Hosting a Circle of Friends birthday party is easy and fun. Below, you will find some great activities and goodie bag ideas from Cheryl in Illinois to host a Circle of Friends party of your own.

The kids can dress in outfits from different countries and each bring an item from their heritage.

Activities:

• Play hopscotch from around the world
• Make international crafts such as Philippine parols (stars) or Polish Wycinanki
• Learn dances from around the world such as the Polka, Mexican Hat Dance and the Macarena
• Tell or read stories about different cultures from around the world
• Visit a local cultural museum

Show and Tell:

• Cheryl did show and tell. "I asked each girl to bring an item from their heritage. It was interesting for the girls to find out about their friends backgrounds and see things that some of their grandparents and great-grandparents had when they were little."

Games:

• Cheryl "blew up pictures of flags, taped them on the wall and had the girls do a race to see which team could match the correct smaller flag to the larger flag."
• She also blew up two sets of Circle of Friends characters. "One I taped to the wall the other I cut out certain parts of their bodies such as sunglasses, a lei or their hair. Then the girls had to match the part to the correct character.

Goodie Bags:

You can put items from different countries in the bags. Some ideas are:

• Chocolate from Germany
• Origami from Japan
• Ornaments from Poland
• Cookies from Italy
• Hair tie or Lei from Hawaii
• Circle of Friends products

Another fun thing Cheryl did was "have their names written in different languages. Each girl went home with a poster of her name written in Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Arabic, Spanish and German."

If you have any other Birthday Party tips you would like to share, email us at info@circle-of-friends.com!