International Games

Musical chairs

Best for children 3 years and up

·         The game starts with any number of players and a number of chairs one fewer than the number of players.
·          A non-playing individual plays recorded music or a musical instrument.
·         While the music is playing, the players in the circle walk in unison around the chairs.
·         When the music player suddenly stops the music, everyone must race to sit down in one of the chairs.
·         The player who is left without a chair is eliminated from the game, and one chair is also removed to ensure that there will always be one fewer chair than there are players.
·         The music resumes and the cycle repeats until there is only one player left in the game, who is the winner.



A favourite children’s birthday party game from Germany
Pretzel Snatch
Best for children 4 years and up


Materials needed

·         A bag of pretzels
·         A rope


How to play

·         The pretzels are thread onto a rope.
·         Two adults stand approx. 2m apart and hold the rope between them at a height that is not too challenging for the kids.
·         With their hands hold together behind their backs, every kid has their turn in trying to snatch a pretzel from the rope
·         There are only allowed to use their mouth to snatch the pretzels, not their hands!


A typical children’s birthday party game from Belgium
Skipper, can I cross the sea?
Best for children 3 years and up


How to play

·         You will need a big space with two walls and a big group of children.
·         One child is put in the middle, the others against one of the walls.
·         First, the group will sing: ‘Skipper, can I cross the sea, yes or no? Do I need to pay for it, yes or no?’
·         The child in the middle can decide who can cross: it will come up with a condition. Maybe only the kids with blond hair, or the ones on bare feet can cross. He may also add an additional condition, e.g. the others will have to hop, jump, roll or crawl to the other side.
·         The children that meet the condition can walk to the other side.
·         The child in the middle will try to catch one of the kids, that don’t match the condition.
·         The one caught will now stand in the middle and suggest a new condition.


A typical children’s birthday party game from the Netherlands
Bottle and spoon
Best for children 7 years old and up


Materials needed

·         A bottle with a large neck
·         A belt or rope
·         A spoon
·         Another rope to tie the spoon to the belt


How to play

·         Put the belt around the kid’s waist.
·         Attach a rope to the belt in the middle of the kid’s back and make sure it’s about the same height as the neck of the bottle.
·         Attach a spoon to the rope.
·         Put the bottle between the kid’s legs
·         The child will have to try to put the spoon in the bottleneck, without using their hands.

A favourite children’s birthday party game from Germany
Beat the pot (Topf schlagen)
Best for children 4 years and up


Materials needed

·         A cooking pot
·         A wooden cooking spoon
·         A blindfold
·         Prizes


How to play

·         To play this game, you will need to designate a play area and clear it off obstructions. Have all the children line the outside borders of the play area.
·         One child is picked to play. The chosen child will be blindfolded. Make sure the child can't see or peek from underneath the blindfold.
·         Within the play area you place the pot upside down and hide the prize underneath.
·         The selected child will be turned on the spot several times, until it is somewhat disoriented. Release the child.
·         The blindfolded child will get on its hands and knees and crawl around and tries to find the pot by testing the area around it with the wooden spoon, beating the ground.
·         The children lining the play area may give the blindfolded child directions as in "freezing", meaning far away from the pot, "cold" meaning not close to the pot, "warm" meaning getting closer to the pot, "hot" meaning the child is right by the pot.The game ends once the blindfolded child has beaten on the pot with the wooden spoon, thus finding the pot. It may now take the blindfold off and take the prize from underneath the pot.


A favourite children’s birthday party game from Germany
Chocolate Eating Challenge
Best for children 4 years and up

Materials needed

·         A chocolate bar
·         A hat, scarf and pair of gloves
·         Knife and fork
·         A dice

How to play

·         All players sit around a table, with the chocolate bar, cutlery, hat, scarf and gloves in the middle of the table
·         One player starts throwing the dice and in a clockwise direction all the players have a turn to throw the dice
·         As soon as one player throws a six, he quickly begins to put on the hat, scarf and gloves, takes the knife and fork in his hands and tries to cut the chocolate open
·         Once the wrapping has been removed from the chocolate bar, the player is allowed to cut small pieces off the bar and eat them, one after the other
·         In the meantime, all the other players continue throwing the dice and as soon as someone else throws a six, the first player needs to remove the hat, scarf and gloves as quickly as possible and hand it over to the other player
·         Now it’s the other player’s turn to try to eat as much chocolate as possible … until the next player throws a dice with a six.
·         The game continues until the chocolate bar has been eaten

Variations

·         Mittens instead of gloves and  “soft” chocolate such as chocolate fish or similar for younger children
·         Wrapping the chocolate bar tightly into newspaper or tin foil to make it more difficult to cut it open for older children

A favourite children’s birthday party game from Ireland
Mr. Fox
Best for children 3 years and up


How to play

·         One child is chosen to be Mr. Fox and all other children line up along the wall
·         Mr. Fox stands about 3 metres away with his back turned
·         The children in the line shout, "What time is it Mr. Fox?"
·         He replies, "one o’clock"
·         Then the children walk slowly toward the fox, repeating the question and answer game until the Fox says, "Dinner time"
·         The fox chases everyone back to the wall. If anyone is tagged, he/she will become Mr Fox for the next round