Round up all your little buckaroos for a wild, wild west party. This party will surely make you the head honcho on your local Ponderosa.
The Invitations:
Get some 8 1/2 X 11 parchment-type paper at the office supply store and create "Wanted" signs as in:
WANTED!
For a good time!
(child's name)
Date, Time and Place
Burn the edges of the paper for an old-time feel.
The Decorations
You can take this as far as you want - ranging from a few tagboard cacti on the walls to an entire western town created out of posterboard and cardboard boxes. But you must have a cowboy campfire to gather round at chow time. Use blocks or cardboard tubes for "logs" and orange and yellow tissue paper for flames. Stick some glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling and turn out the lights for a midnight cookout on the prairie. If you have any hay leftover from your Down on the Farm party from a few months ago, you can use that here, too.
The Food
Hot dogs, baked beans, and root beer (call it sarsparilla) should please the preschool crowd. Other possibilities: chili, beef jerky, peanuts (serve them in the shell and let them spit the shells on the ground outside!, corn bread, trail mix.
The Activities
If you have a small group of cowboys and cowgirls, you can do these activities one after the other. For a large group, set up the activities in your backyard and have the children move from "station" to "station".
Make a Cowboy Vest Take a large paper grocery bag and cut up the middle for a neckhole. Cut two armholes in the side. Kids can decorate their vests with crayons, markers or paint and cut fringe along the bottom.
Panning for Gold Spraypaint gravel and small pebbles with gold paint. Mix into a large dispan filled with play sand, water and coffee grounds. Give the children sandbox sieves or aluminum piepans to use to hunt for gold.
Barrel Race
Set up objects in a pattern around the yard (chairs, boxes, etc.) Have the children race around the objects like horses - show them how to trot(jog), gallop(skip) and canter (run).
Cowhide Branding
Take your leftover grocery bags from the vest activity and tear out a large asymmetrical shape for your cowhide. Make potato brands by cutting a regular brown potato in half. The children can carve a design into the white part of their potato with a plastic knife. Dip the potato in paint and "brand" the cowhide.
Wild West Bingo
Make up bingo cards with cowboy objects - boot, spur, horse, sherriff's star, hat, lariat, campfire, saddle, chaps, covered wagon, cactus, bandanna, etc. You should be able to design this fairly easily in any word-processing program, and there are many websites with free clip art.
Lasso!
Tie a clothesline to a hula hoop and have the children try to lasso an object.
Give classic games a western twist
Sherriff May I, instead of Mother May I or Pin the Mask on the Bandit (you knew that was coming!).
Square Dance
If the kids are willing to try it, and aren't in that "boys/girls are icky" phase.
About the Author:
Barbara Thomas is a work-at-home-mom to Natalie, age 2. She is a freelance
writer and owner of The Professional
Pen Business Writing Services.
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Round up all your little buckaroos for a wild, wild west party. This party will surely make you the head honcho on your local Ponderosa.
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