Plan a Construction‐Themed Birthday Party

Construction-themed birthday parties are very popular with young children who love playing with trucks, digging, and building. Happily, if your child wants a construction-themed party, they are very easy to plan. Start with a basic color scheme, add some trucks and signs for decor, and encourage digging and building activities for a successful and happy party.

Steps

Setting Up

  1. Use construction-themed invitations. Cut out a simple truck or hammer template in orange or yellow construction paper to make your own. Add relevant information, including the date, time, your address, and RSVP date and phone or email contact. You can also buy construction-themed invitations from many sources.
    • Make or buy matching thank you notes.
  2. Find decorations that focus on trucks and road signs. Draw or download cutouts of caution and other road signs to hang around the party area. Try to buy plastic pylons to put around your party space. Use a black and yellow color scheme with orange and brown accents. Buy some caution tape or streamers in your color scheme to hang as decoration.[1]
    • Get plastic table covers in black and line up pieces of masking tape so the tables look like roads.[2]
    • Buy some large, plastic trucks to hold snack foods.[3]
  3. Clean your house. Do a thorough cleaning a week before the party. That way you only need to pick up and focus on decorating on the day of the party. Make sure that you do any necessary yard work if the party will be outdoors.[4]
  4. Enlist help from other parents who will stay for the party. You can also ask older children or your babysitter to help. Assign tasks to your helpers, like running activities or serving the food. Choose someone to be in charge of writing down who gave which gift.[5]
    • Tell your child what they need to do to help out, like taking the gifts from guests when they arrive and sharing nicely.

Planning Activities

  1. Set up some construction stations. Create a building station with plenty of building bricks like Duplo or Legos. Make or buy cardboard bricks and a “wrecking” ball -- this can be any large, soft ball painted black -- for a destruction station. Put small toy trucks in disposable baking trays filled with dirt or sand for a digging station -- be sure to add plastic shovels. Invest in plastic hammers, pieces of foam, and golf tees for a nailing station.[6]
    • For older children, you can use pieces of wood, real nails, and real hammers.
  2. Create a house building activity. Get lots of cardboard or recycle old boxes. Cut the cardboard into squares with one foot (30.48 cm) sides and rectangles that are 6 inches (15.24 cm) by one foot (30.48 cm). Make sure you have at least 6 pieces of cardboard per guest so they can make the sides and roof of the house. Buy rolls of construction tape or duct tape that the children can use to connect the cardboard into houses.
    • You can also get paint for the children to paint the houses.
    • Create a model house to show the children.
    • You can also make other sizes and shapes of cardboard.
  3. Make a game of "pin the tire on the cement mixer." Draw or print out a large picture of an cement mixer that’s missing a tire and another picture of a tire. Color the mixer with yellow and black and color the tire black. Hang the picture of the cement mixer on the wall at your child’s height. Put double-sided tape on the back of the tire right before you play. Blindfold each child and have them try to pin the tire on the cement mixer.
    • Use a bandana for a blindfold.
  4. Prepare a skyscraper challenge. Buy several bags of marshmallows and a few boxes of toothpicks. During the party, distribute the marshmallows and toothpicks to the children. Show them how to build using the toothpicks with the marshmallows connecting them. Give them about 15 minutes to see who can build the tallest skyscraper.[7]

Ensuring the Best Time

  1. Plan your menu. Check with your guests’ parents about allergies. Focus on simple finger foods like pretzels and baby carrots that you can serve in the plastic trucks. If you get ice cream, go for more than one flavor since children tend to prefer ice cream over cake.[8]
  2. Prepare construction-themed treats. Make a chocolate cake and sprinkle crushed oreos on it for dirt. Put small construction trucks on the cake as decoration. You can also make dirt pudding. Use store bought chocolate pudding cups or make your own pudding and put it in cups. Crush oreos on top for dirt and decorate each cup with a truck the guests can keep as party favors.[9]
    • Keep it very simple by buying a cake decorated with a construction theme from your local grocery store or bakery.
  3. Buy gifts for goodie bags. You can buy plain goody bags in one of your theme colors or buy goodie bags that have a construction theme. You could also use beach pails and shovels in your theme colors. Add a small truck, a length of caution tape, and a toy hard hat or a small building game, like a Lego Mixel.[10]

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.fabeveryday.com/2015/04/construction-themed-3rd-birthday-party.html
  2. ↑ http://livingwellmom.com/2015/04/masking-tape-road-for-kids/
  3. ↑ http://www.rookiemoms.com/two-year-old-birthday-party-ideas/
  4. ↑ https://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/birthdays/childs-home-birthday-party-checklist
  5. ↑ http://www.parents.com/fun/birthdays/ideas/kids-birthday-parties-frequently-asked-questions/
  6. ↑ http://www.shesaved.com/2014/12/plan-construction-themed-birthday-party-5-easy-steps.html/
  7. ↑ http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/marshmallows_and_toothpicks_help_youth_practice_team_work_communication_and
  8. ↑ http://www.pbs.org/parents/birthday-parties/tips_post/how-to-plan-a-birthday-party/
  9. ↑ http://thechirpingmoms.com/construction-birthday-party/
  10. ↑ http://thestir.cafemom.com/big_kid/183824/11_clever_birthday_party_goodie
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