Out of all the themed birthday parties we did over the years, one of the most original and interesting was a Cops and Robbers themed party! We had so much fun gathering costumes from thrift shops and yard sales. One of the costumes was a gangster outfit. Another was a policeman costume. We also had a prison outfit. We made a jail out of a large cardboard box painted black, with bars across a window.
We also created cardboard cars for the car chase. We used computer paper boxes, and we painted one of them green. The other one we wrapped in black butcher paper that I had left over from another project. The top was cut off completely, and the bottom had a circle hole for the kids to fit over their bodies. we hot glued a makeshift steering wheel by placing a Pringles can first against the box, and then attaching a Wii steering wheel to the Pringles can that was hot glued to the front of the box car.
We decorated the dining room with silver and black helium balloons, which we tied to the back of each chair, along with a Happy Birthday sign.
We made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting with sprinkles. Then we created a white frosting star in the middle of the festive cake, adding small marshmallows to the ends of each of the points of the star. Finally, we added a sherrif badge to the middle. We got a package of sheriff badges from a local party store.
We placed a black sheet over the table and sprinkled silver stars over the cloth, along with the remaining sheriff badges. We also had various other snacks.
After cake and presents, the kids went downstairs to play cops and robbers with their costumes, cardboard cars, cardboard jail, and secret hideout in a closet under the stairs. The kids chased each other for hours and had a great time.
We attached a piece of cardboard painted with chalkboard paint against the wall of the secret hideout under the stairs, to write with chalk all the secret plans. I was inspired with this unique idea from the Wile E Coyote cartoons that I watched when I was a child.
The kids had a hilarious time with this Cops and Robbers themed party!
For more themed birthday ideas we’ve done over the years, check out our 31 Days of Themed Cakes.
Tags: birthday party, party, party ideas, themed birthdays
Heya.
I really do love your blog. I find that these type of parties are great to teach children basic skills and techniques in order to start off with. For example I got two sixth grade pupils to count the cakes we sold last week. They have to make me a decent pie chart in addition on the results. And I will ask the fifth grade kids to write a thank you letter to all parents who volunteer tomorrow. Best wishes. I hope that you have a nice week.
My not so little fourth grade classes had a reading test based on the Coronation. Plus I assigned them all a fun research task for their weekly English homework exercise. My third grade children read out loud a text and answered ten questions in literature class. For the first and second grades I will ask them to name me the Kings and Queens. They will do a spelling exam and attempt word searches to improve on their own writing technique.
The whole school learnt songs for the Coronation in music lessons. The entire sixth grade also worked on a portrait in their weekly art lessons. This was one that represented the royal family on the whole. They all now have done a lot of rather fantastic work during this entire term. Seriously. The grade classes have had fun baking pies, cakes and biscuits in the cookery lessons. They have taken part in online research. Then they devised quizzes on historical aspects of life at the palaces in the history lessons last term with me.
Some sixth grade pupils wrote a poem based on the Coronation. It described their feelings. In terms of religious studies lessons we memorised prayers for the royal family. Next we discussed a number of ethical topics relating to the monarch. I printed out a bunch of old articles and requested them to tell me a mini summary. We also looked at several interesting YouTube videos. I showed them all.
That was somewhat fun. We held lively class debates to work on their public speaking ability and examined ethics. In terms of my other classes it was harder. Yet I found a new way around my own dilemma in the end via creative thinking skills and through improvisation. In other simpler words I solved a problem. Go me. The topic of the coronation was a unit study in itself. I found cool online resources to use in my lessons most of the time however.
It sounds like you created a great unit study around the coronation theme this week. I love it!