Mardi Gras Classroom Party Ideas

What’s not to love about a holiday involving beads and cake? Bring some Mardi Gras fun to the classroom with these Mardi Gras themed classroom party/activity ideas.

Of course for a Mardi Gras party you’ll need some masks. Keep it simple with a version made out of a paper plate, like this one from Activities for Kids (you could also paint the plates if you don’t have colored ones handy) or cut them out of card stock or craft foam. This design from 100 Directions calls for a Cricut, but you can also just print out the template and cut them by hand.

You could also make cute jester hats to wear or to decorate. Mardi Gras Outlet has the tutorial.

Older kids might like to make their own Mardi Gras floats out of shoe boxes. This one can turn into a STEM activity if you have them draw out their designs, and they could even figure out how to make them roll. Crayola has a post with a video for this one, but you can use whatever supplies you have on hand and make it an upcycling project for more than just the box. (Speaking of STEM, though, there is a Mardi Gras float design challenge on Teachers Pay Teachers if you want something more formal.)

How about some party games? Bingo is of course a classic for class parties and time fillers, and Maple Planners has a cute Mardi Gras bingo card printable.

On Etsy you can find a “What’s your Mardi Gras Name” printable from VZ Creative Designs (it’s kid friendly) and a Mardi Gras cootie catcher from Lolly and Papi.

There’s also a cute Mardi Gras treasure hunt, which has a lot of clues that are in a house, not a classroom, but you could use some of these in a classroom or just make your own clues for kids to find a King cake or a cache of beads and doubloons. This one is from Sweetie Bs Printables.

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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