Indoor party games for kids 10-12

Planning a party for your child’s birthday? Once you’ve organised food, decorations and party bags, now you have to keep everyone entertained! 4-5 party games is plenty –  outdoor games are a great way for kids to burn off energy, but if you don’t have a backyard or the weather is too cold, you’re best off sticking with indoor games. Here are some of our favourites for kids aged 10–12 (that won’t turn your house into a disaster zone!)

Pictionary
You don’t need the actual Pictionary game to play this at home. Simply use butchers paper, markers and pull together slips of paper with a different name/object on each. You can even choose a theme for your Pictionary words, such as superheroes, celebrities, cartoon characters…whatever you think the kids will enjoy. Divide the kids into teams: a player selects a slip of paper (without showing anyone what it says) and then must draw the item on the paper with everyone watching. Their team members must guess correctly who or what they’re drawing within one minute – so the pressure is on! Each team takes it in turns until they run out of words.

Cake or Pizza Decorating
If you’re decorating cakes, you’ll need to prepare plain cupcakes, icing and assorted toppings such as lollies, chocolate buttons, etc). For pizza-making, just buy the bases and prepare toppings in small bowls (such as ham, cheese, capsicum, etc). The kids will love getting creative in the kitchen, but half the fun is in the eating!

Who am I?
Write the names of famous people, animals or things onto pieces of paper (one for each party guest). Using sticky tape, stick a piece of paper to the back of each child (they aren’t allowed to see what the paper says). Each child takes it in turns to go around the room asking Yes/No questions to find out who or what is taped to their back.

Chocolate Game
The children sit in a circle with a block of chocolate, knife and fork, a dice and dress up clothes. Everyone takes a turn throwing the dice – if you receive a 6, you have to put on the dress up clothes and eat the chocolate one piece at a time with the knife and fork. The child keeps eating until someone rolls a 6 on the dice – then its that person’s turn to dress up and eat the chocolate. By the end of the game, usually everyone has had a chance to enjoy some chocolate (some more than others!) You can increase the difficulty of the game (and slow down the eating) by freezing the chocolate beforehand!

Musical Statues
The birthday boy or girl can choose the music for this one – just make sure it’s something upbeat that everyone will enjoy. While the music is playing, the kids must dance and when the music stops everyone has to keep as still as possible. Whoever moves is out of the game, and you keep playing until you have a winner.