With homework to mark, lessons to prepare, counselling forms to complete, and so much more, teachers are often looking for activities that require little preparation, and we usually make it one of our top priorities when searching for or creating new games, but on the occasion that a teacher finds themselves with a little extra time on their hands, we list here some fun party activities that teachers may like to consider making.
Egg Rolling Maze
Mazes can be played in numerous ways. They can be as simple as a picture on a page, and as complex as an imagination allows. All considered, we were particularly proud of our three dimensional team maze. This game, built on a frame of four thick sticks bound with string, requires teams of up to four students to tip the maze up, down, and all other ways to roll the egg / marble from the beginning of the course to the goal. Various obstacles lined the path, from gaping holes to tricky ramps, and all set to a timer. Our students had a blast!
Materials :
- Sticks to make the frame
- String to bind the frame and maze together
- Cardboard to build the maze
- A creative mind
Egg Collectors
Although in most youtube videos originally this paper craft may have been dinosaurs, with a dash of colour they're easily changed to chickens. We had our students race to peck as much grain (as many marbles) as they could in a minute. It's a fun game that can be played with children of 5 to 9 years old. Here's the instructional video we used to make ours...
https://mycrafts.com/diy/origami-how-to-make-a-dinosaur-that-can-move-its-mouth/
Materials :
- Paper for making the chickens
- Marbles for the game
- A timer to time the game
Easter Pinball Bingo
We had intended for this game to be played among elementary school children, but for some reason it was very popular with the junior high schoolers. Before starting the game teams are given bingo sheets, onto which they may chose which colours to fill each square. Each game then begins with a ping pong ball rolled down the ramp at the back of the box. The box is made slightly sloped, so the ball then rolls toward the two sticks at the front, where students try to hit it into one of the five targets. If they are successful their team may mark off the matching colour of their bingo sheet. The first team to achieve a line of their sheet horizontally, vertically, or diagonally is declared the winner.
Materials :
- Cardboard to make the pinball board
- Two long stick for students to knock the ping pong ball with
- A ping pong ball to play with
- Blank bingo sheets for each team
- Crayons or some other method of colouring the bingo sheets
Hanging Eggs Challenge
We had already prepared many games and activities in previous years, which we intended to reuse for our parties of 2024, but feeling that we needed one more game for our younger-aged classes, we put together this game using left-over self-righting eggs from crafting in previous years, and some empty milk cartons. The game turned out to be a hit not only in our kindergarten classes, but also among our elementary school student classes, too!
Teams of students each have 3 or more ping pong balls. Every turn a team balances one ball on the eggs with it falling off or through, or causing other balls to fall. Any ball that drops must be added to the teams ball collection. The first teams that is able to place all of their balls on the eggs is declared the champion.
Materials :
- Cardboard to make the base
- Polystyrene eggs (or any left over self-righting eggs for any teachers who made the craft from our Easter craft page in their classes)
- String to hang the eggs from the frame
- Milk cartons to create the sturdy frame
- Paint or Easter images to decorate the game
- Ping pong balls to play with (atleast 3 for each team, but more can be used for a longer game or with classes with fewer students)