Alien Attack Party Fun!

by Jessica Barba
(Wilmington, NC, USA)

ALIEN INVASION

Are you ready to plan an out of this world party for your school-aged children? Well, this fun filled activity is sure to send your children to the moon and back. I originally planned this activity for a large group of 5th grade children that had met their specific reading goals.

The children were divided into teams of 4 with 1 adult per group. Each team is following clues to find their way to the "Mother Ship". Alien balloons (just regular latex balloons with alien eyes drawn with a sharpie) were strategically placed around the school at "Alien Spotting Sights". Depending on the number of children that you have playing, can determine the number of clues/sightings you use to set up the game. Since we had about 40 kids, we divided them into teams of 4 with 10 clues per group.

Each group started with a different clue, yet all lead to the final "Mother Ship". We had to get a lot of teachers and staff involved to make the Invasion a success, but the kids had an AWESOME time! At each location there was an "Alien" that was trying to capture/keep the group from continuing on with their journey. They had to defeat/win an alien themed game to get their next location.

At the beginning of the games each player was given a brown bag to place "Alien Specimens" into. At each location they would collect "Specimens" to take with to the "Mother Ship". The "Specimens" were alien tattoos, slime, rubber balls, stickers, candy, alien headbands, pencils, alien figures, etc.

Students knew they were trying to find 10 items before they were headed to the final location. So, keeping them all in a bag made it easy to keep track of. Students didn't want to miss any prizes along the way. All were either bought from Oriental Trading or created with items from the craft store. Any prizes can be used to create an element of excitement. If you don't want to include prizes along the way, kids can just use a check list to mark their "alien encounters". As the kids scattered, running towards their first "sighting" location, they found that the aliens were a tough crowd. The challenges that the aliens required of them were not easy...

1. Kids have to keep 5 alien balloons in the air for 1 min

2. A stack of 50 clear cups has 1 cup with an alien face drawn on one cup at the bottom. Students have 1 min to move the cups one at a time from top to bottom, trying to get the alien cup at the top.

3. Students are stacking cups in a huge tower to block the aliens! Students have 25 cups and have to create a pyramid in 1 min.

4. Students have a nylon stocking over their head (with a tennis ball inside the bottom of the stocking) they have 1 min to knock over 2 aliens (Soda cans wrapped with construction paper/alien eyes drawn on) without using their hands. This is hilarious!!! The kids loved it!

5. The aliens want to see how fast the kids can shake it-in this challenge the kids have a belt tied to their waist-a Kleenex box with ping pong balls is attached through the belt. The kids have to shake the ping pong balls out of the Kleenex box without using their hands in 1 min. Another really funny game to watch!

6. In another challenge, aliens are testing for focus and determination. Students are given a craft stick to place in their mouth and have 1 min to stack 5 dice on the stick.

7. One location was an "Alien Capture" in which the students were "test subjects" and given alien tattoos. If they didn't want a tattoo they were able to just keep it in their bag. They were forced to stay at this location for 3 min!

8. In another challenge, tons of balloons were blown up, decorated like aliens, and filled with the letters: A-L-I-E-N. Each group had to pop balloons until they spelled the word alien. We pre-divided the balloons so that each group had to pop about 20 balloons.

9. We had one special "Encounter" in which the students received a raffle ticket from an alien. They were to keep the ticket until the end when special prizes would be drawn. Since not all teachers would be able to help with games at this time, it was easy for 1 or 2 teachers or office staff to just hand out a raffle ticket, pencil, or sticker. It also helped with time management issues.

10. The last "Alien Invasion" stop was the same for all students. We created a code that students had to solve to find out where the "Mother Ship" was located. The code was created on a free code maker website for kids. The final clue led all groups out to the playground where teachers were waiting.

The first group to "arrive at the mother ship" was rewarded with a special Alien Blow-up doll-Oriental Trading. While all other groups received "Alien" treat bags-just brown bags with alien eyes drawn on, filled with candy. Each child that participated donated 1-2 bags of candy that were used to make treat bags for all students. We also gave extra prizes when we did the "Alien Encounter" raffle drawing. Students got pencils, erasers, and extra candy. Overall, the students had just as much fun on the "Invasion" as they did earning prizes. This party/treasure hunt can easily be altered to include less/more/different prizes. My students from last year said this was the most amazing celebration they had ever had. I agree! I hope you enjoy!

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