Tired of the usual themes for kids birthday parties? Then try an “art class type” party theme for a change. This will work especially well if your kid and his or her friends are also into art and craft work.
Since kids love attending birthday parties, this is the best time to introduce them to the beauty of art so they will develop a love for this early. Having an art class as a theme is good for the young guests because it raises children’s levels of awareness of the art around them as well as the art they can produce themselves.
An art theme for a kid’s birthday party can be easy to organize. All you need is a room where little tables and chairs can be arranged so the kids will have a place for their art pieces.
Art can be incorporated during the birthday party as one of the activities that kids can do while waiting for the food to be served or after they have finished eating.
Having an art class as a theme can also help parents save some money because they will just have to provide all kinds of papers and boards—construction paper, tissue papers, drawing paper, watercolor paper, poster boards, foam core, and others.
When it comes to drawing materials, you can provide paints such as tempera, watercolours, acrylics, oil paints, fabric paints and dyes along with palettes and brushes for the kids to use. Other alternatives may also include printing materials such as blocks, inks, papers, frames of all sizes and styles, and pre-cut mats, kits, clay, paper mache, glue, paste and craft materials for collages.
To avoid too much clutter during the art themed party, make sure that you:
• Cover the painting area with a waterproof covering or old newspapers
• Provide an overall or old clothes to protect their clothing
• Instead of using stamps for block painting, substitute a small sponge, a ball of cotton wool, cork or sliced fruits and vegetables.
• Provide powder watercolours since these are more preferable than the usual watercolours because you can control the amount your children need
• Make sure to keep the paints in small plastic containers, which has a hole on top for the paintbrush
• Use plastic egg cartons as palettes
• Add some liquid starch to thicken up the powder instead of adding extra powder or add liquid starch in a container and add some food colouring
If monitored properly, the art class theme can be the most memorable experience that your child as well as his or her friends could ever experience. Remember, it pays to have lots of patience when you use this theme because kids can be unruly if they start to have fun or mess around with the materials. When this happens, all you have to do is to remind them subtly by telling them that they are in a party and they are not supposed to destroy the materials because the birthday boy or girl will be sad.
Splatter Art Game
This is a messy game and should definitely be played outside and in old clothing that it does not matter if it gets messed up. This works best with a smaller group of children 8 – 11 years old. Set up picnic tables back to back, or for smaller children, folding tables with the legs collapsed so they lay on the ground works better, and purchase big rolls of paper that you can roll over the top of them, totally covering the tables. Get several different colors of paint, I find that 5-8 colors usually works best and paintbrushes in different sizes.
Now have the children stand over the tables and splatter paint with the paintbrushes all over the papers. Give them a specific time limit, usually like 30 – 60 seconds works best so that the paper is not dripping with paint and there is still some design to it. After the paint dries you can cut the large paper into fairly equal pieces of art and help each child frame it so they have something they can take home and hang on the wall as a memory. Before framing be sure to have each child sign and date the picture.
