8487

Art Party -6yr- Spin Painting Art

April 2004

Hollie in Marysville, OH  USA

Honorable Mention

Art Party for a 6 year old  My son is a budding artist who couldn't think of anything better than to have an art birthday party.  So, this is what I put together: 

Invitations were made on the computer using a paintbrush and splatter border and they said "Arts and crafts will set the stage, Paints and Markers will be the rage!" then added date/time/place and instructed everyone to dress for "messy fun".  With such a large guest list (24 kids aged 4-6!) this theme worked well. 

We made stations and each child was assigned to teams 1,2,or 3 upon arrival.  They then rotated with their fellow team mates to stations and participated in games with their team.  Stations were:

1)Tie-dying: Each child was given a new pair of socks and rubberbands and an adult helper assisted with the dying/drying process.  Socks were clothes-pinned together and hung on a line to dry during the rest of the party.

2)Color-a-mug: I purchased plastic mugs with colorable inserts that said "I'm and artist" from Oriental Trading.  Each child was given a mug and got to decorate their insert with crayons, markers, paint, glitter, etc. 

3) Spin Art:  an inexpensive salad spinner made for great fun.  Kids put a small paper plate in the bottom, dribbled on their choice of 3 colors of paint, put the lid on, and turned the spinner with all their might.  The results were a unique piece of art!  All the kids loved this!  These were also laid out to dry during the party.  We also had coloring pages with crayons and playdough set out to occupy anyone who might be done with their station before the others.

GAMES:
1) Rainbow Relay:  Teams were lined up in front of an outline of a rainbow (made on poster board and taped up to the railing of our deck)  There were 8 cups of paint (we added pink to the 7 regular rainbow colors to accomodate the 8 kids on each team!) with paintbrushes set out for each team.  When the race bagan, the first child ran to the paper, grabbed the red paint & brush, painted the first stripe of the rainbow, then ran to the end of the line and the next person went and so on.  This was hilarious, all be it messy, and the resulting rainbow paintings are now treasured decorations in our playroom! 

2) Crayon Drop: a crayon is held at the kids nose and they tried to drop it into a plastic cup sitting at their feet.  The child with the most crayons in the cup in a row was declared the winner! 

3) Pinata:  Thanks to the internet I was able to find a HUGE crayon box pinata that held enough candy for 24 kids!  Decorations for this theme were simple - I just mixed and matched bright colored partyware, balloons, and streamers for a fun and colorful look.

Food: Cake was an artist palate - so simple and detailed on Familyfun.com.  Kids also got to create and "artist's sundae".  I had icecream pre-dipped into edible icecream cone bowls.  The kids got to put their choice of a variety of colorful and yummy toppings on to create a unique edible work of art!  Koolaid Jammers in a variety of colors added to the colorful decor and quenched the thirst of our little artists. 

For goodie bags, I filled colored paper sacks with clay, crayons, a crayon shaped note pad, artist stickers, and bath tub tints.  The bags were folded over, double hole punched, then I inserted a small plastic paint brush to hold them closed.  They were SO cute!  Kids got to take home their goodie bags, tie-dyed socks, spin art, mug, and bag of candy from the pinata.  (ziplock bags were very useful as many projects weren't totally dry by the party's end! Also keep a sharpie marker handy for labeling items with the kids' names!) 

All the kids seemed to have so much fun and were kept busy during the entire 2 hours of the party!  This party took a lot of planning as far as logistics go, and adult helpers were needed for each station, but I loved that the kids had such an input in their fun!  Their creativity never ceases to amaze me!

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