Back to School Party

What You Need:

• Card stock, enough sheets for the amount of invitations you will be handing out
• General craft supplies: crayons, markers, glitter glue, etc.
• Lined notebook paper
• Glue stick
• Plain white T-shirts, one for each guest
• Non-toxic fabric paints or markers
• Recycled materials: milk cartons, soda bottles, plastic bottle caps, cardboard boxes and tubes, etc.
• Glue and/or tape
• Yellow construction paper or paint
• School-themed snacks: apple-shaped cupcakes, school bus-shaped cake, notebook-themed brownies, alphabet-shaped cookies, etc.

What You Do:

1. First, make the invitations.
   • Fold a piece of 8" x 10" card stock in half vertically from top to bottom. Cut vertically up the center to create two invitations per sheet.
   • Decorate the front of each invitation to look like a notebook, using a real life example for reference. Personalize each one by adding the guests name and the word notebook. For example, “Matthew's Notebook”.
   • Cut pieces of thin, lined notebook paper to fit the inside of the invitation. Attach the notebook paper inside with a glue stick.
   • After the glue dries, start writing out your party info. Make sure to include the reason for the party, date and time, place, and RSVP number or email.
   • Hand deliver or place your mini-notebooks into envelopes and send them out to guests.
2. For a craft, you can add to the excitement of the Back to School bash with a fun-filled T-shirt craft that doubles as a cool takeaway.
   • Get all of your guests plain white shirts or ask them to bring their own.
   • Use non-toxic, fabric paints and/or markers to write the name of the school on the front and the year on the back.
   • Encourage each child to create his own school-related picture on the front.
3. You can also have the kids construct their own school buses out of recycled materials.
   • Thoroughly wash and dry milk cartons, soda bottles, plastic bottle caps, cardboard boxes and tubes.
   • Set the materials on a workspace or community table along with glue and tape.
   • Invite the guests to piece together their own designs such as a milk carton on its side with bottle cap wheels.
   • Paint the buses with tempera or cover them with yellow construction paper.
4. For snacks, there are myriad ways you can transform everyday food into Back to School-themed treats.
   • Write out your ‘cafeteria selections’ on a chalkboard with multi-colored chalk for all of the party goers to see.
   • Try an array of sweets such as apple cupcakes, a school bus-shaped cake, alphabet cookie shapes or notebook brownies.
   • To create apple shaped cupcakes, bake up a mix of your favorite cake batter. Frost the cakes with red and/or green icing. Add a green stem with a cut sour apple licorice whip. Add the letter ’A’ for apple on front with white icing.
5. Choose a few different games for your Back to School bash that are both fun and educational! Here are just a few suggestions, but see the rest of the site's Activities for more ideas!
   • Play Jeopardy! Re-introduce kids to their favorite subjects with a trivia game. Make notecards with questions in school subject categories such as math, science, social studies or language arts. Create category signs on construction paper and tape them to a wall. Give up to three guests at a time small bells to ring when answering questions. Assign point values based on the difficulty of the questions. Tally up the totals to see who is the most ready to return to school.
   • Play Back to School Charades! Put a fun spin on Back to School with an interactive game of charades. Brainstorm a few school-themed ideas that'd be fun to act out, such as: a schoolbus, a textbook, P.E. class, band teacher, librarian, bicycle, lunchbox and more. Write down each topic, throw it into a hat and let the acting begin.