Classroom Party Ideas

Class Parents

Classroom Party Inside this eBook:

Guide Tips for Class Parents!

Fun ideas for the whole year! Classroom party
check-lists

Easy seasonal party
ideas for the whole
school year

Class party games,
snacks, crafts and
other fun stuff

A FREE VolunteerSpot eBook

VolunteerSpot for
Class Parties
We know the most time-
consuming and fun part of
being a Room Parent is
planning class parties and
organizing helpers. Our free
online sign up sheets make this
part quick and easy (without
reply‐ all emails). It’s our goal at
VolunteerSpot to save you time
{and sanity} and make it easy for
you to get the help you deserve
www.VolunteerSpot.com this coming school year!

Please check out our FREE
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or email it to whomever you believe would smartphones) make it easy for
benefit from it. more parents to get involved!
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Kids Love Class Parties!
Class parties are a great chance for parents and teachers to work
together to create fun, kid‐friendly, and memorable events for children.
Class parties can be simple and easy but still be a ton of fun with some
organization and structured activities. Class parties give parent
volunteers an opportunity to get to know the students, build
relationships with other parents, and support classroom teachers.
Kids love class parties, and they deserve to celebrate special times of
the year for their hard work and effort!

This e‐book includes ideas on how to
plan, organize, and structure parties as
well as how to delegate and
communicate with parents and
teachers.
We also provide tips for using
VolunteerSpot ’ s free online tool to
quickly and easily organize your
classroom parent volunteers.

Class Party Guide / www.VolunteerSpot.com DOING GOOD just got easier!

Class Party Sign Up Sheet: Make it Easy to Help!
“Do not be shy about
giving parents specific
jobs or asking them to
bring party supplies
and treats. Most are
relieved you’ve made
it so easy to help and
asking with
VolunteerSpot’s sign
up sheets makes it
extra easy!”

~Lori R
Room mom of 2
Roswell, GA

Class Party Sign Up Sheet Example

VolunteerSpot’s free, online sign up sheets make class party planning a snap!
Simple invitations and one‐click signups make it easy to ask for help, and even
easier to sign up to help – so more parents do! Automated confirmation and
reminder messages help everyone keep their commitments.

Class Parent Class Party Guide / www.VolunteerSpot.com DOING GOOD just got easier!

Class Party Game Plan

• Before the party: Check with the teacher about the party timeframe, student
allergies, if younger siblings can attend and his or her party expectations.
• During the party: Keep it simple, keep it moving, and
keep it light. It’s a party—it doesn’t have to be perfect
but it has to be planned!
• After the party: Drop your parent volunteers a
quick ‘thank you’ note. An email even means a lot.
And it may mean that you’ll get guaranteed help the
next time!

“It’s always fun for me to volunteer to come in with a
small themed‐craft (or snack) and get to be a fly on
the wall in my girls’ classrooms. I love watching them
with their friends and I always get some cute photos
for their scrapbooks. By the way, photos taken at class
parties are great end of the year teacher gifts too!”
~ MaryLea Harris
http://pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com

Class Class Party Guide / www.VolunteerSpot.com DOING GOOD just got easier!

Successful Class Party Checklist
 Craft Projects: Ensure the craft parent  Decorations: A colorful tablecloth adds festivity and
volunteer has EVERYTHING needed – e.g. a plastic ones are inexpensive. Balloons, streamers, and
trash bag for clean up. Don’t assume the curled ribbon also go a long way to transforming a
teacher will provide all items. classroom into a party room.
 Kids under 10: Divide them into small groups,  Memories: Ask a parent to volunteer to take photos
rotate them through activity “stations” (10‐15 or videos of the party and share with the parents who
min each) and have at least one parent per could not come.
station.
 Relax: Remember to relax and have fun! The
 Prizes: Hand out pencils or other school elementary years go by quickly. Celebrate these
supplies as favors. moments with your children.

 Snacks: Plan extras for the teacher, staff and
parent helpers.

 Wagon: Hands‐down the best way to tote
party supplies to/from the classroom!

Our school restricts food at the parties to a drink, one
salty snack, one sweet treat, and a goodie bag without
candy. Looking back, this change is a good one as most
elementary schoolers won't eat more than two snacks
at class parties.
~ Jill Berry www.musingsfromme.com

Class Parties Throughout
the School Year
September:
Back to School Kick-Off page 8
October:
Halloween page 9, 10
November:
Thanksgiving/ Fall Harvest page 11
December:
Winter Holidays page 12, 13
February:
100th Day, President’s Day page 18
Valentine’s Day page 14, 15
March:
St. Patrick’s Day page 18
May:
Spring Celebration page 16
June:
End of the Year page 17


Back‐to‐School Party
Crafts:
• Decorate brown paper lunch bags or plastic lunchboxes with stickers and
colored permanent markers.

Games:
• Play “Candy Apple” (instead of “Hot Potato”)
• 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”
• What I Did on My Summer Vacation Charades‐‐ Give
each child a turn to act out their favorite summer
memory
• Scavenger Hunt for school supplies
• Show & Tell– Invite children to bring something to
share with classmates
• Play “summer yard games” like Red Rover, Freeze tag,
hula hoop or Kickball
Snacks:
Thank you to
• Apples Kami Buchanan Custom Designs
• Popcorn for these great party ideas!
• Carrots & dip For more, visit:
http://kamibuchanan.blogspot.com
• Fruit Kabobs

Halloween Party Ideas
Crafts:
• Mummy Treat Container – Fill a toilet paper roll with
treats. Wrap white crepe paper from a roll around
the toilet paper holder to keep your goodies in (at
least three times around). Glue two eyes on the
front. Fold the crepe paper in half and wrap the
mummy.
• Halloween Thumb Prints – Thumb prints make great
spiders (use black ink and let kids add legs and
googly eyes), and green make great witch faces!

Tootsie Pop Pumpkin snack: Ghost on a Stick snack:
• Wrap orange tissue paper around • Melt white chocolate or almond
a Tootsie Pop and secure the top bark and dip a half of a banana or
with floral tape. Then draw a Jack‐ pear into the chocolate. Use small
O‐Lantern face! chocolate chips for eyes and make
sure you use a strong stick to keep
Thank you to Cindy of Skip to my Lou
for these great party ideas! fruit on!
For more, visit:
www.skiptomylou.org

Halloween Party Games
Witch's Stew
You will need at least one cut out shape‐‐spiders, black cats, owls and frogs‐‐for each
member on each team and two plastic cauldrons. Divide the class into two teams.
Each member needs a 3 inch piece of straw. Give each team a pile of shapes
(ingredients for the stew). One at a time a team member, using a 3 inch piece of straw,
will suck up a shape, keeping it on the straw, walk quickly to the other side of the room
and drop the shape in a black cauldron. Once the shape is in the cauldron the next
team member can go. First team to have all members take a turn wins.
Blow the Ghost
Make a ghost by covering a cotton ball with a tissue and tied with a piece of
thread around its neck. Tape a one inch piece of straw to the top of the ghost's
head. Make two of these so you have two teams playing against each other in a
relay. Thread a very long string through the straw. Attach each end of the string
to a chair. Pull the chairs apart until the string is tight. Divide class into two
teams. Each team member will get on their knees and with a 3 inch piece of
straw blow the ghost to the other side. Next team member will blow the ghost
back until all members have had a turn.
Sweeping witches
Each team needs a witch's hat, a broom, and a large sheet of
newspaper crumpled in a ball. Space three or so chairs apart in a line
for each team. Each member will have to sweep the crumpled ball of
newspaper in and out through the chairs while wearing their witch's
Thank you to Cindy of Skip to my Lou hat. They go down and back and then give the hat and broom to next
for these great party ideas!
For more, visit:
person until all members have gone.
http://www.skiptomylou.org

Thanksgiving/ Fall Harvest Party Crafts
Bubble Wrap Corn Cards
Paint layers of orange, yellow, and red paint on
bubble wrap. Press bubble wrap onto sheets of
brown, orange, yellow construction
paper. (Brown paper grocery bags would be
cool too!) Trace child’s foot to make corn cob
and then cut out. Rip green paper for husks,
and glue onto cards!

Tissue Paper Pumpkin Leaf Prints
Cut a pumpkin shape out of Collect leaves and press the
cardboard, and cover the top part painted leaf onto sketch paper
with glue. Pinch the bottom of a or construction paper. Remove
small tissue paper square, about the leaf to reveal a beautiful
2” x 2”, and glue to the pumpkin. leaf print and repeat the
Repeat until the pumpkin is process with different leaves or
covered. different colors!
Thank you to MaryLea of Pink and
Green Mama for these great ideas!
For more, visit:
http://pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com

Winter Party Ideas

Crafts:
• Marshmallow Snow Structures– using
marshmallows and toothpicks, students ‘build’
snowmen or snow forts.
• Snowflakes– fold a piece of white paper into
an isosceles triangle and cut shapes out of the
edges of the paper. When unfolded, it
becomes a snowflake!
• Snowman Decorating– cut out basic shapes Snacks:
from construction paper and students • Snowman Cupcakes– using toothpicks and
decorate their own snowman. marshmallows, put snowmen on top of a white
• Snowman Ornaments– using cotton balls or frosted cupcake.
white pom‐poms, glue black felt circles for • Snowmen Cookies– using sprinkles and tubed
eyes and an orange triangle for a nose, and tie icing, decorate a snowman sugar cookie.
a ribbon on the top. • Gingerbread House– mix a tub of white icing with
powdered sugar to make a icing ‘glue’ that you can
use to stick graham crackers to a paper milk carton
Thank you to Shannon of Mommyapolis (pint‐sized). Use candy to decorate!
for many of these great ideas!
For more, visit:
http://mommyapolis.wordpress.com Class Class Party Guide / www.VolunteerSpot.com DOING GOOD just got easier!

Winter Party Games
Games:
• Toss the Snowball– Kids toss cotton ball
‘snowballs’ into container and the winner is the
first to make the most into the bucket.
• Move the Snow– Kids stand in two lines and
transfer cotton ball from spoon to spoon from one
end of the line the other. Winning team has the
most ‘snow’ in bucket.
• Get Dressed– Two groups race to be the first to
dress team member in full winter gear—snowsuit,
boots, coat, scarf, hat, gloves.

One of my favorite holiday parties was [my son’s] 2nd grade holiday party. We took a survey of
all the religions represented and celebrated each one as a learning center. There were four
classrooms ‐‐ one room was Christmas, one Hanukkah, one Ramadan, and one Kwanza. The
kids rotated through each room where they heard a story explaining the meaning of the
holiday along with a related art activity and snack. I loved that it was a celebration of
different ways to mark the holidays without saying one was better than the other.
~ Robin www.mylifeasitis.blogspot.com

Thank you to Shannon of Mommyapolis
for many of these great ideas!
For more, visit:
http://mommyapolis.wordpress.com Class Class Party Guide / www.VolunteerSpot.com DOING GOOD just got easier!

Valentine’s Day Party Ideas
Crafts:
• Stained Glass Heart– Cut out the outline of a heart
and place it on a piece of clear contact paper. Put
small squares of pink, red, and white tissue paper
inside the heart, and seal with a second piece of
contact paper. Trim edges and hang in window.
• Thumb Print Cards– stamp finger with ink and have
students create animals, hearts, patterns, and more!

Snacks:
• Love Kabobs– strawberries, cherries, pink marshmallows,
and red gummy candy on a skewer.
• Candy Heart Patterns—create quick and easy color patterns
by sticking pastel post‐it notes on ½ sheets of pink paper.
Once students have correctly matched color pattern using
candy hearts, they eat the candy.
• Paint‐on icing– Add red food coloring to a mix of powdered
sugar and milk. Use paint brushes to decorate sugar cookies.
Thank you to Amy of teach mama for
these great ideas!
For more, visit:
www.teachmama.com

Valentine’s Day Party Games
Mitten Munch Matchmaker
• Players stand in two lines, and the first person • Print out pictures of partners (Mickey
in each line begins wearing a pair of adult‐ &  Minnie/ Mario & Luigi) and tape
sized ski‐mittens.  Player tries to unwrap a one character on each student’s back.
piece of wrapped candy as fast as possible Players search for their ‘partner’ by
then puts it in his mouth, passes mittens to asking yes/no questions to classmates.
person behind him, and that person unwraps Consider doing this with hearts and
candy. Team that is the first to have each matching patterns, too!
player unwrap and eat candy wins!

Traveling Hearts
• Students use chopsticks or tongs to transfer
candy hearts from a central bowl on the
table to their own small cup or dish. Player
who moves the most wins!
* Valentine’s Party Tip:
Send home a class roster 10 days before the
party so kids can prepare their Valentine’s cards.

these great ideas!
For more, visit:
www.teachmama.com


Spring Party Ideas
Craft:
• Tissue Paper Flowers– Cut tissue paper squares and layer
3‐5 pieces of paper. Pinch the middle of the squares, making
the center of the flower. Secure with tape and pipe cleaner.
• Butterfly Snack Bags– Fill small, snack‐sized ziplock bags with Fruit
Loops or snack mix. Pinch the center of the bag and secure with
clothespin. Glue googly eyes and pipe cleaner antennae on clothespin.

Snack:
• Bumblebee cupcakes– cut the ears off
of a bunny marshmallow Peep and make
stripes and eyes with black icing. Place
gum drop fruit slices on sides for wings.
• Ants on a Log– Spread peanut butter on
celery sticks, and place raisins and nuts on
top.

these great ideas!
For more, visit:
www.teachmama.com

End of School Year Party Ideas
Show Time!‒ Host a mini talent show Go Hawaiian Party‒ Play the limbo,
and ask each child to share a trick or hand out leis (or make your own as
talent with the rest of the class like a a classroom project), create ‘Island’
song, gymnastics trick, juggling, or snacks like pineapple skewers and
even timeless kid skills like burping and coconut treats, and dig for beach
knuckle‐cracking on demand. finds in a sandbox‐filled with
Encourage everyone to participate and shells.
bring a joke book along for those who
claim they don’t have a skill.

Post Card Grab Bag‒ Keep kids in touch over the
summer and encourage them to practice their
writing! Each child writes their address on 3 post
cards and drops them into a big cloth bag. One‐
by‐one, kids choose 3 cards (not their own) and
agree to mail their classmates silly summer news
in the coming months.

Find more ideas at
http://www.cozi.com/live‐simply/8‐end‐
year‐classroom‐party‐ideas

Mini Classroom Celebrations
100th Day Celebration (usually February)
• Have each child bring 100 objects in a bag to demonstrate
the number then do a 100 Day Gallery Walk.
• Create a 100 Things We Love poster for the class.
• Make 100‐bead necklaces to wear.

President’s Day (February)
• Make Abe Lincoln hats using black construction paper and
George Washington apple necklaces.
• Hold a Classroom Coin Battle where teams of students
compete to sort and count piles of coins. The team with the
most of each type of coin is the winner.

St. Patrick’s Day (March) You can also celebrate:
• Make rainbow cupcakes or Jell‐O. Columbus Day
• Go on a scavenger hunt for gold coins, hidden by New Year’s Day
leprechauns. Follow leprechaun ‘footprints’ or read clues to
Read Across America Day
find each treasure.
• Hide shamrocks around the classroom, with lucky 4‐leaf April Fool’s Day
clovers for the luckiest students to find. May Day
Cinco de Mayo
Mother’s Day/ Father’s Day/
Thank you to Amy of teach mama for Grandparent’s Day
these great ideas!
For more, visit:
Memorial Day
www.teachmama.com

A New Spin on Class Parties
Consider a different approach: Remember:
• Be Inclusive
• Limits: Cut snacks to one sweet, one
Students with special needs or
salty, and one drink!
allergy restrictions must be
• No Snacks: Make the craft (or game) considered when planning for
the focus instead of the snack. the party!
• End‐of‐unit parties: to celebrate • Be Prepared
learning and subject mastery. Always have coloring sheets on
• Student‐planned parties: to teach hand, a bingo game, or know a
classes cooperation, teamwork, and few easy, on‐the‐fly games to
math and literacy skills. play when you have 5 minutes to
• Traveling centers: allow for fill. Human tic‐tac‐toe (girls are
movement and learning—groups of x’s, boys are o’s) or Whisper
volunteers can be in charge of each Down the Alley (one person
center and students move from whispers a sentence to the
center to center throughout the person next to him and so on
party. until the secret travels through
the entire class).


Simplify ALL Parent Volunteering
Helping Room Parents, teachers and
volunteer leaders coordinate activities
and events simply and easily all year
round!
• Classroom Readers
• Soccer Snacks
• Walk‐a‐Thons & Fun Runs
• Swim Meets
• Sports Tournaments
• Vacation Bible School
• Carnivals and Festivals
• Girl Scout Cookie Booths
• Neighborhood Clean ups
• Coat, food and toy drives
and more . . .

Additional Resources

See our other free eBooks with ideas and
best‐practices for:
• School Carnivals
• Teacher Gifts
• Family‐Friendly Volunteering
• Fundraising with Kids
• Bake Sales
• Talent Shows
and more . . .

www.VolunteerSpot.com/ebooks

Class Parent Room Mom Survival Guide / www.VolunteerSpot.com DOING GOOD just got easier!

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