fun activities for a Bat Mitzvah, please!

amother

Sun, Jan 15 2012, 1:21 pm

For my oldest dd, it was right before Shavuos, so the whole event was flower-themed. I made veggie appetizers shaped like a flower, huge brownies in flower shapes, used a small cookie cutter on slices of cheese, and placed them on crackers. For the project, we made flower centerpieces. I bought cuter baskets for each girl. Then I bought tissues paper to make flowers, tons of artificial ones for girls who didn't want to make their own, lots of ribbon and stickers to decorate the baskets. We gave out a bunch of flower-themed items as party favorsThey loved it!

For my 2nd dd, we had a Tea Party. Everything was made mini-sized: muffins, bourekas, salmon patties, sandwiches. We put out doilies under the plates, napkins rolled up and tied with a ribbon and flower. Each girl was give a small vase of flowers (artificial) with a name tag at their seat as a party favor. I really wanted them to decorate tea-cups as a party favor, but I really didn't want to use paint. Then, I walked into the craft store, and found little mug sets with 3 or 4 markers all wrapped up. I was worried that there weren't enough colors, but the girls were really creative, and blended the colors! Plus, I found all the leftover ribbon and tissue paper from my first dd's bas mitzvah (I had bougt tons!) a year earlier, much of which was unopened. The girls decorated the mugs. I also bought a lot of flexible plastic stencils (so they could wrap them around the mug) to decorate....flowers, hearts, animals, letters, etc. They loved, too!

I have another one coming up in June, so I need another idea for her!

amother

Sun, Jan 15 2012, 1:31 pm

Amother above here: just wanted to comment on cost....the baskets I got at the dollar store, the supplies I got at the craft store, but I probably could have found them cheaper elsewhere. I just didn't feel like running around to really price things out! I think we estimated that everything cost about $10/per girl, but I did have a ton of stuff leftover, so it would have been less if I hadn't overbought or shopped around more.

For the craft for the 2nd one, I think the mugs were $2 each, plus all the supplies. I think it was about $5, maybe less because I had a lot of unopened stuff from the year before.

I ordered some food for the first one. I did all the baking though. For the second one, we decided it would be a lot more fun to make everything ourselves, which is what we did!

For the craft, make sure you try it out first before buying all the supplies. We tried a lot of ideas that didn't look like they would work. Also, the girls really like to see a sample or two.

Another thing: if there are going to be any younger siblings around, make sure you have supplies for them too!

Mrs Bissli

Sun, Jan 15 2012, 1:37 pm

Simcha dancing party
Ice skating, bowling, decorate-your-own pottery
Treasure hunt (themed) at a museum
Manicure/pedicure/make-up/hair do
Theatre, city boat cruise (you'll have to limite the number of friends for this one, though)
Is there an amusement park nearby you can take the girls?

seeker

Sun, Jan 15 2012, 1:40 pm

Went to a bas mitzvah last year where the girls had a lot of fun doing dancing/music type activities - there was a balloon hop (with a shtick, there were papers inside the balloons with clues what to do next or something like that), limbo, over/under with a hulahoop or something of the sort... and then just dancing. Then there was food and maybe one other activity.

Decorate a _____ is a classic. I think almost everyone in my class did that when we were of age and now I see many of my nieces and friends on the same theme. Decorate a cake, decorate cupcakes, decorate a notebook, decorate a t-shirt, decorate a tzedakah box, decorate a picture frame.... Could be as simple as a couple of packages of paint markers and some gem stickers.

nottelling

Sun, Jan 15 2012, 2:14 pm

I was at a bat mitzvah where they had a video put together of pictures of the bat mitzvah girl growing up and then videos of her family members (and maybe friends, don't remember) wishing her mazel tov (some funny, some serious).
everyone enjoyed it.. the bat mitzvah girl felt special having a video "all about her" and it was entertaining for the guests.
I think I have the name of the person who made the video- pm if you want the contact info

chocolate chips

Sun, Jan 15 2012, 2:35 pm

Buy some string and teach the girls how to make friendship bracelets

buy some beads and make charm bracelets

buy some lanyard and make key chains (I know its out but its fun!)

buy a huge piece of card. And lots of small pieces. Each girl gets a coupe small pieces and can paint/color/draw/write/cut it into a shape however she wants. At the end stick it al onto the huge piece and its a mazel tov card/poster for the b-day girl.

amother

Sun, Jan 15 2012, 2:36 pm

sim wrote:

Thanks for all the ideas. We are really on a tight budget, though. Ideally I'd like to spend under $5 per child on a project, and I'd love an activity idea that costs little or nothing. We'll be making all the food ourselves and holding it in the house.

amother from above: we could have definitely done ours much cheaper, if I had gone to walmart, and the dollar store, rather than the craft store.

I also had a sign-in board that the girls loved! I decorated it with stickers and the girls all wrote their names, little drawings, and messages. It's a great keepsake for my girls! Plus, all their siblings signed it. It kept the girls busy while they were eating and before the craft. DD gave a short d'var Torah, and so did I.

We also held ours at home, food in the dining room/dining room and craft in the basement.

Sherri

Sun, Jan 15 2012, 4:35 pm

I remember seeing sign-in boards that had a picture of the Bas mitvah girl blown up in the center of a white Bristol board, and messages were written all around in colored markers. It's a cute keepsake.

I think the friendship bracelets idea is very cute.

A slide-show with pictures is not-expensive if you know how to do it on your own.

Decorating cupcakes shouldn't be too expensive...

lachick

Sun, Jan 15 2012, 4:49 pm

we did a really cute idea and very cheap! one sets the whole theme out like a school day everyone comes and has "breakfast" then u do first lesson of the day could be gym, u do races and put them in teams ! next lesson can be history and u make an amazing quiz, the whole day is about getting the most points in ur team to win the best prize, then can be science, u give them hard puzzels that they gotta finish and who ever team finishes first gets more points! then u do cookery and decorate cookies, then art class decorat paper boxes for the cookies! then its recess and everyone in there teams have to do a sharade the best one wins the most points! at the end off the party u add up all the points the team who wins get prizes!!!! cheap easy and was LOTS of funnn!!!

seeker

Sun, Jan 15 2012, 5:49 pm

With all due respect to the suggestion, I think friendship bracelets is a risky venture. It's not an inherently social kind of activity, very repetitive and individual and with a strong likelihood that many will already know how to do it. You want something more interactive. But some other how-to demo might be good - is there something you or your daughter know how to do that you could teach? Sushi making or the like? Making fancy fruit platters? (and then your meal or dessert is taken care of, too!)

Instead of dancing, a variation on the balloon pop activity could be a pass-the-package with a different instruction in every layer (e.g. the person holding the package unwraps it to find a challenge such as "sing the abc backward while hopping on one foot") Real cheap and fun with the right music.

Dolly Welsh

Sun, Jan 15 2012, 11:43 pm

As the Bat Mitzvah age means she can now legally take Challah, could a Challah Baking party be of use? She could do it for the first time, and they could all yell Omein!

And they could get wonderfully dirty in the flour, make the braids, and eat the results and take them home. Souvenir aprons? Here is a place that will make aprons with her name and the date on them, including smaller sizes:

http://theapronplace.com/home.php

There are Challah Ladies who lead such parties.

It could take place in the shul kitchen, if necessary, to accomodate a crowd.

Or, flat breads could be made, Pitas, Moroccan breads, which are easier as they don't need to be braided, and cook in 15 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEqPt8VEoVs

An oil-bread, a focaccia, takes an hour:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com.....ecipe

Flour and yeast are cheap things. All the supplies can be mail-ordered, no shopping. King Arthur flour website, Red Star Yeast website. Just get the Reynolds parchment paper, it's the best kind; nothing sticks to it.

There are how-to videos on You Tube that make it all easy. There is Devorah Heller for inspiration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu9hTvhfGyg

Last edited by Dolly Welsh on Mon, Jan 16 2012, 2:11 am; edited 1 time in total

nottelling

Mon, Jan 16 2012, 2:20 am

Quote:

As the Bat Mitzvah age means she can now legally take Challah, could a Challah Baking party be of use? She could do it for the first time, and they could all yell Omein!

um, not sure about that. just read an article about this. depends on the girl. she has to "show signs" of being a women, meaning having gone through/started (not sure) puberty. ask your rav for more details.
if you are going to do it anyway, and have the girl make the bracha, you- the mother, should take a small peice aswell (noone has to see!) just in case your daughter isn't old enough.

but other than that, baking challah is a great, and yummy idea!

mummy-bh

Mon, Jan 16 2012, 2:29 am

we did a challa party for my oldest dd. After she took challa, I spoke a little about the whole inyan, then I did a little demo and taught the girls how to braid a six stranded challa. I put them aside to rise, baked them later so everyone took their challa home (we did a shabbos theme so I made up a cute plate with other items - eg candle, chocolate coin for 'tzedoko' etc).

I also made a fancy meal - dd wanted a barmitzva type seuda, so that's what I made, with speeches - from dd and dh.