Oriental Trading sent me products for this post. As always, all thoughts and opinions are mine alone.
If you’re a room mom planning class parties is one of the funnest (and most stressful) times of the year. You either have too many ideas and not enough time or too many kids to try and plan activities with. Not only that, but throwing a party for 20+ kids can be expensive and not all classes have budgets for these parties. Thanks to Oriental Trading you can get games, activities and party favors for the whole class, no matter what the size, on the cheap! Let me show you how and share more tips on how you can make your next class party run smoothly.
1- Stations. Stations. Stations. Especially with younger kids, having pre-planned stations with different activities will help keep order in the class and make everything run smoothly. For my son’s kindergarten class party we had the following stations:
- Craft – They made these masks.
- Games – We played cornhole (this Halloween cornhole is the cutest and the kids loved it), Limbo and Bingo.
- Fine Motor Skills Activities – we did Halloween themed sensory bins with spiders, pumpkins and bugs. These large tweezers made picking things up a little more challenging for the kids but helped with their motor skills.
- Story and Song – My boys love the book If You’re Spooky And You Know It. The rest of the class loved reading the story and doing the motions too. Plus it helped with their large motor skills which was a bonus!
2- Keep activities and crafts simple. This one is for you AND the kids. You don’t want to spend hours planning a craft or activity and most class parties are an hour or less so any activity that takes longer than 15 minutes is most likely not going to get completed.
3- Don’t spend a ton of money. This one is tough for me because when it comes to parties I want to buy all the things. But the one thing I love the most about Oriental Trading is how affordable everything is! When I was looking for supplies for this party they had a sale on Halloween items and I got these Monster Mask Kits for less than 50ยข a piece! Not only were they less expensive than buying supplies and making my own craft kits but everything was all together in little baggies so I didn’t have to spend the time putting together 20+ craft kits or explaining to the kids or other parents who are helping how everything goes together.
4- Put together as much as you can before the party. Just like the monster mask kits I mentioned earlier, having everything you need for a craft, game or activity packaged and put together before the party will help with setup and will also make it so ingredients and supplies don’t get left behind.
5- Don’t go overboard on the sweets. Especially at Halloween when kids are going to be getting enough candy from trick or treating. Oriental Trading has a TON of non-candy goodie bag options. I loved these Halloween Activity Sets and Glittery Tattoos! There are a lot of other ideas here.Want to make your own gift tags?! You can make your own tags by downloading this design and either printing in Word or uploading to Cricut Design Space and print and cut them out with your Cricut Explore Air or Maker.
BONUS TIP – HAVE FUN! I know this seems like common sense but believe me, from experience, I know how stressful party time can be whether you’ve planned everything out or not. Just try to remember this is supposed to be fun for the kids AND for you! So take a deep breath, relax and enjoy yourself.
What tips do you have for new room moms when it comes to class parties? Do you have a favorite game or activity you like to play? Or maybe a favorite treat? Share them in the comments!
Great job! Thanks for sharing this information!