Our theme for baby Bean’s 1st birthday party was all about her favourite nursery rhymes and familiar songs and was lots of fun to prepare and age appropriate for all her little baby and toddler guests who attended!
When baby Bean turned one earlier this year we had a little get together with our regular Mums and tots group in our home and celebrated with a Nursery Rhyme and Favourite Songs party, with lots of playful activities set up for them to engage in independently while we drank our coffee and enjoyed some cake!
The songs we focused on were:
Twinkle twinkle Little Star
Old MacDonald had a Farm
The Wheels on the Bus
Pat-a-Cake
Row Row Row your Boat
Little Miss Muffet
I set out some play activities around the downstairs of our home for them to find and play with, and hopefully sing along to as they did so.
Row Row Your Boat:
In a long packaging box I placed a toy wooden boat, some passengers and a crocodile for singing the song with props.
Row, row, row, your boat,
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is such a dream
(and also “If you see a crocodile, don’t forget to scream”!)
Pat-a-Cake:
On the table I set out some baskets with strawberry and vanilla play dough (using our super easy 4 minute no-cook recipe here), and baskets full of muffin cases, cookie cutters and candles for making and decorating cakes with. There was also a letter B for “marking with B”, and little trays for pretending to put it in the oven with too!
Pat-a-Cake, pat-a-cake, baker man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can,
Pat it and prick it and mark it with B
Put it in the oven for baby and me! (clap along the rhythm with baby as you sing)
The Wheels on the Bus:
I painted a large cardboard box with red paint, with the big girls’ help, and added some markings to turn it into a number 12 London bus! Then we added some Union Jack paper plates as wheels using split pins and cut out some windows to turn it into a play bus to sing inside. This could probably have sufficed as Bean’s birthday pressie as she loved it!
The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round,
The wheels on the bus go round and round, all day long (then sing wipers/ doors/ children/ driver/ bell etc)
Old MacDonald had a Farm: (below top left)
I filled a wooden tray with shredded yellow paper to represent straw, then added some toy farm animals and some farmers to the mix, ready for singing and playing through each verse of the song using the little props to help!
Old MacDonald had a farm, EIEIO
And on that farm he had a cow EIEIO
With a moo moo here, a moo moo there, here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo, moo
Old MacDonald had a farm, EIEIO! (sing again with a new animal and sound each time)
Little Miss Muffet: (bottom right above)
We simply covered a cushion with a green play silk to become the tuffet, then added a doll to become Miss Muffet, a little bowl and spoon and a handprint spreader that we made previously.
Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet
Easting her curds and whey
There came a big spider
And sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away!
5 Little Ducks:
In a water tray we had a 5 Little Ducks play scene, with repositionable window pictures behind it. Read the full post about this activity here.
5 Little Ducks went swimming one day,
Over the hills and far away,
Mother duck said “quack quack quack quack”
And only 4 little ducks came back” (repeat and count down to 0, then they all swim back again!)
After a free play time we gathered them altogether on our laps and had a sing along, singing through all of the nursery rhymes and favourites songs from the morning and many more! We did lots of hand clapping and actions with some other favourites such as Wind the Bobbin up, Sleeping Bunnies, Zoom Zoom Zoom and Wide Wide as the Ocean.
Then we had a yummy lunch and at going home time there were hand made Twinkle Twinkle Little Star wands to take home for each child. These were made from felt and thin ribbon and were lovely for twirling and waving to music. (Easy DIY post to follow soon!)
Birthday girl wore a homemade twinkle star tutu (see our previous easy no-sew tutu tutorial here) and looked quite adorable (she had just woken up to find all her guests waiting for her in this picture, aww!) She had a fabulous time and insisted on wearing the tiara herself!
We LOVE playful birthday parties! See ALL our other Birthday Party themes that we have done over the past 4 years here! Or jump straight to another 1st birthday party with a rainbow theme here!
Cakie: 4.6
Pop: 3.0
Bean: 13 mos
I don’t know how you do all that you do, but you are hugely inspiring. Such fun ideas. Thank you for your blog and your emails. I love them!
this is so much fun – thanks for sharing!
Fantastic idea, Happy Birthday to Poppy!
What a fantastic idea! I love all the details. Such fun!
Oh the joys the babies at that party would have had with all those different toys.