Making School Party Ideas
Work in Your Class

Classroom Behavior Management vs. the Classroom Party

School party ideas are best when they are centered around one classroom party rule:

Keep Them Short, Keep Them Fun
...So You Can Keep Learning

Some school party ideas take up half the teaching day. It's simply not necessary; learn to run an efficient classroom party that kids will love.

3 rules for fun classroom activities

Wait...who brought the noise-makers?!

The first rule: As with everything in your classroom, parties are held on your terms according to your rules. This is not a time to sit back and relax while the kids pursue their own agenda.

The second rule: Every classroom party must help build your classroom community, forming your students into a more cohesive group of learners. There are lots of ways that parties can work against team-building; see the other pages in this section to keep your fun classroom activities on the right track.

The final rule: All school party ideas must either serve an educational goal or be so short as not to impact educational goals.

Meeting Educational Goals

You know your grade level curriculum best, so you know if you can fit in a science or social studies unit to match the themes of the two fall parties. For example:

• The fall party becomes the final session of your unit on bats; bat research, notes, essays, diagrams during the week leading up to the party. Tie snacks into the theme by serving fruit...you know...for fruit bats! Note the healthier food choice. More on that below.
• The winter party becomes the final celebration of a scientific study of snowflakes; gathering snowflakes on black paper to study, cutting snowflakes to reinforce crystal structure, etc. Snacks are white foods like cauliflower and ranch dip, white cheese or bananas.

You get the picture. Don't just put the party down on your planning calendar as a separate event...think in advance about how you can tie it into your curriculum. There's never a moment to waste when educating our children!

Keeping Them Short

Non-birthday parties should be limited to 30 minutes - no more! - at the end of the day. That includes 20 minutes of partying and 10 minutes of clean up.

I'm going to sound very authoritarian here, but this is my position: Under no circumstances - even on the last day before winter break - should a party last all afternoon. If we are meeting educational goals, we have no time at all for such an extended break and classroom behavior management will spiral out of control.

Remember: These kids get to hang out and watch videos with their friends at home...they aren't missing out if they don't get to do it at school as well.

Lessons in social interaction

I will readily admit that it's not always easy to tie curriculum into Valentines and birthdays. These parties, therefore, become primarily about building up your classroom team's social community.

Valentines and birthdays are not-to-be-missed opportunities to reinforce habits of politeness and social grace...my pages will give you school party ideas that will help you achieve these goals.

Betsy's Video Tips: Homework Passes for Student Gifts

Making Healthy Food Choices

Childhood obesity is dramatically increasing and I have a big problem with schools being part of the problem. (Don't get me started on the "food" they serve at school lunch!) So party time in my room means keeping it as healthy as possible. Be a realist; not everything has to be nuts and carrot sticks, but you should not be hosting a junk-fest.

If parents want ideas on healthy snacks, advise them to keep them simple:

• cut up vegetables with ranch dip
• fruit
• fruit cups
• cheese and crackers (real sliced cheese...nothing from a can!
• apples, celery and peanut butter

We must bend this rule for birthdays. We can control what we ask parents to send for holiday parties, but not for birthdays. Just accept that and use the ideas on my birthday party page to manage whatever shows up.

By the way...if non-healthy foods come to class, that's OK. If you have zip-top bags, send kids home with treat bags. We do not want to throw away anything donated by a parent or send it back untouched...that's just rude. The point is to keep them healthy in school.

Managing Parent Involvement

Some rooms are overflowing with parent volunteers (and some even bring their own school party ideas)...other teachers can't get a single one all year long. It primarily depends on the jobs held by your parents, and either situation is OK. You can manage alone, just like you can manage messy science experiments on your own.

If parents do show up, use them for these tasks:

• setup and cleanup
• managing "stuff" (food, activities) while you manage the children

Parents are most commonly involved in sending food in for a classroom party, and you can actually support them a bit by keeping items in your room that they normally don't think to send, even for birthdays:

• napkins...stacks of them
• small plates
• paper or Styrofoam cups
• plastic-ware
• zip-top bags
• hand sanitizer

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