Elephant & Piggie Party (And Pigeon, Too!)

 

In November 2011, I planned and hosted a Mo Willems Party at one of my branches. The event was a success and I liked the format I used (book, activity, book, activity, and so on). During summer 2012 as I was plotting out the fall events, I knew I wanted to host another Willems party. I decided to focus on Elephant & Piggie with the Pigeon thrown in for good measure. After all, he's on the last page of all the Elephant & Piggie Books.

I hosted this event at all four of my branches. I had 14, 2, 14, and 21 kids respectively at each event. Everyone had a great time.

My Elephant & Piggie Party was going to be shorter in length than the Mo Willems Party which lasted two hours. The Event & Party Kits available on Mo's website are gold...you really don't need to look any further for activity ideas.

I opened with an Animal Sounds Activity (from the Happy Pig Day! Event Kit) and then moved into my first book Pigs Make Me Sneeze! The activity that followed was Can You Achoo? (from the Elephant & Piggie Books Party Kit). The kids loved making silly pretend sneezes.

The next book I read was the Pigeon's newest: The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? We then had a cookie walk (idea from the book's event kit). I used a cookie clipart in Microsoft Word to make the squares and added the numbers with a permanent marker. I used a CD that I had mixed for my Fancy Nancy Parties that had music from the 50's and 60's. The winner of each cookie walk got to pick a prize. Prizes were leftover from Summer Reading (Stickers, tattoos, etc.).

After the cookie walk, I read Watch Me Throw the Ball! and the kids played Ball in Bucket (idea from the Elephant & Piggie Books Party Kit). They had the chance to throw tennis balls, ping pong balls, and cotton balls.

It was then time for the craft. I found an idea for Elephant & Piggie paper bag puppets on Jenny's Three Little Birds blog. I thought this was a fantastic idea and ran with it. The kids loved taking home their own Elephant and Piggie.

The party ended with refreshments. I decided to keep it simple and just serve Kool-Aid, Cookies (Golden Oreos & Nutter Butters), and circus peanuts. Before the kids left, I encouraged them to check out book from the Mo Willems Book Display and take the coloring and activity sheets I had laid out (these were all from the party and event kits).

Mo Willems and the characters he's created are so popular I know I'll be having Elephant & Piggie & Pigeon parties for years to come.