15 party games for eight year olds

Yes, really! Kids love a bit of bingo and it's a good way to keep them entertained at the beginning or end of a party when excitement levels are just warming up or calming down.

You can buy ready-made bingo cards (see more details here at Amazon) or there are plenty of free templates online for you to print out at home. They don't have to be numbers either, you'll find cards featuring animals, Disney characters and more, so there's bound to be something to fit your party theme.

You could even get your child to help you make your own bingo cards ahead of the party, featuring all their favourite things and people.

For this game you're going to need a large bar of chocolate. Put it on a plate with a knife and fork and then place a hat, scarf and gloves nearby.

Get the kids to sit around the chocolate in a circle and throw a dice, passing it to each player in turn. Every time someone throws a six they have to go into the centre of the circle, put on the hat, scarf and gloves and try to eat the chocolate with the knife and fork.

The fun starts when the next person throws a six and has to take the hat, gloves and scarf off the person there already – you'll be surprised how little chocolate actually gets eaten!

This one can get pretty boisterous so make sure you have a large space, preferably in a garden or field so there's a soft landing if anyone falls, and adult supervision.

Split the group into two teams. They stand in a line facing each other and holding hands.

One team starts the game by picking a member of the opposing team and saying 'Red Rover, Red Rover, we call Daisy (or the name of whichever child they've picked) over'.

Daisy then has to leave her team and run over to the other team's line, her aim is to break through their hands. If Daisy manages to get through, she picks someone from that team to take back to her original team with her. If she fails to break through, she must join that team.

Each team takes it in turns to call someone over, the winning team is the one with the most people. You can play to time or until all the children are on one team.

Any adult at the party won't be able to resist having a go at this game, too.

Get two adults to hold a pole at child height and get the kids to take it in turn to limbo under by bending backwards. No part of their body should touch the pole, if it does they're out.

Lower the pole each round until you only have one child left – they're your limbo champion!

You can buy limbo sets online, but a broom handle held by two adults works just as well.

You can buy ready-made limbo sets. See more details here at Amazon.

Write some funny forfeits on thin slips of paper, things like try to lick your elbow, tell your best joke, hop on one leg 10 times while patting your head and rubbing your tummy, make your best fart noise …

Place the slips inside balloons then blow them up.

Get the kids to bop a balloon in the air between them trying to keep it off the floor. If someone drops the ballon they have to pop it and perform the forfeit inside.

If you prefer, you can play this with music – when the music stops, the person holding the balloon has to pop it.

Obstacle courses are a good chance to get creative and you can use what you have at home already. Make a tunnel to crawl through from old boxes, craft a crawl net from a blanket, use plastic flower pots for kids to swerve in and out of and make small hurdles from sticks and string.

If it's summer, you could have one section where kids have to run while others squirt them with water pistols or a section where they have to battle an adult with a pool noodle. If you want to make it competitive, you can set a timer to see who completes the course in the quickest time. Alternatively, split the kids into teams and make it a relay.

You can fit the course to your party theme by giving obstacles relevant names and pretending children are crossing a magical land – so battling crocodiles, walking planks and leaping between islands to reach their ship for a pirate-theme party.

Sometimes the old-fashioned party games are the best.

Sardines is like hide and seek in reverse. One child goes and hides while the others all count as a group. It's up to you to decide on the number but somewhere between 50-100 is a good start as it allows plenty of time for hiding.

Once the group have finished counting they spread out to find the hider. When someone finds the hider, they join them in the hiding place until everyone's squashed together like sardines in a tin.

The last one to join the hiding group has to hide next time.

Relay games are a classic party favourite and there are so many different options, from passing a balloon over heads and under legs, to water relay races where kids have to pass wet sponges to fill up a bucket (that one's best outdoors and not when wearing nice party clothes).

A dress-up relay always goes down well, particularly as you can adapt the dressing up items to suit your theme if you have one. You'll need around four accessories and items of clothing per team. Each child in turn has to put the clothes on, run to a turnaround point and then pass the clothes on to the next person in the team.

The first team to finish are the winners.

A nice quiet game but still lots of giggles guaranteed. Get the children to sit in a circle or line. Give the first child a sentence to read, or let them make one up. The child has to whisper the message to the next child and so on – they can say it only once, no repeating.

The last child then says out loud what they think the message is; it's amazing how much it can change! If you want to make things even more fun, you can make a few children wear ear muffs so it's hard to hear what's being said.

Scavenger hunts are a great way to get kids to work together and they can easily be adapted to different age groups and party themes. You don't need to have a large space either.

Split the children into smaller groups of three or four, depending on how many kids you have. Give them each a list of things they need to find in the garden, house or venue and set them off to find them – this could be a stone that looks like a face, a feather, a balloon, whatever you want.

The first team back with all the items wins, or you could play to a set time and award points for each item gathered in the time. If you have a polaroid camera or some tablets (and you're feeling brave) you could hand one to each team and get them to take a selfie in the funniest place they can find as one of the items.

This simple game is a good one to keep kids occupied at the start of the party while you're waiting for everyone to arrive.

Place some sweets in a glass jar – or choose an item related to your party theme, like gold coins for a pirate party, fairy lights for a fairy party. Ask the kids to guess how many sweets they think are in the jar and write it down with their name on a piece of paper.

At the end of the party reveal how many sweets were in the jar, the person who guessed closest wins a prize.

If you've got a large space, some old-school sports day games are lots of fun. Three-legged races, wheelbarrow races and egg and spoon races are great for all ages, and kids also love tug of war.

All you need is a long rope, or if you don't have rope you could use a rolled-up sheet or some soft belts tied together.

Split the kids into two teams and mark a line on the floor in the middle. The first team to pull the others over the line is the winner.

For a real challenge, have kids against adults – although you'll need fewer adults than kids to make things fair.

Blind man's buff is like a game of tag, except the person doing the tagging is blindfolded! Pick one child to be the tagger – or ask for volunteers as more shy children may not want to go first. Blindfold them and spin them round then ask them to tag the others.

The other kids have to evade capture. They can even try to confuse the tagger by calling out their name, then quickly running away. When a child is caught, they have to don the blindfold and become the tagger.

For an extra challenge, the blind man has to say who it is they've caught before they can remove the blindfold.

Split the kids into groups and get them to go off in search of treasure. This can be played indoors and outdoors.

You can draw a map and mark where the treasure will be found, planting little gifts along the way. Alternatively, use clues that players have to work out, with each clue leading to another and another until you get to the big prize at the end.

With eight year olds and older kids you can use simple riddles for clues like: 'Things go inside me dirty but come out clean' for the washing machine. Or, 'people climb me. I have rings but they're not made of gold' for a tree. Use our Easter egg hunt clues for more inspiration.

You can buy ready-made treasure hunt kits. See more details here at Amazon.

It's very simple but surprisingly hard. Fill a tray with small round sweets, like M&Ms. Split kids into two relay teams.

The first child in each team has to move five sweets from the tray to a bowl using only the chopsticks. When they've done this, the next person on their team goes and so on, until the tray is empty. The team with the most sweets wins.

Want to make it harder? Get the kids to wear gloves or comedy glasses that distort their vision and place the bowl so they have to walk a short distance to reach it holding the sweets in the chopsticks.