Can you rig a "talking" mirror? One with the sense to announce that the Duchess has the loveliest red hair and the Countess the most wonderful freckles? Pick characteristics unique to the girl being praised.

Of course, each girl must ask the mirror herself. If you need to stretch out the entertainment, she must ask without giggling.

Hide the Thimble makes a wonderful time filler if other planned activities run short.

I think all generations will have a wonderful afternoon.

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Oh, I LOVE the "Mirror, Mirror" idea, Noddy! What fun!

I had already bought some pearl necklaces and bracelets for the goodie bag -- $1/ea at Target -- but now am thinking of disassembling them, maybe getting a few more beads for variety, and then re-stringing them as an activity. I'll have to look at how big the holes are on these.

I love the titles. :-)

These were the invitations, with gold lettering and butterfly stamps on the inside:



(The strawberry ones, couldn't get the image by itself.)

Hide the thimble?

One girl leaves the room. The thimble--or button or shoe (with four year olds perhaps a shoe is the right size) is hidden.

When the "it" girl returns the others hum--softly when the "it" girl is far from the shoe and more and more loudly as she approaches it. By the time she finds the shoe the little dears are squealing with glee.

Then you start over.

Of course, the quarry could be a more romantic object than a shoe.

With those invitations the guests will be expecting wonderful events--and they won't be disappointed.

Oh gosh. How fun.

You are so organized.

Games at our house are total Calvinball.

(Golccer anyone?



Anyone?)

I have a cool recipe for playdough/cookie dough that Mo really likes that might be fun for a cooking/decorating thing. I'll dig it out and send it along if you think it might work for your crew.

I love the "Mirror, mirror" idea and it would probably be a blast with the dress up angle.

Trivial Pursuit?

Or perhaps a non-alcoholic drinking game? The kids have to do a shot of Jolt everytime either Bill or Ted say "excellent" during "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure."

Show them videotapes of live childbirths?

I don't know...these are the things I did as a kid.

My sister is the queen of over-the-top birthday parties. For Silvi's 4th birthday she hired two ponies to come walk the kids around the yard. For her 5th birthday she made the play set into a pirate ship and had a treasure hunt.

Every pinata I've ever seen at a children's party has been, well, difficult. They make them of cement, evidently. A parent usually has to intervene, tear open the thing, and then one last kid can wack it for the candy to drop out.

Ditto on the Pinata. Plus, you risk black eyes from wild swings and diving after goodies.

If you do have a pinata, make sure that you have all spectators stand way back and that you hang it in the middle of a room with all breakables moved away at least twice the length of the stick.

I find if you have a pinata, the kids have better success breaking it open, when they use a cast iron spiked ball and chain.

Assault rifles work better, but can frighten pets.

littlek, whoa! See, a big point of this party is to be cheap. Had the cards already ("ooh, this'll work"), have ribbons and butterflies and flowers already, have the tea set already, have the dress-up stuff already (itself bought 90% off after halloween as birthday present), got most everything for the goodie bag at Target's "$1 spot." Having it at home. Etc.

Ponies can't be very cheap.

I had a brainwave for the activity. Was thinking through what she has and doesn't have, dress-up wise -- enough dresses, enough pairs of wings, enough shoes, plenty o' jewelry, even enough crowns/ pointy princess hats/ tiaras, but! Only one magic wand. So they can make magic wands! Just going to get glittery stars, (a few options -- metallic cardboard or sew from metallic fabric -- the cardboard would be about $1.50 for a huge sheet but might be too poky. Could round off the edges.), and sticks of some kind, and then offer a selection of ribbons. So they select the ribbons they want, glue them on to the wrong side of a star, glue on the stick, and then glue the wrong side of another star to that star -- et voila!

I might glue the stick on to to the wrong side of one star ahead of time, actually, since I'm sure they'd want to use them right away and that's the most important connection. They could just tape the ribbons in, then glue the whole thing shut. (Thinking aloud here.)

Hmm can maybe let them glue on glitter or beads or something to the star itself, too. Going to a craft place today, will see what they have that's cheap.

So then it will be a bunch of fairy princesses, which is the apex of dress-up to these gals.

If you do want a Pinata, there are ones available with strings. Each child pulls a string (one is attached to the latch that will open up the Pinata. A lot safer than having four years old smacking it with a bat.

Also, a variation on musical chairs - can't remember what it is called, but basically you buy a small present for each of the party guest (a ring or bracelet, or similar). You wrap the first one with colorful tissue paper, then put the next trinket on top of that and wrap the entire package (including the original one) and so on until all are wrapped as one big package. All the children sit in a circle. You play music and the children hand the package around to each other. You then stop the music, when the music stops the child with the package gets to open the first gift, be careful to only open that one gift. You play the music again and so forth until each child gets a gift. If the music stops on a child that has already received a gift, s/he is to pass the package to the next child. Fun for four year olds as there is no winner. Also fun if you slightly vary the gifts to make it more exciting about what you will receive.

Here are some other games that would fit with your theme - pass the tea pot (similar to hot potato), pin the tea bag in the tea cup (like pin the tail on the donkey). Do a hide and seek where the children need to find cinderella's slipper.

How about singing and playing "I'm a Little Teapot?" or when opening gifts, use a chair and decorate to make a throne for the birthday girl.

While having tea, you could talk about Manners. There is an Elmo's Manners Book you could read.it is pretty short teaches how to say please and thank you. Very age appropriate.

Coloring is a good quiet activity. Find several pictures for your theme and run off copies wherever it's cheap in your area... it's a good excuse to buy some new smelly pens or glitter glue sticks + a coloring book for your sozlet...

I would also probably play a version of freeze tag over musical chairs for their age: play some music while they are dressed up and have everyone freeze when the music stops, then offer a goody to the silliest face/most regal/biggest shape/smallest shape, etc. Do this several times so everyone has several times they "won."

For wands, use wood dowel from Walmart or wherever- or unsharpened pencils. Cut a star shape from paper ahead of time, or make from aluminum foil, and glue/tape them onto the ends of the dowels and have each girl decorate them- using the glitter glue or pens... sequins also work nicely if you have any, or foil stickers(like stars.)

You can precut crowns from posterboard for their little heads, then have the kids decorate them and tape them to size, if you feel you need another project...

If you enjoy baking, gingerbread to decorate is always a fun activity... but only if you like to bake and know how to make icing and have sprinkles on hand... Otherwise, GO WITH THE PAPER PROJECTS.

Linkat, exactly about the stringed pinatas. Forgot to say so before, that's what I had in mind (vs. the whacky pinatas). Still not sure how I'd secure to the ceiling, though.

I went to Joann fabrics this afternoon and got a buncha stuff. I got a set of 12 wood dowels, about a foot long, for a couple of bucks (in the baking section, presumably to hold up layered cakes?). Then I looked at various fabrics and paper, for the stars, nothing got me too excited, then lo and behold there was some excellent felt with glitter embedded -- white and midnight blue. 20 cents a sheet. So got a few glittery whites, a few glittery blues, and a coupla un-glittery dark pinks for good measure (this crew is very, VERY fond of pink).

I also got a few spools of thin ribbon, on sale for 50 cents each -- light pink, dark pink, white, and lavender. Plus a spools of thin silver cord, same price.

I had some wide (~1.5 inches) silver glittery ribbon already, and used that to cover one dowel just to see how it worked -- looks great!

So what I'll do is:

- Cover 4 dowels with the silver + glitter ribbon
- Cut out many stars of equal size from the felt
- Cut many many lengths of about 2 feet of the ribbon, all colors
- Glue the covered dowels to a white glittery felt star each

Then I'll lay out the whole shebang (some glue-on gems too, also cheapy cheapo), and the kids can choose which ribbons they want, glue them on, and choose which color for the other side of the star they want, glue that over, et voila! If they don't want the white, they can glue another star over the white side, too -- main thing is that I want the dowel to be secure in there.

I'm especially happy with the felt because it will kinda grip really fast, shouldn't take too much drying time before it's operational.

LOVE the "I'm a little teapot" idea! Sozlet loves that song, very thematic. And never heard of the gift thing! That's really cool, and especially nice for a birthday party 'cause all the kids have present-unwrapping joneses.

Lots of great ideas from you too, princess, I like the freeze tag idea.

I'm getting excited. :-) I find that my teacher tendencies are coming out, I've all but made a lesson plan. Don't want to overdo it. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

Thanks again!

(And if you have more ideas, keep 'em coming...)

Do you have the time to make some gingerbread princesses that could be decorated with food sprinkles to go with their wands, soz?

I've always had good luck with cookie decorating as a not-too dangerous event for that age group.