{Rainbow Fairy Science Birthday Party!}

Rainbow Magic Fairies

Science Adventure:

An Exciting, Colourful Birthday Party!

Princess Pea turned 7 last week, and this year she really tested my creative party planning skills by requesting a 'Science Fairy' party! (Erm...sure, honey, I can do that!) So, I put on my party planning hat and set out creating a Rainbow Magic Fairies Science Adventure party! It needed to involve fairies, magic, science experiments, and plenty of colourful fun! Read on to see what we did to create this super-fun, super-colourful, crazy party!

Rainbow Magic Fairies

Her favourite books are the Rainbow Magic Fairies series [affiliate link]. If you don't know it, check it out, they're actually pretty good books if your child is into imagination and adventure. The stories are well-written and she also likes that there is a fairy with her name, her sister's name, and the names of pretty much all of her friends, too - there are over 100 books in the series, each named after a different fairy, so there's a good chance you can find one with your daughter's name, too. Although they are fairies (inherently traditionally 'girly' to some extent), the fairies themselves have a variety of interests, so something to match most any interest your children may have - be it animals or sports or dance, or whatever. I think they've really helped my 'girly-girl' to widen her horizons, and I appreciate them for that. 

+ Love of Science

That said, there are no 'science fairies' in the series, so I needed to get creative! Since science is her favourite subject at school, she really wanted to combine those two loves into one birthday party theme! (Eh...lucky me!)

My budding scientist :-)

= Rainbow Magic Fairies Science Adventure!

So, I put on my party planning hat, and set out creating a Rainbow Magic Fairies Science Adventure Party (whew, what a mouthful!) It needed to involve fairies, magic, science experiments, and lots of colourful fun! (While most of the experiments were done with household items, I did order this science kit [all product links in this post are affiliate links,] which gave us some special harder-to-get ingredients as well as 'professional' equipment such as test tubes and droppers. But mostly we used empty yoghurt pots and medium and small squeeze bottles.) 

I created a story to build the party around. In the series, the antagonists are Jack Frost and his band of dull-witted goblins, who always cause trouble by messing with the fairies' magical items that they use to control events in the human world. So in our story, Jack Frost was deliberately mixing up all the colours in Fairyland, which the fairies use to colour our world as we know it, and the fairies needed our help to sort out all the colours again. 

I'll share more about the details of the experiments in a series of shorter posts, but for now, here's a glimpse of how the party actually went. I don't, unfortunately, have pictures of all of the experiments they did, but here's an overview:

The Letter

The party started off with the girls receiving a letter:

"Dear friends,

What’s your favourite colour? Everyone has a favourite colour… Mine is green, like the grass and the leaves on the trees… But I also love yellow, like the sun and daffodils, pink like roses, blue like the sky…. in fact, I love all the colours of the rainbow! Just think how dull and boring the world would be without colours... 

Well, as it happens, that is exactly what the evil Jack Frost wants! The colours you see all around you in the human world are controlled by the fairies in Fairyland. But Jack Frost and his band of wicked goblins have mixed up all the colours in Fairyland, and now the fairies are all mixed up and confused! And if the fairies don’t get all their colours back and sorted out, pretty soon all the colours in the human world will disappear! 

The fairies in Fairyland are very worried and we are asking for your help… You will need to use your science skills, some science fairy magic, and your powers of observation (looking carefully) to help us sort out all the colours! Work together with your friends. Remember to record all your observations in your science notes so you can remember how to fix the colours. 

Thank you for always helping us! You are truly wonderful friends.

Yours sincerely, 

Fern, the Green Fairy"

The girls were then divided into small groups, each with an adult/helper. Each girl got a packet with the letter, the rest of the story including the directions for all the experiments, and science notes pages for each experiment if they chose to record their observations (some did, some didn't - my daughter took it very seriously, haha!) Then they each got a pair of science goggles to wear (we borrowed them from our science teacher friend), which they thought was really cool!

Magic Fairy Crystals

The first thing they had to do was mix up some Magic Fairy Crystals. 

"The Science Fairies have some SPECIAL FAIRY CRYSTALS that have magic powers. They have sent us some to give us temporary magic fairy powers, so that we can help the rainbow fairies to find all their colours."

Over the course of the party, the tiny magic crystals (which were really water beads) grew bigger and bigger and they had fun playing with them at the end.

Fairy Waterfall

Next, they had to help find the colours in the Fairy Waterfall:

"In Fairyland, there is the most beautiful, crystal clear waterfall that flows into a lake with a rainbow volcano in the middle! Unfortunately, Jack Frost has turned all the water in the waterfall and lake purple!"

Fairy Waterfall Experiment

Hidden Colours

Next was the Hidden Colours experiment:

"Jack Frost has cleverly hidden colours all around us so the fairies won’t find them! See what colours you can find hidden in these everyday liquids."

Hidden Colours Experiment

[Read all about how we did the Hidden Colours Experiment here.]

Test Your Fairy Powers

 "Have you been checking your magic fairy crystals? Are your magic fairy powers working yet? Let’s test them and see…"

They did a cool surface tension experiment to see if their fairy powers (that they'd gotten from the Magic Fairy Crystals, of course) had kicked in yet.

Magic Milk

Now that their fairy powers were working, they were ready to make some magic!

"Now that your magic fairy powers are working, you can make some colours come alive."

    

 Magic Milk Experiment 

Make A Boat

They had to put their understanding of basic physics to work with the next activity. 

"Make a boat to help the fairies float across the fairy lake to where Jack Frost and the goblins are hiding. Choose whatever materials here you think will help you. Then test your boat to see if it floats."

Boat Building

Rainbow Volcano

Their final experiment involved lots of colourful, fizzing fun!

"Lookout! The Fairyland rainbow volcano is about to erupt! Hopefully it will help us to get back some more colours!"

Rainbow Volcano Experiment

Rainbow Blast

The grand finale was blasting Jack Frost and his wicked goblins right out of Fairyland with this Rainbow Blast experiment (otherwise known as elephant toothpaste!) We used a slightly stronger concentration of ingredients to make it really blast out.

Rainbow Blast Experiment

And finally, the girls had fun mixing up their own magic potions and eating some rainbow snacks! 

Mixing Potions

Rainbow jello cup snacks

Rainbow Magic Fairies Birthday Cake

(made by my incredibly talented friend, Masha)

Some party planning notes:

Since the experiments required a lot of set-up, I decided to forego fancy party food and just order pizza instead - plus some fruit/veggie plates and rainbow jello cups. (Can't have a rainbow party without rainbow jello, right?)

I recruited a 13 year old helper to take one of the groups so that each group would have an 'adult' to help them with the experiment directions. We also made it more manageable by only inviting a few friends.

We held the party outdoors, but even so I wanted to minimize the mess as much as possible, so each experiment was set up on a tray or in a large baking dish. It worked well at containing the mess, and the clean up was really easy.

The girls each took home their story/experiment packet (with explanations of what all the 'magical' ingredients really are, in case they want to do them again at home), their boats they had built, and a Rainbow Magic Fairies book as their party favour.

We ordered this fairy-themed party set.

A happy birthday girl!

All product links in this post are affiliate links. By clicking these links, at no extra cost to you, we get a small percentage of the sales cost in exchange for advertising the products from Amazon.com.

{Cool Dinosaur Small World Play}

Cool Dinosaur Small World Play

with Play Dough and Nature Items

This dinosaur small world play scene was a big hit at Sweet Pea's dinosaur birthday party! The kids had so much fun playing with it, and it was really easy to set up in about 10-15 minutes with just a little preparation ahead of time. All I used was some no-cook homemade play dough and nature items collected from the garden!

A few days before her party, I made several batches of no-cook homemade play dough in 'earthy' colours - shades of blue, brown, grey and green. To make the brown I first tried mixing red and green food colouring, but it made more of a greyish colour (which I used as 'rock' in our dinosaur world.) Then I found it worked much better to make brown if I just added some cocoa powder instead - and it smelled divine, too! In total, to fill our whole sensory play table [affiliate link], I made 5 batches of this no-cook homemade play dough recipe. I stored it in resealable plastic bags to keep it soft and fresh.

I flattened the play dough down in sections to make different landforms - blue for a lake, grey/beige for sand/rocks, brown for mud/earth, and green for grass/forest.

Then I went out to the garden and collected some bits and pieces of nature - clippings from some bushes, bits of grass, twigs, rocks, wood chips, and some flowers. I brought them in and placed them around the dinosaur world - bush/tree clippings, grasses and flowers in the grass/forest area, wood chips and twigs around the brown parts, and rocks to section off areas.

I used some brown play dough to form a volcano shape and rose buds and petals to make the red lava. Then I hid our Playmobil dinosaur set and all the dinosaur toys [affiliate links] I could find in amongst it all.

Doesn't it look fun?

If you have a little dinosaur lover, too, you might also like our Decorated Dinosaur Eggs and our Rainbow Dinosaur Dig!

Follow Mama Pea Pod's board Dinosaur Fun on Pinterest.

{Rainbow Dinosaur Hunt Sensory Play}

Rainbow Dinosaur Dig

Sensory Play

For Sweet Pea's 4th birthday we had a dinosaur themed party. I wanted to keep it easy and not too organized for the kids (all three and four years old), so I tried to have a balance between party games and less structured 'station' type activities. This rainbow dinosaur dig sensory bin was a huge hit! Digging, scooping, pouring, rummaging, squeezing, sifting - the sensory table was the centre of the party action!

To make it, I simply poured in lots of rainbow dyed* barley, rice, tiny star-shaped pasta and lentils, buried some little dinosaur figurines (some regular hard ones and some squishy gummy-style ones [affiliate link], too, for extra sensory stimulation), and tossed in whatever else I could find on hand - some feathers, pipe cleaners, large wooden beads, some wicker balls, and some fake petals. I added a couple of wooden scoops like these [affiliate link] and that was it.

Colourful, playful, sensory play - a preschool party hit!

*To dye the grains, simply put some in a resealable plastic bag, squirt in some food colouring and hand sanitizer and shake like mad. Then lay out in as thin a layer as possible to dry.

Subscribe to Mama Pea Pod for more simple play ideas directly to your inbox - including more dinosaur-themed ideas coming soon!

{DIY Dinosaur Costume}

Easy DIY Dinosaur Costume

(From Old Pyjamas)

Do you have a dinosaur lover at your house? Sweet Pea is into dinosaurs these days. She turned four yesterday and we are busy preparing for a dinosaur-themed birthday party! Her birthday request was for me to make her a dinosaur costume for dress-up play. As a beginner sewer, this sewing project seemed daunting at first! I turned to Pinterest and saw this and this example, got some advice from a friend, looked through my box of fabric bits to see what I had on hand, and then set out to see what I could come up with on my own. What I discovered is a way to make a DIY dinosaur costume that is actually quite easy, even for beginners, and I just love the final product!

First I took a pair of Sweet Pea's favourite old pyjamas that were too small (as it happens, they had a dinosaur printed on the top, which is why they were her favourites.) I used just one leg of the pyjamas to make the tail. Then I found some shimmery green fabric from an old costume that didn't fit. I used that fabric to make the spikes, but you could use the other PJ leg if you wanted to. 

To make the spikes: To cut out the fabric for the spikes, first I cut a triangle out of cardboard (I used an old cereal box from the recycling bin). I traced around it on a double layer of the green fabric to get my first spike. Then I trimmed about half a centimetre off each side of the cardboard triangle and used that to make the second spike slightly smaller than the first, and so on so that each spike was slightly smaller than the last (see photo below.) I sewed the spikes (right sides in if there's a right side to your fabric) along two sides and left the third side open. Then I popped them right side out and poked the corners straight with a blunt pencil.

To make the tail: I cut the pyjamas up the middle seam, separating the two legs, and continued down the seam to the bottom of one leg. Although the leg fabric was more or less triangular when laid flat, I trimmed it to make it come to a narrower point at the bottom by simply folding it back into its original 'leg' shape and then trimming freehand. 

I laid the open edge of the spikes along the cut edge of the PJ leg - on the right side of the fabric and with the spikes protruding inwards, not upwards in the spiky fashion they end up in. The spikes were in order from the smallest at the end of the tail to the largest at the top. (Be sure that the spike's edge sticks out further than the edge of the PJs.) Then I folded over the PJ fabric so that the two edges were on top of one another, with the spikes inside, and sewed along the whole length together. 

Then I turned the tail right side out and stuffed it loosely with a bit of batting. Finally I just sewed straight across the top to close it up, but I sewed it so that the top lies flat across her back, not flat along the centre seam of the tail, if that makes sense. This way when she wants to wear it, I can just pin it to the top of her pants and it will fall flat and be more comfortable.

To make the top: I was going to use the dinosaur pyjama top, but since it was already too small I thought she'd get more use out of her dinosaur costume if I used a larger top, so instead I used an old t-shirt of her sister's. I cut it open up the centre of the back, and followed the same procedure with the spikes as I had for the tail - laying the spikes in size order on the right side of the t-shirt with the spikes poking downwards, then folding the other edge of the t-shirt fabric on top and sewing along the entire length. 

Finally, I turned it inside out and was relieved to see that I had a super cute dinosaur costume for my little dino lover!

Have a dinosaur lover in your household, too? Here are some great ideas for dinosaur-themed birthday gifts and party themes - and a sneak peak at what we're doing for Sweet Pea's birthday! [affiliate links]

       

{Why a Play House is the Perfect Toy for Imaginary Play}

Simple, Creative Play with a Play House 

Let Their Imaginations Run Wild!

Peekaboo! How's the weather?

Imaginary play is definitely the number one choice for playtime at our house, and the addition of a play house has really helped to make our children's imaginary play come to life! Imaginary play is a key ingredient in growing creative kids and has huge intellectual and emotional benefits for children. It allows them opportunities to explore hypotheses, problem-solve, role-play social situations, develop language and literacy skills, and work through emotional stresses. 

Imaginary play: Super sleuth on a bear hunt

Having a play house has given our kids so many opportunities to expand their imaginary play, and having a 'life-sized' structure to play out their scenes in makes it all that much more real to them. In fact, we actually have two play houses - a wooden play house outdoors and a cardboard play house [sponsored link] indoors - to support their imaginary play.

Play house picnic party
at the 'ballet studio'

Below are some of the ways they play with their play houses and some suggestions for props. I recommend placing a basket of mixed accessories in or next to a play house and leaving the rest up to them. If your child wants to engage you in the play, follow their lead instead of trying to direct the play. Chances are, your child has much more imaginative ideas than you could dream up! If your child needs a nudge when it comes to imaginary play, try picking up a prop and starting the ball rolling with an inviting prompt. Something like, "Oh, thank you for this lovely invitation to your tea party! What can I bring?" or, "Excuse me, Doctor, but my baby has been coughing all night. Can you help?" will likely be enough to trigger a scenario in your child's mind.

Making the play house into an art gallery

Some ways that our play houses are used: [affiliate links provided to some of our favourite props]

*House - they play family roles, baby care, tea parties. Possible props: baby doll, tea set.
*School - Possible props: paper, pencils, math manipulatives, their homework!
*Farm - Possible props: stuffed animals, watering can, baby bottle (for feeding baby animals), vegetables (real or pretend)
*Ice-cream stand - Possible props: scoops, empty ice-cream containers, cash register, play money
*Art gallery - Our girls have drawn their own art inside their indoor play house, complete with frames. Possible props: paper, markers, paint or crayons, homemade paper frames
*Puppet theatre - The windows of a play house make a perfect stage for a puppet show! Possible props: puppets, piece of fabric taped up for a curtain
*Tent/Camp - Possible props: sleeping bags/blankets, pillows, marshmallows
*Circus - Possible props: leotards, hula hoops, stuffed animals
*Book nook - a play house makes a wonderful, quiet spot to read. Possible props: basket of books, cushions, lamp (we have the cord running out of a window to the outlet)
*Shop - Possible props: cash register, play money
*Gardening/Garden centre - Possible props: watering can, kids' gardening tools, plastic flowers and pots
*Dog breeder's kennel (a favourite these days!) - Possible props: toy dogs, ribbon to use as a leash, brush, bowls
*Rabbit caretakers - Possible props: stuffed animals, real or pretend carrots
*Dentist office - Possible props: flashlight (our kids use these invisible ink pens with UV lights), medical mask, tongue depressor
*Doctor's office - play medical kit  
*Vet - play medical kit and toy animals
*Picnics - serve a snack inside (way more tasty than when it's eaten at the table!)

Our decorate-your-own indoor play house

Our indoor play house is a Villa Carton XXL House [sponsored link], which is a brilliant creation - a cardboard house that comes flat and pre-printed in black and white to look like a country farmhouse that you put together and let your kids colour/decorate themselves! My girls (and I) LOVE Villa Carton products (you can see our review of the Villa Carton City Blocks here). They are the perfect combination of creativity and imaginary play. And while it would be possible to make your own cardboard box house out of a regular box, my girls love the 'real house' look of the Villa Carton house (and Daddy Pea much prefers it to having a regular cardboard box in the living room!) To colour it, they used a mix of paint, markers, and crayons (they especially enjoyed colour-mixing to make brown paint and using it to paint 'mud' on the tractor!) They added their artwork in frames that they painted on the inside walls. You could also make pretty paper frames with an open top to change out the artwork. They strung up some sweet star-shaped fairy lights inside, and have kitted it out with a cosy blanket on the floor. As you can see in the pictures, the colouring and decorating are ongoing (which is one of the things I love about it - both the creating and the play go on and on!) Our next project will be to make some paper bunting to add to it.

Imaginary play: Tea party for Pinkie

For more pictures of how my girls created and decorated their play house, click here.

(Please note that we received the Villa Carton XXL House for free to try out for review. As always, all opinions expressed are my own.)

{Fly Away Butterfly - Easy Colourful Puppets}

Fly Away Butterfly:

Easy Colorful Butterfly Puppets Crafts for Preschoolers

We've been watching this Butterfly Colors Song video on YouTube over and over and over again. My girls (aged 6 and 3) love it. My 1st grade beginner EAL students love it. And it's a fun resource for teaching colours.

We made easy butterfly puppets to go with the video so we could perform along with it on the screen. 

Simply cut out a butterfly shape (I used the die-cutter [affiliate link] at school since I was making them for a whole class, but you could easily draw your own template or print one from here). We made one per child per colour, so six butterflies each. At school we made them single-sided with a craft stick [affiliate link] on the back, but the ones we made at home were double-sided, with the craft stick glued in between.

Then have your child colour the butterflies to match the colours in the video. You can also have them add further decoration with sequins, glitter glue, tissue paper, feathers, [affiliate links] etc. in the same colour.

Then play the video and have your butterflies dance along as you sing the song together!