A Monsters Inc party was the choice of my four year old daughter. I created Monsters Inc hard hats and used scream canisters for decoration and game. Lastly, I wanted to include an activity that all kids and adults could enjoy. This turned into a Closet Search Game. At the time, any store-bought decorations were for the Monsters University movie, which she specifically did not want. Nothing forces thinking creatively like a distraught four year old!
Monsters Inc Safety Hard Hats
Safety First!
These hard hats are super easy to make and make a fun photo prop. These also were part of the giftbags for any kids that wanted to take them home.
To start, I purchased a set of blue plastic hardhats. Then, I created the labels using PowerPoint (again) and printed them on 2.5″ circle labels. We scattered them around the house as decoration and then kids took them home at the end.
Monsters Inc Scream Canister Knock Down
Bean bag toss – Monsters Inc style
I love to find ways to reuse supplies or decorations from previous parties. We have a supply of bean bags that make frequent appearances at birthday parties. After searching for inspiration, I saw creative ideas for making the Monsters Inc scream canisters from Pringles cans. Although my husband was happy to eat 6-10 cans of Pringles, I decided to use an alternative. I had a large cardboard tube from a fabric bolster. My husband cut the tube down into 6 sections, each about 12” long.
He spray painted the tubes yellow. Then, I wrapped electrical tape to make the black lines at the top and bottom. I prefer to use electrical tape for solid color lines/stripes, especially for cylinders or spheres. It’s much easier to keep straight and flat and can be found in a variety of colors.
I created the canister meters using PowerPoint next. I typically do all of my image design using PowerPoint – it works for me. Finally, I printed the meter images on rectangular labels.
The game was straightforward – use the bean bags to knock down the scream canisters. This could easily be a bowling game too, depending on what supplies you have.
Monsters Inc Closet Door Search
A Look and Find Game for Pixar Characters
When planning games for any party I look at the full age range attending and try to have at least one game that would appeal to everyone. Having an alternative way to play a game is the simplest approach.
The Closet Door Search is simple to play – look at a list of characters to find and then open closet doors until you find them all. To vary the level of difficulty, I made two different types of checklists:
- searching for character images (for kids who can’t read yet)
- searching for characters that met certain written criteria (for older kids and adults)
Making the Doors and Characters
Google image searches are your friend! I searched for images of doors – generally clipart/cartoon style – and chose a few that were black/white and then used different color backgrounds to change the look of the door. You could also print them on different colored paper.
Each door was 6” tall and 4” wide. I secured them to the wall with strips of clear tape along the “hinge” side. Now they could be flipped open and closed repeatedly while searching. To save my wall paint from damage, I first used painter’s tape to secure brown paper to the wall to cover the whole area.
I chose to use a variety of Pixar characters to hide behind the doors. Characters from multiple Pixar movies were used – Monsters Inc (of course), Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, The Incredibles, A Bug’s Life, Cars and Toy Story (1 & 2). Each image was about 4” tall and 2-3” wide.
While searching for the images, select the “transparent” color setting for the results so you don’t have to cut out background images. Save yourself the time and frustration!
When it was finished there were 41 characters hiding behind doors which definitely made it a challenge!
There are four different checklists of images for younger kids with a simple check box next to each one. Several kids decided to complete multiple checklists and had fun flipping open the doors to find a character.
The list for older kids and adults provided a prompt to identify characters of a certain color, how their name was spelled, if they were a villain or from a particular movie, or characters with a specific relationship to each other. The added challenge was that you could complete the form and not reuse a single character. Just the suggestion that it was possible prompted a lot of adults to take on the challenge.
