Tag: valentine

Looking for ideas for your Valentines Day class party games?  We played the BEST game at my daughter’s 2nd grade Valentines Day Party, and I just have to share it.  It’s simple, easy to prep, inexpensive, easy to clean up and lots of fun for both girls and boys.

It’s called Cupid’s Arrow and here’s what you need:


Q-tips and straws.  I went to my local dollar store and found q-tips in different colors.  Score!  We used two boxes, or 800 q-tips for our class (I took twice that many with me, you never know how fast they will shoot their q-tips!).  You also need straws, but I found that all the straws for sale at local stores, including the adorable paper straws we all love, were too narrow to fit q-tips inside them.  I ended up going to a local fast food chain and buying some milkshake straws for a quarter.

You also need a large bowl and a large blanket or tablecloth that you don’t mind having kids walk on,  because they will.  Oh, and I recommend a trash bag as well.  I’ve learned that taking an extra trash bag to any class party is always helpful, just like bringing your own dish towels to any church kitchen.


To play the game, simply lay the blanket out on the floor and place the bowl on one end.  You may need to move desks to make room, or even use the hallway if needed.  Line the children up on the other end and give them all a straw and a fistful of q-tips.


When you say “go” they start putting q-tips into one end of the straw and blowing through the straw to “shoot” their arrow.  The goal is to get q-tips into the bowl.  We had two teams, represented by the two q-tip colors.  Stand back and let them shoot.  Seriously, you will end up with q-tips all over the place but they will have fun learning how to aim and get them in.  I found that the girls enjoyed this activity as much as the boys did.




The blanket on the floor is intended to help the kids stay back an equal distance from the bowl.  I found that their excitement caused them to get closer and closer.  I let them.  The point is to have fun, after all.  We didn’t end up counting which team won at the end anyway, because they just wanted to shoot the whole time.  At the end of each rotation we collected the q-tips from around the floor and dumped them in the bowl, which I dumped in the trash.


Sometimes planning activities for classroom parties feels intimidating or overwhelming.  Playing Cupid’s Arrow reminded me that Valentines Day party games can a lot of fun without being expensive or over-planned.

Before they went to the next station, we also did a quick Jello Slurping contest.  They kept their straws, sat on my blanket (to protect the classroom carpet), got a cup of jello and waited for “go”.  It was fun to watch them.


My daughter and her cute friend…they make me smile.


Cupid’s Arrow was a really fun Valentines Day party game!  I wanted to play it later as a family but the night was just too crazy.  Instead, we’re going to have a q-tip war sometime soon.  I can just picture it:  ten people blowing hundreds of q-tips around my family room.  It’s going to be great!

Hopeful Homemaker