Kick Off Your Child's School Year with a Back to School Party

The new school year is just around the corner and what better way to start it off than a back to school party!! We did this one year in my neighborhood, and the kids had an absolute blast!! And the overall cost was very low, so this doesn't really break the bank. While planning your back to school party, you want to consider whether you are having an outdoor or an indoor party. We had ours completely outside.

1. Invitations
To make your back to school party invitations,use brown paper grocery bags, cut them down to card size. Fold them into a card, with the store's emblem inside. Take a sheet of printer paper cut the same size. Put the paper inside the card. Use a hole punch and punch three holes down the "spine" of the card. Take some yarn, or plastic string and loop throughout the holes and tie on the end. This will look like a miniature book once done. On the outside of the book, write," Back To School Party". You can also draw a picture of a school or a bus or use stickers to dress it up some. Inside write your usual info, name, date, time, RSVP and anything they may need to bring. We asked that each child bring a book , could be new or used, and a white tshirt.

2. Setup
Our school party had several game stations, you can add or delete any you don't wish to do. Using the computer print off the school schedules, if you have a big turnout you can divide the children into two groups and print the schedules that way. Each school schedule should have the names of the class and what time it starts. When the children arrived give them their school schedules and asked them to go to their first class. Each station had a poster board(but you can also use old boxes) with the class name. Ex: Art Rm.101, Gym Rm.423, Math Rm.857, Recess, Lunch Rm.787, Science Rm. 248 and Reading Rm. 183.

Make sure you designate a bell ringer. This person will ring a bell when school starts, each time the children are to change class and when school ends. They all took Recess and Lunch together. While settting up your school stations, make sure you leave plenty of room between them.