You’ve decided on your venue, sorted the catering and the party bags – now you just need to entertain. Here are our top birthday party games for 5-7 year olds:

1. Piniata

Fill your chosen Piniata full of sweets and inexpensive treats (medals, bouncy balls, plastic jewellery, bubbles), string it up somewhere and let them take turns hitting it to see who can make it break and spill it’s goodies. Just make sure you clear a space around the hitter to avoid any injuries.

2. Treasure hunt

Whatever your venue – church hall, local park, your garden – you can create a treasure map for the kids to follow and provide a pot of inexpensive toys (gold coins, plastic jewellery) as the treasure.

3. Pin the…

The traditional pin the tail on the donkey can be adapted to your theme – pin the parrot on the pirate, pin the crown on the princess – you get the picture!

4. Decorate your goodie bag

A good one if you want to calm the kids down after sugar fuelled fun – write their names in bubble writing on paper bag goodie bags and provide some colouring pens for them to colour in their names and decorate – you can give a prize out to the best design.

5. Disco

Ditch the nursery rhymes and compile a cd of your child’s favourite hits – Happy, Gangnam Style, Lucky, Black Magic and anything by One Direction are popular choices. Hire or buy a disco light and watch them groove.