Saturday, September 15, 2012

Brynn's Birthday

We needed a different game.
Brynn can tell when we've done something before and therefore loves a challenge.
I like to think of her as my little ally in what the children will want to participate in.
So.......We did the basic games like
"Hickory Dickory Dock"
Then there were some cool coloring pages.
And there is always the parachute. That is synonymous with our birthday parties.
Learning to make "the mushroom" with the parachute lasted quite awhile.
but a word of caution...
There is a chance of heads banging together if you have a smaller parachute.
We avoided this thankfully.
And we took her favorite activity (instruments) outdoors.
For Birthday treats, we ate fudge stripe cookies. Yum!
But
let's
get
on with
the
reason I am blogging.


For the game I came up with, we needed to hide our eyes.
In case you are unaware, children under age 5 typically don't like scarves around their faces.
So this is a way they will enjoy not peeking.

I searched High and Low for some jewel type stickers but had to resort to these color coding labels.
You must understand, we live in Sedalia, Missouri and have a Walmart, Kmart and
small town dollar stores.

I needed a wide sheet of paper so I resorted to taping 4 of these 11x14 inch sheets together and drew the crown you see. Sorry there's no pattern, just free hand one with pencil and go over it with a marker.
Children won't judge your artistic abilities :)

We placed it on the wall and took turns spinning around each child 2 times with sticker
 at the ready.

Establishing ownership is important for this age group so we labeled each 'jewel' with initials so they could show their parents at the end of the day.

And yes, learning still occurs even during a party.

Recognizing letters
Color recognition
Sharing
Taking turns (Math)
Rhythm (with instrument free play as well as singing "happy birthday")
Listening to Directions
And Spacial awareness when we are turned around without all our sense of vision.

Why did we choose the crown instead of a
pin the tail on the donkey game?



 Because our gift to Brynn was the Princess paper dolls.
Happy #4 Birthday Little Miss Brynn!!!