My soon-to-be 7 yr old daughter will be having a birthday party on April 18th. She loves Scooby-Doo so we’re going with that theme this year.
I would like to have the kids solve a moderately complicated mystery during the party. There’ll be about 10-12 kids there all of them 6-8 yrs old. All of them can read.
Actually I need to come up with two types of mysteries in case it rains and we can’t have the party outside.
We live in an apt complex that has a nice sized picnic area with a small playground surrounded by quite a few trees and bushes. Also, in case of rain we can use the building’s party room that has a couple tables and sofa/chairs but isn’t too big (maybe 30’x15’?). It’ll be in the mid-afternoon so there will be plenty of light outside.
Anyway, I’m having a hard time coming up with a mystery and clues. I’m think of splitting the kids into two groups and having each group find small clues leading to a big final clue and then both groups putting their final clues together to solve the mystery. Price is a concern, especially since I just spent an ungodly amount of money getting my car fixed, but I don’t have aproblem at all with using little elbow grease to make things. I can even sew moderately well (and have a machine) if anyone comes up with anything needing that skill.
I know that dopers are really creative so please, help save my sanity and help keep my daughter’s first party with her new school friends from being really lame.
Pretty please?
(I shoulda stuck with the Alice-in-Wonderland tea party idea.)
You could set up a “Murder Mystery” event, in which each of the kids plays a character. You give each kid cards that, at specific times, tells them what they have to say/do to solve the next clue. I think you’d have enough kids for the Scooby Gang, an “owner” a couple of ghosts and the evil person.
If you’re up to it, I’d do some “spooky” things, such as these tricks to move the story along. Kids that age love these sorts of things (I was part of the club that website is from, and I’ve perfomed these tricks for that age group). We even did Scooby Doo last year!
An additional silly trick, which can show the “spookyness” of a space, can involve carrying a helium and an air-filled balloon, holding them so they both look like regular balloons, then hand one to one kid and the other to a second child. One balloon will rise, the other will fall. Great laughs
Sadly. I don’t really have a story line for you, but I’m sure you could come up with something! Other dopers are really creative - I just managed the chemicals!
(I would love to go to this party - you have a lucky daughter!)
Somewhere in the bottom of a toy chest, we have a ScoobyDoo “hide and seek” plastic figure - one kiddo takes it and hides and the other partygoers try to find them when the figure says something - it says something after a few seconds to tip off the seekers. Also, how about hiding a special gift somewhere and handing out clues as to where it is? All you would need is a container of clues written on paper - let them pick them out and hide the gift somewhere in your home or front lawn.
You’ll need to go to the library and check out reference materials - or get a garden book - or print out a few web sites with pictures in color - you’ll see what I mean.
The first clue will be the name of the bush they will find the clue under. They look it up in the book, look under the tree and find the clue. (You may want to have a couple of the pages bookmarked - six year olds don’t have great research skills).
For the second clue write a Haiku or Limerickthat points to something on the playground - like the swings. Tape the third clue to the bottom of the swing.
The third clue should tell them where their “prizes” are. Maybe you can ask some neighbors or other adults (some of the parents?) to be “bad guys” and the third clue could “unmask” the villian (clue could be a photo of the “villian” making a funny face and wearing a hat - they’d have to figure out which adult looks like that in the hat making the face) who would then hand out treats.
Backup plan - same sort of thing but clues pointing to things in the party room. You may want to bring in some props.
You can do two or three preperations and break the kids into groups.
I just did something very similar for 3-4 year olds at a Princess party. They found envelopes (just like egg hunting at Easter), they had to put the numbered envelopes in order, and when we opened them in order, they told a story. They had to go down into the basement, through the door, where there was a castle (one of those plastic things the neighbor had) guarded by a giant (my husband). If they sang to the giant he would fall asleep and they could get their treat bags. Worked great.
