Camping Party 6yr - Camp Story by Flashlight

My now 6 year old liked the idea of the camping birthday party. We used the school gym (free to district residents), because winter in Wisconsin would not allow an outdoor party. I had looked over many ideas from this web site, and combined them with ideas of my own.

We set up 6 tents (all free standing), had a paper fire that my older son made. We had 10 children all 5 or 6 years old. When they arrived we had a check in, where we wrote their names on name tags (plain white with camping stickers on them), a paper girl or boy, and a list all for later use. They then joined in a game of Hot Potatoe.

When everyone was there we asked them to go into the big tent where my sister read them a camping story (by flashlight). While they were in the tent we threw 150 rubber bugs all over the gym floor, and turned out the lights. When the story was over we asked the kids to come out one at a time and they were each given a flashlight to search for bugs. They loved this!

Then they all came back to our "fire ring" and each was given a bag for their bugs (we put names on them and collected them to use later). Next we had lunch. Hotdogs (cooked in crock pot), chips, ants on a log, and pop in water bottles that they could keep.

The food was served on aluminum pie plates I got at a discount store. After lunch we broke into two small groups. Group one did a Smore craft (bought from oriental trading)I had pre-assembled the little pieces so it would be eaiser for the little hands.

The other gorup made smores with a smore maker, played put the child in the canoe (the paper people we had put names on earlier), or did Tent Treasures. I used the idea from here but added a twist. We used a small tent filled with 125 small balloons, a bunch of bug rings, foam bugs, and a few bigger bugs. Each child one at a time was blindfolded and given 20 seconds to find as many bugs as they could. Some of the bugs were certain prizes, and we wrote them on the list we had made at the beginning. They also put their treasures in the bags from earlier.

When everyone had done all activities my 12 year lod son took them on a "jungle run". The kids ran in place, they had to jump over logs, duck under branches, slither like snakes, sleep like bears, run fast like cheetahs, growl like lions, jumped like frogs. This was an impromtu activity and one of the favorites. We then went back into the big tent and opened presents.

Next we had backpack races. Each team had a backpack with camping supplies (flashlight, dishes, first aid kit, blanket, etc..)They had to pack it, run across the gym and back, unpack it, and then the next person went, until the team was done. We then had another unplanned activity of a free for all balloon pop, the kids loved stepping on all the balloons.

Next we had a build a tent race. Each team had 6 noodles (the kind for pools), connectors, cones, and a blanket. They were told to make a tent and get into it, it was fun to watch as they had to use team work. Then all went back to the tent for another story, while we called them up to pick prizes. I had a lot of bug nets, key chains, etc.. Each child came up picked a small backpack filled with things from oriental trading, picked a bug that had a prize written on it, and either a bug catcher or lantern (from wal mart)which was determined by the tent treasures game. I had cupcakes decorated like campfires. I used crushed oreos, pretzel sticks for the wood, and the melted candies broken to look like flames. See pilsbury.com and campfire cake. For recipe. Many took these home.

We all sang Happy Birthday, and kids started to go home. This was the best party ever, the kids had an awesome time, the parents were impressed, and on Monday all the kids were telling the teachers about it. It was great!