8Th Birthday Party

hello! My friend Joel works for NYC parks and recreation as an environmentalist and for fun, he does kids parties. He brings all kinds of bugs and small animals and teaches kids about them. They are also allowed to touch them. His email address is ____@____.com a great party!!

Hi R.,

Here are a few ideas.

You can make a bird feeder by covering a pine cone with peanut butter and dipping in bird seed.

Make a chia pet. Here's how my kids did it. Cover a pint size milk carton with construction paper and draw a funny face, fill with potting soil and plant some grass seed, within a week their "pet" will grow hair.

Have the gils collect a few leaves and make leaf rubbings, give them a small frame to put their drawing in.

Play charades - act out different animals.

Paint a bird house.

Make a butter fly from coffee filters. Cut the coffee filter in the shape of a butterfly and use a black marker (not a sharpie) to draw a thick line down the center, dip in water and the colors will run.

Have fun!

Have them make their own dessert.You can go to the dollar store and buy beach pails. Clean them out and put chocolate pudding in them. Then they can put in crushed oreo cookies, graham crackers and gummy worms. They can decorate their buckets as well.

I like the scavenger hunt idea - which fits well with your theme. I have done this many times with different ages. One way that works well is to have a list in each ziploc bag and the items found must fit in the bag. The first to finish can choose a prize from a prize bucket - cute dollar store items (not wrapped) and then next to finish chooses next so that everyone gets a prize when they complete the hunt. Here is the list I made most recently...

Find 10 or more of the following items to win a prize:
something red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, other
items made of paper, plastic, metal, stone, other

If you have scoped out your area ahead of time you can list specifics like pinecone, feather, 4 leaf clover, flower, leaf, pebble, etc.

And when everyone has a bag full of "stuff" you can pull out the glue and cardboard and have the girls make a creation out of their items - a collage or a creature. But don't tell them this ahead of time... you'll get some great items to work with. At the very least you can take some pictures of their creations to send in thank you cards if the glue doesn't hold well! You could even have them make silent votes for the most creative - or have the lingering adults judge - to win a creativity prize.

Have fun!

How about nature drawings. My Mom is an art teacher and every year does them wth the kids and they LOVE it. The kids collect different natural elements from the park (leaves, flowers, grass, etc) and then they make drawings with them. It is fun to have the kids try to find lots of different colors to use! A.

Oriental trading has inexpensive age appropriate crafts for children of all ages. If you want to make up goody bags they also have tons of items as well. Also any dollar store has great arts and crafts products to help fill up goody bags. Sounds like a great party. As far as games you can do an egg on a spoon where they have to balance the egg on the spoon and pass it off to their team mate. You can do relay races, bring a tie and tie the leg together of each girl and have them race another team while tied together. Take old pillow cases and have potato sack races. Have fun!!!

Is there a Michael's by you? It's the craft store. Once you walk in, your creative juices will start to flow. There are so many choices. I just had a birthday party for my 8 year old daughter. We stuffed bears (which were ordered), but for arts & crafts I bought $1 wooden frames for the kids to decorate. I took a picture of my daughter with each of her friends and placed them into the frames while they watched a movie. I stuck it in their party bags. I had no idea what I was going to do before walking into Michaels. Any craft store will give you ideas. Good luck, and happy birthday to your little girl.

We had a Garden Party a couple years back and I had all the kids plant marigolds in little clay pots that I'd painted their names on. I didn't have them paint the pots because I was worried they wouldn't be dry by the time to go home.

Hi. You can have the kids paint birdhouses, you can make bird feeders with peanut butter and bird seed. Another idea my kids did at a party was planting. The mom bought flats and pretty metal planters and potting soil. The kids got to put their own potting soil and plant their own flowers. You can buy some pretty flower sticks and have the kids paint them and stick them in the soil. Have fun!
J.

Hi R.,
Sounds like a great ourdoor party. If you are looking for crafts, I would suggest the Oriental Trading catalogue/website. They have tons of inexpensive crafts in many different themes. Good luck@

How about a nature scavenger hunt? Give them a list of things to find that are naturally found in the park. Divide them into teams (have adult chaperones with each group to make sure no one wanders off) and let them go. You can even get creative, hide things that they need to find and give them clues they have to figure out. Did this with my class of 5th graders using an author study and they adored it!