Party Game Ideas: Pictionary

A huge hit at our recent kids gatherings has been playing our own version of "Pictionary". While we have the Disney Pictionary version, it is better for a small group of 2-4 people. I was inspired by the old "Win, Lose, or Draw" Game Show (which has just been rebooted on Disney Channel) and the new "Hollywood Game Night" to turn the game into a party game.

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My initial thought was to use the white board on my daughter's easel as our drawing medium. Then I had the brainstorm of using our AppleTV and an iPad through Air Play. Unfortunately, I have a first generation iPad which is not compatible with Air Play and my phone isn't very large as a drawing surface. My husband has an iPad2 and has let us use it for the game, even when he has been at work. We use the Penultimate a free app from Evernote and a Stylus to make drawing easier. If you are more of an Android based household, you may be able to accomplish the same thing with Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player.

Jungle Cruise Clue from our DisneySide Party

The benefit of making our own game is that I can create my own word list to fit any party theme. I type my word lists on the computer in a larger font than normal (i.e. Arial 18 pt) with extra line spacing. I usually print them on standard paper and fold them in a bowl. You could also use heavier card stock and place the cards in a pile.

Mr Potato Head Clue from DisneySide Party

The game has proven to be hugely popular among my daughter's friends. The kids who have attended multiple parties have asked if we will be playing it each time we have a party.

I have an interesting story for playing with a pre-reader. My niece is just starting to read and asked for help reading her word "Star", so I whispered it in her ear and she started drawing. I was more and more puzzled as she seemed to be drawing a race. Finally I asked her to whisper what she was drawing. She thought I had told her "Start". I have to say it was an amazing approach for a Kindergartener to take to a fairly difficult word to draw.

When designing my word lists, I try to include a wide variety of words and phrases. I want to allow kids of all ages to participate (I had kids from ages 3.5-8 plus adults at my daughter's family birthday) as well as those not familiar with the party theme.

Easy Carnival Games for Kids

This afternoon we were at our church picnic. For the last several years, I have been in charge of the kids games. We want our games to be individual games that can easily be adapted for kids in a wide age range. Our games are free and our goal is to have the kids all walk away with a prize.

Anytime you are running carnival games, you can either give prizes at each game or give tickets that can be combined at a prize table. While the prize table allows you to have nicer prizes, it also requires additional volunteers and additional effort in distributing prizes across various ticket ranges. For simplicity, we have decided to offer a prize for each game.

By far, the most popular game today was Block Balancing. I developed the game 2 years ago by adapting it from one that I found on the Minute to Win It website. Rather than set a time limit, I set a tower height for the kids to achieve.

Block Balancing - Paper/Plastic plate, letter blocks - Kids balance the plate on their fingertips and try to stack the blocks on it. I used my daughter's wooden letter blocks (~1" diameter). I had candy as the prize and gave kids 1 piece for 5 blocks and 2 pieces for 10 blocks. This works best when you can setup at a table so the next blocks are easily accessible. 

The kids could not stay away from this game. There were some kids I saw at this table for most of the afternoon. They didn't even care about the candy, it was definitely trying to beat their own record or their friends. We had 48 blocks and 4 plates, so several kids could play at the same time.

Another popular game is the pencil drop which is a game that my parents used to have us play at birthday parties when I was young.

Pencil Drop - Stool, Water bottle, pencils - Kids stand on the stool, hold a pencil waist high and try to drop it into the bottle. Smaller kids don't need to stand on the stool. They win the pencil as a prize. 

The Pencil Drop project is easily transitioned to match your party theme. By swapping the type of pencils and decorating your container, you can have a game that matches any theme.

When I was searching for prizes, I found foam gliders. I decided to incorporate the glider into the game.

Airplane Flight - Hula Hoop, Rope, Tree, Gliders - Hang the Hula Hoop from a tree branch (or other post) and assemble gliders. The goal is to fly your glider through the hoop. You can either let them keep the glider they use, or give them an unassembled glider and keep a few assembled ones for use. If you have the room, you can use two hoops at different heights for different ages.

When I took over the games, I was provided with the materials for three games:

Duck Pond - Plastic sided pool and 24 rubber ducks. Fill the pool about 1/2 way with water and float the ducks. You have a few options for numbering your ducks: individual numbers, equally distributed numbers (i.e.. 8 each of 1, 2, and 3), or the rare number (ie 15 1s, 6-2s, and 3-3s). Our ducks were already equally distributed as 1, 2, or 3. With the rare number method, you could have a better prize for the rare number. Personally, I am not a fan of the individual numbers as you would need to many prizes.

Treasure Chest - Treasure chest, play sand, pennies, fish net. Our treasure chest is a cooler that has been painted to resemble a pirate's chest. Hide pennies in the sand and have the kids take a scoop with a fish net or a plastic container with holes poked in the bottom. The kids can keep the pennies. You can also add a few larger denomination coins or fake coins that are traded for a prize. You could use fake coins as the prize, but I have found that pennies are considerably cheaper.

Bean Bag Toss - Bean bags, 3 pails. Kids stand at a distance and try to toss the bean bags into the pails. Adjust the starting line for younger kids to be closer. You can give additional or larger prizes for multiple pails. We found taping the pails together kept them from tipping as easily.

Also, we provide a craft area. The crafts are fairly simple, but my favorite craft for a carnival style party is:

Paper Bag Decorating - plain brown lunch bags, crayons, markers, stickers, and stamps. Let the kids decorate a bag. You can use the fancy colored bags, but they are typically coated and crayons, markers, and stamps will not work as well. 

Trust me, the parents who are tasked with holding their kids winnings will thank you for the bags.

I also learned the hard way that small foam stickers are not a great choice for outside because the backings blow away. When we do have activities that generate trash, I have found that a plastic container with a lid is a great temporary trash can.

This year we did Face Painting since there were volunteers who wanted to face paint. In previous years, we have used temporary tattoos since they are quick and easy. We are still using the extra temporary tattoos as game prizes.

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Game Review: Disney Apples to Apples

My daughter loves games. However we are finding that we are at a cross-roads where games are concerned. She has a lot of games and the preschool games are getting too easy for her. However, she is not ready for the more strategic games. She is able to read, so that opens a few more options too.

For Mother's Day, she really wanted to give me a game we could play together. We had all gone to Target and she was shopping with Daddy when I walked by. He suggested Disney Apples to Apples, but wanted my input since the age says 7+. I looked at the box and thought she would be able to play with help.

I was not familiar with Apples to Apples prior to this, so I had no idea what to expect. There are green cards with a descriptive word on them and red cards with things on them. The goal is to pick the best match for the descriptive word. For example, if the descriptive word was Fast you might select "Race" or "Wolves". In each round, one player is the judge and picks which card was the best match. The goal is to win 4 rounds first. I was a little worried about the judging of who had the best card, but you mix the cards up so the judge does not know who played which card. The game recommends 4-8 players, however we played with 3 and it was fine.

I was surprised at how well my daughter was able to play this game on her own. As we were setting it up, she went through the green apple cards and was able to read most of them. The game was great for her to practice her matching of characteristics. The Disney version also has Green Poison Apple cards which turns the tables so you have to pick the opposite of the descriptive word. She did have trouble when none of her cards matched the descriptor very well. However, she loved being the judge.

When we started we were helping her read the green apple cards when she was the judge. In the second game, we were only helping her if she asked. She picked the card and told us "Smiley" so we all picked something Smiley - a parade, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom. Then, I looked down and noticed the green apple card actually said "Smelly". We continued playing the round as Smiley. After that we checked the cards my daughter was reading.

I recommend the Disney Apples to Apples game for children who are readers through adults. It will help to have some knowledge of Disney - movies, TV, and parks. My daughter can't wait to play again. This is a game that the adults can also have fun playing as opposed to some kids games which are monotonous for adults. Unfortunately, my husband is not a game person, so it will probably wait until we go to Grandma and Grandpa's again. There is also Apples to Apples Junior which the manufacturer recommends as 9 & Up.

Disclaimer: We purchased this game ourselves at full price. All opinions are my own. I am an Amazon Associate and receive compensation for sales through amazon links. I appreciate your support of my blog by shopping through my links.

Think Fun Games - Extra 25% off at Amazon

Amazon.com is now offering an additional 25% off of select Think Fun Games when you buy two or more. The Amazon base prices of these games are 15-27% off. To redeem this deal, select two games from the list and add them to your cart. The additional 25% off will not show until you get to checkout. My daughter is a game lover, so this sale is of great interest to me.


My parents bought my daughter Zingo and she loves it. Each player gets a game card and the objective is to fill the card completely. On each turn, two tiles are revealed and you have to yell out when you see one you need. The first player to yell out, gets the tile. There are two sides to each card. One side contains less duplicates between cards making it easier. My daughter loves this game and has gotten quite good at it. It probably helps that she always plays the same card and knows what she needs without checking her card. I strongly recommend this game for kids starting about age 3.



Since she already has Zingo, I was considering Think Fast What's Gnu. This game uses the same tile slider as Zingo, but has letters that you grab to make 3-letter words. My daughter is just starting to read, so I see this game as being good for her in a few months. The reviews seem to indicate that this is good for early readers with help. I would be putting this away as a Christmas gift.


The other game I am considering is Rush Hour, Jr. which has a recommended age of 6-8. However, several of the reviews mention their younger children being able to do the beginner cards. In Rush Hour, you have to work to free a car from a given configuration. My daughter plays a similar game on my phone, so I may go for this game with What's Gnu.


If she did not already have Zingo, I would definitely be buying Zingo and What's Gnu for this promotion.

St Patrick's Day - Hunting Rainbows

Everyone knows that leprechaun's leave a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. For St Patrick's Day, my 4 year old is going to be going on a rainbow hunt culminating in a pot of gold.

Since we are going to be searching for the end of the rainbow, we will have color clues for each color of the rainbow. For example, the first clue will be for something red - in our case a red sofa in the family room. Hidden under the sofa will be the second clue, for something orange. I have not finalized what the clues are yet. For orange, maybe carrots or oranges in the refrigerator. Each clue will be on a shamrock. The clues will be for Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, and the pot of gold.

For the pot of gold, I found yellow Easter grass at Target. The Easter grass will allow me to fill the pot with a prize and still have it look like a pot of gold.

See the previous post in this blog: St Patrick's Day - Leprechaun Mischief. The next post in this blog series is: St Patrick's Day - Irish Menu followed by St Patrick's Day - Green Treats.

Family Game Night - Get 50% off a game

This weekend K-Mart is offering 50% off of a participating Family Game Night game, but not without a catch. The catch - you have to trade in an old game (and it is not valid in California). Take your old game to the customer service counter to get a coupon.

I love the concept of Family Game Night. I am looking forward to this more in the future as my daughter gets older. We did have a fun preschool version of it last month.

Honestly, I am not sure how valuable this promotion is. I don't know if I have any games that I would want to trade in. If I had an old game that was broken or missing parts I guess this would be a good way to replace it. Maybe if it was garage sale season, I could pick up a game inexpensively and trade that for a new game. I wonder what they are doing with the old games. Finally, I have found that their regular prices are on the high side for games. I feel like I could do almost as well by waiting for a sale elsewhere.

I know the trade in concept is huge right now since Cash for Clunkers. But that served a purpose to get old vehicles off the road in favor of more efficient models. Babies R Us has also run a trade in event where you get a discount by trading in old baby equipment. Out of date baby equipment can be dangerous as it may have been recalled or only has a certain lifespan. I just do not see the value of trading in old games especially if they are just going to be destroyed. The website does not mention whether the old games will be destroyed, donated, or otherwise utilized.

Snowy Day Activities

The snow is coming down here today. My daughter and I are enjoying a rare day at home this afternoon. We are in the basement playroom: I am typing this on the laptop as she plays with her toys.

She has taken her My Little Ponies to Disney World. Her My Friends Tigger & Pooh Changing Tree was Epcot, Her Sweetie Belle Gumball House is Bay Lake Tower where she stayed on her most recent trip. The ponies then flew home in her Lego airplane and took a ride in the plastic heart (which had candy last year). When they got out their parents were happy to see them. I guess she is re-enacting her recent trip with her grandparents and aunt without us.

I was supposed to go to the gym while she was at school, so I guess I will just skip it today. Shoveling snow should be a good replacement right?

Now she is taking her hand sanitizers in the airplane to visit the My Little Ponies. Remind me to thank my mother-in-law for buying her 5 different scented hand sanitizers from Bath & Body Works. She loves these things. We have to smell them almost daily and she treats them like characters. I don't know if they will ever be used to clean hands.

For the rest of the day, we will probably watch a movie, play a few games, and I am still hopeful that she will take a nap (and maybe I can too). Plus, at some point we will head out to play/shovel.

By tomorrow, I will probably be going stir crazy, but for today, we are just enjoying a lazy day at home. We have been on the go so much lately that she has not had a lot of time to play with her toys.

So, what are you and your preschooler doing on this snowy day?

Beginning Valentine's Day Party Planning

A few days ago my 4 year old daughter finally convinced me to let her have a Valentine's Day party. So we now have 1 week to plan the party - games, crafts, and food. To keep the party planning expenses down, I limited the guest list to 11 kids and opted for an afternoon party so we don't have to provide a meal.

Now we are in the midst of planning crafts and games. I have found that my four year old has a great imagination when it comes to games. For her winter themed birthday party, she came up with pin the nose on the snowman. Likewise she is planning games for this party.

Crafts:
Heart Necklaces: At JoAnn Fabric I found red heart beads (65 for $0.99). I bought those and a large bag of white beads (720 for 3.99) for the kids to make necklaces. I also bought 10 yards of plastic glitter Craft Lace ($0.79). I figure we will not use all of the white beads or the lacing and they can be saved for future crafts. Next time, I am going to plan the party in advance to wait for a sale.

Bag Decorating: We are going to decorate bags for goodies and Valentine's. I have foam stickers which I bought at Michael's for our play group party and should have some left. I bought a large box of 1000 stickers for $1.99 at Party City. My daughter also has heart and flower stamps, markers, and crayons. I am hoping to find white lunch bags to decorate or we will just decorate the brown ones. The only white ones I have found so far are the coated bags which will not be as easy to stamp or draw on.

Cookie or Cupcake Decorating: We are going to decorate either cookies or cupcakes which the kids can take home or eat at the party. I will dye icing in red and pink (and leave some white). I will probably dye coconut. We have flavored mini-marshmallows in various colors and chocolate chips. I would like to have M&Ms but may not because two children have peanut allergies.

Games:
With preschoolers, I prefer to have games where everyone is a winner or we just do it for fun. That way everyone gets a prize.

Pencil Drop: This was a staple in my house growing up. My parents had this plastic milk jug that they bought me for my 2nd Christmas when I was 13 mos old. It had the perfect size opening for dropping pencils in (about 2" in diameter) and the neck kept them from popping out. The kids then get to keep the pencil. I was probably 18 and it was still being used for my little sister's parties. The great thing is that as the kids get older (& taller) it gets harder because they are dropping it further. Unfortunately, the plastic jug is no longer around. For Halloween, I used a larger container that I had and made a pipe cleaner spiderweb to make it a little harder (and a washcloth to make the bottom less bouncy). Still thinking of a good way to do this for Valentine's Day.

Pin the Hearts on the Bear: My daughter has a pink stuffed bear with hearts on its tummy. She wants to do pin the hearts on the bear. I am thinking of making a pink bear out of poster board and cutting out hearts for the kids to pin on. Unfortunately, I am not super artistic, so hopefully I can make the bear look halfway decent.

Kissing Booth: (No, not that kind) My daughter has a market that we turned into a haunted house toss for Halloween and she wants to do something with it. I think we will cut out lip shaped disks and have the kids toss them through a decorated market. I bought a bag of Hershey Kisses to use as prizes.

Valentine's Hullabaloo: I need one active game for the kids. This is based on the Hullabaloo game from Cranium. The game has pads in different shapes and colors with pictures on them. Then it tells the kids to go to a different color, shape, or picture theme until finally declaring whoever is on a particular pad the winner. We are designing our own Valentine's themed game. We are going to use red, pink, white, and purple paper to make the pads and cover them in contact paper for durability. We will use a heart as one of the shapes. I have found Valentine's ClipArt that we are going to print on the different pads. I am using food (Hershey Kiss, Heart Lollipops, Box of Chocolates, etc), Characters, and one other still to be determined category. I am debating the calling mechanism. I think I'll just record myself saying different options and randomize it on my iPod. ("Hop to a Heart", "Twirl to a Red", "Grab some food") I will include some that say at the end "ie Hop to a Heart......Freeze. Whoever is on XXX is the winner" where XXX is one of the pictures on a heart. My other option is to make a deck of cards some of which list winners and others which don't. If I am really ambitious, maybe I'll polish up my old programming skills and write a program to do this. (You probably need to know how to play Hullabaloo for this to make sense).

Bucket Toss: I may have the kids toss a small stuffed heart into a bucket for a prize.


Well, I think that is plenty to have the kids entertained for two hours.

Family Game Night - Preschool Style

I have often seen the idea of a family game night pushed by the game manufacturers. Well, many of the games they suggest are for older children and hard to implement when your child is only 4. However, my daughter received the kids versions of a few classic games for Christmas so we opted to play those. We played Monopoly Town and Clue Carnival Caper, both of which are good for my 4 year old in difficulty and game length.

In Monopoly Town, Mr. Monopoly sits in his car and gives you instructions. As you land on properties you can add a level to them up to the specified level. If you complete the building, you put your color roof on it and can collect rent from then on. The goal is to use your 5 roofs first and place your golden roof on top to win the game. There is no reading involved, but lots of counting.

Clue Carnival Caper plays a little different than the adult version of Clue. First, the mystery is around missing carnival prizes, not a murder. Instead of dealing cards to the players, they are placed in various carnival locations and you can see cards as you visit the locations. There are two versions of the game - an easy version where you determine the thief and the time of the crime and a harder version where you determine the thief, the time of the crime, and the scene of the crime. You play 5 rounds which generally allows you to see 5 of the 6 sets of cards placed around the board. After each round, every player takes a guess to the thief, time, and scene (in the harder version only). After the last round, you see who did it and the player with the most correct guesses wins. My daughter still needs an adult partner to play this game with her. Also, we try not to look at what other players are guessing since that could give additional insight into the answers, but is beyond a 4 year olds powers of deduction.

Family Game Night was a nice change from our typical nightly TV viewing. I will admit that my daughter asked for an episode of Scooby Doo while she had her bedtime snack, but we held firm that the games were in place of TV and she finished her snack in 10 minutes instead of 25.

She has other games, but my husband just doesn't get into playing the Princess or Tinker Bell games. For active games, my daughter loves Hullaballoo, and just got Hyper Dash that we can all play. She has Scrabble, Jr, but it is still a little hard for her since she does not read. She also has the childhood classics of Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Hi Ho Cherry-o, Cootie, and Don't Break the Ice. They just feel more like us playing a game with her as opposed to all of us playing together.

I would definitely like to make a night like tonight a regular occurrence in our house.

"Christmas" Birthday Party

My daughter wanted a Christmas themed party for her 4th birthday. Since her birthday is the first week of January, we agreed, but focused it more on winter than Christmas. One benefit to the theme was that I did not have to get the Christmas decorations put away before her party.

The kids had a snowball fight. While we live in Michigan, there was not snow the day of her party. We spread tissue paper sheets out around the basement and let the kids crumple them up and throw them around. They had a blast. When they were done, I bagged the paper to reuse in wrapping my Christmas decorations. The following week when I took down the Christmas tree, I found a "snowball" hidden among the branches. I cannot take credit for this activity. We did it last year at a friend's birthday party.

I asked my daughter what games she wanted to play and she asked to play "Pin the Carrot Nose on the Snowman". I made a snowman out of a sheet of white poster with some black and orange construction paper. To make the snowman, I found three bowls/pans of varying sizes in my kitchen that could be laid out on the poster and cut out the three circles which I glued together as a snowman. I used black construction paper to make a hat and cut small black circles for the eyes, to make a mouth, and as buttons. I did not make these perfect circles so that they looked like lumps of coal. I made a bow with red construction paper. I cut two carrots for each child out of orange construction paper.

We played Snowman, Snowman, Penguin, a variation on Duck, Duck, Goose. The children sit in a circle and one child who is "it" goes around patting them on the head saying Snowman and eventually says Penguin. The child who is tapped as Penguin has to chase the child who was it as they run around the circle and sit back down in the penguin's seat. The penguin is then it.

I stocked up on party supplies at the post Christmas sales. At Michael's I bought a large package of foam stickers for $2.40. The package had trees, snowflakes, penguins, and snowballs. For each child, I cut a sheet of white construction paper into rolling hills and glued it at the bottom of a blue sheet of construction paper. The kids loved making their crafts and were creative in making their designs. The only down side of this was that Michael's had their sticker bin outside and it was 12 degrees the night I was there.

Finally, at Target I bought penguin melamine plates and shaky cups for each child. I found them on clearance after Christmas. The kids used them cups and plates for lunch and then I cleaned them and gave them to them as their party favors.

All of the kids seemed to have a great time. They did not want to leave, staying well beyond the time planned for the party. I think some if it had to do with having not seen each other over the holiday break.

Planning a Spooktacular Festival at Home

My 3.5 yr old is having a Spooktacular Festival at home for her friends. At this point we have 16 kids coming. With this number of kids we are setting up game and craft stations around the house and asking for help from the parents to man the station. With the kids mostly being 3, I wanted games where everyone can win and each person is playing on their own instead of competing. My prizes consist of pencils, necklaces, erasers, glow bracelets, bubbles, spider/bat rings, etc. I bought some of these last year at the Halloween clearance sales with the intent of doing a party this year.

Ghost Bowling: I took 10 empty disposable water bottles. I filled the bottle with about 2" of water and wrapped the bottom 3/4 in white tissue paper. Then I crumpled half a sheet of tissue paper and caught it in the middle of the other half with a rubber band. I drew a ghost face on each "ghost" and used the rubber band to fasten them to the top of the water bottles. You need to use a little water so the bottles do not tip when setup. Use more water to make the game more difficult. For older kids you could use a pumpkin as the bowling ball. We are using the orange basketball that came with my daughter's basketball hoop (Fisher Price Grow to Pro). If I get industrious, I may try to figure out how to attach a jack-o-lantern face that would not ruin the ball. Cost: $1.50 for half the pack of tissue paper.

From Halloween Crafts

Bucket Toss: At Dollar Tree I found a pumpkin and a ghost bucket for $1 each. Then, I found stuffed pumpkin, bat, spider, and ghosts in the dollar section at Target to throw in the buckets. Cost: $6, but all is reusable in the future or as decorations.



Witch Hat Ring Toss: I stuffed the point of a witch's hat with hand towels to make it stand up. I cut the center out of Halloween paper plates. Toss the ring around the hat. Cost: Free (I had the hat & had extra paper plates).


Haunted House Frisbee Toss: The paper plates I used had a ghost in the center, so when I cut the rings for the Witch toss I saved the center. My daughter has a play market which I covered with black tissue paper and black poster board. I used construction paper to create windows and doors. The kids can throw the frisbees between the posts. Cost: $2 for tissue and poster.

From Halloween Crafts