THE GREEN PARTY (age 8): My son is very interested in the environment. For his 8th birthday we had a "green party." The invitations were decorated around the edge with pictures of cans, bottles and other recyclables.   When the children first arrived, they got to make creations out of all sorts of items that would otherwise have been thrown out (ie. toilet paper rolls, ribbon, broken toy parts, bits of yarn, styrofoam peanuts, etc). I put out glue, tape, and rubberbands to help them create. After everyone arrived and had made atleast one creation, we played "toss the recyclables."  I bought three little plastic garbage cans at our dollar store.  They were labeled "paper," "cans," and "plastics."  The children had to stand behind a line and toss recyclable items into the correct can for points.  The tossed crumpled up paper, squashed cans, plastic film canisters, etc. Everyone got to pick a prize, with the top scorer choosing first. Next we played "Environmental Jeopardy."  The children were divided into teams of three children each. The team chose the category they wanted a question from.  Categories were: recycling, reusing, keeping it green, saving energy and miscellaneous.  I made the questions up in advance. The internet had some great web sites with lots of info. that made this part easy. The table was decorated in blue and green (earth colors).  We cut the shape of north and south America out of a solid green plastic party plate.  Then we placed it on a blue plastic plate and stapled the edges to make it look like the earth.  Each child got a plastic trash can to take home with party favors inside. Favors included chocolate earth balls, earth yoyos, and "reduce, reuse, recycle" stickers that my son made on the computer. The cake was decorated to look like the earth.  While the children ate, I attached an award to each of the children's creations that they had made earlier.  I had made the ribbons prior to the party, so all I had to do was write the name of the award. I gave out the "wacky and wonderful" award, the "crazy creation" award, the "marvelous machine" award, etc.  When the children collected their creation at the end of the party, they were very surprised and delighted with their ribbons.  I had originally been worried that a "green party" would be difficult, but it ended up being very easy to run and a big success with the kids.