Having now somewhat recovered from Emily's seventh birthday party, I thought I'd share a couple of more popular games and activities, used by a group of children between ages of 4 and 10.
As a unilingual home schooling American in Europe, I've got a fairly singular set of conditions to work under when creating activities. This bingo game was a hit with lots of repeat requests.
one translator for any other linguistically-challenged expatriatesMethod:
Hand out papers, markers and bingo chips. I had kids spread out all over floor.
Instruct children to make a 9 square grid; two horizontal lines and two bisecting vertical lines (you can show your sample bingo card or demonstrate on a child's blackboard).
I actually used phrases "nine square grid", "horizontal lines" and "bisecting vertical": it exposes children to mathematical terms in a friendly environment and, because sounds very impressive, there's a true sense of accomplishment when kids complete task.
Using your list of (let's say) animals, tell children to draw - in any square they wish - picture of EITHER an elephant OR a lion. Stress that card they are creating should be unique to make game more fun.
If you are working on a second language, or just happen to be living in a foreign non-English-speaking country, repeat animal name in applicable language.
Once first box is completed and using second pair of objects on your list, tell kids to draw - in any square - a picture of EITHER a snake or a monkey.
This particular party having a jungle theme, it helped younger children for me to point out relevant wall decorations (very simple animal cut-outs I had made night before).
When all cards are completed, explain that aim of game is to shout BINGO! whenever a child gets three markers in a row - in any direction. Here terms horizontal, vertical and diagonal can be used and understood without explanation as you draw lines on board.
NOTE: when you start game, remember to call out words in both languages. After a couple of rounds, you can make it more interesting by calling them out in target language only - kids will automatically translate out loud thereby helping ones not sure of translation.
We played until cards were full, so that everyone got to shout BINGO! several times - there were no prizes given out, just lots of "wow!"s and "again?!s" and "that's incredible!"s from an appreciative bingo caller.