Has anyone had success with doing a craft activity at a 5 year old's birthday party? If so, which craft?

[ekra]

I'm thinking of buying a craft kit for DD's birthday party in a few weeks time. Looking at party craft websites, I see things like decorating masks, jewellery boxes, kit bags, door hangers. Being at the younger end if the spectrum that these kits are designed for, I'd rather choose something I know someone has had success with.

Any ideas?

I think we'll have about 8-10 children on the day including 2 boys.

I had a party for all boys (about 10) and we decorated mugs.

I bought a few special porcellein (so?) marker pens, gave each child a mug. (bought loads of plain white ones cheap from ikea) any left over were emergency spares or decorated for relatives for Christmas.

They drew on them, some for their parent, some for themselves.

After party we baked them to seal, then next day, we went round delivering them, each with a few sweets and a 'thank you for coming/for the present' note attached.

I'm not usually at al creative so was v. pleased with how well it went & parents loved it too (none present).

I recently went to a part where after the birthday meal had been served, all the children were given 2 large cupcakes each, a dollop of icing, and small bowls of all kinds of toppings to decorate their cupcakes.
It was not a main activity, but very popular!

We have made hats with 8 boys. Didn't need a kit as such. Bought large coloured card, cut into crowns and pirate shapes. CHildren decorated with pens, glitter and bits of paper etc. Very easy. Have also done masks - again no kit needed.

Gingerbread men, writing icing to squidge around the top and sweets to add on (the sweet tubs for cake decorating easiest or smarties etc) - easy, keeps them entertained and they get to take them home (or eat them) too.

I've taken my daughter to a party where the children decorated their own (paper) party bags with sequins/feathers/foam shapes. The party bags were then filled ready for the end of the party. V successful!

I did T-shirt decorating for my dds 5th birthday. There were 18 of them. It worked really well - there was a deal in smiths on those tubes of glittery and neon and metallic fabric paints so got 3 for 2 or something like that. The t-shirts were dead cheap from George - i think a pound each. I put down old table cloths and they sat on them and worked. Had some lovely results and dd still wears hers with great pride. Tip would be to get too big as they then make great nightshirts.

ds did painting t-shirt at one of his friends this summer - 6 boys, cheap plain white t's and fabric paints. they all enjoyed.

We decorated t-shirts for my DS's 5th birthday. I bought cheap white t-shirts from primark and some textile pens. They all seemed to enjoy it and it lasted about 1/2 an hour which is good for 10 little boys.

This year I hired a badge machine and they really enjoyed making their own badges. The boys seem to like working the machine and it might not appeal as much to girls.

I've done Rich Tea biscuits in a similar way to Binkles gingerbread men, and it was very popular (and easy)

Also did crown making, and party bag making, which were popular but over much more quickly.

DD2 went to one where the mum had bought about four kits, and she came home with more stuff than she took! She loved it (decorated moneyboxes, picture frames, crowns and necklaces) but it must have been expensive.

Message withdrawn

I had success at my dd's (4) Halloween Party with masks. I hotglued popsicle sticks to the back of black paper plates. I cut out shapes and got sparklys, yarn, all sorts and let them glue them on.

at dd's 6th birthday they all decorated foam tiaras with smaller foamies. big hit. also decorated their own cupcakes ( have done this from 3 years up) tescos sell foam things ( I had bought mine from a big craft place in canada.....drool....!!www.michaels.com/art/online/home

Cupcake decorating. Kids love it.

I do a lot of parties like this. Funky foam is good to work with at this age. Especially the self adhesive bits! Wilkinsons have a huge range of bits for making stuff. If they're all about 5 and you've got about 10 of them, I would stay away from glue! Pre-cut things for them and stick glue dots on to them, leaving a peice of the backing sheet on it iyswim! If you look a some of the things on the websites, you can probably buy the bits far cheaper else where.

Top tip! If you are doing something messing, make some simple tabbard style aprons from a Pound shop shower curtain!

Good luck!