Dress up the kids in lab coats, safety goggles and gloves and let them have fun doing some basic science experiments using items from around the house.

Invitation:

Take a photo of your child dressed up in mad scientist style gear. My son dressed up in his Braniacs t-shirt over which he put on his karate gi to look like a white lab coat and some safety goggles from a science kit. To make it look like he was mixing chemicals we poured water with food colouring into some test tubes from his science kit. You could put gel in your child's hair and make it stick up straight to give him a real mad scientist look!

Add a mad science background to the photo and some “Mad Scientist Birthday Party” text. I used Baveuse font on the text for the invitation. You can use some fun science experiment wording for the invite such as: Purpose, Hypothesis, Lab location, Data etc.

Dress up idea:

Purchase some cheap white t-shirts that are quite a few sizes bigger than the children attending the party.  Cut down the centre of the front of each t-shirt. Fold the top of the t-shirts back on each side and stitch them down to look like a lab coat with a collar.

Print out some radioactive hazard signs and either stitch or staple one onto the front of each t-shirt.

Find some cheap safety goggles at your local hardware store and some latex medical gloves from your local chemist. My son chose blue!

Entertainment:

Arrival activity:

To keep the kids busy whilst you are waiting for all the children to arrive, give them a dinosaur dig to work on. I buried some plastic dinosaur toys in plaster of paris. You can purchase plaster of paris at your local chemist. Line a smallbowl slightly bigger than the dinosaur toy with glad wrap to enable you to remove the plaster of paris once it is dry. Mix the plaster of paris with water in the bowl until it feels like a thick paste. Bury the dinosaur or whatever you have decided to use and leave to dry. It will take at least a day to dry properly. I recommend you prepare these quite a few days before the party in case you run out of plaster of paris and need time to purchase more. I was surprised how strong the plaster of paris was. They will need some tough sticks or plastic digging tools to break the plaster of paris off. It took the children quite a while to break it all off the dinosaurs. This activity is quite messy so make sure you have them do this in an outside area that is easy to clean. Some of the kids threw the plaster of paris blocks onto the floor to break them up - yes it got quite messy but they loved it!

Experiment relay race:

Once all the children had arrived at the party I divided them into two teams - the Issac Newton and Albert Einstein Teams. With the help of some parents we lined them up along a trestle table for the experiment relay race.

We had 16 kids so we set up 2 sets of 8 experiments along the trestle table. 8 experiments on each side of the table so that the two children doing the same experiment faced each other. I explained to the kids it was a race a bit like a relay. They could not start their experiment before the kid before had finished his. Try to use basic, uncomplicated experiments. I showed each child what they had to do before the race began. I asked a few of the parents to help the younger kids.

For ideas on experiments I used the Priddy Smart Kids Science Book. This book shows you how to use materials from around the house to do basic science experiments. I also sourced some books from the library and used some experiment ideas from a couple of my son's science kits. You could also find some ideas by searching the internet.

A week before the party I got together the items required for each experiment and put each experiment kit in plastic freezer bags. I marked them with the name of the experiment, the order in which they were to be placed in the relay and the instructions. This ensured that set up on the day was quick and easy and no materials were left out in error. You can try out each experiment at home with your own kids a few weeks before the party to make sure they are not difficult, they work for you and you are able to explain them to the kids at the party on the day.

More teamwork fun:

Capture the jewel! The children had to form two teams again and together they had to design and make a contraption to pick up a jewel without using their hands from a specified distance. I gave the two teams each a box of recycled materials including plastic bottles, egg boxes, old blinds, cardboard boxes. I also gave them some plastic spoons, scissors and sellotape. I put a table between each team and the jewel (for which I used a large plastic bead shaped like an exceptionally large diamond on a stand I had covered in tin foil) so that they jewel was out of arms length reach. The kids had a lot of fun with the recycled material. Even once the game was over and the jewel was captured by one of the teams, they carried on making things with the recycled materials. After watching this I thought for a future party all you need to do is bring out a box of recycling materials, glue, tape and scissors and just tell the kids to get creative and make anything they feel like!

Soda fountain:

This was the highlight of the party. Ask the birthday child to drop some Mentos peppermints in a full cola light bottle as quickly as possible (the more you drop in, the higher the fountain goes) and watch the soda shoot up into the air! The kids all shrieked with delight and then lapped up the soda off the table afterwards! This was also very messy but definitely worth it!

More experiments if needed:

Have some more experiments on hand if needed. Ask the kids to help you with each one. Instruct them what to do and watch them be amazed. Make these up a few days before to make sure you have all the items and you know how to do them. You won't believe how excited the kids get over a few small easy to do experiments just using materials you keep around the house. Rainbow milk, volcanoes and blowing up balloons using a bottle were some of the favourite ones.

Fun science party food:

You will find lots of ideas on the internet for treat ideas for a mad science party. We put some sour worms in jelly in small plastic containers to make them look like lab specimens. Some more ideas include test tube shaped cookies with green icing at the bottom to look like slime. Star and planet shaped cookies or chocolates. We found some lollipops that changed from black to red when the kids sucked on them. It is marvellous when your kids get older as they do all the party boxes and baking!

Party boxes:

Print out radioactive hazard signs to stick on the party boxes if you decide to have any or any other fun science signs or pictures that you can find or like. We packed the safety goggles and gloves with the treats inside each party box. We handed out the party boxes on arrival so that the kids could put on their gloves and goggles with their "lab coats". We marked each party box with each child's name so they knew which one belong to which kid. They hardly touched any of the treats inside the party boxes before the end of the party as they were having too much fun!

Team photo:

Take a photo of all the scientists. Not only is this great memorabilia, but you can also print one to include in each thank you note.

Thank you note:

Print out a picture of the radioactive hazard signs or even a picture of your child at the party dressed up in their mad science kit to stick on the outside of the thank you note. Include the team photo of the scientists as a thank you gift with the note.

Prepare to do it again the following year!!

Published: 20 May 2011