Miscellaneous questions
From OzWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
Yes, there are. Check out (TMOHH) the Oz Lesson Ideas page of WWOOW at http://thewizardofoz.info/ozteach.html. In addition to some general lesson plan ideas, there are some links to more comprehensive sites and resources. (If anyone has information on other Oz lesson plans or teacher resources, on or off the WWW, I would appreciate hearing about them.)
I want to throw a Wizard of Oz-themed party for my son/daughter/self. What can I do?
After nothing being available for many years, there are now not one, but two different lines of Oz party supplies available. You can take a look at what's available and buy them through (TMOHH) my website's Oz party page. It also has some examples and suggestions, and links to other sites. Take a look at it at http://thewizardofoz.info/ozparty.html. And here are a few more tips:
- Use Ozzy greeting cards or postcards, or ones with rainbows, for invitations.
- Decorate with poppies, sunflowers (the Kansas state flower), bunches of straw, small metal funnels, paw prints, diplomas, hearts, medals, green balloons with baskets hanging from the bottom, big pink bubbles...
- Paper cups and name tags can have Oz stickers put on them (available from Hallmark stores and Dover Publications), or decorated with rainbows or Oz rubber stamps.
- Got a walkway up to the front door? Use yellow street chalk to turn it into a yellow brick road. Put the appropriate shoes (silver or ruby) on a pair of socks stuffed with newspaper and have them stick out from under the house.
- Does the guest of honor want to dress as Dorothy? All it takes are braids, a blue checked dress, and a stuffed dog in a basket. And don't forget the shoes — either wrapped in foil or sprayed in glue and rolled in red glitter (use old shoes, of course), or some of the costume shoes now available.
- Find partyware and streamers in Ozzy colors — yellow, blue, purple, red, and especially green.
- For party favors, besides anything you can think of that's Ozzy (bubbles, rainbows, hearts, etc.), Dover has a set of miniature Oz activity books (coloring, stickers, temporary tattoos, etc.) at extremely reasonable prices. Check at your local bookstore, or you can find them (TMOHH) in aisle eight of the online Oz bookshop at http://thewizardofoz.info/aisle8.html, and look for items marked with a party hat.
- For an activity, get strips of colored card stock, green yarn, crayons, and Oz stickers, and make Oz bookmarks. Or, use paper lunch bags, create Oz puppets, and put on a show.
- Try a yellow brick road treasure hunt, with clues on each brick leading up to a group prize.
- Oz themed games could include Pin the Tail on the Lion/the Heart on the Tin Man/the Diploma on the Scarecrow, etc., ring toss around a witch's hat, or whatever other party game you can Ozzify. With large pieces of yellow paper you can play Musical Yellow Bricks.
- For another Ozzy variant on musical chairs, use pictures of different Oz characters as "chairs." Then, when the music stops (use the soundtrack from The Movie, of course), choose a character at random (spinner, names from a hat, or some such way), and whoever is standing on that character wins.
- For drinks, try frothy pink Good Witch shakes, green Melted Witch punch (green punch with scoops of lime sherbet floating on top), or bright green Emerald City punch. You can also make rainbow ice cubes by freezing different colors of drinks in layers (freeze a thin layer of cherry, then pour some orange on top of that and freeze it, then some lemon... oh, you get the idea).
- Use a star-shaped cookie cutter and carrot sticks to make Glinda's Wand Sandwiches. Makes pigs in a blanket and call them Totos in a basket. Or just give all of your food Ozzy names.
- For a cake, any good bakery should be able to decorate a sheet cake with an illustration from one of the books or a picture from The Movie. Or decorate a yellow cake with a brick design, or rainbows.
The following ideas are adapted from the January/February 1999 issue of American Girl magazine, and are copyright 1998 by Pleasant Company.
- Make paper poppies. Cut red tissue paper into circles of three different diameters: 4 1/2 inches, 3 1/2 inches, and 2 1/2 inches. Make a stack of six circles, two of each size, with the largest on the bottom and smallest on the top. Cut two small lines across the fold to make slits. Push a black pipe cleaner up through one slit and down through the other. Twist the pipe cleaner ends together, and pull the paper through your closed hand to make a flower shape.
- Make ruby slipper invitations. Create a shoe pattern about five inches long. Fold a piece of red construction paper in half and trace your pattern, with the heel on the fold so that when it's open, you have two shoes connected at the heels. Glue yellow ovals on the shoes for the foot opening. Decorate your invitations with red glitter and ribbons. (Yes, this idea can also be adapted for silver shoes.)
- For a simple Melted Witch punch, sprinkle one envelope unsweetened lemon-lime Kool Aid into a large clear bowl. Gently pour in two liters chilled lemon-lime soda and stir. To make a witch hat to float on top, tape a black conical party hat to a seven-inch black plastic plate.
- For Munchkin Mix, combine eight cups popcorn, three cups pretzel sticks, one cup M&Ms (for "Auntie M"), 1/2 cup animal cookies (especially lions, tigers, and bears — oh my!), and 1/4 cup green gumdrops (for emeralds). Serve in metal funnels (like the Tin Woodman's hat).
- Make a cake that goes from black and white to color! Make a batter from one box of white cake mix. Divide the batter into four equal parts. Stir one tablespoon Jell-O mix into each part (use four different colors, and don't use grape). Bake each part in a round eight-inch cake pan. Once each of these is cool, use yellow frosting between each layer. Then frost the whole thing with white frosting. Draw tornadoes on the cake with black decorating gel.
- Make a rainbow arch with different colors of helium balloons and different lengths of string.
- Use rainbow candies, a bottle of bubble solution, or bubble gum as party favors, so guests can take part in the stunts (see next item).
- While watching The Movie, guests can eat rainbow candies while Dorothy sings "Over the Rainbow," blow bubbles whenever Glinda pops up, link arms and dance around the room during every chorus of "We're Off to See the Wizard," cackle whenever the Wicked Witch appears, and pretend to fall asleep when Dorothy is in the poppy field.
- For a game, split the guests into teams. Each team gets a stack of newspaper, rubber bands, clothespins, gloves, socks, a small flannel shirt, a small pair of pants, a hat, and a paper bag with a face drawn on it. The teams race to make their Scarecrow first. (Use the rubber bands to attach the gloves and socks, and clothespins to attach the shirt to the pants.)
- Play "Brains, Heart, Courage." On three paper bags, draw a diploma, a heart, and a medal. These are the brains, heart, and courage bags. Each guest gets three slips of paper. On the first one, everyone writes down something he or she knows how to do, and that goes in the brains bag. On the second slip of paper, everyone writes down something they love, and that goes in the heart bag. On the third slip, everyone writes something they are afraid of, and that goes in the courage bag. Then, one person picks a slip from one bag and reads it aloud. Everyone tries to guess who wrote it. If someone guesses correctly, that person picks the next slip of paper. If nobody guesses correctly, whoever wrote it gets to pick next.
Here are some ideas sent to me by a mother in Ontario, Canada:
- We are going to build a Munchkin village outside out of boxes and such (nothing too fancy but creative). Then hide a bunch of small dolls (Munchkins). Then the kids can do a find the Munchkin dolls and win prizes (all will get prizes of course). Could also add some giant flowers like in the movie.
- For a craft we may do Emerald beaded necklaces. Just get a bunch of green glass beads and let their imagination go from there.
Other sites with information you may find useful are http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/wizard_of_oz_party.html and http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/cartoons/oz.html.
