Games and Competitions at a kids party disco are usually a guaranteed hit with children, and I’m talking about kids up to about 9 years old, although the same games can sometimes work with children a little older too.
A good children’s DJ should be happy and able to to organise any games and competitions at a children’s Party.
A good and experienced DJ will request some feedback from you about the types of games, competitions, spot-prizes and activities that the customer would like him to include or exclude. The reason this feedback should be asked for is to be sure that anything the DJ does or organises meets with the children’s approval. This also helps him to stay away from anything too ‘grown-up’ or (more importantly) too ‘childish’ for the children attending.
As a DJ, and with a Sound System at our disposal, the games we tend to primarily play are ‘Musical’ based games as these tend to work best with a Disco!The children might like Musical Chairs, Musical Bumps, Musical Statues or Musical Stumps, but they may well consider themselves to be too grown up for some or all of these.
The most popular games with older children and Teens are ‘Corners’ ‘Musical Stumps’ and ‘Arches’. Arches is a great game if there are both boys and girls in attendance.
Another popular choice for most ages is the ‘Limbo’. This can be done if you haven’t got a Limbo stick, there’s almost always a broom in the cupboard at the venue which works just fine!
Team games such as balloon passing are also really good idea and can be done easily (with or without music) with just a little organisation.
With older kids and a little geeing up, and if you have a mix of boys and girls, you can easily organise a ‘Dance-off’ with Boys v Girls- the boys standing one side, the girls the other, and let the Dance-Off begin. The right choice of soong is essential for this and will depend on the age group and / or what’s big at the time. The big current favourite for this (December 2012) is “Gangnam Style” by Psy..
Spot-prizes can be given out for absolutely anything, including best, worst or most original dancer, best, worst or loudest singer, best or coolest dressed person, best or funkiest hair / shoes / etc, and if a slow-dance is requested for older kids or Teens, then how about a spot-prize for ‘first-couple’ or ‘best-couple’.
Any Spot-prizes or Games and Competition Judging can be done by the DJ and / or indeed ideally by our young Host / Hostess if they want to get involved and ‘be in charge’… and they often do!
If no information or feedback about Games preferences is received in advance, then ‘playing it by ear’ should be the order of the day. Asking for feedback from the Host / Hostess or our young party-goers as the party progresses is always a good idea.
A good Dj should be prepared to play games, organise competitions and hand out any prizes he’s given by the organiser at a children’s Party even if such activities are not mentioned in advance.
Typical games we have found to work best at a Disco include:
- Musical Bumps
- Musical Statues
- Musical Stumps
- Musical Chairs
- Corners
- Arches
- Limbo
- Snowball
- etc.
… and an array of ‘team games’, balloon or orange passing, relays, ‘Wrap The Mummy’ (just supply plenty of Toilet Rolls!), X-Factor type talent competition, etc.
For more info on any of these, please contact me.
We’ll also be happy organising competitions and handing out ‘spot-prizes’ for absolutely anything you like, or anything that you suggest that we think sounds like will be fun and will suit the ages attending.
Examples:
- Best (and/or worst!) Dancer
- Best (and/or worst!) or loudest Singer
- Best Costume
- Person trying the hardest
- Best Air Guitar / Air Drummer
- Best Break Dancer / Street Dancer / Gymnast
- Best Limbo
- Dance-Offs (usually Boys v Girls)
- … and many more!
