Birthdays and animals usually go well together. In this simple game you replace some of the Happy Birthday lyrics with animal sounds! Perfect for the youngest party people!
Singing is great for so many things. Other than being plain fun it also helps with the development of rhythmic abilities and making it easier for kids to learn about their voices and sounds in general. It´s also a perfect activity to combine with some dancing.
You need
No prop needed for this game. However if you have a guitar and know how to play Happy Birthday on it, it surely ads to the fun of the game! (See below for the chords!)
Happy (C) Birthday to (G7) you
Happy (G7) Birthday to (C) you
Happy (C) Birthday dear (F) (birthday child)
Happy (C) Birthday (G7) to (C) you.
Preparations
Start by dividing the children into groups and assign each group an animal. One group can be cats, one can be bears, one can be dogs etc. If there aren’t that many kids participating you can also simply give each person an animal.
How to play Birthday Animals
- Now sing the first two lines of the Happy Birthday-song together. By the third line an adult sings (for example) “Happy Birthday dear dogs“.
- It´s then up to all the children assigned dog as their animal to woof and growl their way through the last line of the song.
- Now repeat the whole song again for the rest of the animal-groups to sing the last line with the voice and sounds their respective animal.
- A fun ending to the game is to finish of with singing “Happy Birthday dear animals” and have all groups do their animal sounds at the same time!
Game options
If the children playing are very young it´s sometimes easier to have them sing the song as their assigned animal in order. Start for example with the group (or child) to the far left, sing the song and then move over to the next ground (or child). Repeat this process, in order, until everyone has had a change to sing as their very own animal.
Do you know of any great games for toddlers and young party people? Don´t be shy! Let us know in the comments below (or in an e-mail)!