Pretend Play Three Musketeers

Three Musketeers Birthday Party

Three Musketeers isn’t the typical pretend play theme for a birthday party but JJ wanted it! So, for her sixth birthday, we celebrated Musketeer style. I used my four Ps of pretend play – plan, picture books, props, and play – to guide my birthday party planning.

Plan: (Develop background knowledge )

I can’t believe I’m saying this but . . . I loved the Barbie and the Three Musketeers story! (Weird, I know.) Barbie and her friends save the French prince from the evil villain. In this story, Barbie is a strong female heroine we can admire. Shocking.

JJ’s idea for the party came from Barbie and the Three Musketeers movie. Other three musketeer movies are:

Mickey, Donald & Goofy’s Three Musketeers

The Three and Four Musketeers (my personal favorites, starring Richard Chamberlain.)

Man in the Iron Mask (it’s PG-13 so we didn’t watch this one but it’s another good one.)

My amazing polyglot friend and McRel trainer, Cynthia, taught the kids some French words using pictures and actions. Then, she taught “Alouette” with actions. Granted, it’s a weird song to translate but very cute if you can ignore the literal meaning.

Picture Book:

Barbie and the Three Musketeers

Props:

Using a map, the girls searched for the props they’d need to be musketeers and would be the treasures they’d take home after the party.

a cape

a mask

a sword

gold coins

plus a few other just-for-fun items like a castle key chain, rings, pink play dough, French/English books Cynthia made, and a necklace.

Play:

Once outfitted and prepared, play began like . . .

fencing in partners

“hot” balloon – the balloon can’t touch the floor, kids must use swords to keep the balloon afloat

“one for all and all for one” cheer together

The girls yelled “en guarde” and practiced fencing stances – also, there was a lot of jumping and giggling.

Had this really been a pretend play scenario and not a party, I imagine the play would have involved rescuing a prince or something like that. It could have included fencing training or escaping from villains.