I'm not sure where I saw the idea for a "Unicorn and Dragon" party this winter, but when I did I knew it would make a great Saturday program at my library. Unicorns are all the rage at the moment, and dragons make a great addition for those kids who aren't unicorn lovers. The theme appeals to a broad age range and there are so many related program ideas that can work well.
The day of the party finally arrived last week and it ended up being one of my favorite library programs I've done so far. It was relatively easy to plan, and not too expensive. All in all I spent about $100, which worked out to be about $1.00 per attendee. The major expenses were themed cups, plates, tableclothes and snacks, many of which are optional.
The program consisted of 5 stations the kids could go to as they wished. It ended up running for almost 2 hours.
Stations:
I wanted to include a simple science activity that wouldn't require too much adult assistance, so this is what I came up with. Baking soda and vinegar is always a fun combination, and I decided we would add some food coloring to make it fit our theme. I'm not sure if I saw this idea somewhere else or just adapted it from other science activities I've done. I put out baking soda, cups of vinegar mixed with food coloring, medicine droppers, straws, spoons and bowls. The kids were meant to use the straws, spoons and droppers to dribble vinegar onto their baking soda. Some made colorful bowls of bubbles while others made messes. A great time seemed to be had by all.
Craft station
Crafts are included in the majority of my programming, but I find them especially helpful when I do large programs like this. Coloring is great practice for writing, and printing out coloring sheets and other printables is typically pretty inexpensive. For my themed crafts I chose unicorn and dragon coloring pages, dragon puppets and a unicorn mask.
Dragon Ring Toss
I purchased this ring toss set from Oriental Trading. When I do a big program I always like to include something that gets the kids up and moving and this definitely fit that criteria. More than one child commented that it was their favorite station of the party. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of this station in action.
Build a castle
Legos are ever popular and we have a great supply of them at my library. I bring them out whenever possible. To fit the theme the kids were told to build a castle, but most ended up just building whatever they wanted to.
Snacks
A Pinterest search alone shows so many snack options that fit this theme. It was almost difficult to narrow down the ideas to a few for each mythical creature.
For our dragon themed snack table I served potato chips (dragon scales), Bugles (dragon claws), and dragon poop (marshmallows covered in green candy melt).
At our unicorn themed snack table we had unicorn fruit snacks, unicorn snack cakes and unicorn poop (multi colored marshmallows).
In addition to our stations we also did a dragon hunt with pictures of dragons hidden throughout the library. Kids that found all the dragons got a "Dragon Hunter" badge I printed on address labels.
Overall it turned out to be a really fun program that drew in wide range of kids. As always feel free to use these ideas or ask me any questions you may have.