Back to School Party Ideas for Kids

School Clothes Party

Have a back to school clothes shopping "party." This is great for older kids and kids of the same gender. Ask a few of your child's friends and parents to go to lunch and go back to school shopping. Ask everyone to meet at a destination at a certain time and go from there. Plan an itinerary of stores you want to go to and where and what time to have lunch. If you go to the mall with no plans you could be there all day and accomplish nothing. Or you could spend most of the day in the car driving from store to store.

It's a good idea to establish a budget, say $100 per child and have a rule that each child has to buy a certain number of outfits, say 5, with the $100. Make sure parents agree to the budget ahead of time. The parents should also keep track of the money rather than the child. Losing $100 is not the way to start the school year off.

This "party" is especially a big hit with girl's ages 6-13 years old. It's even better if you do a "big girl" or "Fancy" lunch, which mostly means a sit down restaurant instead of fast food.

Since the children are getting new clothes for school, have them bring an outfit or two that no longer fits them to donate to homeless child. Or see if each child could take part of their budget and buy an item of clothing to donate to a homeless shelter.

School Supplies Party

Have each child bring a school supply for every child attending the party. Give a supply sheet check list to each guest so there are no duplications. For example: Brianna brings glue sticks, Carl brings a folder, and Joseph brings a ruler for each child attending the party. This is a great opportunity to ask each parent to donate school supplies for families that can't afford them. If you would like to do that have each child bring three or four extras of their assigned items. Your school and or classroom usually needs donated items as well. A lot of teachers have a "wish list" to choose from. Donating tissues, hand sanitizer, and snacks is always a good idea.

Have the children bring their backpacks so they can organize their things and be ready to go back to school. Be sure to supply permanent markers for kids to put their names on their supplies.

back to school Who to invite? Try to invite the same grade levels. For example grades kindergarten through second would require a lot of the same supplies. You can however invite any age kids. Just don't be surprised when your 9 year old gets crayons and you friends kindergartner gets a ruler.

Another idea is to contact the school before school starts and ask for the names and numbers of children in your child's class. Whether you're success with the school will depend on how well the school knows you. Your best bet would be to ask your child's teacher on "meet the teacher" night to hand out your "invitations" with the other paper work or you stay the entire time and hand out your invitations with your phone #'s and e-mail with a R.S.V.P. Then ask the parents to sign up for a certain item to contribute.

Here are some ideas to discuss with other parents or activities you can do at your party.

Watch back to school or school oriented shows: Full house, Max and Ruby, Barney and Saved by the Bell are just a few T.V. Shows that are now on DVD and most of them have a "school" episode. Akeelah and the Bee, High school musical, and Mr. Holland's opus are just a few examples of "school" movies. Be sure to be age appropriate. Read books about the first day of school or anything about the characters being at school.

Play school and have a refresher lesson on age appropriate material. If your kids are in kindergarten, practice ABC's. Use flash cards or you can go on-line and find the ABC chart. If your kids are older do addition or print off the multiplication chart.

Use the computer or hand write a breakfast or lunch chart and laminate it. Write the list of options for breakfast or lunch and the night before have your child check off the food items he or she would like.

Morning
Bagel
Cereal
Eggs
Muffin
Waffle
Oatmeal

Food

Easy "sack lunch" – P.B.J. or ham sandwich, cut veggies, fruit, and pretzels or chips. Provide milk, or juice boxes. I would not put the food in brown paper sack because then you have to figure out who wants or likes what. If you leave it out on the "food table" the kids can choose what they want. The reason I would do such a simple lunch is because this party is a lot of organization and art or activities to do. All these finger food aren't very messy and can be eaten walking around or can be eaten while doing activities or projects.

Desserts

Number or abc cupcakes

Use your favorite cupcake batter and follow the directions. I like primary colors for this dessert so I would use Red, Green, or Yellow food coloring to color white frosting. Then frost the cupcakes. Then use black gel icing to write 1,2,3 ABC, 1+1=, and so on. You can write words or math problems according to age.