Bug Party 6yr - Butterfly Bowling

I rented a child sized table to put in our dining room to be the "party room" For decorations I got 2 Dover Bug stencil books and made tons of crawling and flying bugs from colorful cardstock.  I got rolls of green paper and cut one side of each roll to look like grass ( I found that if I cut the paper while it was still rolled I could cut through many layers at once to speed this up)  I taped the "grass" up in our dining room (it looks better if you go around twice).  Then I taped all the crawly bugs I cut out in the grass and the flying bugs I taped to the walls above (we had a heavy emphasis on butterflies).  I used blue streamers to seem like the sky.  I cut out bigger bugs and taped them on walls around the house.  My son also drew big pictures of bugs which he was very proud to hang as decorations also.

When the kids came I had them make bug costumes. They decorated 12x18 inch rectangles of felt  with stripes and circles I had pre-cut to serve as the back of the bug. I had colors available to make real looking ladybugs, bees, butterflys or fanciful made up bugs  Wings were made from netting that I had cut and attached elastic big pony tail holders to the ends, the elastic went around they're wrists to hold wings out and let kids be able to pretend to fly.   While the glue dried a little,  I gave each child a bug jar with a magnifying glass inside (I saved up plastic peanut butter jars, drilled small holes in top, and painted each with the child's name.. "Alyssa's Critters".  I found little shiny bug stickes which I handed out for the kids to decorate the jars. 

Then we went outside for the bug hunt.  Since it was october and there are not many bugs around, I got tons of cheap plastic bugs (oriental trading) and scattered them around the grass. I told the kids to keep the jars and next summer thay could put real bugs they catch in them.  After that we played musical bugs. The kids put on the bug costumes they made, and antennae I had made ahead of time. Intead of chairs I made big felt flowers, which I scattered around the lawn for the kids to "land on" when the music stopped.  The kids loved flying around with their costumes!  The felt flowers were then used  as seats for the rest of the games to encourage the children to stay seated while they waited their turn.  Next we played Pin the Caterpillar on the Leaf. Each child got a caterpillar, the board had a picture of a tree branch with several leaves. Each leaf was worth a different number of points -- the kids worked together to try to get the highest total score as a group.

After that was butterfly bowling.  I used old water bottles and made wings out of foam sheets. I glued pipe cleaners to the lids to made antennae. Each butterfly was filled with a little water to keep the wind from knocking them over. I set this game up on out patio and so was able to draw a chalk outline of a bowling lane and easily mark where pins and kids should stand. The kids really loved this and each insisted on taking a second turn.

The last game was Bug Toss. I taped 2 pieces of foam board together at the top to be able to stand it up. I drew a flower and cut out the center (big hole) on one side. I got 3 beanie baby bugs and the kids tried to toss them through the hole. As a final activity before cake, I had a pinata. The felt flowers really came in handy here- each child had to stay on a flower until we gave the OK sign this easily kept them away from swinings sticks. We also made sure to take off the antennae so that nobody got poked in the eye. I have found that cutting up small squares of crepe paper streamers and loading them in the pinata makes a nice colorful show when it is busted. I loaded the pinata with more plastic bugs and I found bug shaped foamies that I taped to bite sized hershey candy bars. I also got a pack of wedding bubbles and put on  "happy bithday Christopher" labels I printed on the computer. 

After all the goodies were picked up we went inside for cake.  I couldn't find bug paper products I liked so I got red everything. I cut black circles and taped them to the bottom of the plates, sticking out a bit to look like heads. I had a helper put out the plates while we were outside, to each plate we put a strip of black icing down the middle and added a few chocolate  candy circles to make lady bugs. I taped black dots on red paper cups. The table looked great when the kids came in. I made cupcakes which I decorated to look like butterflies, and presented them on a tray of coconut dyed green to look like grass.  

All kids left with their bug costumes, bug jars, and a goodie bag full of bug stuff (bug stamps, butterfly foam flyers, bug stickers, chocolate bug candy that the birthday boy and I made, and a regular size jar of bubbles with a happy birthday label  I also printed on the computer ( and also decorated with bug stickers).  Christopher loved his bug bitrthday party and so did the guests.