Back-to-School Party

I love the new school year. Being a former teacher myself, I wanted my own children to love school and learning too. 

When we moved from another state to Utah my daughter was enrolled at a new school with new classmates. We threw a Back-to-School Party for her and some of the kids her age in the neighborhood after school on the first day. We got a few pics of the setup before the kids arrived. 

When the kids arrived, we ate. They grabbed a cute, divided lunch tray and loaded up on some snacks: grapes, apples, veggies and ranch, Goldfish crackers, M&M cookies, chocolate milk and water. 

SIDE NOTE: I had some parents ask about the trays. I found them HERE on Amazon by Nordic Ware. I love that they are the perfect size. They hold a small milk container (as shown in the pic above) perfectly in a square space. They also hold a kid's IKEA cup, clear plastic cup (like the one holding the veggies in the pic above), or a small water bottle (pic below) perfectly in the round space. The large space is perfect for a hamburger or sandwich. 

We filled some pencil boxes from Walmart with a few school supplies as a favor for our guests. The black tablecloth is from Dollar Tree. A white Sharpie marker works perfectly to add the labels on the tablecloth. 

I took a picture of each child on their first day of school in the desk. (I had the 3 year old pose for this pic to see what it would look like and I forgot to take a pic of my own 1st grader! Oops.) I printed the pictures and delivered them later to our guests' homes along with a darling First Day of School questionnaire they filled out. The darling questionnaire can be found at Yellow Bliss Road.

We also played a couple of games to get to know each other and get excited for school. I was going to try the "shoe" game where the kids take off their shoes and try to guess whose is whose but it was too easy. So, I opted to try sitting in a circle and while tossing a bean bag, ask a question like "do you have any brothers or sisters? or, What's your favorite color? or, Do you have any pets?" etc. The person who receives the bean bag answers the question and then asks another question to another person while tossing the bean bag.

The second game included a tray of school supplies. They got to look at the tray for 1 minute. I took the tray away and then they tested their memories by trying to remember what was on the tray. Smart kids!

The kids had a great time and my daughter felt a little more comfortable making friends with the kids in the neighborhood.