Celebrating New Year Eve as a childcare provider can be tricky. It's such a fun holiday to celebrate, but most childcare centers and in home daycares are obviously closed well before midnight. Last year shortly after New Years I came across the brilliant idea of a "Noon" Year's Eve party. When I first came across this concept, I knew I definitely had to try it out, and so to finish off 2023 we had our very first Noon Year's Eve Party
Theme and Decorations
Other than the obvious theme of Noon Year's Eve I really wanted to make this party super fun and so I decided to make our party glow themed. All the Parents were asked to send their children to daycare in brightly colored or white clothing. I ordered a two pack of low wattage black lights and one small rotating disco black light. These were installed around the room. I tried to use materials I already had here to decorate the rest of the room, so a few days before our party after work I made a Noon Year's Eve 2024 banner with neon paint to hang on the wall. For our bulletin board I stapled black construction paper to the board for the backdrop, added some brightly colored sparkly stars, and cut out and stapled up 2024.
Disco Black Light: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1Q28M39?th=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=weth030c-20&linkId=e045f71bfaa6a3bb0dee47dfac31a06b&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
Books
Before we began our Noon Year's party all the children gathered in our Large Group area to listen to a story. I choose the book "The Night Before New Year's" by Natasha Wing. Throughout the book I asked questions relating to the story and asking the children how they might celebrate New Year Eve at home. While admittedly this isn't the most exciting book, I do feel that it does a great job explaining the tradition of New Year Eve and can lead into great discussions about how different families can have different traditions.
Get the book here: https://amzn.to/4ba5YXN
Activities
The first activity we did to kick off our Noon Year's Eve party was Glow Necklaces. I set out a couple baskets of neon and glow in the dark pony beads and gave each child a white piece of stretchy string that was knotted at the end. This is an easy activity that even my youngest daycare children (2 years old) can do, and a great activity that helps build on decision making and planning skills. We were not in full glow mode for this activity as I felt the younger children might need some extra light to string their beads.
Neon painting: Each child was given an apron to wear and a piece of white cardstock. I set out a few paint trays on each table loaded with neon paint and set out foam paint stampers on each table. We were in full glow mode for this activity allowing the children to see the full effect of the black light on the neon paint. They were so excited seeing how bright the paint glowed under the lights.
To create the equivalent of a ball drop I decided on a neon balloon and confetti drop. To make the balloon drop all you need is:
3 trash bags cut down the seams
tape
neon balloons
pastel tissue paper
push pins
Step one:
Take two trash bags cut down the seams and tape together the short ends. Next take your third cut trash bag and place it along the long edge you just created with the other two trash bags to make a T shape. This will be your balloon holder.
Step two:
Attach the balloon holder to the ceiling using push pins. I pinned each corner to the ceiling and left some slack so there was room for the balloons.
Step three:
Blow up your balloons. The size of your balloon holder and the amount of slack will determine how many balloons will fit inside. I was able to fit about 30 varying sized ballons inside mine. Place the balloons inside your balloon holder.
Step four:
Take your pastel tissue paper and cut it up into little pieces. Next take the pieces of tissue paper and sprinkle it over the balloons inside the holder. and your balloon drop is ready to go.
About thirty seconds from noon, I had Alexa start a countdown. Once we got to about ten seconds left all the children started counting with the Alexa and getting excited. Once the Alexa got to one, I took a pair of scissors and cut down the middle of the garbage bags, so the push pins stayed secured in the ceiling, and down poured the confetti and balloons. I allowed the children to play in the balloons and confetti and turned music on for about ten minutes.
Our last activity of the day was crown making. Each child was given a thick black strip of construction paper and a small cutout of 2024. I placed neon crayons and stickers on the tables and the children were instructed to color their 2024 and decorate their black strip of paper. After each child was done coloring their 2024 and decorating their construction paper strip, they brought it over to me and I attached the 2024 to their strip of construction paper and stapled the ends together to make a crown.
Open Play
During our open play times I had glow tic-tac-toe set up on our sensory table. I made this using neon tape to make the tic-tac-toe board and then used cardboard and scissors to cut out x's and o's and wrapped them in neon colored tape. The o's were neon yellow, and the x's were neon orange. I also had our mini puzzle blocks out on the table for the children to play with as most of them are very brightly colored.
What to Improve on Next Year
All in all, this Noon Years Eve party was a total success! If I had to make any improvements, I think I would definitely do more balloons for the balloon drop next year, and I would love to find a way to incorporate a resolution or goal brainstorming session into the day. I would love to add in some themed snacks or meals next year as well. I love creating fun meals and snacks that match our themes or holidays and it gets the children excited to eat their meals.
This post contains affiliate links
Commentaires