Best Indoor Games for Kids for All Occasions

Tea Party Games and Activities

I’m a Little Teapot Freeze Dance

This game is based off Freeze Dance, but instead of freestyle dance, they will be going through the motions for the I’m a Little Teapot song. Play the song and then stop the music at any point. The children will need to freeze in their current teapot pose, and if they break hold or don’t freeze, they’re out.

What you need to play:

Music! And some enthusiasm.

Musical Tea Cups 

Musical chairs gone tea cup. Instead of using chairs, the players will stand around a table set with tea cups, but there will be one cup less than the amount of players. When the music stops, each person must grab a tea cup. Whoever is the slowest and cannot grab a tea cup is out. You need to keep removing a tea cup per round, so that there is always one short.

What you need to play:

A table

Tea cups

Music

Tea bag Scavenger Hunt

Who doesn’t love a scavenger hunt? The prize this time? Tea bags! You can start with a few different flavors of tea to keep it interesting. Give players a list of all the flavors and send them off to find all the tea bags on the list. The first to find all the bags wins. You can give them a prize or let the losing team serve the tea.

What you need to play:

Tea bags

List of tea bags

Blind Tea Test

This is awesome for those who love drinking tea! Blind fold players and have them sip different flavors of tea and try to guess what they’re drinking. Give points to each correct guess and eliminate those who guess incorrectly. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

What you need to play:

Various flavors of tea

Tea cups

Scoreboard and marker – this can be anything from an actual board, if you have one, to a piece of paper.

Sugar Cube on a Spoon

Instead of the classic egg and spoon race, players carry a sugar cube. If the cube gets dropped, they need to start over.

What you need to play:

Teaspoons

Sugar cubes

Maybe some cups of tea waiting to be sweetened when the race is done!

Ice Cream Party Games and Activities

Blind Taste Test

Sign us up for this one! Eating loads of yummy ice cream? Yes, please! Okay, you have to guess the flavors right to get to all the yumminess, but anyway, we’re ready! Okay, so to play this one, you blind fold players and have them sample different flavors of ice cream. Don’t go too hard on them right off the bat – give them a couple of the classics like vanilla and chocolate, and then mix it up with a few of the rare flavors at your local grocery store. You can also throw in toppings, if you worry you’ll run out of ice cream flavors.

What you’ll need to play:

Ice cream – we suggest around 2 easy flavors and 4 rare ones, with toppings.

Tea spoons for tasting

Bibs/napkins for laps, or wipeable covering for the table, in case kids mess! They are blind folded, after all.

Ice Cream Sundae Die Game

DIY ice cream sundae led by the luck of the draw! Find a plain wooden block big enough to write on and on each side write instructions like: add a topping, add syrup, add a cherry, another flavor ice cream etc. You can make it any way you want. Then the kids sit around the table filled with goodies and roll the dice in order to see what they get to do next. They continue until they complete their sundae. Deciding what to do if they get duplicate rolls will be up to you. 

What you’ll need to play:

Ice cream

Toppings

Sundae bowls/cups

Spoons

Cherry on a Spoon Race

Egg and spoon has gotten a sweet makeover with the cherry on the spoon race. Give each player a sundae spoon and a cherry. Then they must race to the finish line without dropping the cherry. If they do, they need to start over.

What you’ll need to play:

Sundae spoons

Cherries

Something to mark the start and finish lines.

Ice Cream Eating Contest

More ice cream eating! This time, tie contestants’ hands behind their back and make them eat ice cream without their hands. Be sure to add plenty of whipped cream on top. See who can finish first. Be prepared for a delicious mess!

What you need to play:

Bowls of ice cream

Something to tie their hands with – a scarf, or bandana, works well.

Bibs!

Ice cream Sundae Relay

Gather all the necessary components for making an ice cream sundae. Divide the kids into two teams. Running in relay, the kids of each team will race to gather the components from the other side of the room – or wherever you put them – and then once they have all of them, they will work together to complete their sundae. The winners get to enjoy their sundae! The losers . . . well, you might feel bad giving their attempt at a sundae to the other team, so you can decide how to handle that. Maybe a half-completed sundae is bad enough.

What you need to play:

Ice cream and toppings of your choice

Bowls and spoons

A table to prepare the sundaes on

Table cloths that can be wiped

Disco Party Games and Activities

Balloon Dance

This one is really simple. Kids must dance in pairs while keeping a balloon held up with their backs. The balloon must not fall or pop. The last pair standing wins.

What you’ll need to play:

Balloons

Music

Disco Diva Dress Up Relay

Find cheap metallics and sequined costumes at the dollar store, and anything like sunglasses, hats, gloves, feather boas etc. and have the children relay-race in teams to their dress-up items and put them on before they race back to start. They remove the outfit and then the next child takes the clothes back to the other side of the room, dresses up and runs back to the start. Nothing must fall off while they run, and it doesn’t matter how they put the outfit on, as long as it’s on (over their own clothes). The entire team has to do this. The first team in which all players have dressed up and down completely wins the game.

What you need to play:

Costumes

Music – just because.

Musical Statues

Musical chairs without the chairs. Having an adult control the music, guide the children into a dance space and let them dance when the music plays. When the music stops, each child must freeze in a funny position. The children must not break their position until the music begins again. Anyone who moves is out. The rounds continue until there is one child left standing.

What you need to play:

Music

Awesome dance moves

Awesome statue poses

Disco Charades

The act-out game charades with the disco twist. Write musical acts, song titles and types of dances on slips of paper and put them into a hat or bag. Divide the guests into teams and let each team member have a turn to act out the slip’s information without speaking. If their team mates guess correctly, they score a point. If they get it wrong, the other team gets the point. The first team to score 10 wins.

What you need to play:

Paper and pen

Hat or bag

Lip-Synching Contest

Find popular kids tunes and create a playlist that can be played on a music device or phone. Write the names of the songs on slips of paper and let each child draw a slip. They can then either choose to lip-sync or actually sing along with the song. Other guests can serve as judges and award prizes according to the best lip syncing or best live singing.

What you need to play:

Paper and pen – for song titles and scoring

Playlist

Microphone (optional – depends how loud you put the music)

Indoor Pool Party Games and Activities

Giant Ring Toss

Tossing rings onto a cone has come to the pool. Find an inflatable ring toss game and have the kids get into the pool to try and toss the ring over the cone. You can also play this game on the ground.

What you’ll need to play:

1 inflatable ring toss game

Floating Musical Chairs

Use floating pool chairs, but make sure there is one less than the amount of players. Play music and have the kids swim around. When the music stops, they have to try and get onto a floating pool chair. Whoever doesn’t have a chair is eliminated and the rounds continue until there is one person left.

What you need to play:

Floating pool chairs

Music

Fill the Bucket Sponge Race

This one takes some patience. Separate the children into pairs and have one sit behind the other. The player at the back will have a bucket of water and a sponge and the player in front will have an empty bucket. You can also do this in even teams, where the team forms a longer line and passes the sponge over each head to get to the front player. The back player soaks the sponge in the bucket of water and passes it to the player in front, who squeezes it out into their empty bucket. The first pair/team to fill their buckets wins. You can decide where to consider the bucket ‘full’ and mark it with tape or a marker.

What you’ll need to play:

2 buckets for each pair/team

Tape or a marker

Squirt Gun Cup Races

Hang two strings across the pool – either tied to trees if you have them or have kids volunteer to take turns to hold the string – that go through one plastic cup per string. Load some water guns and then get a member from each team to hop in the pool and use their squirt gun to squirt the cup across the pool. Whoever does it the fastest wins and scores a point. You can let a member of each team do this and tally up the scores at the end.

What you’ll need to play:

String

Plastic cups

Squirt guns

Sponge Ball Tag

Soak a sponge ball in water and the tagger – whoever is ‘it’ – tries to hit the other players with the ball. Whoever gets hit is now ‘it’. The game ends once all the players have been tagged, with the last one tagged being the winner. Play in your bathing costumes and get nice and wet!

What you’ll need to play:

 A bucket of water

A sponge ball