Are you in the process of organizing a butterfly themed birthday for your child or grandchild? If so, perhaps you are in need of a few butterfly themed game ideas. As a former special events planner, I have organized my fair share of parties and have a handful of butterfly game suggestions that I’d like to make. Here they are:
Chrysalis Pinata
If you ask me, a butterfly’s life cycle is ideal fodder for a pinata game. Hear me out on this one. A chrysalis shaped pinata could be made using paper mache and balloons. The makeshift chrysalis could then be filled faux butterflies and candy. I estimate that the butterflies and the bags of candy will cost you around $40 depending on the size of the pinata.
You could even take the game one step further and add a few specially marked butterflies into the mix. The children that find those butterflies could then redeem them for a special, high dollar prize like a butterfly kit or butterfly shaped jewelry.
Pin the Butterfly on the Milkweed
Monarch Butterflies are known to be attracted to milkweed, so why not use that fact to create a butterfly themed version of pin the tail on the donkey? In order to play the game, you’ll need some card stock, pictures of milkweed, a few faux Monarch Butterflies and a blindfold. Based on my experience, a dozen faux Monarch Butterflies may be purchased online for less than $5.
Chrysalis Race
A chrysalis race would also make an excellent butterfly themed party game for kids. In order to play the chrysalis race game, you will need to purchase several rolls of toilet paper and two pairs of faux butterfly wings. You may opt to buy a set of butterfly wings from a costume shop or make your own out of a bolt of fabric. Ready-made butterfly wings tend to sell for less than $14 a set.
Once you have the supplies on hand, divide the kids up into two teams. Each team gets to pick one child to be the butterfly. The child that gets chosen as the butterfly must put on the wings and let the members of her team wrap her up in toilet paper as if she is in a chrysalis. The first team to wrap their butterfly from head to toe in toilet paper wins the game.
Butterfly Bingo
Butterfly bingo is another game that you may want to consider using at your child’s party. In order to play the game, you will need to create bingo cards and a spinner as well as purchase little faux butterflies as bingo daubers. I would recommend that you use pictures of eggs, caterpillars, pupas and assorted butterflies when creating the bingo cards. Then create a spinner using the same pictures. Depending on the amount of bingo cards needed, it could cost you less than $20 to create all the items needed in order to play this game. When it comes time to play the game, use the spinner to determine which pictures to call out. The child that gets bingo first wins a prize.
Pollinators Matching Game
Butterflies are known to help pollinate certain flowers so why not play a game that takes that fact into consideration? I like to call it the pollinators matching game. In order to set the game up, you will need to purchase a bag of cotton balls ($1 per bag), permanent markers ($2 per packet), assorted essential oils ($10 for two jars) and some plastic, see-through bug containers ($10 for 10 containers).
Once you have all your supplies in one spot, divide the cotton balls and bug jars into sets of two. Soak each set of cotton balls into different essential oils. Then mark each set of bug containers with a different color dot. When you are done, you should have two containers for every scent. Continue by placing the cotton balls into the containers. For example, place each lavender scented cotton ball into a bug container that has been marked with a purple dot.
Then, when it comes time to play the game, randomly hand one container to each child. Continue by telling the children to smell their cotton balls and then try to find the person whose cotton ball matches theirs. The first child to find his or her match wins.
Killeen Gonzalez enjoys summer sports and recreation with her family. She is also a former special events planner.
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