Simple Ideas for a Festive Fall Class Party

The last two weeks of October are busy in our house!  The kids are finishing up their fall sports.  Halloween is just around the corner with parades, festivities, & more.  There are field trips, book fairs, and team parties.  Add all that into an already jam-packed schedule of school, meetings, and more and it’s going to be a crazy couple weeks.

In order to survive the madness, I often plan ahead and prepare as much as I can beforehand so I can actually enjoy the moment when it arrives.  This year, I am taking on the role as room parent for my son’s kindergarten class.  One of the room parent’s first tasks of the year is to organize the fall class party.  I love doing these types of events for my kids and today, I am going to share a few helpful and easy tips to help make room parties run as smooth as possible.

1.  This is the MOST important rule when planning a class party.  Keep It Simple.  As a former elementary teacher, I know that it’s better to keep things as simple is possible because even with the most simple directions, it never turns out to be super easy with twenty five students doing the same thing at the same time.  Kids will have fun no matter what you are doing, so please keep it simple!

2.  Plan parties into stations.   This will allow volunteers to work with small groups versus the whole class (so much easier to manage six students versus twenty six).  Also, it keeps kids moving to a new activity every ten to fifteen minutes.

3.  Plan a variety of activities.  Some students love crafts.  Other students love games.  By planning a variety, every kid will have their favorite & look forward to what may be next!

4.  Keep your shopping at a minimum.  For this party, I picked out almost everything from Oriental Trading.  When I was a teacher, I used this website to buy supplies, incentives, and more.  Now as a parent, it’s a great place to shop when planning class parties because the prices are low and you can buy in bulk which makes it easy to buy for large groups.  The only thing that I needed to purchase in addition to what I have below is the snack supplies!

5.  Print out directions for each craft and game so they are easy to read and understand.  This allows volunteers to easily run the activity without any additional guidance.

6.  Plan some time after the stations to wind the students down before they move back into their regular classroom.  A good way to do this is to read a festive book while having a small treat.

Below, I am sharing the activities that I have chosen for the fall party this year.  The party I have planned is for my son’s kindergarten class.  Again, you will see that the crafts and games are simple and easy to do.  If you are in charge of planning a fall party this year and you still don’t know what to do, you can just follow this plan!

1.  Thumb-Kin Pumpkin Patch: