Ultimate Airplane Themed Games & Activities for your Childs Birthday Party

Are you looking for the Ultimate Airplane Themed Party Games and Activities? Well stop looking because they are right here...

Good Luck and happy reading...

"Paper Airplane Contest" Have each child make a paper airplane. Depending on the age of the children, you can either have them create their own, follow a pattern or make them ahead of time. Have various contests, such as, longest flight, highest flight, furthest from a target, best crash, most flips, largest flip, etc. Provide enough categories to allow each child to win a prize.

"Pin the Pilot on the Plane" Draw or copy a picture of a plane on a large piece of paper. Draw an outline where the pilot should be sitting. Make a different pilot for each child and either put a number or name on the pilot to identify the child. You can also cut out a picture of your child and paste him on the pilot's head. Using double face tape, blindfold one guest at a time, spin them around and have them try to place the pilot in the correct location. The child closest is the winner.

"Airplane Search" Fill a large container (swimming pool, sandbox, large bowl, etc work best) with packing peanuts. Put enough die cast airplanes in the container so each child finds one. One at a time, have the children find an airplane. You can time them and see who finds the airplane the fastest. This airplane can go home with them in their goody bag.

"Jet Race" To play this wonderful game, mark a target on the ground a short distance away or make a finish line on the floor with tape. Make a starting line and blow up a balloon for each child. For added effects, place airplane stickers on the balloons. To begin, count down from three. When you say go, each child tries to land his or her "jet" inside the target, or cross the finish line, by tossing or hitting it.

"Musical Planes" Here is one of the children's favorite games. To setup, you need enough airplane cutouts for every child minus one. Check out our Airplane pictures and clipart for some ideas. Place them in a circle so the children have enough room to walk around them. Place the children on the outside of the airplanes and make sure they aren't stepping on them yet. When the music starts, the children will walk around the airplanes. As soon as the music stops, the children have to sit on one of the airplanes. Whoever isn't sitting on an airplane is out. Remove one airplane and continue the game until one child remains.

"Obstacle Course" This game is best played outside in a large open area. Create a runway using masking tape, chalk, cones, etc to mark the boundaries. It should be around 50 feet long and 10 feet wide to allow enough room for the children to maneuver their planes. Get some non-breakable items, such as, bouncy balls, sports balls, tin cans, clothing, toys, blankets, etc. These items are going to represent other planes on the runway.

Next, pair up the children. One child will need to be the pilot and the other will be the air traffic controller. The air traffic controller's job is to guide the pilot (blindfolded) down the runway without running into any other plane (non-breakable items).

How to play: the first pilot stands at the end of the runway with their arms stretched out like a plane. The air traffic controller can stand anywhere along the runway, but the best position is behind the pilot. This will eliminate any confusion when they are using the commands left and right.

Once the pilot is blindfolded, all the other children can throw more objects on the runway to make the challenge even more difficult. After the children have added the extra planes, the controller guides the pilot down the runway using commands like, "Take two steps forward", "One step left", "Two large steps to the left".

If the child crashed, the next team will get to take a turn. Award the team who made it the farthest on the runway, without crashing, a prize.

"Sleep/Stand!" This a great modified game of the old time favorite, Simon Says. Have the children line up and face you, or whoever the caller is. There are only two sayings the children have to listen for: I say sleep or I say stand. When you say, "I say sleep" the children must lie down and pretend to sleep or when you say, "I say stand" the children must stand up. If you say a command without, "I say" and the children do it, then they are out. As the game progresses, say the commands faster. The children will be going up and down so fast they won't even hear the "I say" part. It's a great game and packed full of laughs!

"Where's the Cake?" Children always love to go on a mission to find "something" and this game will definitely be a treat for them. This game is going to require help from friends and be under a lot of adult supervision. Separate the children into two teams and give each team a set of clues and party favors to find. Give each child a bag to put the favors in and make sure that each guest has at least one favor. The clues and favors should lead the children to the cake. Whichever team finds the cake first gets to be served first!

"Airport Field Trip" How cool would this activity be? Do you live near a small municipal airport? A lot of airports will allow you to bring a group of children for a tour of the facility. Give them a call and see if you can plan one during some airplane take-offs and landings. The kids will love this experience and they'll talk about for months!

"Storytime/Videotime" Do you need an activity towards the end of the party which might "calm" the children down? Well, how about a great airplane story or movie? Jay Jay and Friends have a lot of books and movies out and children just love them. Get one and plan it towards the end of the party. This will also give you a chance to do a little cleanup before the parents arrive to pick up their children.

By Geoff Schurman