Science Birthday Parties
The Wall Street Journal ranked “science shows” as the top birthday party choice for children in a recent poll, and parents are getting into the action. Armed with some simple supplies from around the house, a few science recipes and a bucket of creativity. Janet Spears, a first grade teacher from Vidor, Texas, shared pictures from her son’s birthday party.
My son was in my classroom this year and we did SO many of your experiments. So many that he decided to have a “science” birthday party. We did lava lamps, slime, Ivory soap in the microwave and, of course, Mentos and Diet Coke. WOW! They had a blast! I wanted to send you a picture of the coke and mentos experiment we did at Garrison’s party. This was the highest ever! It even went out of the picture. The kids sticking their tongues out trying to catch the coke while the scientist is running is particularly funny.
For my son’s 7th birthday party, we had a mad science party…the invitation said “ooze on over for a good time.” We began by mixing a bunch of ingredients…green kool aide, gummy worms, etc… in a test tube with a little dry ice in it. We poured it in a cup and had the bday boy drink it. We then hid him behind a curtain and turned him into a mad scientist with a wild wig and goofy glasses. For our experiments, we made lava lamps, bouncing balls, and alkaselzer rockets. My husband made a catapult and we shot marshmallows and then the kids made mini catapults with paint sticks and plastic spoons. We also used magnets…we hotglued mini magnets onto the back of race cars. The kids used magnet sticks to make the cars move. We raced them down the driveway. My son and I had made a huge volcano. We used boxes of baking soda! It was a great ending to our awesome party!
For our son Will’s 6th birthday party, we had a science party. His grandfather is a scientist and he has inspired Will in many ways. Will was also a scientist for Halloween last year.
At the party, we set up hands-on science centers (a microscope, petri dishes with live bugs in them to observe, they filled plastic test tubes with m&m’s (to take home, and made “molecules” connecting DOT candies wtih toothpicks. We did the hard-boiled egg in a bottle experiment, chromotography experiments and the grand finale was a volcano eruption.
All of the adults wore real white lab coats and the kids (to protect their clothing) wore lab coats made from white kitchen trash bags. We marked clear cups like beakers and served drinks out of them. The color scheme was slime green and silver. We put up signs that had the table of elements and scientific symbols. When kids were finished in the science stations, they could watch the movie “Flubber”.
The invitation for the party had Will’s photograph on it (he was doing a science lab at the Smithsonian). The invitation read:
Time to experiment
Time for science tricks
Time to celebrate BIG “˜cause
Will is turning six!
Will’s grandmother made the cake which featured molecules and test tubes.
Party goodie bags included science stickers, a magnifying glass, home-made ooze, a packet of Atomic Science Kool-Aid and a notepad and pencil for “scientific theories”.
I have many photographs of the party if you would like to include it on your site. Everyone had a great time and many of the guests and parents realized how fun science can be!
We love your show and blog! Thank you for inspiring us, too, Steve!
Felicia (and Will) Hymer
Collegeville, PA
I have had several people ask about photos of the cake for this party, etc. Happy to share those!
A search for the words “birthday party” and “science” at Amazon.com will bring forth a number of outstanding books with more ideas then you will be able to use.
I am on the road in Chicago and can’t go to my libary but I know I have three or four of them and they are great.
However, the easiest is just to look about Steve’s website and enjoy…..
I never thought about having a science party. My son is 9 and is a science geek. I read Steve’s newsletters, watch his videos but haven’t got around to trying a lot of the experiments. My son’s birthday is in May but we usually have his party in June so that would be a great time of year to have this kind of party because we can get the yard messy and not my house. Thanks for this idea.
How do you make the lab coats with white trash bags? Do you have a picture or pattern?
we are planning our science party but just wanted to share our lab coat idea for halloween last year my son was a scientist and we took an xtra large white button front shirt we found at a thrift shop cut the sleeves (and hot glue seamed them) leaving it hanging unbuttoned it looked awesome
Wendy – Thanks so much for the idea!
Hi there
Please could you put me in contact with Felicia Hymer, Sept 14 2006? I would love to see a photo of the science party cake as I am trying to make one for my son’s party.
I would be really grateful, thank you so much
Leanne Finck
For my daughter’s 9th birthday party we had a “science” party too. My daughers love to do the experiments on this web site, because they don’t do this kind of learning in school. We decided to share what we learned at her birthday party! We wanted the other kids to have as much fun with science as we were! So, we showed her friends and our relatives how to put a scewer through a balloon, and how balance 10 nails on the head of one nail. Then, we let them all try it themselves and explained how it works. We made corn starch goo and talked about how it changes forms, and then they all played with glue slime that my daughers had already made. The kids all had a blast! We sent them home with “Science Goody Bags”!!! Each kid got a box of corn starch with directions to make goo as well as the directions to make glue slime – and the magic ingredient (Borax).
Hi
My son is having a science party and I would love to get in contact with Felicia Hymer, Sept 14 2006.
We would love to see there photos of the party and cake.
She has some fantastic ideas!
Cant wait to chat
Cheers
Marinka