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Spiderman Party 4yr - Web Decorations

May 2003

Mary in North Ridgeville, OH

Special Mention

My son requested a Spider-man party for his fourth birthday.  I wasn't too excited at first, because I favor more general-themed parties over character parties, but it turned out better than I had expected. 

For his invitations, I shrunk and copied several pictures from a Spider-man coloring book and used them to create a "comic book" on a folded sheet of 8 1/2 x 14" paper.  The cover had a picture of Spider-man(of course) and was titled "The Amazing Spider-Man: The Birthday invitation".  Inside were seven frames with the following narration/dialogue:

1(picture of Spider-man jumping)-- "Hey Spidey-fans! Get ready for another spine-tingling, action-packed adventure with your favorite wall-crawling super hero.  Today, we find Spider-man on a mission to let Joshua's friends know they are invited to his 4th birthday celebration."

2(Spider-man and little boy) "Be careful Spider-man. I've heard reports that Scorpion's been sighted in the area!"  "Don't you worry, Josh!  Nothing's going to stop me.  I'll make sure your friends get the invitation. 

3(Spider-man crawling up a wall) "I'd better hurry!  I haven't got much time!  The party's in less than two weeks!" 

4(Scorpion and Spider-man)  "Hey, Spider-man! Where do you think you're going?!"  "Wouldn't you like to know Scorpion! I've got an important job to do - A special friend's happiness is at stake - and not even you are going to get in the way." 

5(Spider-man swinging between buildings)  "I'm on my way again thanks to my trusty web-slinger!"  

6(Scorpion) "Drat!  Spider-man got away again!"

7(Spider-man) "I made it! I've got a special message for you!  Joshua wants you to join him on (day, date, time) at his house for some web-slinging, wall-crawling birthday fun!  Call his Mom at (phone number) to RSVP as soon as possible!  Hope to see you there!" 

I kept decorations fairly simple, decorating mainly the dining room where half the party would be conducted. The other half would be outside.  Using black crepe streamers, I connected four streamers together on the ceiling in the corner and fanned them out down to the floor where I tacked them to the carpet.  I attached short strips of streamer horizontally between the long vertical streamers to look like a spider web. 

At the top of the "web", I attached a cluster of red and blue balloons.   On the large picture window, I made a web-like design from red and blue streamers and placed a Spider-man poster in the center.  The window was framed with red and blue balloons.  On a large piece of white plastic tablecloth, I drew a large spider web and hung it on the wall(this was to be used for a game).  I tied thread to the arm of one of my son's Spider-man action figures and hung it from the center light fixture above the table. 

As the children arrived, I had them color a spider-man I copied from a coloring book and cut out.  When they finished, I blind-folded them and had them pin their Spider-man on the web I had drawn on tablecloth.  The one to get closest to the center was the winner.  I, then, gathered the children together and told them Spider-man was on a mission and on able to be there, but left me a book he wrote to let them know what it was like to be him.  I read a simple reader called "Spider-man saves the day".  I asked them what special thing spiders and spiderman could do that we couldn't -- answer: spin a web.

For the craft, I cut a 10"x10" square of black foam board for each child and using twelve dress pins per circle, made three concentric cirles on each square.  I stuck the dress pins only far enough that they didn't penetrate the back side of the board, and then secured them with a dab of hot glue at the base of each pin.  I provided the kids with a colorful array of embroidery thread which they could use to wrap around the pins and create their own colorful web-design.  When they were finished, each got a colorful plastic spider to hot glue to their webs. 

After the craft, we went outside for a web-relay.  I divided the children in two teams and gave each team two webs made from poster board circles.  The first member of each team had to get to a designated point and then back to their team by placing a web in front of them, stepping on it, laying down the other web, stepping on it, picking up the other and placing it in front, etc.  The first team to complete the relay won. 

For the next activity, they had to swing over a small pool of water on a rope tied to our swing set and climb up the rope net to retrieve a spider ring. 

For the last activity,  I armed them all with cans of silly string and let them practice slinging web at each other.  We then had pizza, hot dogs, veggies, chips, cake and ice cream. I made the cake using the Wilton Spider-man pan, and since it was covered with mostly red and black icing which stains and tastes bad, I used the cake for decoration and blowing out the candles and served cupcakes frosted in blue with a web design piped on them. 

After eating, I took the kids upstairs where I had hid their favor bags.  A very long strand of yarn was tied to each bag and then strung around the upstairs(under beds, around furntiture, etc.).  Each child grabbed an end of yarn and followed and wrapped it around their hands to find their "prize" at the end. 

The favor bags included glow-in-the-dark spider rings, sticky spiders, Spider-man stickers, Spider-man fruit snacks, spider yo-yos, a stretchable spider web, and a few pieces of candy. It was a lot of fun, and my son was thrilled with his party!

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