I think this was my most difficult party to throw. A group of sisters-in-law approached me, one of them having a son who was turning five. The others had children too, all of them preschoolers that were not yet in elementary school. (This is the best age group for this kind of party.) One of them suggested a "When I Grow Up I Want To Be" party.
This was a difficult theme because there just weren't that many activities that came to mind for this type of party that didn't involve worksheets or that actually taught the kids what they'd have to do to become the occupations they wanted to be when they grew up. Plus how do you meld all of their different chosen occupations into one coherent party?
I always made it a point to meet with my client(s) beforehand so I knew exactly what they wanted in their party. All of the kids that would be attending the party were present at this meeting so I brought my digital camera along, some sheets of paper and a Sharpie. I wrote down what they wanted to be when they grew up and took their photo with their sign.
I wasn't sure what I'd do with these photos but I always listen to my intuition. They ended up on a wall in my house as part of the staging. The kids like seeing their photos displayed.
invitations
I decided to go with a construction themed pop up toolbox card. I found it easiest to prepare all of the tools and toolboxes you need first, then write out all of the invitation information slips, thencomplete all of the cards in the final step.
I made the front of the card in my computer graphics program as well as printed out the invitation insert. The toolbox on the front of the card, the crane and bulldozer are stickers.
Front of card
Invitation insert
For the front of the card if you're going to do something like the above, then you need to print the outside of the card on WHITE card stock so the colors print true.
staging
For my living room focal wall, I used a $4.77 backdrop and hung orange balloons in front of it.
$1.09 from Factory Direct Party.
I used the kids photos I took on another wall to display them. I framed them with leftover fringe curtains I had from doing the focal wall and found yellow valances at Goodwill - $5 for 6 of them.
staging downstairs
While you most certainly can adapt what I did to your own party, you don't have to go to the extremes I did in staging my party area downstairs. But I was going to use that staging as the primary party activity. I set it up downstairs because I had plenty of wide open space to work with.
I built 'occupational units' for the occupations each child had told me they wanted to be when they grew up. Each of these units was manned by an adult in that specific occupation.
I threw out all of my old party photos when I moved, thinking I wouldn't need them anymore. So I had to cobble together the illustrations below to give you some kind of a visual of what I did. I also had to downsize those illustrations to fit on the page here. But these occupational units I built from corrugated cardboard were kid-sized so the kids could actually play in them.
Note: My units did not have the figurines shown.
For example, there was one little boy who wanted to be a policeman and another who wanted to be a military policeman. I built a police department and jail and since I'd been a cop, I manned that unit.
Using white card stock I had on hand I printed out fingerprint cards on my computer and taught the kids how to roll fingerprints. [Note: have plenty of Wet Wipes or something on hand to clean the ink off their fingers!) I told them what education one needed to become a policeman and the recertifications a cop performed annually to stay a cop, what we did when we booked someone into jail, etc.
I'd set up a mugshot area and with my Polaroid camera, took each child's 'mugshot'.
Everything was made out of corrugated with the exception of the jail cell bars, which were wooden dowels I had on hand and was looking for a way to use.
The mugshot height chart was lines made with thin black duct tape and I wrote the heights in with a black Sharpie. The props were gear I have left over from being a cop and I dressed in my old uniform.
The only thing I purchased for this unit was 2 packages (8 photos each) of Polaroid film. They were a lot less expensive back then but now Target has them for $20 per pack.
Next door to the police department and jail I built a Military Police Officer training center that was manned by a Natl. Guardsman MP dressed in his uniform, who explained how to become a military MP.
Again, everything was constructed of corrugated cardboard except the flagpole which I had, the photo backdrop ($20) and the jeep ($25).
The gods were smiling on me while planning this party. I was at a rummage sale hunting for stuff when what do I find? A kid's pedal jeep! SCORE! It was the last day of the rummage sale and the woman holding it just wanted to get rid of anything left.
She'd priced the jeep at $50, I got it for $25 and it was in good enough shape that I didn't have to do a thing to it.
That future military policeman pedaled that thing all around my basement and then outside. When he won one of the other activities, I gave him the jeep as a prize.
Just to see the look on his face alone was worth the $25.
But if the kids parties gods aren't smiling on you, you can make a jeep out of corrugated.
Just upsize the pattern to make it kid-sized.
Next door to the military police camp was the hospital, manned by a doctor and surgical nurse. (My entire family is in the medical professions.) They told the kids what education was necessary to become a doctor or nurse, how to listen to the heart with a real stethoscope, how to take someone's pulse, how to perform the Heimlich manuver if someone was choking, how to stop bleeding, what to do in a medical emergency. They also explained what all the different monitors were for. The surgical nurse explained what happens before, during and after surgery so the kids wouldn't be afraid if they ever had to have surgery.
I did purchase one item for this unit - a medical trolley for $28.52.
My family let me borrow anything else I needed, like the IV pole, gurney, etc.
One of the boys wanted to be a pharmacist like his dad, so I attached a pharmacy next to the hospital and the boy's dad was kind enough to man that unit for me and teach the kids about being a pharmacist.
For that unit I only purchased a photo backdrop for $14.
Everything else was corrugated except for te mortar and pestle, the prescription bottles and the computer screen, all of which I had.
Next door to the pharmacy was the fire department, manned by a volunteer fireman from our local fire department. He taught the kids how to make a fire escape plan in their own homes, what to do in case fire broke out, how to put certain fires out, and what physical shape a firefighter had to be in to do their job and be a fireman. He even let them try his gear on to see how heavy it was. (To which our future fireman said "Boy! I better start pumping iron!" LOL)
I also made a corrugated fire truck the kids could drive in and out of the fire station.
Tutorial here
Next to the fire station was the school, manned by an elementary school principal. He taught the kids what one had to do educationally to become a teacher or school administrator, how they drew up lesson plans, what school administrators and school boards did.
The parents had a bit of a "turn the tables" on the kids surprise planned for this unit. They acted as unruly students and each child got the chance to be the teacher and try to get the students and classroom under control. It was HILARIOUS watching the kids try to do this! Most them gave up and threw their hands in the air. (Sometimes the best teacher is simply to put the shoe on the other foot!)
Everything in my school unit was corrugated, however I built only 2 rows of desks because one of the kids wanted to be an artist. So in the back of the classroom I set up my artist's easel, some of my art supplies and let her have at it.
I did cheat a little in that I borrowed some child-sized chairs for the kids to sit in rather than building them out of corrugated and I used my metal lockers in the basement for their lockers.
I had one young man that wanted to be a rock star. That unit was an easy set up. I used a theater backdrop I'd used for another party so I hung that. I was a musician in my younger days and played several instruments that i still had so I set them up and lit the "stage" with some of my spotlights from in stash.
[Note: I did NOT set up my amplifiers, just set the mic out, disconnected. Nor did i connect any of the instruments. Still, you'll want ear plugs if you have a blossoming rock star among your guests!]
Obviously, i didn't have any rock star to man this unit...but I had performed professionally (including once on public TV *cringe* and had recorded 2 records in a recording studio) so I did know a smidgen about trying to break into the music business so did double duty and manned his unit after the law enforcement unit. I told him how hard it was trying to break into the music business, about all of the hours I practiced every day on all the different instruments I learned to play, how one had to take voice lessons, etc.
Last but not least...the birthday boy wanting to be a construction worker. I set this up outside the patio door to my basement. I wasn't about to spend $40+ on an above ground pool so I bought 2 plastic kiddie pools - one smaller than the other - and filled the smaller one with sand I got from the town shed. (The supervisor was a friend of mine so I got the sand for free.) However, you can purchase bags of playground sand.
One pool was 36" diameter, one was 45" In diameter.
Incidentally, you can use the larger pool the day of the party for another activity that appears under "ACTIVITIES:.
I put my brother's Tonka trucks in and around this pool with some beach buckets and shovels I had from another party.
I wanted to keep the rain and debris out of the smaller pool I'd filled so used the larger pool to cover the smaller pool.
I found 2 plastic kiddie pools from Walmart $18.00 total.
That completed my downstairs 'occupational units' staging at a cost of just under $106 for all 8 units.
How long did it take me to build and paint those 8 units? About 2 weeks, working on them part-time.
Normally, preschoolers have the attention span of a fruit fly. But the kids played by themselves in and with these units for 2 hours...and likely would've kept playing with them had we not had to move on to eating, birthday cake and opening birthday presents.
And what I found so surprising was that the adults got into the occupational presentations as much as the kids did! (Which I hadn't counted on) I had to chuckle to myself in that the parents seemed especially interested in the "Here's what happens when you go to jail" presentation! HMMMMM!
tablescapes
I decided the easiest thing to do would be set up 3 card tables for the kids - one construction table for the birthday boy, one medical table and one fireman table, each with their own themed tablecloth.
Construction tablecloth: $8 at Amazon
Medical tablecloth: $7.17 from Temu
Fireman tablecloth: $11 at Amazon
These were all rectangular plastic tablecloths so had to cut them to size to fit card tables.
Rather than buy themed disposable dinnerware for each of the different themed tables, I decided to use reusable plastic white and gold dinnerware on all of the tables because it was far less expensive.
For $35 I got 50 of each size plate, the cups, and some heavy duty plastic silverware and white napkins from the dollar store.
My mother had (and kept) the entire set of vintage Tonka trucks my brother had as a kid so I borrowed some of them for staging.
The dump truck was the centerpiece of the construction table and I filled the back of it with mini candy bars in construction wrappers. $10
For the medical table centerpiece I took a glass jar, sewed a white coat to fit it and put a piece of styrofoam into the glass jar into which I'd hot glue the centerpiece elements.
I scattered rolls of Lifesavers around the base of the centerpiece.
That was the most expensive part of the centerpiece - $22 for 20 rolls of Lifesavers.
White coat pattern and tutorial
My hubby's hobby to relax was crocheting - taught to him by none other than football legend, Rosey Grier on a flight together to Arizona. Hubby was a firefighter and one of his first crochet projects was this fireman's tote.
I never had the heart to throw it out so dug it out of my cedar chest for the party.
I filled the tote with homemeade fireman helmet suckers.
The helmet candy mold I have is no longer made but you can get a mold here.
party favor bags
I wanted each child to have a party favor bag associated with the profession they wanted to be. Buying favors in bulk for each occupation would be ridiculous in price...so I ordered plain white party favor bags that you can get at Amazon.
Then I decorated them myself to illustrate the different professions I'd need for each child.
You get the idea... The gavot bags wentat each kid's place setting according to their chosen occupation.
Each child's bag ccontained something from their chosen profession. For example, the medical bags got a toy doctor play set, the police bag got toy handcuffs and badge and so on.
The only thing I bought 12 of were these rock star ducks because 2 of them would be used in a later activity. So a complete set of 3 went in the wanna-be rock star's favor bag.
(Whenever I can plan something to do double duty, I do.)
I added some candy to each of the favor bags.
I found most of these toy favor items at dollar stores so these individualized favor bags didn't break the budget.
food/menu
I was feeding both the parents and the kids so made a few more selections than I normally do for just kids.
I made Italian meatballs (wrecking balls) but included sub sandwich buns, marinara sauce kept warm in a slow cooker, shredded mozzarella and grated Parmesan cheeses to make meatball subs. I boiled pasta wheels to the kids could make a 'spaghetti' style pasta dish for their meatballs.
I also made ham and cheese rollups.
I made mini salad cups of Caesar salad with mini bottles of salad dressing.
How to make wet paint Rice Krispie bars
I set everything up buffet style on my pantry counter.
activities
Make a When I Grow Up fortune teller. Here's the pattern.
Make a paper fortune teller with the kids and let them draw different occupations on it that they would be interested in being when they grow up.
Provide crayons or markers for them to color some of the panels.
Sign my hardhat
A hard hat signed by all of the guests makes a nice keepsake for the birthday boy/girl.
Or all of your guests can sign each other's hard hats.
You can get a 12 pack of plastic construction hats at Walmart for $12.
Yellow in color.
Traffic Cone Ring Toss
You can write point values on the different traffic cones or not. The child who gets the most rings on the traffic cones, wins.
Duck Race
You can use the larger plastic kiddie pool used as a cover for this activity. Fill it with water.
You'll need plastic drinking straws and 2 rubber ducks. (You can use the rest of the ducks as party favors)
Position one child on each side of the pool with a drinking straw. They must blow their duck to the opposite side of the pool using only their drinking straw. The winners of each race keep playing off against one another until 1 winner is left standing.
What's My Job?
This is an occupation guessing game where you give the kids 3 clues to guess the related occupation.
For example: I used a stethoscope
I wear a white coat
I make you feel better.
Answer: Doctor
Community Helper Paper Hats
These FREE printable Community Helper paper hats come in 10 different occupations. Each one has an image of the hat that is typically worn by each occupation, plus 3 images on the back that relate to that occupation.
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Firefighter
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Police Officer
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Mail Carrier
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Doctor
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Nurse
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Construction Worker
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Pilot
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Farmer
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Detective
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Chef
Sit the kids at a table with bins of crayons and let them color these hats from Tot Schooling.
It's a good calm the kids down activity.
Clues include tools they may use, what they do, and where they may work.
Community helpers include:
⭐️ doctor
⭐️ chef
⭐️ firefighter
⭐️ nurse
⭐️ teacher
⭐️ police officer
⭐️ veterinarian
⭐️ postal worker
⭐️ mechanic
⭐️ trash collector
Match 'Em
This was one of the kids favorites.
You can either hang the above on a wall or play on a tabletop. If you're going to hang it, I'd cover a sheet of heavier corrugated with white butcher's wrap or something similar. If you want a tabletop version, you can use lighter corrugated. What works best is to use spray adhesive and spray a small section of the corrugated at a time, lay down the butcher's paper over it and smooth out any wrinkles. Continue working a small section at a time until the entire piece of corrugated is covered.
You'll also need:
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As many pieces of poster board as you have occupations on your corrugated piece
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Glue stick, Elmer's glue, or hot glue gun
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Scissors
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A roll of Velcro hooks and loops - as shown below
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Pictures of people by occupation plus 4 tools they'd use in their occupation. These can be printed off the Internet or cut from magazines...
Cut out your small items that match the occupations. Glue them to something sturdy like chipboard or cardstock. Cut off small pieces of the Velcro. Stick the hook small piece to your small items. Put the
loop portion on your posterboards on your large wall or tablepiece. The kids will be sticking the smaller pictures to the posterboard like so...
The white rectangles above are your pieces of posterboard. So you'll use 4 pieces of Velcro per posterboard for the 4 smaller items the kids will stick to the posterboard. You don't want to put too large of a piece of Velcro on or you'll have a dickens of a time unfastening the smaller items from the posterboard. (Keep your roll of Velcro handy just in case!)
The kids can play individually or as teams of 2. The object of the game is to attach as many of the smaller items to the appropriate occupation posterboard they can in 1 minute. The child or team who attaches the most correct items to the appropriate occupation posterboards wins the game. You can award 1 point for each correct match if it makes scorekeeping easier.
It's a good idea to have an adult scorekeeper helping you out as this is a fast paced game.
You can extend the time limit for younger players.
That's how my "When I Grow Up" party shaped up and the kids all said they had a great time.
The parents appreciated the instructional information given to their kids from each of the professionals manning the occupation units. One of the parents after the party told me her daughter was scheduled for surgery and had been terrified - until the surgical nurse explained everything that happened. She told her mom she wasn't afraid anymore. Hearing that alone made all the work the party was, worth it!