Princess Party!

Who lives in a castle like this? Princesses, of course! This cardboard feat of construction paper brick-laying was the centerpiece of my library's Princess Party. 

I had about 50 children and their parents attend this year and we had a great (if somewhat crowded) time. 

Here's what we did: 

Snacks

This was the only cost of the program. Hooray for a program where I already had everything I needed!!! I bought strawberries, pretzels, grapes, small cookies, and frosted cupcakes. Bonus of doing this right around Valentine's Day: super easy to find pink and white cupcakes.

Princess Paper Dolls

I printed out a paper doll and dresses template which the kids could color and cut out. I also put out cardstock and envelope templates to make a convenient (and pretty!) holder for the doll and her accessories. I really like this station, but it was the last one people went to, so I might have to rethink putting it up when I do this again.

Pom Pom Boas

I did these for my Fancy Nancy Party last year, and I was just crazy enough to do it again. I started making the pom poms in advance this time, so there wasn't a major time crunch at the end, but I still ended up with a living room covered in yarn fuzz for, like, a week (or 3 million years if you ask my husband). So.... still not for the faint of heart. But still so cute! But so time consuming! But so fun! (I am large, I contain multitudes....)

Beaded Jewelry

Super simple (no instructions needed!), very pretty, and always a hit. Stock up on pony beads and pretty colors of pipe cleaners and off you go. 

Pin the Kiss on the Frog

I made a very large frog using clipart and had little lips with tape on them. and a pink blindfold. Stickers for anyone who participated. 

Tiaras and Scepters
I printed out a crown template on cardstock and the participants decorated it, cut it out, and stapled it all together so they could wear it. I cut hearts, stars, and snowflakes out of glitter foam which we attached to straws to make scepters. We added curling ribbon to make them extra fancy.

I always hesitate with the tiara and scepter station because so many little girls come already dressed up with dresses and tiaras and scepters and I think "why would they want to make another one?" and yet it is always the first station they flock to and the busiest throughout. I should stop questioning myself with this one.

Dragons and Swords
I did have some young knights at the party so I put out a green table just for them. (It was a nice break from all the pink). They could make two things: a dragon paper bag puppet and a sword. One of my co-workers also works at a print shop and they are always receiving printer toner with this weird cardboard packaging. Turns out you can add a little tinfoil and it works great for swords!

And, of course, a book display to encourage more princesses-y reading!

I wish I had had time (and floor space) to make some princess reading nooks using a hula hoop and a pretty shower curtain, but my time went elsewhere and I never got to it. Also, I think I need to drop the paper dolls next time. It's time to let that one go.....

Another bonus: I gave away part of the castle to families who wanted to continue playing at home! And then got an amazing picture of the girls having a tea party in the tower in their playroom! All loveliness all around, which is pretty much what you should expect from a princess.

Fancy Nancy Party!

Bonjour! Welcome to our Fancy Nancy Party!

I had this program on a Saturday, advertised as a family program. I had about 40 girls, one boy, and their adults attend.

We started with snacks:

I found some plastic champagne flutes at the party store and filled them with apple juice. They looked awesome and added an extra special fanciness to the proceedings.

While the girls (and one boy!) were snacking, I read Fancy Nancy to them. We practiced saying "bonjour" and "merci" and "de rien". "S'il vous plait" was a little harder, but we all tried together and everyone made a good effort.

We then moved on to stations (with the option to get more snacks if you wanted).

Stations: 

1 - Elegant Tiaras 

I got the base and the strings for the tiaras from Michaels and then cut out a bunch of shapes from sticky-backed glittery foam. 

2 - Photobooth

This was my second attempt at a photobooth (I also did one for my Frozen sing-a-long) and it didn't work as well as I hoped. I see so many lovely posts about photo booths and yet for some reason my families just don't respond to it. I'm pretty proud of my swirled ribbon background, though. 

3 - Embellished Confections (that's fancy for decorated cookies!)

Plain sugar cookies, pink frosting, and sprinkles. Yum!

4 - Beautiful Bangles (that's fancy for bracelets!)

Lots of beads, lots of colored cord... this one never gets old. I've had people make entire sets of necklaces and bracelets. This is one of my favorite types of activities, especially when other projects are more complicated and take more time. This one is self-explanatory, self-directed, and requires focus and concentration which keeps kids from running amok. 

And it turns out a lovely product that depends very little on skills.

5 - Butterfly Wings

Nancy wears butterfly wings in the book, so we made our own, too.

 I had 12x12 pieces of cardstock onto which they traced the template for the wings. Some sparkly sequins and embellishments added glamour. Then we punched four holes in the wings, threaded the yarn through, and put the wings on. They were lovely.

 6 - Pom Pom Boas

I'm of two minds with this one. On the one hand, it was a LOT of work. I actually involved the circ staff in making the pompoms with me. Then I went home and made a million more myself. And I gave my assistant a whole bunch of yarn to make some as well. So it took four people a significant amount of time to create enough pom poms. But, on the other hand, holy cow, was this one popular. And they came out AWESOME.

What I'd change: I would start the pom poms earlier and get ready whip and not cool whip for the parfaits. Because: sadness (or at the very least total lack of cuteness): 

And I had such cute bowls and spoons, too!

Even though the photo booth wasn't anyone's favorite thing, it did add a nice decorative element. Maybe I'll do it again, but without the labor intensive background.

Why I'd do this again: I liked that the program worked for the princess crowd, but also for the slightly older girls. The average age at the Princess Party was about four and the average age here was about six. Also, the girls (and one boy!) had a blast and learned some French. Tres bien! A la prochaine!

Superhero Training: Elementary School Kids

I broke my superhero trainings into two groups: the preschoolers and the school-aged crowd. I wrote about my preschool one here. These are the modifications I made for the older group.

Craft Stations

Things I kept the same: 

Superhero capes

Superhero masks

Things I did differently:

1 - Superhero Names

I printed out several superhero name generators of the kind that match your initials to new fun superhero words and had the kids write their new super name on a nametag. Warning: some of these had words that weren't really appropriate for kids - Erotic, for example, or even Kick-ass. Rather than face the maelstrom over those words, I just substituted others. Worked out fine. Thank god for whiteout.

2 - Create a Sidekick

I wanted a craft that had side-kick in it, but I didn't want just a paper bag puppet (we had been doing those all week at our passive program craft station), so instead I found a template for moveable superheros and used those instead. You need brads and a whole punch, but they came out pretty cool.

3 - Shields

Out came my trusty Slick Stix for the superhero shields. I had ended up with lots of colored plates that failed to be masks for our Act Out! program (more on that soon) and we colored them and stapled a strip of paper to the back so they could hold the shield on their arm.

Training Course

The Laser Maze (longer and more complex this time)

Can you navigate the maze without getting caught in the tape?

The Tunnel (longer and made out of boxes so it was also a tighter fit)

Do you have the courage to crawl all the way through the tunnel?

Bowling for Villains

Knock down those Disney villains!

Might Muscles

Can you lift a bean bag over your head?

Animal Rescue (longer path with more bends in it)

Walk the path and bring the animals to safety. Be careful not to touch the lava!

Leaping Over Buildings (I used bigger boxes so the buildings were higher)

Can you leap over each group of buildings in a single bound?

The Wall (I put it higher up to match the height of our kids for this program, but the build-it-back-up portion was still part of it)

Test of strength: knock down the wall. Test of Kindness: build it back up. 

Pin-the-on-the

A former co-worker of mine at another library and I always did station-based programs around specific themes and every other time, we included a game where you had to pin the nose on the gnome or the teeth on the vampire or the tail on the bunny or... you get the picture. (For the record, I ran across my very favorite one of all time - created by the inimitable Sarah here). So when we were planning we would always add "Oh, and a pin-the-on-the." And that's what I've called them ever since. 

Here's the one I bought at the party store for the superhero party:

All in all, a great party and the kids who came out really enjoyed it. One was flying around the room saying "I'm SUPER BOY!" and really, what more can you ask for. (No, not literally flying. But his cape was fluttering behind him, so it was a good imitation). 

Superhero Training for Preschoolers

The summer reading theme is superheroes? Of COURSE I have to do a superhero training course. It's practically mandatory (and super fun!).

I decided to split the groups into preschool (under 5s) and elementary (5 and up). I could probably have done them at the same time, but I wanted to make some division, especially because I had a training course in mind and what a 7 year old can do is vastly different from what a 3 year old can do and I didn't want anyone to be too challenged or too bored. 

Here's what I did with my littles (the preschoolers). 

Craft Stations

1 - Superhero Capes

I cut plastic tablecloths from our local party store into cape shapes (I got six capes out of each tablecloth) and printed out some emblems for the kids to color. These were then taped onto the capes, strings were added to tie the capes on the kids, and stickers were added (if they wanted them). Simple and oh so fun. Everyone is allowed to choose which stations to do and in what order to do them, but everybody chose to do this particular craft. 

2 - Masks

I bought bear and butterfly masks from Michaels (I really like the ties that come with them) and the kids decorated the masks with markers and stickers. I cut the sample mask (in the photo below) to have cat ears, hoping to encourage the kids to create different shapes (or cut the ears off entirely for the classic mask look).

 3 - Superhero Cuffs

This was a last minute addition when I panicked that maybe I didn't have enough activities (well documented case of "must have 43 things to do or else we all fail!!", see also the block party). The kids really liked it, though, and I ended up having to cut more cuffs because they were getting used so quickly.

I put out Slick Stix for the kids to color - I find they make the best decorating tools for cardboard.

4 - Coloring Sheets

Self-explanatory and surprisingly popular.

Superhero Training Course

The second part of the program was the training course. I spent a great deal of time trying to figure out which obstacles I could do with the materials that I already had and which obstacles I had done recently that might a) be boring or alternatively, b) be squished into the superhero theme.

These are the ones I ended up with:

1 - X-ray Vision

I put a different object into each wipes container and had the kids stick their hands in the top to guess what was inside. They could then open the container to see if they were right.

2 - Bowling for Villains

Someone donated a bowling set (yay!) so I printed out pictures of Disney villains, taped the suckers on the pins and had the kids knock them over with the bowling ball. Very satisfying.

3 - Mighty Muscles

Can you lift a bean bag over your head? Not as easy as it sounds. :-)

4 - Rescue the Animals

The kids walked along the tape line (without touching the lava!) to the stranded animals on the stool. They picked one and brought it with them the rest of the way to the purple land of safety. 

5 - Leaping Over Buildings

Can you leap over the buildings in a single bound? (Or four single bounds?) I wrapped cardboard bricks from our building set in black paper and then added small post-its for windows. 

6 - The Laser Maze

The kids navigated the maze without getting stuck in the tape. Note: have them take their capes off before they go through. The tape not only caught on the capes, but it stretched them, too. 

7 - Test of Courage: the dark tunnel

Crawl through it. This was made with chairs and sheets and was lots of fun to crawl through. I make shorter, lighter, easier to escape tunnels for the littles, in case of panic moments. 

8 - The Wall

The kids knocked down the bricks - either punching or kicking. Some of them really got in to it and we had lots of flourishes as they punched (and sound effects!). My favorite part of this wall, though, was the set of instructions immediately following it on the course: The Test of Kindness - can you rebuild the wall?

I had about 40 preschoolers and their parents come to this activity and it turned out that I had the perfect number of things to do. 

Thinking ahead, I may modify this training course for next year's health and fitness theme.

 p.s. Radio silence on here due to my severely misunderestimating (yup, made that word up, it describes my feelings perfectly) how much of a drain Summer Reading was going to be. I've only been doing this for like ten years.... Excuse: I block the bad parts and remember the good. Hmm... maybe that's not entirely a bad thing. What have we learned? Scheduling posts is a good thing.