Fabulous Fridays: Nuclear Glow Heroes Vs. Villains Party
The Program
We wanted a way to kick off summer reading with our tweens. As we were brainstorming, we came up with the idea of a glow party. To fit into summer reading, we thought we would give it a heroes versus villains theme. Our main goal was to create an atmosphere where the kids could have fun and meet new friends. To do this, we decided we needed glow sticks- a lot of glow sticks.
Supplies
This was a fairly low cost program. The only supplies we had to buy were glow sticks from the Dollar Tree and glow-in-the-dark balloons from Wal-Mart.We spent about $15 on the whole program.
For the music, we simply streamed Radio Disney over the internet. This was perfect for this age group. Most parents would consider the content of the music appropriate, but yet it still has the teen edge the tweens crave.
The Stations
Alyssa and I (Pamela) knew that it would be difficult to get the tweens to dance. To help to curve this problem, we set up some stations for the attendees to do.
The stations were:
(1). The Nuclear Vat
The first station we directed the kids to was a nuclear vat we built out of multi-purpose foam blocks that have been sitting in our storage closet since the dawn of creation. When the kids "fell" into the vat of nuclear waste, they got to choose whether they wanted to make a mustache and become a villain or make a mask and become a hero. The main goal of this station was for the kids to choose a team. The kids spent a great deal of time at this station deciding what team they wanted to be on, and I (Pamela) spend a great deal of time trying to recruit them to the villain side. (mwhahahaha). From there, we had several other small stations.
2. The Dance Section
This program was all about ambiance! I (Alyssa) brought my amazing disco ball to add the the colorful, nighttime atmosphere. In addition, we scattered approximately eighty glow sticks on the floor, which created a really neat effect! As the kids came in, we told them they were welcome to take the glow sticks. As you can imagine, the glowing floor was extremely short lived, (but the kids had some awesome bling!) We also had glow in the dark balloons around the room. The tweens ended up playing with these and discovered that if they held the balloons over the black light, it temporarily charged the balloon and made it glow brighter. Ultimately the balloons were used for a game that involved keeping the balloon up in the air without letting it touching the ground.
3. Black Light Messages
We used a black light that was provided by a coworker and placed a large piece of white paper on the table. We invited the kids to write messages and draw pictures using highlighters. It created a fun glowing effect! The tweens really enjoyed this and as you can see they embraced their hero and villain personas. We found quite a bit of heroes versus villains smack talk on the paper at the end of the program along with other messages. My (Alyssa) favorite said, "Fun Party." I love that the kids had such a good time!
In addition to these, we also had several small stations. We had glow in the dark ring toss (which we purchased at Dollar tree) and glow in the dark bowling. For the bowling, we just used recycled water bottles a small light-up bouncy ball. To go with our atmosphere, we place glow sticks into the water bottles to make them glow.
4. Comic
In addition to these, we also had several small stations. We had glow in the dark ring toss (which we purchased at Dollar tree) and glow in the dark bowling. For the bowling, we just used recycled water bottles a small light-up bouncy ball. To go with our atmosphere, we place glow sticks into the water bottles to make them glow.
4. Comic
We wanted a way for the heroes and villains to compete in a safe way, so we decided to have each team compete to create a giant comic strip. The winner of the comic competition would win the heroes versus villains battle! I (Pamela) lead my villains into battle. We (the villains) made a comic depicting a giant asteroid landing on earth that made everyone evil. I (Alyssa) fought for Truth! Justice! and the American Way! with an awesomely epic comic strip about a giant pumpkin and rainbow minions that attack a city, but are thwarted by the unstoppable Taco Man! The kids spent a large portion of the time carefully depicting their stories and comics. Ms. V. came into judge the comics for us. In the end, Truth, Justice, and Taco Man triumphed and the heroes won the day!
How it Went
Our numbers were record breaking for this program. We had sixteen kids attend! I think the success was due to the shameless promoting we did. Every time we handed out a summer reading card to a tween, we would give them a flier that listed our summer programs for tweens. This had a huge impact on our numbers and I felt like with these numbers it made the program go more smoothly.
The tweens were very receptive to our activities, the other participants, and to us. I do wish we had included another station. We almost did glow in the dark slime, but ran out of time. If we repeat a program like this, I would definitely add more stations.
I (Pamela) think that the tweens really respond well to a free flowing program with many stations. Knowing that works with our tweens, we want to make sure to repeat this format.
What We Learned
The biggest thing I (Pamela) learned was that you just have to get in there and do the activities with the kids. I am finding that talking to them is great, but it is better when you are more involved with the activities. Once I started to hang out with the tweens and did the activities with them, they started to open up to me. I felt like I made a bigger impact in this way. We know now that we cannot direct the activities and just make the rounds talking to them, but really need to be doing it with the kids. I hope to continue this throughout the summer in hopes of getting to know our tweens better. We are hoping it will establish a regular tween crowd and are excited for the rest of our Fabulous Friday Programs! (We just finished our Mario Kart program and will blog about that soon.) Next up: Drawing!
What are some tween programs that you are doing this summer?
Until next time,
Pamela and Alyssa
The tweens were very receptive to our activities, the other participants, and to us. I do wish we had included another station. We almost did glow in the dark slime, but ran out of time. If we repeat a program like this, I would definitely add more stations.
I (Pamela) think that the tweens really respond well to a free flowing program with many stations. Knowing that works with our tweens, we want to make sure to repeat this format.
What We Learned
The biggest thing I (Pamela) learned was that you just have to get in there and do the activities with the kids. I am finding that talking to them is great, but it is better when you are more involved with the activities. Once I started to hang out with the tweens and did the activities with them, they started to open up to me. I felt like I made a bigger impact in this way. We know now that we cannot direct the activities and just make the rounds talking to them, but really need to be doing it with the kids. I hope to continue this throughout the summer in hopes of getting to know our tweens better. We are hoping it will establish a regular tween crowd and are excited for the rest of our Fabulous Friday Programs! (We just finished our Mario Kart program and will blog about that soon.) Next up: Drawing!
What are some tween programs that you are doing this summer?
Until next time,
Pamela and Alyssa
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