Barbie Island Princess Party - Dolphin Rescue

ACTIVITIES:  We had 14 children for 2 hours and kept them quite busy the entire time!!  For the first 30 minutes they went to each of the following stations while listening to the 7 songs from the movie on CD. 

HUNT FOR FOOD:  I showed them a picture from a Barbie as the Island Princess coloring book where Ro and the animals were eating fruit.  I explained that Ro had to hunt for food on the island and so would they.  I taped colored pictures of pineapples, bananas and coconut trees to the bottoms of plastic Rubbermaid containers and taped the Rubbermaid containers to the table.  The kids had to use 12 beanbags to knock down all the pieces of fruit." My mother-in-law stood at this station and tipped the "fruit" back up after each child.

TREASURE CHESTS:  We bought each child a wooden treasure chest from Michaels.  I showed them a picture from the coloring book of the chest that washed ashore on the island with Ro.  I asked them what Ro's chest had in it (clothes) and we talked about what they could put in their treasure chests.  They painted them with acrylic paint.  We had a Barbie as the Island Princess tablecloth underneath.  My mom monitored this station. 

GAMES:  I found a BIP website that had word searches in 3 levels with our theme.  These were printed off in different colors for each level.  There was also a set of coloring sheets (each of the animals from the movie) for each child. 

On the center of the table were DECORATIONS:  a Tika with 2 of the sisters that swing up on her back dumped it into a bowl added an island rose petal and stirred 6 times to make the tonic to wake up the animals.  Once their tonic was stirred they ran to another chair and "fed" the tonic to a monkey (one team) or an elephant (the other team) stuffed animal raced back and gave the bowl to the next person on their team.  They each went about 3 times because they were having so much fun!!  2.  We kept the same teams and talked about how Ro and her friends were dumped overboard and the dolphins came to save them.  I gave the first person on each team 2 colored laminated dolphins.  This idea was modified from another idea on this website - thanks!  They had to lay down the first dolphin step on it lay down the other dolphin in front of them step on it grab the dolphin from behind them put it in front of them step on it and so forth until they reached land.  They ran back holding the dolphins so the next person on their team could be rescued by the dolphins.  It was a good workout! 3.  Next we talked about the flag that was on Ro's parent's coach.  We talked about how a flag represents where we live and that each state has a flag and each country has a flag.  Ro's flag represented the country that where she was a princess. 

I printed flags of 14 different countries from a website colored them and cut them in half.  On a piece of construction paper I glued the white border from the flag (the rest of the paper) along with the name of the country the flag was from.  Prior to the party we hid half of each flag in our backyard.  I gave each child the other half of a flag.  They had to find the matching half and then place them on the sheet that named the country the flag was from.  It was a warm day and the kids were hot from the games so we went to the patio and had Island Coolers (KoolAid Koolers)  4. I had a quiz prepared for the children.  We found a website that gave information on each of the animals from the movie.  I had a friend shrink down pictures of the animals and make them into stickers.  There were 16 questions and 18 stickers (3 of each animal).  We went through them one at a time.  I read the clue and had the kids guess which animal I was talking about.  After they all guessed I gave them the correct answer and they stuck the sticker down.  We all learned lots about snow monkeys, dolphins, crocodiles, elephants, peacocks and red pandas. 

Following the games it was time for birthday CAKE:  I prepared all the trays before the party.  The girls were given a Kelly sized Barbie doll and a piece of cake in the shape of a skirt.  They inserted the doll into the cake frosted it and decorated the skirts with sprinkles and colored sugar.  The boys were given 2 cupcakes 2 straws and 2 fruit roll-ups along with a pair of scissors to cut the straws.  I showed them a picture of Prince Antonio's ship and asked them to build a ship with their food.  They did a really neat job!!

Next it was time for the birthday girl to open her presents.  I brought a bar stool outside for her to sit on.  Each child brought her their gifts individually. 

Next it was time for her to give her friends their FAVORS (i.e.) piñata:  We got the pull string Barbie as the Island Princess one and stuffed it with BIP compact mirrors BIP ponytail holders lip gloss ring pops a bit of candy Barbie fruit snacks and some treasures for the boys (jacks and bouncy balls). My daughter who was dressed in her Barbie as the Island Princess COSTUME hugged her friends goodbye and thanked them for coming!!  We all had a wonderful time!"