So you’ve got young boys who love Pokemon and their birthday is fast approaching? Never fear, help is here. Both of my young sons love Pokemon, they are ages 6 and 9. What is Pokemon you say? Pokemon means “Pocket Monster” in Japanese. The crazy characters evolve into different characters and they use pokemon moves to “fight” each other causing “damage”. This craze has originated in Japan, but is highly popular here in the US. The Pokemon characters all have an HP number, how much the Pokemon is worth and the higher HP cards are highly coveted young boys. Anyway, back to your party issue. I just threw a great Pokemon party for my son’s 9th birthday. He loved it and his friends had a blast. Below are some great ideas for you and they are EASY and INEXPENSIVE to do. I sat down one night and came up with some games that I could easily make the supplies for and they would be fun to play. Below is a summary list of the games we came up with and read on to get the details of each one. Keep in mind, these are EASY, FUN and INEXPENSIVE and I will tell you exactly how I did it and what you need:
o Pass the Pokeball
o Pin the Tail on Pikachu
o Pokemon Balloon Dart Throw
o Pokemon Master Tracking
o Gliscor Bean Bag Score
1. Pass the Pokeball If you are remotely familiar with Pokemon, you will know about pokeballs. To play this game, I went to a craft store and purchased a LARGE Styrofoam ball, they seem to range in price from $5 to $11. I also bought some red washable craft paint while I was at the craft store. Paint half the ball with the red craft paint, let it dry, then use black electrical tape to tape around the circumference of the ball right where the white Styrofoam joins up with the red paint. This made the PERFECT pokeball. Quick and easy and inexpensive. Then we had a small keyboard (cheap one) that could be automatically set to play music. If you don’t have a keyboard, use anything that can make music, cd player, musical instrument, drum set, guitar, anything that plays music and can be stopped and started. Have all the boys sit in a circle and they have to hand the pokeball to each other in a circular fashion. They cannot throw the ball. I would then start the music on the keyboard and close my eyes and stop it after 20 to 30 seconds. I closed my eyes, so I wouldn’t know who was going to be holding the ball when the music stopped. Whoever is holding the ball when the music stops is out, then play again until there is only 1 player left. Give the player who is left a party prize.
Supplies recap:
i. Large Styrofoam ball
ii. Red craft paint
iii. Electrical tape
2. Pin the Tail on Pikachu – Pikachu is one of the main pokemon characters and if your kids like Pokemon they like Pikachu. For this game, I found a good picture of Pikachu. I used a picture out of the Pokemon Handbook that we have, but if you don’t have one of those, use a pokemon card of Pikachu, or print a picture of Pikachu at pokemon.com. I bought a package of 10 white posterboards at a discount store. Look at the picture and draw a large picture of Pikachu to cover most of the posterboard (1 sheet). Don’t draw his tail. Use a separate posterboard to draw enough Pikachu tails (shaped like a lightning bolt) for each party guest to have one. After I drew the Pikachu and then drew the tails, I had my kids color the Pikachu and tails, they loved helping. Cut out the Pikachu tails. I had an old cork board that I was able to mount this Pin the Tail on the Pikachu game onto so it had a sturdy back and could be hung up outside. Put the name of each party guest on one of the tails and right before they play, add a single strip of double sided tape. When you are ready to play this, use a bandana to cover the eyes of your party guests, spin them around in a circle twice and direct them towards the Pikachu. Don’t allow them to feel their way around, wherever they touch the Pikachu they must put the tail on there, otherwise the kids who go last will be able to tell where to put the tails by feeling where the other kids tails are pinned. Give a prize to the party guest who gets Pikachu’s tail closest to the right spot.
Supplies recap:
i. Picture of Pikachu
ii. Large white posterboard for drawing picture of Pikachu
iii. Large white posterboard for drawing multiple Pikachu tails only
iv. Double sided tape
v. Bandana
3. Pokemon Balloon Dart Throw – Kids love to pop balloons and throw darts, so put these two things together in a fun and easy activity. The night before the party I bought 50 balloons at a party store. Each Pokemon character has an HP value, or a points value. For example, Pikachu might be 60 HP, Shadowlugia 300 HP, etc… You can find the names of many Pokemon characters in a Pokemon handbook or you can find them online at Pokemon.com. Take some plain white paper and cut it into strips that are about 1 inch high by 3 inches long. Write the name of a different Pokemon and their HP Number on the strips. We had 6 boys at the party and I blew up 45 balloons. For example, you might write Ryperior 90 HP on a slip. Make each slip of paper with a different character and add the HP number (use multiples of 10 only for the HP values). We used each character name only once but reused the HP 50, HP60, HP70, HP80, HP90, etc… However we only had 1 character (Shadowlugia) that had the highest HP of HP300, no other card had the HP300 on it. Fold the slips of paper small and poke it inside the balloon prior to blowing up the balloon. I then used an air compressor to blow up the balloons quickly and tie them in a knot. You will see the little slips of paper inside. I stored the balloons overnight in large trash bags and they stayed aired up fine. I purchased a set of 6 darts at a sports store to use for this game. If you have a large cork board, attach the balloons with push pins to the cork board. Have the party guests stand back about 8 feet and throw 2 darts a piece and try to pop the balloons (like a traditional carnival game). If they pop a balloon have them gather up and keep the slip of paper with the Pokemon character on it and the HP number (see the next Pokemon Master tracking as to what to do with the slips of paper and keeping track of the HP numbers). They loved to pop these balloons and they loved finding the slips of paper to find out which Pokemon character they had and what was the HP number. We played several rounds of this game.. Pokemon Figurines