My 11-year-old came up with this theme for her party ~
A Polka Dot Party!
With dots in mind we decided to play with ideas of all things…
round
and colourful …
even for food
and decor
and activities.
We took our fun party and joined another large homeschooling family for the fun-filled Polka Dot Party!
Ice-breakers
Polka Dot Cooties
The girls created several cooties with polka dots on the top.They moved around the group taking turns to play.
Inside were simple fun choices with even more funny activities or actions for the last choice.
Scavenger Hunt
I created a coloured dot scavenger hunt list and wrote 8 things the children could find outside on the farm.
Each child had a small bag (to hold the items they collected).
Each child had 8 dot stickers to stick over the dot when they found the item.
This was a fun activity that got everyone running around and exploring!
Dotty Refreshments
Fruit Juice
Decorate each glass with a circle slice of fruit.
Place round ice-cubes made with fruit juice in different colours in each glass.
Or put round melon balls in the fruit juice.
Ice cream cones
Instead of a birthday cake we gave everyone 2 scoops of ice-cream in a wafer cone.
Everyone decorated their ice cream with Smarties, Jelly Tots or Astros.
Fun ball games with some recycled 2l milk bottles, newspaper and scrap wool.
We cut the bottles to create a “racket” and a “bucket”.
We made the balls with a sheet of newspaper crumpled tightly in a ball and tied around with some yarn and knotted to end.
Colour or number the buckets.
Games with “rackets” and balls –
Each child had a ball attached to the handle of the milk bottle. They practiced tossing the ball up and catching the ball as it fell back down.
Next we pulled the ball off the string attached to the handle and each child chose a partner. They tossed and caught the ball.
Once they mastered throwing and catching 1 ball between the partners, everyone took a ball and both partners tossed and caught each other’s balls at the count of 3! FUN!
(The balls are quite soft and you don’t need too much space to play this. We played on a small patch of lawn outside.)
Tossing balls in the “buckets” –
Arrange the buckets in 2 or 3 rows. Let all the children toss their balls and score if the ball goes in.
Number the buckets and arrange them in 3’s with highest number in back rows to score.
Place the buckets on a table and let the children toss the balls to knock them off the table!
Paint a different colour on each bucket. Call out a colour and see who can toss their ball into the correct bucket.
Other Ball, Dot and Circle Games:
Knock the Scarecrow’s Hat
Tie a broom to the back of a chair.
Place a hat over the top of the broom handle
Children toss their balls to knock the hat off the “scarecrow”!
Skittles
Make 10 skittles with recycled plastic bottle filled with sand. (Paint them different colours.)
Arrange the bottles in a triangle. Place a skipping rope/ hula hoop for the children’s mark and let them toss a large newspaper ball at the skittles.
Hula Hoop circle
All the children join hands and stand in a circle.
Mom opens the circle to place a hula hoop over the 1 child’s arm and then closes the circle again.
Now the children must move the hula hoop around the circle of children, over each child alternating over the head and under the feet without breaking the circle!
Ring Games
Ring – a Rosie (traditional game)
Murderer and Detective
Everyone sits with their eyes closed. One child walks around the circle. Everyone sings, “One tap detective, Two taps murderer.” The child walking around taps 1 child once and another child 2x on their head. The detective (the child who tapped 1x) now sits in the middle of the circle. He/she watches to see who the murderer is.
The murderer is the one who was tapped 2x. He/ she WINKS secretly at anyone in the circle who looks at him/her. The person who sees the wink rolls back groaning – killed! They remain lying down. The murderer continues to wink at anyone until he/she has killed the group and “wins” or until the detective sees or guesses who the murderer is. The murderer now walks around the circle and game begins again. If the detective cannot find the murderer, they are ‘out’ and cannot sit in the circle. (We let the child continue for fun.)
Click here for the party plan: Party Plan Polka Dot Party
Included in this download is the menu and food ideas, cootie details and other ideas.
I included the lyrics to the song “Yellow Polka Dot Bikini”. Children could sing this while playing musical dress up/ while playing pool games … so many more ideas …
Hope there is something fun here that you can use! 🙂
Love these ideas! Thanks for sharing :-). The milk bottle one is especially useful! Thx for adding to the carnival 🙂
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Those are such great ideas. Thanks once again Nadene.
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What a creative … fun … imaginative party! Well done!
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Hi Nads, I agree you are very creative. Looked like great fun. Love your theme and all the games you played. Lots of love
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You are so resourceful!
I like the new lay out of your blog.
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So true to who you are — frugal, practical, but fun. I love this theme.
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I love themed parties! Mine are slightly younger than yours, but we’ve done a pig party, Chicka chicka boom boom party, teddy bears party. And it’s such good fun!
Love the polka dots 🙂
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You are so creative!! Thank you for all your great ideas!
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