Birthday Party Games Lesson Plans
Overarching Theme for Party Games: “Be A Bug”
All of these games have one thing in common: the kids are all pretending to be an arthropod of
some kind. When introducing the games you can tell them that that is the theme: “Today we’re
going to play a couple games where you have to ‘be a bug’. Sometimes understanding the
weird world arthropods becomes a little easier when we put ourselves in their shoes so to
speak.”
Decomposer Tag
Materials:
Masking Tape
Bandannas: 1 purple (“Death”), 2 blue (Decomposers), 8 bright colored (Plants & Animals)
(if you don’t have enough bandannas, anyone w/o is considered a plant or animal, if there are a
large number of kids who would be without bandannas it might be best to just not hand out
bandannas beyond the blue and purple ones)
Lesson Steps:
Gather students around the millipede case and point out how they like to burrow down in the dirt
and leaf litter. Ask the students what they think they like to eat (fresh and decaying leaf litter).
Ask the students what they think happens to all the dead leaves, animal poop and other “stuff”
that’s lying around a forest (or even their very own street/school yard). Explain that it all gets
turned back into soil so new things can grow but that that doesn’t happen by magic, it’s all
thanks to a team of decomposers, many of whom are arthropods.
Let the kids hold the millipedes while you talk about the millipede’s number of legs, favorite
foods, natural habitat/range. You can also at this point explain decomposition. Asking kids if
they have ever had/used a compost bin has been helpful in this process before.
Game Steps:
● Point out to students the masking tape lines where the game will be played.
● Break the students up into roles: Death, Decomposers, Plants/Animals:
○ 1 student will play the character “Death” and wears a purple bandanna
■ If the group is large, you can have two playing this role.
○ 2 students will be Decomposers and will wear a blue bandanna.
○ The rest of the group will be plants and/or animals wearing bright bandannas.
○ Bandannas can be tied on any way the students are comfortable with.
● Plant and animal characters “die” when they are tagged by the death character. When
tagged, they freeze in place until one of the decomposers unfreezes them by walking
Birthday Party Games Lesson Plans
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around them three times. As the “dead” plant or animal to turn back into a living plant or
animal (while the Decomposer is walking around them three times) they must jump up,
down and around in a silly dance that represents the process of breaking down into dirt
and growing back into a plant or animal.
The decomposers typically unfreeze the plants and animals as fast or faster than death
freezes them.
There is no official end to the game. Let it go on long enough to get the point across but
stop before it gets exhaustive or just too much.
Play the game again but this time, don’t allow the decomposers to revive anyone. This
demonstrates what would happen without any or not enough decomposers.
Wrap Up:
● Have students come together to discuss what they learned and how they felt when they
were “dead” or when they were a decomposer, turning something “dead” back into
soil/animal/plant. What did they learn? Can they guess what other kinds of decomposers
are out there besides the millipedes? (MHC’s, small arthropods living in the soil,
maggots) Leave them with this mind boggling statistic about decomposers: A single
square yard of soil will contain 500 to 200,000 individual arthropods, depending
upon the soil type and plant community.
Adaptations For Kids with Disabilities:
Kids with mobility challenges can best/fully participate in the role of decomposers in the tag
game. This way they aren’t needing to chase or run away, they just need to circle around the
frozen people in the game.
Spider Mummy Races
Materials:
● Toilet Paper
● Yellow Bucket
Lesson Steps:
● Explain to kids that spiders wrap up their prey with silk to keep it from escaping and to
hold on to it for a snack later.
● Have kids work in pairs; one is the prey, the other the spider. The spider wraps the prey
up in toilet paper “silk” (much like a mummy).
● Once the prey has been wrapped let it escape and collect used “silk” in the yellow
bucket. This symbolizes the fact that spiders will eat their old silk so they can turn those
proteins into silk for later uses (making more webs, wrapping more prey).
● If there is time, have the teams/partners switch ro
Birthday Party Games Lesson Plans
Adaptations For Kids with Disabilities:
Kids using walkers and wheelchairs can easily participate as the “prey” in this game. They can
sit in their chair or a classroom chair and have their friends wrap them up like a fly in a web. If
they are more mobile and able to move around their friends like a spider they of course can
participate in that manner as well.
Blue Beetle Training Corps
Materials
● Blue Beetles (live)
Lesson Steps
● This activity is all about predator/prey relations and
● Let the kids hold the blue beetles and after you’ve give the initial intro to the beetle itself
(blue color/wax, habitat, diet etc.) Explain their ability to play dead and their
predator/prey relationship with tarantulas. Emphasize the following points:
○ Tarantulas don’t like to eat dead things
○ Tarantulas can’t see the world that well so rely on vibrations, things that don’t
move (that are playing dead and not moving) aren’t making any vibrations
● Do your best to get the beetles to play dead and demonstrate their abilities in this arena.
● After everyone has gotten a chance to hold the beetle tell them it is their turn to try and
avoid being eaten by a hungry tarantula, they are going to ‘be the beetle’.
● Get all the kids to crawl around on their hands and knees like a beetle.
● Say something along the lines of “oh no here cooooomes a SPIDER!” On the word
spider all the little ‘beetles’ will need to roll over and play dead. Once all kids are playing
dead tell them the coast is clear and they will be able to start crawling around again.
● If a beetle doesn’t play dead or is moving during the playing dead phase they will be
“out” and will sit out until after a few rounds there is one winner. Play a “practice round”
first so they can all get the hang of it. It is also ok to play w/o having kids get out if the
kids are a little younger or if you get the sense from them that they aren’t that
competitive or wanting to play in that way. Kids very much enjoy this game however you
play it; so simple yet such a popular game.
Adaptations For Kids with Disabilities:
Kids with disabilities can play the role of “spider caller”. They can be in charge of yelling
SPIDER! to have their friends roll over and play dead.
Birthday Party Games Lesson Plans
Quieter Games for Quieter, Shyer Kids
Thumb Print Arthropods
Materials:
● Paper
● Ink Pads
● Stamps
● Coloring Caddies
If you have a group of kids that is a little quieter and prefers a quiet activity one fun activity to do
is the ‘build a bug’ stamp activity. There are two blue crates filled with ink and paper, one has
some stamps of different parts of an arthropod’s body. Have kids use these stamps to build their
very own frankenstein bug creations. Explain that arthropods have a segmented body and these
stamps represent those segments and other anatomical features like wings, legs and antennae.
Kids can use the ink and stamps to create their bug and coloring pencils and crayons to color in
their creatures. To take it a step further have the kids think about the habitat their bug would live
in and what it might eat or any special skills it might have. You can then have them name the
bug and draw its habitat or prey/food around it in the background of their stamp creation.
For a younger crowd you can can fogoe the stamps and have them use their fingers. Explain to
kids that insects have three body segments which equals 3 finger prints. Millipedes have many
segments so all those segments equals many fingerprints in a line. After putting their finger
marks on the paper they can draw on legs and wings and other “accessories”.
Arthropod Interactions
Bug Ambassadors: Millipede Highway Challenge
Materials:
● Millipedes (Live)
● Millipede Teaching Guide
Lesson Steps:
Millipedes are a great one to hold before decomposer tag. This activity of holding the millipedes
can be either a stand alone activity or can be done before the decomposer tag game. Their
challenge is to create a “millipede highway with their hands for the millipede to walk along.
1) Explain a few fun facts about millipedes while you introduce them to the millipede
Birthday Party Games Lesson Plans
2) Go over basic ground rules for holding the millipedes
a. Don’t drop or throw them
3) Highway Construction : Have the kids line up or sit in a circle, whatever shape they want
as long as their hands can connect to form a millipede highway.
Fun Facts About Millipedes
There will be more details in the Teaching Guide but some of the highlights to share include:
• Millipedes have 2 pairs of legs (4 legs total) for each body segment.
• When millipedes molt, they gain a new segment and another 4 pairs of legs. They often
will eat their old exoskeletons to regain and reuse some of the nutrients found in there.
Tips for Holding the Millipedes
• They will be tickly, one good thing to say is: if you get scared…
Other Great Bug Ambassadors
There are many great Bug Ambassadors for Birthday Parties. Some others include:
- Walking Sticks
- Blue Death Feigning Beetles
- Cockroaches
- Australian Walking Sticks