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.

Growing Up Ladybug and How to Become a Butterfly are both by Stepanka Sekaninova and illustrated by Linh Dao, and they came out at the same time and are on similar themes, so let’s look at them together.

Growing Up Ladybug is narrated by Mariella, a seven-spot ladybug. She talks about the parts of a ladybug, where they live, different kinds of ladybugs, why humans love them, their defenses against predators and the life cycle of a ladybug.

The drawings are cute if not always scientifically accurate, it’s not in such a way that’s likely to confuse kids (who probably already know that ladybug mamas don’t push their larval babies around in strollers, for instance.

It’s a good general description of the life cycle of a lady bug and why we like having them around.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Similarly, How to Become a Butterfly covers the life cycle of a butterfly, starting with caterpillars eating burning nettle leaves. (Here Amanda is the narrator.) The book talks about a few of the more than 18,000 daytime butterflies in the world as well as other creatures that live in the meadow (there’s that ladybug again, along with crickets, bees and other bugs).

It also covers some of the enemies of caterpillars like wasps and spiders, and the defenses that caterpillars use to try to prevent being eaten. It illustrates how caterpillars grow and change as they molt and prepare to pupate, and what a caterpillar looks like before and while it is forming its chrysalis. And while the book uses the word metamorphasis it doesn’t really talk about what happens between the caterpillar forming a chrysalis and the butterfly hatching.

This butterfly is a peacock butterfly, and once it hatches the book covers the parts of a butterfly and the life cycle. It also talks about nocturnal moths (though it says nocturnal butterflies are “usually called moths” when moths are actually a different species) and what butterflies do at night.

I’m maybe a little hard on this book because my daughter is a butterfly expert from way back, but it is still cute and good for the very basic basics of the butterfly life cycle.

Both books would be fun additions to your bookshelf for younger kids starting to learn about different animals or who have an interest in insects.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Have you read?

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