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Dora the Explorer 4yr - Adventure & Trivia Quiz

May 2006

Christa in Creston, BC Canada

May 2006 Winner

For my Daughter's 4th Birthday she chose a Dora the Explorer theme. I organized & wrote a Dora backyard adventure for 15 kids. It took me months of preparations to put on this 2 1/2 hour event, but it was well worth every minute, when I saw all the kids enjoying themselves. I recommend hiring a teen and accepting any help offered, if you give this type of party a try. This web site was my greatest resorce & inspiration. Be sure to check out lots of the other parties too.

For the invitation I printed up maps. On the outside I printed 1/3 of an 8x11 sheet of paper beige(the colour of map) and on the other 2/3 I had a picture of my daughter with Boots & Dora looking all excited & above them it said "It Aurora's Birthday" Bellow that I wrote: If there's a place you've got to go, I've got what you need to know, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map. Aurora's turning 4, And I can show you to her door, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'M THE MAP! I also put a little picture of map & music notes beside that. On the otherside, I had a picture of the inside of map, I found & changed the stops to pictures my husband drew of landmarks on the way to our house. It read:  Through Creston(our town), past Northtown Rental(our bussiness), to Aurora's Fiesta(at our home)! Come on! Vamanous! Everybody let's go! To Aurora the Explores Birthday Adventure! Please join us for an exciting backyard adventure As we make our way to the Fiesta! On May 6, 2006 From 11am to 1:30pm At Aurora's house. Please RSVP so Swiper the Fox  Doesn't swipe your spot at the party! Once it was printed, I took & rolled it up into a map roll, leaving only the 1/3 of beige colour I had printed showing & tided it with string. Than I printed off a 7 inch long picture of map & used scrapbook stickies to stick Map's picture on the rolled up map. This resulted in an invatation that looked just like the Map on the show & the kids were crazy about it! I like to give my invites 2 weeks in advance to build antisipation for the party in the kids.

I decorated our back porch with 75 orange, purple & pink balloons & with orange & purple steamers. I bought all the Dora the Explorer party stuff I could find at Walmart. They had the best price I found for plates, napkins, stuff like that. From OT I ordered the center piece & the "Happy Bithday" Dora banner. I hung chili pepper lights all along the roof line & set a string of them on the food table, to go around the food. I got shiny paper stars from OT too, that I hung on ribbon, all above the table. The kids were the most excited about the stars. That set the stage for the "Fiesta" part of our adventure. In our front yard I had one of those 4ft. Air filled Dora's on a cake that said Happy Birthday. Close to that I had a folding table we bought at Costco, that adjusted to kid height. I put Dora colouring sheets I printed of the Nick Jr. website & crayons out to keep them busy as we waited for all the kids to arrive. Under the table I had backpacks ready for all the kids & our big adventure(but we are still getting to that). I had a little stereo using bateries, so it was portable, playing the Dora soundtrack CD which I bought at Walmart. This is were I met the kids as they arrived and got them excited about the adventure. I will give Details about what I used as props & prizes for the adventure, as I go through it. As the Kids arrived I greeted them with my daughter "Aurora the Explorer" and told them Swiper the Fox had just been there & swiped the lollypops I had waiting to give everyone. I said, he had put them all over the front lawn & they needed them to each find one, and that would really help me out. At once each child excitedly set out in search of a lollypop, all the while very cautious Swiper might still be around. I loved how they immediately got into our adventure.

The teenager I had hired, would direct them to the colouring table, after they found their lolly & got them colouring & singing along to the Dora songs. I had a Mom help with the stereo to play all the Dora songs for our adventure. Ahead of time we made a list of all the tracks & cues I would use, so she would know when to play them. When everyone had arrived we played the Dora Theme (track 1)(I will give you the track numbers on the CD for if you buy it, and want to use this script). As that played I handed out the backpacks.   The girls backpacks were the ones just like on the show, & I got them as a lot on eBay. The boys packs I lucked out at the Dollar Tree & found single strap packs (simmilar to Deigo's) for a buck each! Inside I had a sheet of Dora stickers (Dollar Tree), Dora pencils (Dollar Tree), flashlight necklaces (OT) & a map I drew leading the way to Aurora the Explores Fiesta. On each pack I hung a star with their names on them, so we didn't have any problems with who they belonged to. Than we were on our way!  This is what I said:   Hola! Welcome to Aurora the Explorers Birthday Party. We are so glad you could come on an adventure with us today. So, we all can enjoy the adventure, let's all listen carefully, stay together & follow Aurora the Explorer as we make our way to the Birthday Party. We have all been looking forward to the Birthday Fiesta, so let's get going, so we can get to the party. 

Now, we want to get to the party but we don't know which way to go? Who do we ask for help when we don't know which way to go? (Kids say map) What did you say? (Kids yell map) That's right Map. Say Map! (Kids yell map)  Louder (Kids yell map)   Let's all get Map out of our back packs and have a look!  Play the map song Track 3.  (The kids were very excited to get out & look at the maps. It was nice to have the Mom's help them so they didn't have to take their packs off). We all want to go to the Birthday Party & Map knows which way to go.  We go through Bubble tunnel, across Crocodile Lake & to Aurora's Fiesta.  Say it with me: Bubble Tunnel, Crocodile Lake, Aurora's Fiesta! Bubble Tunnel, Crocodile Lake, Aurora's Fiesta!  Louder! Bubble Tunnel, Crocodile Lake, Aurora's Fiesta! (Started walking. I had hung stars I made on construction paper with ribbons from our swingset on the way to Bubble Tunnel. On the stars were Dora & Diego pins for them to keep.I purcased the pins on eBay). Lets all look together for bubble Tunnel.  Play Travel Song Medley Track 4. (as we walk) Turn down volume when it says the different stops & say Bubble Tunnel, Crocodile Lake & Aurora's Fiesta instead).  (Stop & pretend to hear something when you get close to the stars by the tunnel) Listen, what is that. Start playing Reach up & catch the stars Track 7.  Wow! Stars! Let's each catch one & put it in our Backpacks. (Moms & teen helped put stars in packs)

Does anyone see bubbles anywhere? (Kids yell yes!) Good looking everyone. Let's all go over to Bubble tunnel. (Bubble Tunnel was a play tunnel from a local toystore. I covered it with a black blanket to try & make it dark inside. To make it feel more organic I gathered river rock at our local river & piled them around the sides. I bought a bubble machine on eBAy that filled the air around the tunnel, with bubbles. It really looked & worked great.) Look at all these bubbles we need to pop some before we go through the tunnel. Everyone start popping bubbles. Play Popping bubbles Track 9.  (Kids really enjoyed jumping & singing as they popped some bubbles.) Now, it might be dark in the tunnel. Let's look inside our Backpacks & see if there is something inside we can use to help us see in the dark tunnel?  Play Backpack, Backpack Track 2.  (I was really glad lots of parents stayed to help the kids get their packs on & off for this part.) Now will a pencil help us see in the dark tunnel? (Kids say No!) Will a sticker help us see in the dark tunnel? (Kids say No!)  Will a flashlight help us see in the dark tunnel? (Kids say Yes!) That's right a flashlight will help us see in the dark tunnel. Thanks for looking with us.

Now let's all take turns using our flashlights, to go through Bubble Tunnel.  (The flashlights were kept out of packs now & worn around the kids necks) (Wait for the kids to go through the tunnel & get kids to pop bubbles while they wait for each other.  Keep playing the Popping bubbles song. Track 2.) Oh wait, the phone is for me? (I had given someone a phone ahead of time that they passed me now. )  Say into phone, I'm kind of in the middle of a birthday party here. Oh Hello, it's Diego & he says it's urgent? (Listen) (Pretend to paraphrase while listening to phone) He says the baby ducklings have lost their way to Aurora's Fiesta & he needs our help. Oh no! They are swimming at Crocodile Lake? We need to save them. (Look at kids) Would you like to help rescue the ducklings from Crocodile Lake? (Kids say yes!) You would.  It's a big job, but I know we can do it! Great! We can do it together! (Back to phone) No problem Diego, I have some kid's here who want to help. Don't worry Diego everything is under control. Wasn't Crocodile Lake on the way to Aurora's Fiesta? Let's look at our maps & see. We have already gone through Bubble tunnel, now what was next? (Kids say Crocodile Lake) Crocodile Lake, That's right!  (Start walking to Crocodile Lake) Through Bubble tunnel, across Crocodile Lake & to Aurora's Fiesta.  Say it with me: Bubble Tunnel, Crocodile Lake, Aurora's Fiesta! Bubble Tunnel, Crocodile Lake, Aurora's Fiesta!  Bubble Tunnel, Crocodile Lake, Aurora's Fiesta! (on the way to crocodile Lake I had hiden a paper cut out I had enlarged of Swiper the Fox in our bushes.) (Stop suddenly on our way to the lake)

Did you hear that! Play Swiper no Swiping Track 37. Does anyone see Swiper the fox? He wants our flashlights. If you see Swiper, say Swiper. Where is he? There is that sneaky Fox! (Say Swiper no Swiping with the song) (This was the best part of the adventure for me. It was so cute to see all 15 of them, all lined up, hands up, yelling "SWIPER NO SWIPING") Good work everybody, now let's keep going! (Get to lake) (Crocodile Lake was a blue plastic table cloth from Dollar Tree with river rocks I had collected all around it. I bought a blow up crocodile pool toy at a local toystore. For the ducklings I purcased the birthday rubber ducks from OT. For the stepping stones I used 4 flat rocks I had found & wrote a note from Dora to tuck under them, signed with a Dora sticker since none of the kids at this party could read yet.)  We made it to the lake, but how will we get across & rescue the ducklings?  If we swim out to get them, we might wake up the crocodile & he might try to get us, or the ducklings? We don't want that to happen. There is no boat to float across the lake. What can we do? We told Diego we would help the baby ducks!? (Stop & think) Look, maybe we could use these rocks for stepping stones? Do you think that will work? (Kids say Yes!) Your right, I think these rocks will make perfect stepping stones for us to get across Crocodile Lake. (Try to pick up a rock & pretend it is too heavy & find a note on the side from Dora, open note & read to kids)

Look! A note from Dora. Dora says these are magic rocks. If we want to use these rocks for stepping stones across the lake, we have to count them in Spanish before we are able to pick them up. Do you think you can help me count the rocks in Spanish? (Kids say Yes!) Let's see, there are one, two, three, four, rocks here. So that means we all have to count to four in Spanish. Let's do it! Uno, dos, tres, cuatro! Say it with me,  Uno, dos, tres, cuatro! Louder! Uno, dos, tres, cuatro! Great work everybody. Now I will put the stepping stones across the lake, so we can take turns crossing, following Aurora and each save one duck. (Wait for all the kids to cross the lake. Moms & teen helped put ducks into backpacks.) I couldn't have saved the ducklings without you! Diego will be so happy when he hears.  We have already gone through Bubble tunnel, & over Crocodile Lake, now what is next? Let's get out our maps & have a look. We went through Bubble tunnel, across Crocodile Lake & now we go to Aurora's Fiesta.

So where are we going next? (Kids say Aurora's Fiesta!)  That's right! Aurora's fiesta! Follow me & let's keep going.  (Started walking towards trees hung with shiny star boxes from OT with Dora fruit snacks inside from Walmart.) (Stop & pretend to hear something when you get close to the hanging stars) Listen, what is that. Start playing Reach up & catch the stars Track 7.  Wow! Stars! Let's each catch one & put it in our Backpacks.  (Kids really liked jumping around catching the stars. I was glad I did it twice.) That was fun & we are almost at Aurora's Birthday Fiesta. We just have a little farther to go. Lets all go over & sit on the stairs at Aurora's Fiesta! (Get kids all over to the porch stairs sitting together for group picture)  You guys did a great job today! We had quite the adventure making our way to the party today.

We popped bubbles & used our flashlights to go through bubble tunnel. We stopped Swiper the Fox from stealing our flashlights. We helped Diego by saving the baby ducklings from Crocodile Lake. We caught stars! And we finally made it to Aurora's Birthday Fiesta! We worked together and we did it! Hooray!  Play the We did it song Track 40. (dance)  (Turn down the music when it sings about stops on the adventure & change to this) We found our way to Bubble Tunnel, and caught some stars ya, We did it! We did it! We did it! Ya! We helped Diego, by helping save the ducklings , We did it! We did it! We did it! Ya! We made it over Crocodile Lake, without any trouble, We made it to the Fiesta & even popped some bubbles. We did it! Whoo! This adventure took about 20 minute for me to do with the kids. It was just the right length of time for a 4 year old. They all seemed to enjoy it, but were ready for a little free time play while we got lunch out.

My daughter wanted Kraft dinner so we served that & all the kids ended up wanting that too. For the adults I had a big mexican buffet that all the parents & grandparents enjoyed. I got most of the food at Costco & it was great. During lunch, while the kids were occupied, I had a little trivia contest for the Adults. They kept their own score & we kept it light hearted. Something like this is nice, and it gets them talking & getting to know eachother. I have a star by the correct answers. I kept the questions pretty easy so people would get lots right.  1.Who is Dora's best friend? A)Benny the Bull b)Boots the monkey \* C)Tico  2.Does Boots speak spanish? A)yes b)no \*Dora always translates 3.What is Dora's cousin's name?  A)Pablo b)Roberto c)Diego \* 4.What colour are Dora's Shorts? A)purple b)pink c)orange\* 5.Who is Obwayla? (please excuse my poor Spanish spelling) a)Grandpa b)Grandma \* c)Auntie 6.If someone were to respond "Si" in Spanish to your question, they are saying….? A)no b)of course c)yes? \* 7.What can you enjoy in Mexico between 2-5 in the afternoon? A)Minyana (SP?) b)cervasa c)siesta \* 8.What plant is native to South America & name comes from the Aztec Language? A)tomatoes \* b)corn c)carrots 9.What is tequila made from? A)wheat b)worms c)cactus \* Tequila is made in Tequila, Jalisco from the Weber Blue Agave cactus. It takes 12 years to mature. 10.Mexico's capital city is? A)Acapulco b)Mexico City \* c)Tijuana  11.What river borders along part of the US & Mexico border? A)Gila b)Rio Grande \* c)Concho 12.From which Indian tribe did Mexico get it's name? a)Inca b)Aztecs \*another name for Aztecs was Mexica c)Conquisitors 13.If you were going to vacation on the Gulf side of Mexico, which city would you visit? A)Acapulco b)Mazatlan c)Cancun \* 15.Aurora's favorite colour is red. How do you say red in Spanish? A)azoule b)verde c)rojo \* For the winner of the Trivia contest we gave 4 vanilla beans (since Aurora was 4 & Mexico if famous for it's vanilla). We got them on eBAy & they smelled heavenly.

After lunch the kids had more free time play. I had ordered a cake in the shape of Dora. It was a great time saver to buy the cake & everyone liked it. I know a homemade cake means more but this is a really labor intensive party & short cuts help.We served it right before gifts. After that was presents. Before we opened presents, I had all the kids sit around with their presents & surprized them by opening confetti poppers all over them. It was a squeeling good time & added to the Fiesta feel I thought. Then she opened gifts & we wrapped things up.  This party was so much fun. The kids are still wearing their backpacks weeks later & now making maps of their own. I hope there is something here, someone else can use. I have been so inspired, by so many other stories on this site myself. Happy Birthday!!!

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