If the idea of planning entertaining activities for a horde of energetic children gives you a moment of panic, fear not. Heidi Carafano, a children's party planner, tells us that crafts keep the kids busy and provide them with a personally created party favor. Collages are an easy activity to prepare and require no artistic ability at all. All you need to do is collect materials and supply pictures or paper on which to glue them. Use your imagination to gather small articles from around the house, or go to a craft store where you can purchase a multitude of items perfect for this activity. At this birthday party, in keeping with the dinosaur and cheerleading themes, the children create their collages on photocopied pictures (figure A). Carafano sets all the materials in separate bowls on one table, which she calls the Craft Salad Bar. There are beads, stickers, sand, pebbles, sequins, pom-poms and paper cutouts that the children can use to decorate their pictures. Another table is set up as a worktable. The girls can incorporate a photo of themselves into the cheerleader collage and decorate it with pom-poms and letter stickers. High school cheerleaders come to the party to teach the girls cheering routines and to help them make their own cardboard megaphones. The boys go on an archeological dig in the sandbox, uncovering bleached chicken bones that they use with molding clay to create their own museum exhibits (figure B). Bleaching the bones beforehand is easy. Simply boil the bones, clean with detergent and bleach or leave them out in the sun. The boys will have fun finding the hidden treasure beneath the sand and will have an original souvenir to take home.
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