My oldest son requested a chemistry/science themed birthday party for his 8th birthday. I am always up for a challenge and a good themed birthday party. So I got to work looking up ideas on Pinterest. It also helps that my husband has a PhD in Physics so I could utilize some of his textbooks and other resources.
Chemistry Themed Party Decor
When I am putting together a themed birthday party I usually think about the location and what decor I will need to make the theme. Since we were going to be having his birthday party at home I wanted to setup what looked like a science/chemistry lab. One of the first pieces of decor that I purchased was the chalkboard looking backdrop. This was perfect because it had all these science terms and calculations on it so I used that as the backdrop for the food table and for taking photos of the birthday boy.
For my kiddos’ birthdays I also usually do some sort of balloon arch or display so next I went looking for some science themed balloons and was happy to find these science party balloons. To give it the chemistry lab feel, I knew that I needed to have beakers and test tubes and maybe even some models of molecules. Since we didn’t have any of those items laying around, I procured them and figured they would not only serve for decor but later could be used for fun experiments. I even got some petri dishes to make some jello molds in them to look like they were ready to collect bateria/virus samples but I did not get around to making the jello molds but here are the petri dishes if that is something you are interested in doing for your science themed party.
We already had a kid’s microscope, so I added that to the decor list as well but if you are looking for one, here is a kid’s microscope. I also grabbed some of the science books my husband had on our bookshelf but if you are looking for some to use; here is what we had: The Science Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained, Molecules: The Elements and the Architecture of Everything The Elements and the Architecture of Everything, and Reactions: An Illustrated Exploration of Elements, Molecules, and Change in the Universe An Illustrated Exploration of Elements, Molecules, and Change in the Universe.
Periodic Table of Elements Food Table Tents
The next idea I had was to use the periodic table of elements to make the food table tents. I found a list on a Google search of the elements listed in alphabetical order and so I just started thinking about what items I would want to have at the party and see if they would match up to the elements. First thing I tried was cake but that didn’t work out with the elements listings. So then I tried cupcakes and that did work out (Cu= Copper; P= Phosphorus; Ca = Calcium; K = Potassium; Es = Einsteinium). I found some cute cupcake toppers that were science themed as well. I continued to take a look at other food items and came up the following list of foods that worked with the periodic table of elements listings: Candy, Chips, Pop, Tacos
For the candy I found mini M&M’s that matched the color scheme I was going with and I added them to the test tubes. This was great for displaying but would also make a great party favor as well.
For the birthday cake, we just ordered a chocolate ice cream cake from Coldstone Creamery and I added a cake topper. I found it on Amazon along with adding a couple of molecule models that I made with a molecule kit.
Science Themed Gift Ideas
If you are looking for some science themed gift ideas you could always use some of the decor items I listed above as gifts such as the molecule kit or the beakers for putting together experiments. But here are a few more ideas for gifts for a science loving kid:
if they nerd out over science books this ones is a great book for showing visuals through infographics. Or how about some periodic table of elements cards for learning more about the elements. Other ideas would be to get them a personalized lab coat or there is this science lab kit that has a plain white lab coat with a mini science lab. You could also go the route of getting a STEM kit with different STEM projects for them to put together. If you are like me and you go all in on the theme, then you will want to get this periodic tables wrapping paper to wrap your science themed gifts in.
For my kiddos’ birthdays I also get them a shirt to reflect the theme of that year’s birthday party. The idea is when they are older they will get all of these shirts and will be able to remember the parties they had for their birthday. I am still debating if I am going to turn the shirts into one of those blanket quilt squares or just leave them as shirts to give them. For this year’s birthday, I was able to find a shirt that said This Mad Scientist is 8, Let’s Experiment.
My son really enjoyed his chemistry themed birthday party. It was fun to do something different than past parties I have put together. If you are planning a science themed birthday party, I hope some of these ideas were helpful. Let me know in the comments if this blog post was informative and inspirational for your birthday party planning. For more birthday party theme ideas, check out our other birthday party blog posts.