Last year when my daughter was in 3rd grade, the entire class played a gift wrapping game at the end of the party. The class was divided into teams of 5. Each team was given a white shirt sized gift box that was stuffed with newspaper and taped together, a piece of wrapping paper big enough to wrap the box, and a dispenser of scotch tape. To play the game, each student had to keep one arm behind their back. Then when they were told to start, each team worked together to wrap their package. Prizes were given to 2 teams. The first team that had their package wrapped with no white showing through won a prize and the team that wrapped their package the neatest won a prize. (I just gave them each a lollipop.) I had the teacher be the judge.
The kids had a lot of fun with it. And it was fun watching them work out how to do it. I just gave them the box, wrapping paper, and scotch tape and told them what their goal was. I gave them a minute to think about it and then told them when to start. They had to figure out how to work together to get the pieces of tape out, have one hold the box while another folds the paper over, etc. Then depending on how they were doing, they had to decide if they wanted to hurry and try to be first done or take their time and do the nicest job.
