Who goes there?
Blindfold a child and sit them on a chair with a set of keys underneath. Then the rest of the group lines up a few metres away and one at a time tries to walk up quietly, steal the keys and return to the starting line. The person in the chair points at people he hears and, if correct, they are 'out'. The winner gets to sit in the chair next. Or when everyone is 'out' you can just pick another. This is a great if you want to quieten things down for a while as the object of the game is silence.
Squeak squeak
All the children sit in a circle, one child is blindfolded and stands in the middle. After spinning the child in the middle around three times, they then go round the circle, sit on one of the other children’s laps and says "squeak squeak", the child whose lap they have sat in must also say "squeak squeak". If they guess whose lap they are sitting on the one they have sat on goes into the middle. Make sure that each time someone new goes into the middle everyone moves places.
What’s in the box?
Collect about 10 boxes before for the party, about shoe box size. Cut a hole in the top big enough to put your hand in and cover the boxes. Label or number them so you know which is which. Then place a different object in each box. Blindfold all players, get them to put their hand in the box one by one and guess what they are feeling. You could try, for example, cotton wool, toy soldiers, playdough, a toy spider, marbles, toothbrush, dinky cars, sugar lumps, or for the more adventurous, perhaps something a bit more yucky like cold cooked spaghetti or jam.
Shark attack
Get the children to form a circle but place two chairs close together in the circle with a slight gap between them. Give each child a fish name, ie. cod, haddock, plaice, salmon and after each cycle, shark. Tell a story of how the fish left the harbour (the gap in your circle is the harbour entrance). When they are mentioned as going for a swim they go out the entrance and walk in the direction of all the other fish. If the tide turns they must change direction. If a storm hits they start to run. Never let the sharks come out of the harbour. When you shout 'Shark Attack!' all the sharks are released through the harbour entrance and try to catch a fish. Any fish that are caught will become sharks for the next attack. Some of the kids will want to be caught just to become sharks.
Under and over
The children are divided into two or more teams depending on numbers. The team members stand behind each other and each leader is given a balloon. The balloon must be passed down the line by going over the leaders head to the next child who passes it through their legs to the next one who in turn passes it over their head. In this way the balloon travels down the line to the last child who runs back to the front and starts again. This continues until the team leader is back at the front with the winning team being the first ones to finish.
Cat & mouse
This is rather like musical statues and is a great toddler party game. Put on some music and the children have to squeak and scuttle about like mice. When the music stops, the kids must be as still and as 'quiet as a mouse'. Anyone seen moving or making a noise is caught by the cat (you) and is out of the game.
Musical shapes
Draw and colour some big basic shapes on large pieces of paper (e.g. yellow square, red triangle, green circle). Place these around the room where the children can see and reach them quite easily. The kids start dancing to the music and when the music stops, you shout out a colour and shape such as "yellow triangle" and all the kids have to rush to that colour shape. The last child there is out of the game. For the younger age group, stick to 4 or 5 colour shapes but for the older kids you could use more.
