Host A Back To School Party

Author: Alyice Edrich

While parents are excited to get back to some sense of routine, not all children look forward to returning to school. Sure, they welcome the idea of meeting up with long lost friends and sharing what they did over the summer months, but they aren't ready to return to the days of learning, school lunches, and h-o-m-e-w-o-r-k…yuck!

You can make the process of returning to school more exciting with an good, old fashioned Back To School party!

When hosting a back to school party, there are two ways you can go about it: have the party at home or host the party in the child's new classroom.

If you wait until school has started, you will need to meet with the new teacher and/or the school's principal to receive permission to plan and host the party in the classroom. The advantages of this is that the children will get a chance to get to know each other and start to form bonds before the school year actually begins.
If you choose to have the party before the school year begins, you can save a few headaches, but you may not be able to get a list of the students (or addresses) in the new classroom. In this case, you'd plan the back to school party by contacting children from previous years. This is a great way for old friends to reconnect, and to make entering a new classroom less scary as it reminds the children that they still have friends at the school.

For the purpose of this article, we'll be discussing hosting a Back To School Party at home.

When hosting the party in your home, invite last year's classmates as well as this year's classmates. It will relieve the tension and awkwardness of being in a room with complete strangers.

Create Invitations

Instead of buying store bought invitations, get a couple of kids together to create the invitations. Because the party has a back to school theme, go for something fun and recognizable like a yellow school bus or apples.

On the inside of the invitation, include all the important details, especially the date, the time the party will start and end, where the party will be held, and what is expected of guests.

For instance, if you are planning a swimming party, ask the kids to bring their swimsuits and towels. If you are planning a barbecue at the lake, tell guests how to find your group amongst the ground, i.e. a yellow streamers or crepe paper borders. And if you're planning on having them talk about their summer, ask them to think about what they did over the summer and come prepared to share.

Choose A Theme For Your Decorations

When decorating your party, consider a school theme. You can choose to go with the school's color and mascot, or you can stick to more traditional ideas like using red apples, a yellow school bus, a chalkboard, pencils, paper clips, and notepads.

Select Fun Foods

Kids love simple food, and especially enjoy junk food, so combine the two for a really fun treat!

If you have the time, turn fun snacks and desserts into school objects.

Jell-O snacks can become school supplies.
A cake can be designed to look like a blackboard and white icing to look like chalk.

If you don't have the creativity, or the time, stick to the basics: pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and roasted corn on the cob. And don't forget the drinks. Stick to water and punch to avoid having half drunk pop cans thrown in the trash, or tossed on the ground.

Host A Party Favor Hunt

Help the kids get off to a good start by providing each of them with a small bag of school supplies, or to make it more fun and host a Scavenger Hunt!

Before the kids arrive, hide items throughout the house and backyard they can actually use in school: pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers, pencil boxes, glue sticks, notebooks, back packs, and other school supplies!

Once the kids arrive, hand each child an empty party favor bag, then divide the kids up into groups. Then give each group a treasure map, and tell them they have one hour to find their treasure. Once everyone has a bat and a treasure map, ring a school bell and tell them to go treasure hunting.

For older kids, you can give them a sheet of paper with clues and tell them to figure out what the item is and where it is located, instead of a treasure map.

Play Games

When it comes to games, it's important that you think in terms of team building.

To start the festivities off, play a game that allows the kids to share what they did during their summer vacation—thus giving them a chance to get to know each other. Charades would be perfect, as would Pictionary.

To build teamwork, place a game of tug o' war or have a three-legged sack race.

You can even host a lip sync contest. First prize, a Free Homework Pass. Courtesy of the teacher, of course!

In the end, a Back To School Party is only as much fun as you allow it to be. Remember to relax and give the kids breathing room to be kids. Don't worry about everything being on a time table and definitely don't make events too structured. Let the kids use this opportunity to get together without all the pressure of classroom rules or peer pressure.