OK Moms, I'm needing some simple Valentine games for my son's 3rd grade class. There are more boys than girls so I need ideas that aren't too girly. Kind of hard when it comes to Valentine's Day. They need to be simple because I am organizing the party but not going to be there because I am the room parent for my other son's 1st grade class. We had no parent sign up to be room parent for the "Spring Party". Any suggestions would be great!
J.,
There is absolutely NO need for games for a Valentine's Day party. The little kid valentine cards, candy heart candy and/or homemade valentine's cards made by children for Mom and Dad (Grandma/Grandpa are a good activity. In addition, cup cakes and juice..I guess these days the cup cakes must be purchased from a bakery...but NO need to go overboard with games.
Blessings.....
I second the vote for BINGO. It's easy and it takes up a lot of time! If you do that, no need for another game on top of passing out cards and eating. They can even use candy hearts for markers and eat those too!
I was working on our forth graders party yesterday & here are a few things we are considering:
Heart Race
Supplies:
• Heart for each child with instruction written on one side and a heart-shaped chocolate taped on the other.
• Instructions might include: Hop on one foot & pat your head, walk like a crab, bear walk, skip, walk backwards, whistle, etc.
How To Play: Children divide into two teams. Put the hearts at the end of the room in two piles. On your mark the first child on each team runs to the pile, takes a heart and does what the heart says, while returning to their team, then sits down at their desk / assigned seat. The next team member then runs to the pile...etc. The first team to be sitting down wins. Everyone enjoys a chocolate in the end.
Mirror Image
Supplies for each team:
• Candy
• Bowl
• Small cup
• Mirror
How To Play: Divide into teams. First child on each team holds cup on head. The child looks into the mirror held by another team member (or it can be mounted on the wall) and tries to fill their cup with candy using a spoon. When the cup is filled, they dump the candy back in the bowl and pass the cup to the next person. First team that finishes filling their cups wins!
You will need:
a straw for each child
x # of candy hearts for each child
1 Dixie cup for each child
Give each child a straw, Dixie cup, & the same number of candy hearts. They use the straw (no hands) to suck the candy to the end of the straw & then place the piece of candy in the cup. The first one to get all of their candy pices in the cup wins.
You can also take paper heart cutouts & write half of a nursery rhyme, popular saying, or you can even use cartoon character pairs,& then write the other half of the rhyme or saying or the matching character pair on the other side. Do this to several cards, making two sets. Cut the hearts in half. Give each team a set & the first to match theirs wins.
We've done this next one at Christmas, but you could do it for V Day also.
Put a bag of candy (or other treat) in a box & wrap. (I usually use three to keep things moving)
Wrap the box several times in different colors of tissue paper (pink, white, red - $ Tree is cheap for this). Play music (like hot potato) & when the music stops, the kids holding a present gets to unwrap one layer of paper. repeat until gift is unwrapped & the when the last layer is removed the child holding the gift gets to pass the treat out to the class (or you can have them keep it for themselves, you choice). This can also be their sweet at the party, since I know some schools are limiting the sugar intake at parties, now - bleh!
Hopefully you'll get some other great responses...I'll be checking back for new ideas myself!
There are many websites with game/craft ideas. Familyfun.com, makingfriends.com, kaboose.com, etc.... games kids have loved:
have a pair of gloves for each team and a piece of wrapped hard candy for each child. 1st team member puts on gloves and at the go tries to unwrap the candy and pops it in his/her mouth then gloves go to the next player. Make sure you use hard candy not chocolate (it will melt).
another one was feather blowing. Each student had a feather and were again divided into teams. They had to blow the feather to the finish line and run back to the next player who took their feather and blew it (keep it up in the air) until the finish line and so on. The kids liked this one so much we tried putting it on the floor and just blowing down the line, We just made up silly things to do with the feather.
If you can find a cute, edible craft that they can make by following simple directions, or my students always loved playing BINGO.
