Preschool Party Games

 

Children of all ages love a party but keeping kids under the age of five entertained can be a huge challenge for parents.

Thankfully, a few clever preschool party games can make the event more manageable for you and more fun for the children.

Here's an excellent selection of printable birthday games you can buy and print out right away:

• Printable Birthday Games Ages 3-5
• Printable Birthday Games Ages 6-7
• Printable Birthday Games Ages 8-9

Below are a few suggestions you might want to think about.

Keeping it Simple

With preschoolers, the key to success is simplicity. Children under five won’t sit still long enough to hear complicated rules for games nor will most of them have any patience for games that last a long time.

Your strategy as the host should be to keep changing up their activities frequently before they have a chance to get bored but, at the same time, pick games that will be easy for them to understand.

The simplest example is Birthday Coloring Pages. This is one of those printable kids party game ideas that makes a lot of sense. Invest in some cheap crayons, print off lots of copies of these pages, and let the kids color one or two.

To make things interesting, consider having a wall of the party room where they can hang up their finished works of art.

You can encourage them to add their names and personal messages on the sheets. At the end of the party, they can either take home their finished pages or give them to the birthday girl or boy as a keepsake. Either way, be sure to add the date to the sheets.

Another fun and simple printable kids party game for preschoolers is the Birthday Guess How Many. The sheets you print have a place for the children to write their name and their numeric guess. Printing off those is the easy part. The harder part is deciding what you want them to guess.

Candy works really well and is a cheap choice, but not all parents want to encourage eating sweets. Instead, you can choose pencils, building blocks (Legos work well, too, but can be expensive), or even pennies.

Place the items in a clear container so the guests can see them. Make sure you’ve counted them ahead of time, too. Have each guest write down their guess when they arrive or right before you serve the birthday cake. Then before they leave announce who won. The winner gets the items you had in the container.

Picture Fun for Kids

You can also find preschool party games that are a little more complex but that can successfully keep the kids entertained for a little bit longer than coloring or guessing. Take Birthday Picture Bingo, for example.

The game works just like grown-up bingo except it doesn’t use words, letters, or numbers. Pictures fill the boxes instead so even children who don’t know how to read yet can easily play.

The host can show a photo while also saying the word then each child marks their printed card appropriately.

To really make this game work well, you should have other adults or older children helping the little ones mark their cards and recognize a bingo when they get one.

Stuffed animals, jigsaw puzzles, art supplies, and other age appropriate prizes would be a good idea for this game. Remember you can print multiple cards or use candies for markers so you can reuse the same cards and play multiple times. Kids won’t want to play more than 2 or 3 times before they start getting bored.

Finally, you can wear them out a little bit with a game like Birthday Hunt. With this printable kids party game, you get birthday cake shaped designs you can place around the party area when the little ones aren’t looking.

Then turn out the lights and pass out flashlights so they can try to find all of them. Alternatively, you could do this game outdoors in a fenced in area. The child who collects the most designs is the winner.

When it comes to preschool party games, more is definitely a good idea. Remember to break up the activities with a little time for resting so none of the children get worn out and grumpy. Showing an animated movie or television show while serving refreshments or just after serving the cake might be a great idea.