The Grand Farewell: Making Your Child’s End-of-School Party Unforgettable
Listen to the podcast version:
Celebrate with Fun: Create Memories to Cherish
We all like to feel like there is an end to a goal and that we have reached an achievement.
Children are no different.
Each school year marks a goal.
They will accomplish specific tasks within that level or grade to be able to move onto the next.
Your child anticipates the culmination of this goal.
Let’s end the year with a party!
I am going to help you plan this amazing end of the school party with 30 amazing themes.
There are several steps that I am going to list and not go into because they are fully explained in How to Host a Kid’s Clothing Swap and How to Start a Recipe Club.
What I want to dive deeply into is the fun of themes, decorations, and activities.
I love to integrate my curriculum; children benefit so much from it.
And, just like a well integrated curriculum, a well integrated theme party is memorable, loved, and your guests have a fabulous time!
Basic Steps to Get Started
- Plan the event: determine the date, time and location.
- Guest list and invitations: this is trickier than you think, do you invite the “whole class,” for example.
- Send the invitations via email, but does everyone open email?
- You also need to be able to give everyone enough time to plan.
Food and beverages: these can also definitely be incorporated in theme and in some cases activities, but where there are kids, there needs to be food. ????
These are the things most of us can do without thinking too much about it.
We have to do these things when planning almost any get together.
You will simply need to cater these steps toward your audience: children.
If their parents are coming as well, you will need to take that into consideration.
Keep in mind, this end of the year party is for your child, but that doesn’t “get them off of the hook” as far as planning and helping prepare.
In fact, most children will love to have a hand in preparing their party
Those invitations that are being sent out, let your child chose one on a free evite program and put them in charge of “the list” of people who have opened, confirmed, or have said they will not be able to make it.
Now we move into the fun part, the “let’s make it a party” instead of an everyday get together section.
Themes are fun.
Adults love them as much as children.
If you have a theme for your end of the year bash, other than the obvious, end of year, the kids get excited.
They start to look forward to what the party will include.
This puts more pressure on you, I know.
It also kind of makes it easier because you have specific parameters to work within.
You don’t walk into a party store, Target, or Amazon and search for “party” and get a ton of color choices, ideas for decor, etc.
You are looking for one category.
If your brain works anything like mine, you will want a list of themes.
Then you can choose what kind of theme and work your decorations, activities, and possibly food and beverages in after the theme.
Here are 30 themes you can work from for an end of the year party.
Some of these are more appropriate for younger children, while others are geared more towards teens.
- Adventure Quest
- Amazing Race
- Around the World
- Board Game Bash
- Campout
- Carnival
- Circus Spectacular
- Dinosaur
- Disney Delight
- Enchanted Forest
- Graffiti Party
- Hawaiian or Beach Luau
- Masquerade
- Medieval Madness
- Memories
- Minecraft
- Mythical Creatures
- Neon Party
- Outdoor Movie Night
- Outer Space
- Pajama Party
- Pirates
- Quite a Character
- Retro Party
- Safari Adventure
- Sport
- Super Heroes
- Talent Show
- Under the Sea
- Wild West
These are some fun themes!
Once you have chosen a theme, you have your limitations that allow your creativity to go wild!
I have chosen two themes from above that I feel are more difficult or that you may not know what they are to show you how this works.
Memories is a more sentimental theme and party.
First we will decorate so when people get to your home or place the event will be, they can tell it is festive.
Choose your colors.
I like to go with three, two striking or bold colors and one fairly neutral.
Are you going to use streamers, balloons, ceiling decorations, table placards, etc?
Activities that are fun that can go with this event:
The really big one, that would take preparation, is to ask parents to send in pictures from this year that they have of the children and prepare a slide show to the current year.
*You will just need to make sure that everyone at the party is on the slide show, because the kids will for sure notice.
Paint Rocks: these can be sentimental, funny, rocks they leave for strangers, give to each other, heck this can be your “gift or souvenir” from the party.
Memory Jars: these are amazing to read later.
Each child decorates a jar of some kind.
The decorating can be as sophisticated as the child is old.
I love the tissue paper or string decorated mason jars.
Then, on precut pieces of paper, you can have hearts or flowers or whatever, the children write what special memory they have of each person and put it in their jar.
Or why that person makes their day a better day.
*Again, it isn’t nice, but has to be said, sometimes kids can be cruel, so if you feel your group needs a reminder you will have to give it.
Special Frame: there are a million types of photo frames you can make on the internet.
Choose one of these to capture a special moment from this year that each child has had.
It is even better if you are either able to take the picture at the party (nostalgia, that they can have developed later) or have them bring the photo with them.
Having a Selfie station would be a great idea!
T-Shirt Memories: have each child bring a clean, pre-washed white T-Shirt.
Write each child’s name in fun puffy ink and then have them put their hand print under or by their name on each T-Shirt.
Awards: with the parents, create special awards for each child that you give out in front of everyone.
These are reasons the parents are proud, not necessarily the “norm” reason for a school award.
For example, “Amazing Sibling” “Fabulous Pet Owner” etc.
Games or activities that get the kiddos moving are going to be more generic.
You can all volunteer together.
Any of the “normal” games will do, but you will want to plan for the kids to be moving.
You can also have the parents bring their calendars so that while the kids are at play, the adults can plan “Leave and Learns” over the summer.
Do you get the idea?
I was able to plan some great ideas for a party in 45 minutes.
The only reason I was able to do this was because I had a theme.
I am not a “plan a party” kind of person, so having a set of parameters is really helpful for me.
A fun activity at any party is “Would You Rather”
I have created 100 easy to cut out cards that are fun for any age!
Make the road trip fun!
100 Would you rather cards!
- Easy to print
- 8 "cards" per page
- Good for ages 5 and up
- A social emotional learning lesson for each level (not based on a social issue, but on true SEL learning)
- Some are thought provoking
- Some are just fun and goofy
questions to bring fun to your road trip
Here is another one:
Quite a Character is the theme.
What exactly does this mean?
Children come dressed as their favorite story book character.
I, of course, love this one!
Since it is a party for my child, I am going to decorate according the book he has chosen a character from.
Again, I like parameters.
So, if my child chose Charlie from “The Big One Oh” by Dean Pitchford, I am going to decorate in sky blue and red with cream.
I will use balloons and streamers.
The book has a lot of the “unexpected.”
So, I am going to have balloons tacked to the ceiling, fake worms, if I can find them, maybe some eyeballs and fingers too.
This will be a fun book to decorate as a theme.
Fashion Show: of course if these children are dressed up, you have to have a fashion show!
Let them know in advance you will be doing this.
If they want to send in cards to the announcer that is fun as well.
Imagine if Katniss comes to the party and is wearing her “sneak into the forest” garb.
She can have every part of her costume described as to why she chose those items and what she hopes to accomplish.
An activity that immediately comes to mind is a book swap.
Each child needs to come with their favorite book and there be a swap with others.
If you do a fabulous job at decorating in your book’s theme and there is a lot of interest, you can have your “parting gift” to all be a copy of that particular book.
This would mean that your child would have to choose a different book for the actual swap, however.
Continue the story: if you have a bunch of literary minded kiddos, this is fun.
Before they swap their books, they all get to a place in the book that is a dramatic moment, cliff hanger, super funny, etc.
Then you start a notebook.
Each person writes a sentence, then passes the notebook.
The next person writes their sentence under the sentence that was just passed to them.
When everyone has included their sentence, you read the amazing thing that just happened!
I Spy: Have objects in a room, in the yard, or where ever.
You just need to plan ahead.
These can all be items you have placed in advance that are themed.
It can be a lot of fun with children who are upper elementary if you learn from parents which books the children are basing their characters on.
Then you can get key items from each book and hide these.
Then hand out cards to each child.
These cards have one picture on it that the child must find (without giving it away) and then play “I Spy” with so the group can find it and guess.
Murder: My middle school age students loved this game.
Seriously, I was able to teach almost anything with rapt attention as long as I promised that if we had any extra time, someone would commit murder.
Who wouldn’t be intrigued?
The children sit in a circle.
You somehow choose one person to be the murderer.
(After the first game, the person who correctly identifies this person can be the murderer for the next game.)
You can go around and touch everyone on the back, for example, with one finger, but if one person feels two touches they are the murderer.
It is just crucial that no one else knows.
You can also plan in advance and talk to one party goer and say,
“We are going to play a game later, you cannot tell anyone, but you will be the chosen murderer. I will explain everything later, but just know-and again, it is critical that no one knows!”
How the game starts is the children can talk in the circle or you can have music in the background but they are just looking at each other.
The murderer has to, very slyly, wink at someone when they look at that person.
That person “dies” in their chair.
In cues the drama-no they can just slump or turn their chair or whatever.
And the murderer continues until caught.
*Why did I chose this game?
One, high interest level and two, murder mysteries are a book genre.
Scavenger Hunt: this works so incredibly well if everyone at the party has read the same book that year.
You can have a go to neighbor’s houses kind of hunt (although warn your neighbors ahead of time that the kids are going to come “a knockin”).
Or you can have a scavenger hunt in a specific area.
*Note, you can also do this with a movie that they have all probably seen.
Even if someone has not seen it, they should be able to identify all of the items on the list to find.
Flower Pots: if you have a “crafty” group, you can have a menagerie of supplies and different pots to decorate.
Children can make flower pots based on their characters or just for fun.
Invisible Ink: every child will be interested in being able to send secret messages!
This may take a little more time, but it is also a great way to end the year learning something fascinating!
There are a bunch of different ways to do this on the internet, just take a peek.
Pencil Toppers: somebody had to write your character!
You can find pencil toppers on Pinterest for almost any occasion or skill level.
The Quite a Character party only took me approximately 20 minutes to plan.
This is because this is an area I feel comfortable with and am very interested in.
The sentimental stuff, I have to do a lot of soul searching on that one. ????
The point is, once you have a theme, the rest of a really exciting and memorable party kind of works itself out.
As the school year draws to a close, let’s celebrate the remarkable journey your child has undertaken.
Whether they’ve navigated the halls of a traditional school or embarked on a homeschooling adventure, this end-of-school party is a joyous occasion to commemorate their achievements and create lasting memories.
These 30 themes will help you narrow your focus so you can broaden your creativity and plan a celebration filled with laughter and fun activities.
“Their happy is too loud. “
~Benjamin Mee in “We Bought a Zoo”