Ninja Parties are very popular right now! Whether it’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ninjago, Kung Fu Panda, or just a love of martial arts, the theme of “ninja” is a great choice for kids.
For my son’s sixth birthday he asked to have an obstacle course to incorporate all his favorite ninja skills. Here are details for the decorations I added and, most importantly, the activities! Throwing stars, ninja balloons, breaking boards, and even a scavenger hunt are all detailed below.
Set the Stage for Ninja Action!
I downloaded a font called “Shojumaru” to create a birthday banner. I cut the letters on the cricut and then attached the letters to crepe paper to hang on the wall. I’ve shared the cricut file for just “happy birthday” here.
To enhance the obstacle course area (to make my garage look a little nicer) I created more ninja-themed banners. I used a large roll of white paper and painted Japanese words on them. Each banner was about six feet long and were hung off the garage door rails with duct tape.
The words I used were:
- Ninja – 忍者
- Happiness – 幸せ
- Celebrate – 祝う
- Samurai – 武士
- Warrior – 戦士
Although I did mix a bit of Japanese and Chinese in the decorations, I tried to keep Japanese wording as that is where Ninjas originated.
The treat bags were simple takeout boxes. My son picked out a variety of ninja-themed items that went into the takeout boxes, including fortune cookies. The extra boxes made cute serving dishes for snacks too during the party.
Ninja Balloons
One game that has become very popular recently, thanks to Bluey, is “keepy uppy”. It is very easy to turn black balloons into ninjas! Just add a strip of red crepe paper with eye holes cut out.
The balloons made fun décor all by themselves! I added inflatable swords that kids could take home or increase the game difficulty by only using swords to hit the balloons.
Go on the Hunt for Ninjago Characters
My son specifically asked for a scavenger hunt at his party. He wanted to use the Lego Ninjago characters for this but I had trouble finding wall decals or stickers that showed the whole character. I did find temporary tattoos of the characters though.
I discovered you can transfer temporary tattoos to paper, cardstock, or vinyl really easily! Who knew? I used my cricut to cut removable vinyl into ovals and then transferred the tattoos to the vinyl, the same way you’d put a temporary tattoo on skin. I used a damp paper towel to wet the back of the tattoo and pressed evenly before removing the backing. It worked really well!
I hid ten characters around the party space and made a checklist for each guest. The checklist had the character names on them. You can download the pdf below to use.
Throwing Stars
Every ninja party needs some throwing stars, but I was generally nervous of kids throwing pointy stars around. I bought some foam throwing stars but they were so light, they wouldn’t knock anything over. So instead I made my own!
I used clear cd’s, like these, and created a star shape to add on top. This made me feel better about throwing “stars” and knocking over some villains. I used my cricut to cut out the star shape on vinyl, here is the file I used to make mine.
I added the throwing stars to the obstacle course at the start. It took a little longer for kids to take turns throwing and that spaced them out on the course.
Be a Ninja and Concur Obstacles
For younger kids, an obstacle course is a perfect party activity! It helps burn off energy and, for this party, incorporates a lot of ninja skills. My obstacle course included balance beams of lava, stepping through a ring of fire, climbing through lasers, and breaking boards.
We had multiple homemade balance beams that we’ve used for previous parties – Survivor Party and Pirate Party. I added red lights around the beams to be lava. We also had a smoke machine in this area but the smoke dissipated quickly with the wind.
I used crepe paper and a hula hoop to make a ring of fire. I found a nice set of crepe paper in a “fire” color scheme. Then cut strips in equal sizes (about 3 ft long) and looped them through the hoop. I alternated the colors around the hoop to fill it. Then we hung it from the ceiling in the garage.
The next obstacle on the course was climbing through lasers. The lasers were made with ropes crisscrossed over the garage opening. There were two sets for the kids to climb through before reaching the final obstacle.
The final part of the obstacle course was the board breaking. I chose to buy small mdf boards, but foam core board would work well too. I wanted the boards to look close to real wood, so the mdf worked well. The kids cycled through the course multiple times so they were able to try different techniques to break the boards – chop, punch, kick, and even elbow slams.
The most important part, for me, is that kids have fun! I do that best by making a fun environment, variety of activities, and plenty of snacks!
