Party Tips

Hints and tips on how to make your party
more fun, and easier to manage.

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Planning Your Party

Meet and Greet

Give the children stick-on labels to decorate and write their names on (if you know their names, they're easier to control!)

Party games

It’s always a good idea to let the children burn off some energy with some party games.Try a teddy bear treasure hunt (organise a trail with coloured twists of crepe paper hidden in the garden or hall in which the party is being held). Position a teddy bear at the end of the trail with a present or a message relating to the next party game.

Party Food

Birthday cakes for teddy bears

You may also like to add an extra special ingredient to your party – decorated cupcakes to celebrate the birth of the new teddy bears.
Buy some plain cupcakes and a variety of cake decorations such as hundreds and thousands, jelly tots etc, ready-to-roll icing, candles and candle holders.
Each child can then create their special cake and after the birthday girl/boy has blown out the candles on her cake, every child can do the same with the specially decorated cake for his/her teddy bear.

Teddy bear's' picnic

Serve up a teddy bear's picnic to complete the experience. If you're feeling adventurous you can recreate the woods using branches and leaves at home or at your hired venue. Sit the children (and their teddy bears!) round a checked tablecloth at the table or on the floor. You can use teddy bear cutters for the sandwiches or sponge cakes. And don't forget a teddy bear cake for the birthday girl or birthday boy!

Party Activities

Hunt the teddy

Here are a couple of extra party ideas from one of our customers. There are 10 teddy pictures hidden around the party room, each teddy picture (or real teddy if you prefer, but might be harder to arrange) has something
different on it, either a hat, bowtie, glasses. Each child has a sheet with 10 pictures of the teddy on it. The child needs to find each of the pictures
and draw the item that is on the picture on one of the teddy pictures. When the child has found all the teddy pictures they win a prize.
We are doing this game to see who gets to choose which teddy to make first.
As they finish the hunt they make a line and one at a time are allowed to choose a teddy skinas I have ordered different ones.

2. Make a bear (this is along the lines of the beetle game)

You have to cut up a picture of a teddy enough for all the children to each be able to put it back together again. You roll a dice and each part of the teddy is assigned a number.
6 = body
5 = head
4 = ears
3 = arms
2 = legs
1 = face

Obviously for the arms, legs and ears they will have to roll that number on the dice twice to get all the parts or you could make it easier by allowing them both arms, legs or ears.

The first one to complete the teddy is the winner. For older children you could make this game into a take home craft by having holes in the arms, legs, head, ears and body and using split pins attach the parts and then the teddy is moveable and complete.

If you go down to the Woods today !

Place shapes of teddy bears cut out of paper on the floor in a circle. Children walk around circle while listening to music. If the music is loud the children move fast. If the music is quiet the children move slowly. If the music stops, the children stop on the closest shape. Young children like to play it this way. To make it more challenging for older children have 1 less shape than the number of children. Continue to remove shapes as the children are 'out'.

Teddy Bear Growler

Everyone sits in a circle except one who is given a pillow and blind-fold. They then go and place the pillow on a persons lap, sit on it and growl like a bear. The person can growl only 3 times. If the blind person guesses the name the person, they should now be given the blind fold and the game run over again - after everyone has changed their places.

Teddy Bear says

On the command (from the list below) the children have to do the appropriate action. After a while, start removing the last player to comply, until one remains.
Honey (Run to one side of the area)
Winnie the Pooh (run to the other side)
Paddington Bear (Stand to attention and Salute)
Marmalade (Lie on the floor)
Rupert Bear (run on the spot)
Grizzly (Sit cross legged on the floor -ready for lunch)
Baloo the Bear (Climb a tree, stand on a chair - anything so that you are not on the floor)

Teddy Bear Treasure Hunt

Start the party with a teddy bear treasure hunt - children can search for the teddy bears they will be making; older children may prefer cryptic clues with markers en route.

Teddy Bears Beware!

All the children (except one – The Grizzly Bear) sit Cross Legged on the floor in a circle. The Grizzly sits cross-legged in the middle of the circle, blind-folded, with a large bunch of keys on the floor in front of him.
A child is nominated to creep up and take the keys and then return to their place, without the Grizzly hearing them. The Grizzly has three goes to point to where he thinks the raider is. If he is successful, the raider becomes the Grizzly.

Miscellaneous Tips

Pass the parcel

Pass the parcel is always a good traditional game. Try adding sweets or a forfeit between each layer. NB: children tend to get bored if there are too many in the circle, so allow for either two circles or two parcels going around the circle in different directions.

Remember to......

Make sure you have plenty of pencils and felt tips available for the birth certificate. It is always a good idea to fill the details in in pencil first to avoid mistakes – the children can then go over it with felt pens. Try to ensure that they choose an individual name for their teddy bear, rather than copying each other. They can then call out the names of their teddy bears.