Just Dance Party

My son wanted a Dance party for his 11^th birthday. The problem was coming up with a party that was fun, yet not too grown-up. I wanted it to be cool, but not like a high school dance party. We made sure to have games because the kids were still in elementary school. I invited 50 kids, and we had 25 that came to the party.

INVITATIONS: I wanted the invitations to be like VIP passes so I ordered lanyards and badge holders from ebay.  I created the invitations on scrapbook max, printed them at Walmart as 4 x 6 prints, them cut then in half and slipped them into the badge holders. My son handed them out at school. The kids loved them.

DECORATIONS: There were several things my son asked for: a disco ball, black lights, and a piñata. I chose to create a red carpet to make it look like a VIP Dance club and velvet ropes.

Lighting: We already own several black lights and my mom has several mini strobes that she uses in her class. We hung these up. We found the mirror ball on clearance at Taipan Trading after Christmas.  

 

 

Red Carpet: We used red gossamer and duct taped it to the ground. I have ordered the Red carpet kits before online and that is basically what it is, but the gossamer, doubled over worked better. Red Ropes: My mom sewed red velvet into tubes, and then we stuffed them with cotton batting. We made tassels from gold embroidery yarn and I hooked them to our microphone stands.

 

 

 

 

Strobe Area: My mom created this wall that she puts up every year for her classroom party-so it was already pre-done and perfect for this party.

 

 

 It is simply black plastic stapled to a long 2” wide board on one end. She took crumpled tinfoil and cut into stone shapes and spray-glued them onto the black plastic. It makes a great wall, but also an amazing effect when the strobe lights reflect off the tinfoil. She carefully takes it down and rolls it onto the board to save it and use it year after year.

Black Light Area: My mom uses these circles in her science class. She printed them onto neon paper and we just put them on the wall. They look so cool under the black lights.

 

 Piñata: I usually buy the piñata, but with 5^th grade boys, I wanted to make sure it would withstand them. We took a punch ball balloon (3 for $1 at the $store) and blew it up to the size we wanted. I covered it with a flour/water paste and newspaper strips, and tied yarn around it to make a way to hook it up.

 I did 5 or six layers. Then we spray painted it silver. We cut a hole and added the candy.  We then cut squares of tinfoil and spray glued them onto the piñata.

 Hard Rock Dance Club Sign: My mom free-handed the sign and painted it. I punched holes and added chasing Christmas lights around it.

Balloon Drop: We took a light blue piece of gossamer and tied it up to the celling to make a large bag. We filled it with 200 neon balloons. We took a string from the center and ran it to the DJ table, to release at the end of the party.

ARRIVE: When the kids showed up they got to walk the red carpet and enter. They had to bring their lanyard VIP Passes to get in. My brother, a large man, wore a black t-shirt and was the bouncer and had a clipboard with the kid’s name on it and checked to make sure that they were on the VIP list. I had printed the Hard Rock Dance Club and Birthday Event of the year onto iron-on paper and put them onto white T-shirts. I got 5 packs of Hanes T-shirts at Walmart.

 Once they got there they got to get to choose 2-3 colors of glow sticks.

 I cut them open and flipped them onto the kids shirts. The shirts glowed really cool under the black lights.

(Sorry it is sideways, but you can see what it looks like)

 

ACTIVITIES: The kids went into the dance club area, where there was the piñata disco ball, the strobe lights, disco ball, and black lights.  We had a DJ booth set-up my brother-in-law was the DJ for the party. We also had our Wii and Projector set-up and the kids play Just Dance on the Wii. We did the Limbo, Cupid Shuffle, Gangnam Style, and Macarena. They also did the conga line and got in a big circle and kids took turns doing dance moves in the center.

We took a break once the pizza was delivered and we also served cans of soda pop. After they ate they did more dancing. The DJ did lots of funs things and we gave inflatable guitars to the kids who did dance offs. Then we did the piñata. After the piñata, towards the end of the party we did the balloon release. It worked perfectly. The kids played with the balloons and then popped them all. Then they ate cake pops and opened presents. We then took all the kids to the red carpet and took group pictures (we were the paparazzi!) while we waited for the parents to arrive.

This was a crazy fun party. The only hiccup was when the pizza was 45 minutes late. The kids thought they were starving! But it was so much fun! Rock on!

Momma

Dora/Diego Party (second time)

This is my second time doing this party. I had to change some of the games and create a few news ones since I was doing this party inside since it was winter, but many of the things are the same as the 1st party. We did this party for my 4 year old son and 3 year old niece. We held it in our performing groups practice rooms. We had about 20 children at this party.

 EARLY PREPARATION: We downloaded Dora and Diego music beforehand to play through-out the party. My husband downloaded it to his iphone and hooked it up to speakers. I bought white backpacks from Oriental Trading Company and dyed them with rit dye, purple and orange, for Back Pack and Rescue Pack. I printed their faces of Back Pack and Rescue Pack onto Iron transfer paper (Ebay 10 sheets for about $7) and ironed them onto the backpacks. We handed these out at the beginning of the party and used them to collect their prizes and goodies. I also made video watches for the boys. My dad cut little square pieces of wood, I spray painted them black, and the mod-podged an animal onto the front. I hot glued them onto yellow ribbon and then added Velcro so they would stay on.

 

 

 For the girls we made bracelets like Dora’s. We used yellow pony beads and elastic, and a pretty flower.

For the Map I printed the 6 places we were going and glued his face onto it. I rolled it up and it looked just like Map.

 

 

 I printed 1” round pictures of the characters and hooked them onto toothpicks for the cupcake picks. I ordered the cupcakes to save time.

 

INVITATIONS: I made backpack invitations for the girls and rescue pack invitations for the boys. I used a template that was found online typed the party information onto that template and printed them onto purple or orange paper. This invitation involved a lot of cutting, as I cut out the mouths, eyebrows, and backpacks. I hot glued googly eyes on them.
 

 

 

ARRIVE: Dora and Diego theme songs are playing. I printed the template for the  star pocket from the Nick Jr. website.

 

 

We had markers and stickers for the kids to decorate their stars.

 ADVENTURE BEGINS: Music plays baby tiger cry for help. We had pre-recorded a tiger cry and we told the kids that an animal is in trouble. I said, “Oh no that sounds like an animal is in trouble. We need to find out who it is.” I asked the kids, "Who can help us find out which animal is in trouble??" They respond, "Click the camera"(the kids say) We play the Click the Camera Song. I pulled out a Click the camera I had printed. On one side it was zoomed in to show just the fur of an animal.
 

 I said “we need to Zoom out to see which animal needs our help.” The kids yelled "ZOOM ZOOOM!" and I turned it over and it clearly showed the picture of baby Tiger.

"Now we know what animal we are going to rescue, but we need to get ready for our adventure. (We hand out back-packs and rescue packs, video watches for the boys, and Dora bracelets or the girls.There were mini flashlights, telescopes in their backpacks) Play rescue pack and backpack songs while we get ready.) Tiger cries again. ‘Oh no we need to hurry baby tiger is so scared. Oh wait a minute we don’t know how to get there." I say, "Who do we ask for help when we don't know where to go??" and the kids say, "The map!" (I play the map song I then pull out a map that I created that show the way to go, 6 places, and we go over it.

LOLLIPOP FIELD:

The 1st place we have to go is Lollipop Field. We walk around, and the kids follow me. I say “I see something, but what do we need to help a see far away?" and the kids say, "A telescope" They all pull out their telescope, which was in their backpack, and we look over the fence. There is the Lollipop Field (I have the Lollipop, Lollipop song playing.) For this area I bought a 100 pack of bamboo sticks at Walmart for $1. I took straws and pushed them onto the sticks about half way and taped them on. I then spray painted them green. I printed some leaves, cut them out, and stapled them on. We had large Styrofoam blocks that we covered in green butcher paper. We then stuck them into the green covered styrofoam and then put small dum dum suckers into each straw top. I painted the stick of one sucker blue. I had my niece and nephew dress-up as the bobo brothers and dance around the lollipops and pretend to mess with them. When the kids saw them through the telescope, I cried "It is the Bobo brothers we need to stop them?" and all the kids yell, "Freeze Bobo Brother Freeze!" The Bobo brothers looks up and say, "oh, sorry" and run off. We are now at Lollipop Fields and I explain to the kids that we need to find the lollipop with the blue stick because that is baby tiger's favorite and that will make him feel better once we find him
 

 

GRUMPY TROLL BRIDGE:

After the kids find the blue stick. I pull out the map and say, "The next place we need to go is the Grumpy Old Troll Bridge. We created the bridge using 2 benches pushed together and we used 2 x 4 rails to make it safe.

As the kids approached the bridge, I started playing the grumpy old troll song and my sister (who had been hiding) jumped out, dressed as a troll, and pretended to sing while dance around to the song. After the song she read them the riddle that they must answer in order to cross his bridge. The riddle was super easy because they were 3 and 4 years old. The riddle was: What is a yellow treat that monkeys like to eat? After they answer the riddle then the adults help the kids cross the "bridge." When they get to the other side, I pull-out the map again and say, "We have been to lollipop fields, we have crossed the troll-bridge, now where to we need to go???"

CATCHING STARS: "We have to go to the Bear Cave" But along the way we see the stars hanging from the clothesline. I say, "We need to stop and catch stars along the way." I had printed stars from the Nick Jr.com onto bright colored paper, cut them out, put googly eyes onto them, and attached them to curling ribbon with a paperclip and tied them to the ceiling.

 

I played the music for catching stars and the kids reached up a grabbed the stars. They came right off and they put them in their star pocket, they had made at the beginning. Catching stars song

BEAR CAVE: We then saw the bear cave. To create the bear cave we took 2 fridge boxes (got them from Sears) and duct taped them together. We covered it with black plastic sheeting. We made it so it was dark, but so they could walk-bent over through the cave, in one end and out the other.

 

 I peek into the cave and say, "Oh, it is dark in there! What can we use to help us see in the dark??? The flashlights, Right!" They all pull out their flashlights and peek into the cave. We had a large stuffed bear laying inside. I said, "There is sleeping bear. We need to go past the sleeping bear without waking her up. Sleeping bear likes the song twinkle, twinkle little star, so is she starts waking up, then we need to sing her back to sleep." As the kids walk through, my husband reached in and started moving the bear, as if she was waking up, The kids start to sing and the bear goes back to sleep. (Some kids were too scared to walk through and walked around it instead. After the bear cave, we pull out the map and say "now where do we need to go?" "To the Silly Snake pit"

SILLY SNAKE PIT: As we come upon the snake pit, we see there are no snakes in the pit. Silly snakes are our friends. Just then the kids spot Swiper the fox, trying to swipe all the snakes. We try to stop him, but we are too late. (Swiper the fox plays) We say ‘Swiper, no swipey,” My oldest son was dressed as Swiper, and said, “You are too late. Swiper throws all the snakes over a wall into the other room where we had lots of green balloons blown up. The snakes fell and were hidden under all the balloons. The kids got to rescue a snake and take one home. (I got a dozen 14” snakes for $6 on Amazon.)

 

SINGING BRIDGE: I then ask the kids, "Where so we go next?" “The singing bridge" We had another bridge set-up.  We had music notes taped all over it. The Singing Bridge sings silly songs. Earlier my husband had recorded himself singing “Row Row Row your boat” wrong (life is but a bowl of spaghetti) and then another one of him singing it right. We played the wrong one first and I say “That's not right; we have to teach him the right words. Let's sing the song the right way. Everyone sings the song the right way and then crosses the bridge) “Ya! We made it passed the Singing Bridge!”

STAR PINATA: Once they are done, they pull-out there map and look to see where to go next. We need to go to the rain forest. Along the way we see the star pinata,  (bought at Walmart) where we realize the evil witch has trapped some of the stars. So we need to rescue them. I filled the pinata with treats and foam star stickers. The kids take turns hitting the pinata and get to put the treats into their backpacks or slings.

RAIN FORREST: We then make our way to the rain forest. I hung green streamers from the ceiling and had lots of ficus trees and greenery to create a jungle.

I brought all the jungle animals, snakes, monkeys, etc from my sons toys to create the look. I had hidden a large stuffed tiger in the trees and the kids had to look for baby tiger. They were so excited to find him! Once they found him, we played the song "We did it!" and all the kids danced around so happy!

PRESENTS and CAKE: Play Dora Happy Birthday SONG

 

This was was another fun party, easier since I had already done it, but a little different. I hope you can use some of these fun party ideas.

Momma