The Details: There will be 56 children, 2 teachers and 7 parents in attendance. Your budget is a graciously donated 75 dollars from the school principal and whatever you can get donated from parents. The party will start at 10am and end at 1pm. During the course of the activity, children will need to play games together, make a craft, eat lunch, and have some free time. You have one week. Oh and one more thing - given the weather trend over the last several weeks, it will probably be cold and rainy, so everything will be indoors.
The Theme: Ya gotta have a theme kid, makes it more memorable. Do you remember your 3rd grade pen pal party? That's too bad, it shoulda had a theme. So troll blogs and teacher sharing sites until you come upon a theme that is both creative, entertaining and age appropriate. Know you'll be able to pull off anything with your team of highly talented parent volunteers. Modify the games to fit your time, space and weather issues. Get approval for your theme "Where The Wild Things Are" based on the book of the same name by Maurice Sendak.
This is how it will go:
When the children arrive, introduce them to their pen pals and place them into teams of 8. They will be a little shy and uncomfortable at first but give them something to do right away to alleviate any jitters. Coloring a Wild Thing nametag and playing I'm Going to Where The Wild Things Are is a great place to start. One child begins the game by saying Hello. My name is . . . I'm going to Where The Wild Things Are and I'm bringing a boat. The next child says Hello. My name is . . . and I'm going to Where The Wild Things Are with . . . and her boat and I'm bringing a tent. The next child says Hello. My name is . . . and I'm going to Where The Wild Things Are with . . . and her boat, and . . . and his tent and I'm bringing a hiking stick. This continues until all the children have had a turn. It helps the children on each team get to know each other quickly.
After they have completed their nametags and pinned them on, the teacher will read the story Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. She'll use great voices and the children, although they have read or heard the book several times, will be riveted.
In the book, Max, dressed in his wolf suit, makes all sorts of mischief before his mom has had enough and he gets sent to his room without eating anything. In a game we called "Mischievous Max," the children had some fun playing dress up - at their teachers' expense. Have lots and lots of dress up clothes available. Give each pen pal partnership the chance to choose something from the pile to put on their teacher. In the end it will look something like this. The children will laugh hysterically, I promise.
The next game gives the kids a chance to roll their eyes without getting in trouble for doing so. We modified the game "Roll Your Terrible Eyes" by eliminating the water bottles and having the teams blow the eyes across the lunchroom floor towards the finish lines. Every team had a differently colored set of eyes (ping pong balls). The first team to roll all their eyes across the finish line, using only their breath, won. This game was so fun we played it twice.
Lunchroom tables and 50+ other children made it into somewhat of an obstacle course, however they enjoyed the challenge.
If you've ever eaten lunch in an elementary school cafeteria, you know the noise level can get a little out of hand. Most of the time the roars of the children are quickly quieted. The next challenge "Roar Your Terrible Roar" gives the teams the chance to roar their roars without fear of penalty. Teams are asked to come up with a terrible roar. Each team is given the chance to roar that terrible roar as loud as they can. None of the teams will have a problem with that.
To be the "King Of All Wild Things," one must have a proper crown. A standard size piece of poster board yields three Max sized crowns. We used 20 pieces of yellow poster board from the supply closet at the school. The kids decorated their crowns with markers, crayons and sticky-backed foam cut outs purchased from a craft store.
Can the kings of all wild things be called adorable? 'Cause these guys are.
By this time everyone was ready to "Gnash Their Terrible Teeth" (eat lunch), and because the lunchroom was about to be taken over by kindergarten and first grade students we moved the party to the library. Every child had brought a bagged lunch. Instructions had been given previously to bring a blanket to sit on while they ate. So with blankets laid out on the library floor, the kids enjoyed eating their lunches.
We supplemented what they brought for lunch with bottled water, watermelon slices and veggie trays. Which was a wise idea because it seemed most of their lunches were packed with only Ho-Ho's, Cheetos and pop.
You'll need a large space for the next game "Show Your Terrible Claws." We used the gym. Teams line up single file on one end of the gym and are instructed to remove their shoes and socks and show their terrible claws. (Seriously some of them really do have terrible claws.) A small pile of pebbles is placed in front of each team's line. At the signal the first person in each line grabs a pebble with their toes. They then move the pebble from one end of the gym to the other. The first team to move all their pebbles across the gym wins. Kids walk funny when they are trying to hold onto a pebble with their toes. The parents and teachers will laugh hysterically, I promise.
And the kids will want to play this game again:
And again:
And again. But this time you won't let them. Instead you suggest that maybe it's time for dessert. And they'll agree.
You will have spent way too much time on these (which I realize do not look like the monsters from the book, however I wasn't this ambitious):
But the smile will be worth it:
You'll even have enough left to share with your fantastic team of moms. These women are awesome. I have such great friends. From left to right, Michelle, Jen, Jackie, me, Faye, Diem, and Holly.
After all the fun and games of the morning, there wasn't much spark left for A Wild Rumpus. Besides, it was raining and A Wild Rumpus would be more fun on the playground outside anyway. Instead the pen pal pairs took turns reading to each other from their favorite books. I think it was a fabulous way to end the afternoon together.
For a take home gift from our class to theirs, Jackie had the idea that they could give their pen pal a pencil. The children drew pictures of themselves with their pen pals and attached them to these monster pencils I found at Target. Now they can continue their pen pal friendship and remember their monstrously good time Where The Wild Things Are!
The End
