Wizard of Oz -5yr- Fairy Wand Craft

Wizard of Oz - 5 year old party  This was absolutely the best party I have planned and hosted!  We had a blast!    The party was a costume party and it invited kids to come dressed as their favorite Oz character or a munchkin. I dressed as Glenda using a lot of my daughters dress up jewelry and my husband wore a tux and was the Oz. My daughter was Dorothy and worn a blue gingham dress we already had and I bought red "Dorothy shoes" from Target. 

For the invitation: I drew a brick road onto a piece a paper then copied the  image onto yellow cardstock paper.  I printed the words on a shimmery vellum which I then overlayed ontop of the yellow paper and attached the two pieces with two hole punch and a ribbon. 

For room decorations:I used yellow plastic tablecloth roll and drew a yellow brick road design onto it with a big sharpie.  I layed this down the sidewalk leading up to the door to where the party was.  In the doorway I hung a green metallic steamer door hanger that the kids had to walk through.  Also, under one of the doors at the entrance I put a pair of "Dorothy shoes" with some stuffed black stockings coming out from under the door so symbolize the house landing on the witch.  Inside the room I covered all tables in green plastic. 

On the main table I used papergoods with the Oz theme purchased from either partypro.com or birthday express.com.  Both companies also sell a paper table centerpiece that I purchased and elevated it on the table by making a stand for it out of florist green foam covered with green tissue.  I used lots of green balloons to decorate too.  I had the Wizard of Oz CD playing in the background too.

When the children arrived we had 2 crafts for them to do: 

The first craft was shrinky dinks which both the kids and moms thought was very cool.  I cut shrinky dink paper into squares about 4 or 5" square.  With colored pencils they wrote on the square and drew pictures.  I got a mom to help me to bake them while the party was going on.  They bake on a cookie sheet for 2 or 3 minutes and shrink down.  This mom attached a small magnet to the back when they were done to make a refrigerator magnet of the kids art. 

The other craft the kids made fairy wands.  I bought white shimmery cardstock paper which I cut into stars.  I got small dowels and cut into 1 foot long pieces.  I spraypainted them white and glued one star to each dowel making a wand.  The kids decorated them by painting on clear glue that already had stars and small confetti in the glue.  Then they sprinkled on additional stars and tied on a ribbon too.  

For games:  For the first game, I divided the group in half - including all siblings and moms at the party.  One group I gave 3 rolls of tin foil, a funnel and masking tape and they had to make a volunteer helper into the tin man using the supplies.  The other group I gave old clothes, a rope, bandanas, a hat and some straw and masking tape and they had to dress their volunteer as the scarecrow.  All ages participated in this game. 

When it was done, I had the kids line up and gave them all 1" size red sticker hearts.  They were each blindfolded and we did a "pin the heart on the tinman" games.  The volunteer who was dressed as the tinman let us stick the stickers on him.  Next I played a game using skittles.  I let the kids lick them and put them on their nose and try to walk around.  The kids actually enjoyed this and laughed a lot as they bumped into one another. 

Next was the cake and food:  I preassembled birthday plates for the kids with a cupcake, a Jell-O rainbow cup and some wands.  The Jell-O rainbow cup I made by using disposable clear cups and layering 5 or 6 colors of Jell-O.  I took a while to make these but the kids loved them the most.  Layer 1 color in the cup then let it hardened, then add the next layer, etc.  The wands I also made by using the small pretzel sticks and dipping half the stick in melted white chocolate then rolling it in pink or green sprinkles.  I also had a small birthday cake so we brought it out to sing with and then brought each kid their plate. 

For the drink I mixed ginger ale and white grape juice and added a green ice cube that I had made ahead of time.  The drink turned green and the kids really loved this.   We opened presents next and then finally we had a piñata.  I made the piñata with my family.  It was a hot air balloon.  We used paper mache to cover a big balloon and then attached a basket with yarn.  It was decorated with tissue paper. There's lots of websites on piñata making to assist you in doing this.  I filled it with candy that I put into small baggies so that each kid got one bag.  I did the piñata last in the party because the kids always want to eat their candy and you've lost their attention at this point.  I handed out party favor bags:  a shimmery bag with a large size swirl lollipop, poprocks candy, a few pieces of gum or other candy, small Dorothy figurine, 2 or 3 Wizard of Oz trading cards.  They also picked up their wands and the shriky dinks too. 

For the siblings that came to the party I also gave them a large size swirl lollipop.  I had unwrapped these lollipops and rewrapped them in shimmmery cellophane and tied with ribbons and they looked really pretty.   Because it's hard to find Wizard of Oz stuff right now, I purchased all these things on ebay.com at very reasonable prices:  Dorothy figurines, wizard of oz confetti, wizard of oz trading cards, WOZ music CD, WOZ video, a lion costume for my other child, and the shrinky dink supplies.  I actually did most of the shopping for this party online using ebay.com, birthdayexpress.com and partypro.com.   The party lasted 2 hours. I had 16 kids along with about 5 additional siblings.  I spent about $150 to $175 on the party and my kids are going to use the costumes again for Halloween!