Around The World -5yr- Pin the Tail on Sheep

For 5 year old girl - with guests from 3yrs - 7yrs.  We had just returned from travelling round the world, so the games we played related to the countries we had visited.  

INVITATION: We created an exact replica of a British passport by downloading a picture of a passport off the internet and where it says Passport" on the front - we changed it to "Party Passport". We printed on card cut and folded.  Inside where the "personal details" section is - we inserted at top: United Kingdom of (Birthday Child's Name) and Friends.   The passport number was the date of her birthday. Then in the following categories: Surname: Name of the child invited (we just wrote these on neatly)  Given names: Name of child invited.  Date: Date of Party Place issued (changed to Place): Venue Time of issue: Time of Party Expiry - changed to "Time of Expiry": Time party finished.  I had pics of the kids from previous years (and a few I pulled off friends facebook accounts)  - and we stuck these on as their passport photographs.  Then in all the codes at the bottom we inserted (in same style of text) RSVP and our telephone no. and email address.  

DECORATIONS:  We used a cheap wall map that we bought and cut this up to use for the table cloth. We also found a "twister" type game which was a huge map - instead of the traditional twister circles they used continents so this was pasted on the wall. Balloons were blue (sea) green (land) and yellow (daughters favourite colour!)  

ACTIVITIES:  As the children arrived I played "It's a small world after all" Their passports were stamped and they were relieved of their "luggage" (presents.)  The kids were so excited to receive their own passports through the post - and we asked them to bring them on the day (and had a few spares in case anyone forgot)   We found this kids tunnel in the toy library which we used to "enter" into another country. Between each game they had to crawl through the tunnel and get their passports stamped. We told them once they had 7 stamps in their passports they would get a party bag!  They really enjoyed this (and of course I made sure everyone had 7 stamps by the end)  Any games that had winners were given a medal (which hangs round your neck) as a prize which they liked possibly better than expensive party prizes. A pack of 25 cost me only £2!  India: I had the children close their eyes and used some red face paint to paint a bindi onto their foreheads.

They then "travelled" to India through the tunnel. We welcomed them by bowing and saying "Namaste - Welcome to India" My mum in law had some offcuts if sparkly and silky material - they each chose a piece use as an indian scarf and they played "musical statues" to really cool modern indian music. I was a little worried they might not like this but they danced brilliantly and loved the scarf thing!  Hong Kong: Through the tunnel again and stamped and they went shopping in Hong Kong. I hide just over 10 1p coins per child in the garden (whew - we just had a short break in the rain!) and they had a brilliant time finding them. I then set up a (play) cash register with a bowl of sweets and drinks and they had to line up to "buy" the sweets or drinks from me. I went through the whole pretence "welcome to my store - have a nice day!" Scanned their items and everything - they LOVED this game.  

Australia: Through the tunnel and stamps in passports again - we greeted them with "G'Day Mate - wlcome to Australia" I had pre-cut some Kangaroo ears from card and they were very excited to have these fitted to their heads (easy with a stapler) - they wanted to decorate them too and could've if we had had enough time. Then we played "Kangaroo Hop" which was supposed to be a sack race but then I thought on a slippery hall floor I would make it a relay race with everyone hopping to each other. Only a few children wanted to do this (some were just too young to understand the concept) - so the adults made up numbers in teams. The children who played had fun but I wouldn't play this again.  

New Zealand: Pin the tail on Shirley the sheep. I cut a sheep out of white cardboard and stuck this on a piece of black board. Then cut "sheeps tails" for each child with names on - so when they "pinned" their sheeps tail on - I knew whose was whose.   England: We had to play pass the parcel - so when they went through the tunnel I greeted them with a posh British accent and we played Pass the Parcel as a British game!   Thailand - Snorkling - through tunnel stamps in passports - greeted with bowing and "Sawadeekaap". (phonetically written!)I found a parachute at the toy library (Kindys should have these too) and we had sewn paper fish to the underside. The children went under it one by one with snorkle mask on. Adults and children held the parachute up (waving a bit like water) and the children had to "catch" the fish (which came off easily) from the parachute. I then counted the fish and the child with most fish got a medal. There were fish left at the end so they all went mad at the end trying to "catch" fish - and the adults went mad moving the parachute. This was by far the best game! Games we didn't have time to play: China: Pick popcorn up with chopsticks. America: Baseball  

PARTY FOOD: We finished at 5:30 - so it was dinner time for the children. We had a variety of world foods small hot dog rolls and sausages for America fruit sticks for Thailand Fairy Bread for Australia Fortune cookies for China.  The children enjoyed the food and because we had been away for a year we had asked parents to stay and fed them a curry which was pre-made and we just had to warm up but of course that's not usual for a kids party.  

CAKE: We made a sponge cake with rolled white icing onto which we painted the world - (printed a pic of the world from the internet and cut this out to make a stencil - then used food colouring to to draw the world onto the cake.) Then we cut the little flags that were on the bottom of the map we had cut up for the tablecloth and mounted these on split toothpicks for flags. (You could print little flags off the internet if you don't have the same map we had)  

FAVOURS/ PARTY BAGS: We had picked up some really cheap beaded necklaces when in New Orleans - each girl had 3 of these in different colours. Those elastic bands that come in shapes - we had some from New York all in NYC themes. We put in a pack of chocolate stars (I know some mums don't want too many sweets and also would prefer not to have sweets with e-numbers) so that solved that dilemma. I had some kids sparkly lip ice left over from last years party - those went in the girls bags. The boys got the elastics a foam map of the world ball which the two year old loved because it was a ball and the 7 year old loved because he could look at the world. I also bought a pack of those bracelets that glow in the dark when you crack them and put one in each party bag. These went down really well and didn't cost much at all.  I had so many comments from parents - that they had as much fun as their kids and that the children liked the party so much they wouldn't wash their Bindis off when they got home!  All in all it was a very successful party and a lot of fun to produce and run!