Music Party

Age of Birthday Girl: 6 years old
Age Range of Guests: 5-10 years old
Gender of Guests: boys and girls

Potential Age Range of Theme: 2-12 years, depending on specific focus & activities

This party was before everyone had an iPod (remember those days!) and so the focus was on making or creating music, not just listening to it.  The kids ranged in age from 4-9 years old, and included both boys and girls.

Invitations: Unfortunately we have lost our photos of the actual invitations.  However, they were something very similar to this.

We took black card stock and attached pieces of sheet music to it. Then we placed a black music note on a smaller piece of white card stock, placing that on top of the music. We then wrote "you are invited..." in silver ink on the music note.  The back of the card had the party information for guests.

Cake: Using two 9x13 cakes we placed one on top of the other (with frosting in between the layers). Then we carved the front part of the piano shape out of the top layer, being careful to save some of it in decent shape for the piano bench.  Both layers were carefully shaved and shaped around the other end to form the grand piano profile.

The whole thing was covered in frosting - we opted for white because that is what our daughter wanted, but you could try for a black grand piano if you wanted to go that route.  The piano shape was outlined in pink frosting and we added a "6" for the birthday girls' age.  The piano keys were added with black frosting.  You could also use fondant for the keys and other accents for a cleaner look.

Activities: First the guests created some rhythm sticks to be used in later activities.  Wooden dowels were covered with decorative tape and ribbon.  They also created tambourines made out of paper plates. Ribbons were used to tie small bells to the plates through holes punched around the edge.

The kids used the sticks, tambourines, and their hands for clapping to create rhythmic patterns with their names, or favorite ice cream flavors, or favorite colors, tapping to the beat of the words.


Then the kids were given small instruments (shakers, bells, tambourines, etc.) and were asked to copy rhythms that the party girl's dad made more and more complicated with each repetition - they loved his crazy variations which ended with a complicated selection that went on for so long that Dad fell over from exhaustion!!

The kids watched the Do-Re-Mi sequence from "The Sound of Music" and then recreated a section of it as a group.  Each child was given a card with the note from the musical scale and a picture to help them remember which one they were given and then they sang along with the video, standing and sitting as their particular note came and went - a bit chaotic, but lots of fun!

Goodie Bags: The kids all took home their rhythm sticks and tambourines.  In addition they all received a shaker and musical stickers.  Pencils and notepads were included with music themes and the rest of the bag was filled with a variety of candy.