Olympic Styled Games and Crafts for Your Party
Host a Kids Olympic Party with Sporting Events
Jul 14, 2008
Recreate child-friendly Olympic-styled events for your party guests to enjoy.
Gymnastics
Balance Beam
- This event is surprisingly simple to recreate, and the kids love it! Create a balance beam made from a 4” wide board that is at least 10’ long. A standard competition balance beam is 4” wide by 16’ long, so the closer that you can approximate that, the more realistic the event will be.
- It is simplest and most economical to use a couple of 8’ 2x4s placed end to end that are screwed into 2’ sections of 2x4s as the perpendicular supports. This will raise the balance beam about 2” off of ground, and will give the kids the feeling of being above the ground, without there being much danger from falling.
- Make sure to use each 2x4 horizontally (with the 4” width being parallel to the ground) to maximize the stability of the balance beam and to get closest to the 4” width. (remember that a true 2x4 is only 3.5” wide).
- Sand the edges of the beam and follow up with a coat of polyurethane to decrease the risk of slivers.
- The event is a lot of fun – encourage the competitors to imitate their favorite gymnast by doing balancing feats like arabesques, handstands, lunges, and pirouettes.
- For the really talented and balanced kids, incorporate tumbling maneuvers like somersaults and cartwheels.
- Make sure to videotape this portion of the party, as the kids will love to see their performances!
Sailing
- Obviously you cannot set your party guests out to sea, but you can use the Olympic sport of sailing as a craft and game activity for your Summer Olympic themed party.
- Prior to the party, cut boat shapes out of 1” sheets of Styrofoam, which can be purchased at your local home improvement store.
- While you’re at the store, pick up two 8’ lengths of rain gutters and the correct sized end caps to create two shallow racing troughs.
- Also pre-cut sails out of construction paper with horizontal slits at the top and bottom of the sail.
- For the event, the kids will stick a plastic drinking straw through the slits in the sail, and then into the deck of the Styrofoam boat. By curving and adjusting the sail to catch more wind, the kids will be able speed their boats along the racing trough. The wind is to be provided by the kids racing alongside their trough and blowing into their sails.
- Set the water-filled troughs along the two sides of a table, and let the races begin. A double elimination pool is the best way to find a winner for this event.
The copyright of the article Olympic Styled Games and Crafts for Your Party in Entertaining is owned by Janice Benoit. Permission to republish Olympic Styled Games and Crafts for Your Party in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
