My nephew asked me to surprise him with the theme for his sixth birthday so I decided to throw him a "Shark Attack" party!
The front door was decorated with BEWARE SHARK to give him a hint of the theme before he entered.
I was super excited to find these shark fun foam hats at the Dollar Store.
The table centrepiece
The Desserts
The idea for the cupcakes came from the book "Hello Cupcake" by Karen Tack. They ended up being a bit of a disappointment because during the night all of the sharks collapsed. With no sharks I had to quickly decorate some more fish cupcakes in the morning.
Using a clean shark sand toy as a mould this jello shark took a lot of trial and error. Finally what worked best was to spray the mould with cooking spray and to use one cup of hot water for an 85g box of jello. I did not add any cold water. Let set for a least three hours and until the jello is not sticky to the touch. Turn onto serving plate and lay a warm cloth over the mold for a few seconds to loosen.
The Presents
Unable to find any shark wrapping paper I just wrapped the present in blue, cut a shark fin out of construction paper and stuck some fish stickers on it.
On the outside of the card I wrote "Fishing you a Sharktastic 6th Birthday" the template for the inside of the card can be found at www.candlewick.com/book_files/076362229x.kit.1.pdf
Activities
Shark Photos - This activity played double duty as a party decoration. I found a shark colouring sheet on the Internet and drew it to a larger size on a piece of blue Bristol board. I cut out the mouth and added a few teeth. Then I mounted it on a piece of blue display board(the kind used for displays at science fairs - available at craft and office supply stores). I added a few fish that I printed off the Internet and made some waves using blue streamers. The party guests took turns having their pictures taken inside the "sharks mouth"
Shark Says - I printed and cut out fish colouring sheets off on coloured card stock and hooked a paperclip through their mouths. On the backs I wrote different activities like "Shark says... Spin around in a circle while making a fish face" and "Shark says... Sing a song about a fish" on a couple I wrote "Shark Attack". Using a magnetic fishing rod purchased from the Dollar Store each child took turns catching a fish and doing the activity on the back. When a "Shark Attack" fish was caught everybody got excited and tickled the "fisherman".
Save the Fish - I put some water and a little blue food colouring in a large plastic container and threw in a few small sea animals and a shark sand toy. Using a toy butterfly net the children took turns trying to "save the sea animals" while avoiding catching the shark. The sea animals were then divided up among the children to take home as a party favour.
Party Favours
