Hunger Games Party

In the Hunger Games, the Opening Ceremony was an elaborate celebration to introduce the Tributes to the people of the Capitol.  Many times the Tributes were dressed in an outfit that represented their District and that is what we did at my daughter's party.  We went on a little scavenger hunt around the house to find items for each District.  Not only was this a lot of fun, it was very budget-friendly.

In the Hunger Games, Panem has 12 districts.  Since there were 10 guests at the party, we did not include two of the Districts.  Below is a list of what each Tribute was given for their District to wear/carry during the Opening Ceremony.   Hopefully, this will give you some ideas for your Hunger Games party.

• District 1 ~ Luxury:  Movie star hat, fancy necklace and shiny bracelets
• District 2 ~ Masonry:  Pretend play construction hat and jacket
• District 3 ~ Technology:  Cell phone, video game controller and calculator
• District 4 ~ Fishing:  Fishing pole and tackle box
• District 6 ~ Transportation:  Playhut bus to "drive" during the Ceremony
• District 7 ~ Lumber:  Pretend play construction hat and ax
• District 9 ~ Grain:  Uncooked spaghetti and a sandwich roll
• District 10 ~ Livestock:  Foam pig mask
• District 11 ~ Agriculture:  Straw scarecrow hat
• District 12 ~ Mining:  Flames fabric to wear as a cape to coordinate with the Fire theme in the book

The kids were given their outfits one at a time in a separate room.  They had a lot of fun finding out what they were going to wear and seeing what everyone else was wearing.    During the ceremony the tributes walked in as their District was announced.  Then, they gathered around as President Snow made a small speech welcoming everyone to the games. 

The tribute training consisted of four stations.   There was a Gamemaker at each station.  The stations included:

• Archery:  We used the Archery Set you see pictured here
• Running/Speed:  Each tribute was timed as they ran around the house
• Spear Throwing:  We used safety arrows for the tributes to throw like spears for distance
• Slingshot:  We used a foam sling shot and a pyramid of cups for the tributes to test their accuracy

The tributes took turns at each station for practice and then the next time their scores were calculated.  For each station you could achieve a score of 1, 2 or 3.  With four stations, the highest score one could attain is 12 which coordinated with the highest score achievable in the Hunger Games book.

The tributes training scores were officially announced.   Caesar and Effie stood up on the deck looking down at the tributes.  As their District was called, the tribute approached the deck and was given their score.  The final scores ranged from 7 to 10. 

We composed one question to ask each tribute during their interview.   The kids had so much fun with the interviews that they wanted more questions, so we asked the same questions more than once to different tributes.

The questions asked during the interviews included:

• Are you pleased with your training score?
• How does it feel to be in the games?
• What do you think of your competition?
• Do you have any strategies to survive?
• Do you think you have a good chance of winning?
• Where do you plan to find shelter?
• What weapon would be most useful to you?
• Do you plan on forming an alliance with other tributes?
• Will you resort to killing your fellow tributes?
• Do you have any special skills?

Once the interviews were done, we had a feast (dinner) and went over the rules of games. 

My number one concern for the games was safety.  We used safe weapons and had rules in place to keep anyone from getting hurt.  

Each tribute received a nylon backpack which included bottled water, sunglasses ("night vision glasses"), crackers, grapes, a foam knife, tissues and Band-Aids.  

*I purchased the nylon bags, sunglasses and foam knives at the Dollar Store which was a great money saver.  The knife handles were wrapped with flames duct tape to coordinate with the party theme.  If you can't find the foam knives, these foam daggers would also work.

Other weapons used during the games were sling shots with foam balls and arrows with suction cups on the ends to be used as spears.  Everyone got a knife, but there were only 3 sling shots and two "spears".  Two of the sling shots were put in District 1 and 2's backpacks since in the book these districts had the most weapons.   The remaining weapons were randomly placed in other backpacks.

Game Rules:

• You must stay within the boundaries set for the game
• No physical fighting, pushing or hitting, no throwing of any weapons
• Gamemakers have the final say in any/all disputes

How To Play:

• Each tribute had 3 lives
• A person loses a life when they are a.) touched with a knife, b.) touched with the spear or c.) hit with the foam ball from a sling shot.  A person also loses a life if they break any of the game rules listed above.
• When a person loses their last life and is out of the game, the person that "killed" them is allowed to take any of their remaining weapons.
• Once a person is "killed" and leaves the game, a pot is banged to represent the cannons being shot.

My 7 year old son got into the action as a Tracker Jacker.  He wore bumblebee antennas and wings and had a bumblebee water gun.  He was given instructions to annoy the tributes during the game and they couldn't do anything to stop him.  So, he ran around buzzing at everyone and squirting water at them!

For our Hunger Games, the kids ended up forming alliances and broke out into three groups.   After playing for awhile we were down to two groups.  The Gamemakers then forced a showdown by limiting the space to fight.  At the end, one group was left and they turned against each other until there were two tributes left; my daughter and one other.   The other was a boy, so we quickly got some "nightlock berries", reenacted the ending of the book and announced them both the winners. :)

This is the board we created to keep track of how many lives each tribute lost and how many they had remaining.   Since the game arena included both the front yard and the backyard, the Gamemakers carried walkie talkies to report back when a tribute lost a life. 

On a large poster board, we wrote in each tributes name and district.  They each started the games with 3 hearts or lives.  The hearts were attached to the board with tape.   Each time a tribute lost a life, a heart was removed from next to their name. 

Once all of their hearts were removed, they were out of the game.