Construction Party -3yr- Hard Hat Area

Last year for my son River's birthday party he decided he wanted a construction worker party.  After doing some internet research on this site, I put together the best ideas I had found plus added a few of my own. 

For INVITATIONS I had my son sponge paint orange paint onto card stock paper, to go with the construction worker colors.  On the front of the invitation I wrote,Caution River's Turning 3."  Before the party I collected all the pictures I had taken of our birthday guest and made large ID badges for each child.  

For each of the 6 ACTIVITES I had planned the children would have to add a sticker after completing each activity next to the activity name. I made direction cards for each activity with a bag of stickers by each station.  

1.  The first activity was the "Hard Hat" area. I had each child place letter stickers on a plastic yellow hard hat to spell out their name.  They got to wear the hats for the rest of the party.     

2. The second activity was to place a vehicle pill into a glass of warm water.  The pill is made of dissolvable gelatin and inside is a sponge that expands into a vehicle of some sort.  At this activity table I took an old pill bottle and placed all the pills I had purchased into it (at least 5 per child)and labeled the containervehicle pills. 

3.  The third activity was "Boulder Toss."  I borrowed a large dump truck toy from a friend.  I made 3 bean bags from gray material and beans.  From a line I had taped on the floor the children had to toss the boulders into the truck. 

4.  The fourth activity was called "Build It."  I had planks of wood with nails already hammered in a little set up. The children had to take one of the plastic hammers and finish hammering in the nails.  One kid liked this activity so much he hit most of the nails in.  But the nails didn't go in they just lend to the side.  If I did it again I would use a real hammer but made sure there was adult supervision for the activity.  

5.  The fifth activity was the hit of the party.  It was called "Sand Construction."  I bought a large plastic storage box and filled it half way with my son's sand box sand.  I placed small construction toys and some small rocks into the box.  The children loved playing with the toys in the sand especially my son.  Part of his birthday gift was the small toys.   

6.  The last activity was "Paint a Construction Truck."  I got lucky and found some construction truck painting sets at the dollar store.  I just set this activity up with some paint and the children loved painting their trucks.  

For DECORATIONS I made signs to look like construction signs that said things like "Kids at play" and "Slow Party Zone."   I also purchased yellow caution ribbons and streamed them around the room.  I had orange and black balloons around the room one for each child to take home.  On the table instead of a cake I took another large toy construction truck and fill it with brownie pieces. I still placed a candle among the brownie bits and sung "Happy Birthday."   

For SNACKS each child got a brown paper bag with a P and J sandwich a juice box and a dump truck shaped cookie that my son and I made. The adults had aBuild Your Own Wrap Station, with sliced meats and condiments.    After each child completed each activity we had a bulldozer shaped pinata. I also gave each child before they left a small bottle of bubble bath with a poem about being dirty after all their work and having a bubble bath on River.

Everyone said it was the best birthday party they had gone to. I would like to thank all the parents who took the time to write out their ideas on this site I couldn't have done it with out you.