Back to School Party Ideas

With school starting next week here in Alabama, hosting a Back-to-School party will help ease your grade-schooler back into the fall routine. Have your party before school starts and invite friends and neighbors or push it back to the weekend after school starts so that you can include all of your child’s new classmates.

Make invitations in the shape of a school bus or crayon using cardstock or print party details onto a designed invitation. We like these mod apple postcards designed by Antionette Palmieri and found on etsy.com.

Decorate with all the necessities of fall. At our event, a chalkboard hung with ribbon announces the occasion. Table decorations include an assortment of apples and cheerfully colored school supplies, which can later be dropped into personalized brown paper bags and given to guests as party favors.

An apple place card and watercolors mark place settings for each guest and placemats are made of basic handwriting paper. PB & J sandwiches tucked into oversized pencil cases are paired with all the traditional school lunch trimmings – chocolate milk, baby carrots, applesauce and Hostess™ Ding Dongs – for a festive meal. We tucked a napkin and spoon into little paper pockets similar to the ones that were pasted inside library books ‘back in the day’.

Plan a few fun party games or activities such as:

* Don’t Miss the Bus Race – Have the children pack a lunch, grab homework, collect milk-money from mom, put it all in their backpack and hop on the bus

* Volcano science experiment – Things have changed since Peter Brady got hot lava all over the Brady den. Now you can pick up a pre-made kit that erupts more gently… and the kids still love seeing it in action.

* What I Did on My Summer Vacation Charades – Give each guest a turn to act out their favorite summer memory.

* Scavenger Hunt for school supplies.

* Show & Tell – Invite guests to bring something to share with ‘classmates’.

* Create handprints using tempura paint and colored construction paper.

* Play Red Rover, Freeze tag or Kickball.

Additional Party favor ideas:

* Personalized back pack tags. We found these designed by Sunnydaytags on etsy.com

* Gift certificate to a local office supply store.

* An artist sketch pad and pastels

* Personalized stickers or labels for school gear.

With these fun Back-to-School party ideas, you’re sure to relieve any worries and give enthusiastic students an outlet for releasing all that energy!