Military Birthday Game Ideas
Put on your fatigues, grab your canteen and prepare for a military birthday party. By using games derived from the activities of the different branches of the armed forces, your party guests can find excitement by land or by sea. These military birthday party games will thrill children of virtually any age, but especially those between the ages of 6 and 12. If the weather permits, consider holding your armed forces birthday party outdoors so children can enjoy some wet, messy fun. Does this Spark an idea?
Obstacle Course
Exercise your creativity when devising this game and create a course that encourages children to test a variety of skills. Try letting kids jump across the water (small plastic wading pools), crawl under a length of twine stretched between two garden stakes, do a slalom run between cones and climb through hula hoops hanging or standing in the yard.
Hot Grenade
In this game from Kids-birthday-party-guide.com,children take turns passing around a plastic grenade (or a green water balloon if playing outside) while listening to music; it's a variation on the Hot Potato game. When the music stops, the child caught with the grenade leaves the game.
Tug of War
Assign each team the name of one of the armed forces branches, such as Army or Navy, and let them take turns trying to pull the other team across a line drawn in the middle. If playing outside (and you're OK with a mess), make a mud pit in the center of the tug-of-war area. Coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com suggests placing a small wading pool in the middle for the losing team to slide into.
Sarge Says
Play this game like Simon Says. Find an adult willing to don army apparel and play the role of the drill sergeant. Instruct kids to perform various tasks such as "Sarge says do 10 jumping jacks." When children fail to listen for the phrase "Sarge says" before acting on the instructions, send them to do a few push-ups.
Grenade Toss
Arrange children into pairs and give a bucket to one child per pair and 10 green water balloons, the "grenades" to the other. Let them toss the water balloons at each other and catch them in the bucket. At the end of the game, give children a point for each water balloon caught in the bucket (even broken ones).
Airplane Race
In a nod to the Air Force, give children supplies to make paper airplanes and decorate them with an array of stickers, markers and colored pencils. Race them against each other to see whose flies the farthest.
Backpack Relay
Purchase or borrow one backpack for each team of children to play this game. Make a pile for each team with a variety of army-related items, such as a water canteen, mess kit (plate and eating utensils), food and a compass. Arrange children into teams. Each person on each team must take turns putting on the backpack, running to the pile of items, putting an item inside the backpack and returning to the team to allow the next child to take a turn. The team that fills their backpack first wins.
Tags: each team, this game, armed forces, birthday party, take turns
