Scooby Detective Party - Pin Tail on Scooby

Invitations:  Can be in the form of a fax or card. 'Name of child' Detective Agency requests your presence to help solve a crime.  Also add date, time, etc.  TOP SECRET file folder addressed to Agent --from the ACME detective agency. The inside had the party details written in white crayon to be invisible. Agents were instructed to rub a q-tip dipped in colored water over the inside to reveal the "coded" party details (when , where etc.)  Use file folders for the birthday invitations.  On the file folder cover write in big black marker "Confidential".  On the inside tape/staple a cryptic message about the whereabouts of the party so that it can only be read by using a mirror.  Can be in the form of a fax or card: Scooby Doo and the Gang request your presence to help solve a Birthday Party Mystery! On the inside write the party details in white crayon to be invisible. Leave instructions to rub a q-tip dipped in colored water over the inside to reveal the "coded" party details (when , where etc.) Encourage the party goers to dress like detectives.  Blazers, hats, long overcoats, etc.

Decorations:  Empty jewelry box, footprints cut out of construction paper, finger prints (dip fingers in ink and put on white paper) cut out.  These can also be enlarged with a copier.  Place jewelry box in center of table (you will put clues for the jewel hunt inside). Place finger prints on and around. Footprints go on walls (clues will be on the backside), floor etc.  Also, use appropriate graphics to spice up the room - Carmen San Diego or Scooby and the Gang.    Cake:  Use your child’s Detective Agency Logo or Acme. Before frosting or before baking place one candy inside the cake. Who ever gets this 'jewel' gets a special prize. 

Carmen SanDiego Cake:  Use a bundt pan and make two separate cakes.  Place the first cake on a plate upside down.  Add icing on top so the second cake will stick. Then place the second cake on top of the first cake right side up (you know you did it right if the flat bottom's of both the cakes are in the middle).  Now your cake should look like a ball and you can decorate it to be the world!!!!   If you need help making the continents make copies of pictures from a book and either use them as a stencil or just color and lay them on the cake.   For a Scooby Doo Party, Serve a giant dog bone cake.  Serve scooby snacks.              

Make brownies and cut them into small squares, decorating each only with one letter.  I put each letter in a row to form a word, thus creating a crossword puzzle effect ("Happy" "Spy" "Party" "Evelyn")  Don't you need clues to work a crossword puzzle? 

Goodie Bag:  Briefcase: Make out of paper lunch bag. Cut off two inches, form handle out of remaining and cut out center.   Fill with small notepad, pencil, mini magnifying glass, badge (make out of paper and contact paper or use as an activity and let the kids make these themselves).  Decoder Watch. Here's how to make, Need: Ribbon, cut to fit wrist. Match boxes, white paper to cover them and Velcro. First, write code inside slide out match box, easiest to write on paper and paste in. (Code is simply A=1 B=2 C=3--J=10--Z=26). Glue ribbon to back in center. Attach Velcro to each ribbon end. Draw watch face on top of Match cover. 

GAMES & ACTIVITIES Scavenger Hunts: see Scavenger List on the ideas page.  Crime Scene Evidence Collection  For older kids, find interviews or bio's of celebrities, singers, etc on-line.  Copy these on pages, labels Mystery Singer/Celebrity #1 with out their name.  Let the kids figure out who is who.  To make it even more interesting, make the print small, so they must use their magnifying glasses to read the text. You Name It: Find items that make noise. Each team of kids try's to guess what the items are. Winner has the most right.  Find the Jewels (a treasure hunt): Pass out the briefcases. Kids use their decoder watches to figure out clues to take them to a small sacks of jewels (bags filled with chocolate coins and colorful candies. This may take some time.  Make a word game with secret codes.  Play CLUE  Scooby piñata    

Pin the tail on the Scooby     For a mystery have a picture of Scooby, cut it into puzzle pieces and place a piece in each child's goodie bag.  Have them put all the pieces together to solve the mystery OR for a non-Scooby party  Put the puzzle together.  Go through People and Teen magazines and find a pictures of celebrities or band celebrities that you know the kids would recognize. I cut out the pictures and glue them on construction paper to give it a harder texture.  Then cut out the picture into puzzle pieces.  Put the pieces of the picture in a brown paper (lunch) bag.  Each child is given a bag and told to put the puzzle together, then guess who the mystery person is.     

Guess the person taped to your back.  Again find some celebrity pictures from magazines and cut them out.  Have the kids pair up and one volunteer to have a picture taped to their back.  They then have to ask their partner yes/no questions.  The first one to guess it right, get a prize.  Give all kids goodie bags at the beginning with play money (detective salary), play binoculars, play magnifying glass, a pencil, a mini spiral notebook, and  label the bags with Detective (kids name).   Introduce  yourself as the Chief of Police and and state that while setting up the party, a thief stole the bat for the piñata and you need their help finding it. Tell them the suspect had a bushy tail, was about 2 feet high (make a wanted poster with picture of it and hand them out to them at "briefing") and took off in a wagon labeled "Scrooge squirrel…birthday thief".  

You might also say he stole the whole bowl of popcorn, all the potato chips and the cooler of sodas.  You'll have them running all over the park or neighborhood  following trails of coke cans, popcorn crumbs and potato chips which led them to the back of your vehicle or other spot which has the stuff in it!  You could even have someone inside dressed as a squirrel (or other character) ! The kids can then arrest him, jump in the vehicle and have him drive them over to the party.  Let the kids set up the party with the 'found goods.' Make a wanted poster on computer - Take Polaroid pictures of or Digital camera pictures of the kids- dressed up in trench coat, slouch hat and dark glasses!  Makes a fun take home item. The poster can say: "Wanted for breaking international fun allowance laws"  List the child's "alias", and say they were 'seen ' in the company of a notorious spy (or detective) (the birthday child).  Thanks for the idea..  Play the board game Stare.  You look at cards for 8 seconds then try to remember what you saw by answering question.