Children's Party Games: Musical Statues

Getting their attention

Before you start this or any other game it is important to get every child's attention. Please see my previous article "The Numbers Game" for a great way to do this

The Rules (for your reference):

The idea of this game is simple. When you play the music, the children dance. As soon as the music stops, the children all need to stand as still as possible.

Traditionally, this is a "knock out" game. In this case, the child who is the last to stop still is effectively "knocked out" of the game. While this is fine for older children (8+) as they generally understand the competitive nature of the game, I have found that this is less ideal for 7s and under.

For 7s and under, I have found a much simpler method is to simply give a prize to the stillest child/best dancer for each round.

How to explain this to the children in a fun way:

"OK, now we're going to play a game called musical statues."

"who has played musical statues before?"

At this point, most children will raise their hands in excitement.

"Now, when I play the music, you guys have to dance as well as you possibly can. When I stop the music, I want to know who the stillest person is in the whole room".

If you have prizes to give out, then it is a good idea to mention that now too. If you are playing the knockout version, then say it will be for the winner of the game, and if you are playing the non-knockout version then you can say that it is for the best dancer/stillest person.

"Ok guys, up you get. Now who's the best dancer here?"

At this point, you should play some music. After a few seconds of music playing, you simply stop the music.

You can add an interesting twist to the game by intentionally distracting some the children by making funny noises when the music has stopped. Another fun alternative to this game is to add a theme to it, although I would only recommend this for older groups (8+).

For instance, you could have "Musical Groovy Poses", where instead of simply standing still, the idea is for the children to pull their grooviest pose when the music stops. Or how about Musical Gruesome Faces? Beware, you might need a camera for that one!

Have fun and thanks for reading!