The Flowerfest a Simple Economical and Fun Summer Party for Kids
It's summer. You are out in the back yard. The bees are buzzing. The sprinklers are on. It's hot and it's a perfect time to throw a party. With a group of excited children, the start of summer vacation, or a birthday, provide excellent reasons to celebrate. Here's an idea: organize a Flower-fest!
The great thing about this party is that it is, not only cheap and fun, but it also serves as an impromptu science lesson. Everyone knows that plants need a safe place to grow, soil and nutrients, water, light and pollination from insects. Here are some suggestions for party games using this as a theme.
1) Painted Pots: a safe and colorful place to grow
Purchase some inexpensive, small flowers and separate clay pots from your local garden center. Position the flowers along your driveway to welcome your guests. In a corner of your yard set up a table, covered with newspaper and invite each child to paint a clay pot using acrylic paints and old paint brushes. Leave the pots to dry in the sunshine. The great thing about hot, summer weather is that kids can come to the party in their swimwear, so there is less risk of clothes getting dirtied by stray paint.
2) Surprise Soil: a muddy treasure hunt
Empty the contents of a large bag of compost into two cardboard boxes. Hide pennies, nickels and quarters in the dirt, approximately ten for each child. Provide plastic cups and tell the children to go digging for their treasure. When they have found their coins they can calculate (math anyone?) how much money they have won.
3) Whacky Water: the sponge and funnel relay race
Line up a number of empty, plastic bottles on one side of the yard. Put a plastic funnel in the neck of each bottle. About 12 feet away fill some large buckets with water and throw in some sponges. The children fill their sponges with water, run towards their assigned bottle and squeeze the water into the funnel. The first child to fill their bottle with water wins. An ideal prize for this game could be a small soap or new face sponge. Warning! Wet grass and cement can get slippery!
4) Blooming bingo: let there be light!
dltk-cards.com is an excellent children's website for downloading free, printable bingo cards. Choose the theme “flowers”, follow the instructions, print off the bingo cards and call out sheets and let the game commence. This game also provides the opportunity to teach children the names of more common flowers such as the iris, daffodil, tulip, dandelion, rose, carnation and sunflower. The prize? Why not give a battery-powered torch, garden candle, or other simple light source.
5) Pollination Pinatas
Prepare a few days in advance two simple pinatas by covering two balloons with papier-mâché (newspaper and diluted PVC glue) applied in layers and left to dry. Paint one balloon to look like a bee (add paper wings) and the other to look like a flower (add paper petals). Fill the pinatas with candy and hang them from a clothes line, so that it looks as if the bee is flying towards the flower. Blindfold one child at and time and let them bash the pinatas until the candy cascades to the ground.
6) Food: a floral feast
Cupcakes with candy flowers on top, sandwiches and cookies cut out using flower-shaped cutters, wiggly worm candy, potato chips that look like petals, sticks of carrots and celery, fruit skewers stuck in an orange to look like a hedgehog; with a little imagination the garden theme for food ideas is endless.
7) Outdoor Olympics
Towards the end of the party leave out hula hoops, skipping ropes, skittles, badminton rackets and balls, so there is plenty of time to enjoy some healthy outdoor games in the sunshine.
8) Pretty party favors
Before each child goes home, plant the flowers you lined up in the driveway in the painted clay pots, using the compost from the treasure hunt and water from the relay race. Sprinkle the coins around the base of the plant. This way every child has a pretty floral memento of a happy day spent together.
On a budget? You do the math: simple flowers, clay pots, a sponge or soap, a torch or candle, assorted candy, a handful of coins, a large bag of compost, basic food and drinks. Surely that has to be one of the most economical children's parties ever?
And they learned something too.
