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:
- Read-AloudI 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] - 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] - 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] - 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. - 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] - 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] - 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] - 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] - 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.
This looks like so much fun! And the nice thing about simple activities is that they can give families ideas they can replicate at home with their kiddos. :)
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