How to Host a Pokemon Party for Older Kids

I must admit that I groaned when Daniel said that he wanted a Pokemon-themed party for his birthday. I don’t know the first thing about Pokemon. I tune out when they talk about it and really don’t want to learn anything.

How was I going to plan a Pokemon party?

I turned to Pinterest, but found that most of the games and activities were geared at 5 year olds. The activities were too young for the 8-10 year olds that would be coming.

So, we combined a few of these ideas, and Daniel actually came up with his own activities and games.

Here’s how we ran our Pokemon party

Invitations

We made invitations to look like pokeballs out of black and red construction paper, that opened using a fastener.

Pokemon Trainers Search and Find

Before the guests arrived, I hid their Pokemon figures/stuffies around the yard.

We also picked other random Pokemon characters and made a Bingo sheet.

For the characters that I did not have something tangible for, I printed them off, glued them to construction paper, taped on a popsicle stick and stuck them in the ground.

Unfortunately, because it was raining a bit, some had to be hidden in plastic bags!

The kids got a partner and went around the yard looking for the Pokemon to check off their sheet. We do not have winners in the games, but you could have a prize for the first team to find all the Pokemon.

Pokeball Toss – Pokemon Puzzle

To create Pokeballs, we bought Styrofoam balls at the dollar store. We painted the top half red, and the bottom half black. We used a binder reinforcement sticker on the front for the white circle.
We made enough so each child could have about 3 each.

On a bucket, we taped pictures of Drifloon, the floating Pokemon. We hung the bucket from a tree so that it could freely swing.

The kids were given Pokeballs and were told to try to toss the balls into the swinging bucket. When they got three balls in, they received a puzzle piece (more later).

Keep going until all the puzzle pieces are given out.

Pokemon Puzzle

I created 3 different Pokemon characters of my own.

I glued each one to a different colour of construction paper and then cut them into puzzle pieces.

Once all the puzzle pieces were given out in the Pokeball toss game, the kids sorted the pieces by colour. They divided into three groups and began to create their own Pokemon card.

On a piece of chart paper, I drew the outline of a Pokemon card.

The kids put the puzzle together, glued it on the paper and then wrote in the details.

This ended up being one of the kids’ favourite activities! They did a great job creating the Pokemon cards!

NOTE: next time, don’t cut the puzzles into so many pieces, and use a lot more colour in the drawings. It ended up being tricky to put together!

Escape from Team Rockets Hideout (watch out for the bad guys with water guns)

You assign people to be the bad guys: Jesse, James and Meoth. They wear a sign around their necks.

Make three masks – one of each stage of Pokemon. We used
Basic: Tepig
Stage I: Pignite
Stage II: Emboar.

I printed off a picture of their faces and glued them to a paperplate, cutting out eye holes. Then, we attached strings to them to make them into masks.

One person starts by wearing the basic mask. The people dressed as the bad guys are holding water guns and are hiding around the yard.

The group of kids has to get around the yard while protecting the kid who is wearing the mask. If the kids in the mask gets shot with the watergun, he gives the mask to someone else in the group.

Once you make it all around the house, change the mask to the next Pokemon stage. Keep going until every child gets a turn.

Pinata

I couldn’t find a Pokemon piñata, so I made one the old-fashioned way. I used a balloon as my base and used a mixture of flour and water to paste on newspaper. I finished it off by painting it to look like a Pokeball.