5-Year-Old Car Racing Birthday Party

After scouring Pinterest for activities to use for Lee's birthday and finding little more than food table ideas, I decided to add our pictures to the melting pot.

Opening Activity: Painting Cars
Supplies: smocks, brushes, paint, wooden cars, bucket of water for washing hands at the end, rags to dry hands, covered table, two or three parents to supervise.
 

















Transition Activity: Car Racing
Supplies: Match box cars, Vinyl gutter or carpet tube or board of wood.
Directions: Have kids race match box cars down a ramp. We used this activity to keep the children busy while we cleaned up the painting table. If you wanted to make this more of a game, you could have the children pick a car and see which one goes the farthest.

Featured Activity: Children's Race
Supplies: Side walk chalk and spray paint to outline the course on the cement and grass, starting and finishing line, cardboard boxes of various sizes, one large refrigerator box for the car wash. We had all the children bring their own vehicle. We also had a grand-parent play "cop" with a whistle and pool noodle. He threatened to thump any child who went too slow.
Course: We had the children race down a hill and crash into a giant pile of cardboard boxes, then they went through the car wash, around a tire, back through the carwash and across the finish line.
Car Wash: I punctured the top of the refrigerator box with holes and then secured old shredded T-shirts into the holes. I also tied several sponges to the end of the T-shirts and had a parent spraying children with a spray bottle as they went through.
Race: Each child completed the course on his or her own. Their parents were responsible for making sure their child stayed on course. We timed each contestant and wrote their time on a mini-trophy tied to a balloon. After cake and presents, we announced the times and passed out the trophies.





Photos taken by Luke Shackelford and Robin Cox.

Comments

And it was a HUGE hit! such a fun party!!!