8 New Year Themed Invitations to Play
Whether you feel super excited or completely in denial about the looming New Year, there’s no denying it’s another fun excuse to create playful learning opportunities for your child! Here are 8 new year’s themed invitations to get your little one imagining, moving, and making:
1. Create fireworks scenes in playdough
Does your child enjoy the magic of fireworks? How about starting their New Year celebrations with an invitation to make their own colourful night sky scenes using playdough and decorations? If you’re feeling ambitious, try making your own black dough for the perfect sensory backdrop, then add pom poms, glitter, sequins, and chopped pipe cleaners for them to create their firework explosions!
2. Practice mark-making in celebratory sparkles
New Year is a time for sparkles, so why not fill a tray with sequins or glitter and invite your child to experiment with mark-making? They can use their fingers or add a tin foil star to the end of a pen or straw to make a quick and easy wand. Let them use their imagination or write out themed words or phrases, such as NYE, Happy New Year, Party, Fireworks, Countdown, and Celebrate.
3. Make party hats with a crown station
Get party-ready with a hat decorating session. Cut a sheet of coloured A4 paper in half and join each half to create a wrap-around crown. Leave out as an invitation to create with paper numbers (e.g., 2023), stickers, pens, paints, glue, and other craft materials to let their creativity free.
4. Invite your child to doodle and reflect on the year
This has to be the easiest activity to set up! Grab some sheets of plain paper (the bigger,, the better) and your pens/pencils, then invite your child to sit down with you for a doodle session. The aim? Draw out some of your favourite memories of the year just gone. This invitation to play will be a nice reminder to pause and reflect on your highlights and give you a chance to hear what’s important to your child.
5. Record voice memos of New Year’s hopes and dreams
No child needs the pressure of ‘New Year’s Resolutions’, but it’s fun to look ahead to the new year and dream. What would your child like to achieve? Where would they like to go? Are there any challenges they’d like to set themselves? Open up your phone voice recorder and record what they have to say. Then let your child ask and record your thoughts too.
6. Get crafty and build your own DIY confetti poppers
Another fun crafty activity, these DIY confetti poppers provide a safe and quiet alternative to shop-bought party poppers but are just as fun.
7. Strengthen motor skills with party slime
Get little fingers moving and strengthen fine and gross motor skills with a themed slime to stretch, pinch, squash, and pull. If you’re familiar with slime making, just use your favourite recipe and add all the party elements you can find (glitter, stars, sequins, etc). If you’re new to slime, try this recipe.
8. Have a NYE family disco
Dim the lights, crank up the tunes, and have a NYE family disco! You could make it a proper event, with invites and a dress code. Or add it to your afternoon plans come New Year’s day. If you don’t own party lights, you can pop this on the TV to bring disco fun to your living room. Glow sticks and bubbles would add to the fun.
For more fun activities to support your child’s learning all year round, browse other Print Play Learn blogs.
