Imagination Station - Birthday Party

This month's "Imagination Station" program happened to fall on the day before my birthday, and since my birthday-themed storytime last year was such a hit, I thought a birthday party theme would also work really well for an Imagination Station program, and be a lot of fun.

Program: Imagination Station - Birthday Party

Ages: 2-6 

Number: Up to 20 children and their caregivers

Budget: Around $20 for decorations and purchased literacy activity set; everything else we already had

Skills & Concepts: Imagination, creativity, expressive language, socio-emotional, early literacy, math literacy, fine motor

Activities:

1. Read-Aloud
   
   
   
   I gathered everyone in the children's department for a brief introduction, read-aloud, and description of activities.
   
   I selected If It Were My Birthday Party from the Cat in the Hat beginner books series by Random House because it had a great rhythm to read aloud and touched on all the various aspects of a birthday party. All the kids who wanted to share got a chance to say something about their birthday or how old they were.
   
   Then I briefly described the activities I had set up and led everyone into the program room. 
   
   [print motivation, vocabulary, background knowledge, phonological awareness]
   
   
2. Dramatic Play
   
   
   
   
   As always, the program was centered around a dramatic play area. I set up our play kitchen, market stand, and a table with play dishes, two different birthday cake play sets, play cupcakes, pizza set, a toy camera, and nesting present set, along with enough party hats and a few decorations (I would have liked to add helium balloons, but didn't have the budget for that, unfortunately).
   
   [Imagination, creativity, expressive language, socio-emotional skills, cultural literacy]
   
   
3. Pin-the-Tail-On-the-Donkey
   
   
   
   
   What's a birthday party without a classic party game? Though it's pretty self-explanatory, I put the donkey poster on the wall, with several tails with tape on the back, and a scarf to use for a blindfold. Traditionally, the player is blindfold and spun around 3 times, then they attempt to put the tail on the donkey's rump.
   
   [motor skills, proprioception]
   
   
4. Felt Board
   
   
   
   
   I put the birthday cake and balloon felt sets I had made last year on the flannel board, along with the accompanying rhymes.
   
   [fine motor skills, phonological awareness, counting down, rhyme, color identification]
   
   *The remaining language and math literacy activities were selected from a set I purchased from Jackie Kops of 'Pocket of Preschool' on Teachers Pay Teachers to save time due to the end of summer crunch. 
   
   
5. Birthday Words
   
   
   
   
   I used a selection of birthday words from the purchased activity set I had printed, laminated, and attached magnets on the back, along with our set of magnetic letters (both upper- and lower-case) with a written prompt on the magnetic dry erase board.
   
   [letter recognition, fine motor skills, phonics]
   
   
6. Tracing Center
   
   
   
   
   I put out two activities, an alphabet tracing sheet and a balloon coloring/tracing/cutting sheet with crayons for coloring and tracing and scissors for cutting along the lines.
   
   [fine motor skills, letter recognition, writing, scissor skills]
   
   
7. Dot-Painting
   
   
   
   
   Roll the die, count the number of dots, then color in the appropriate number on the birthday cake sheet. I also provided a regular dot-painting cupcake printable since kids really love using the dot painters.
   
   [fine motor, counting, number recognition]
   
   
8. Coloring
   
   
   
   
   One sheet from the purchased set featured birthday candles arranged in a pattern, prompting the child to finish the color pattern, then I added some regular birthday-themed coloring sheets as well as blank paper. I provided regular, jumbo, and egg-shaped crayons (all washable).
   
   [fine motor, color identification, pattern recognition, pre-math & science]
   
   
9. Book Display
   
   
   
   
   I put several birthday-themed picture books on display for reading together during the program or checking out.

How It Went

I had initially envisioned having a lot of fun planning activities for this program, but since it fell at the end of summer reading and I had been slammed with outreach visits, delivering prizes, and compiling statistics, I ended up having very little time to plan and prep this program, so I purchased a birthday-themed literacy and math activity set online. I felt a little guilty for taking the easy way out and not doing more creative activities I developed myself, but I shouldn't have as everyone seemed to have a great time, and I got a lot of positive feedback from caregivers. Also, I was excited that several of the books I displayed actually got checked out for once!

The dramatic play area and dot-painting were definitely the most popular activities, and probably the only two that pretty much everyone did. Several did the Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey game, and tolerated both the blindfold and being spun around just fine; the kids thought it was fun, and the caregivers appreciated the nostalgia. I don't think anyone did the letter tracing or pattern sheets, but some did take them home to do later, but a few did do the scissor-skill sheets. 

What I Would Do Differently
If I were to do this again and had more time to plan and prep, I would like to incorporate more party-game based activities, somehow with a literacy, math, and/or science twist added, and have a pinata. It would also be fun to have wrapped giveaway books so everyone could have a present to open, and if I had the budget I'd do more decorations. But this experience was also a good reminder that I don't have to re-invent the wheel every time, and that it is perfectly okay to take advantage of shared/purchased resources! I always remind myself that while I may feel guilty or disappointed I couldn't do something the way I had originally envisioned, the participants don't know what my original "grand vision" was and always seem happy with the end result.