Fun Last Day of School Party for Kids!

Throw a Last Day of School Party!

When the last day of school finally rolls around, coming home at the end of the day can be anticlimactic for the children!  My advice is to make the afternoon a special one!  You can take your own kids and a few friends to lunch or out for ice cream.  Or round up a few moms and plan a picnic to be held at your local park or pool.  BUT – if you’re brave – consider hosting a real party!

Invitations

• Deflated Beach Ball Invitations – write out the party information on a deflated beach ball with a Sharpie marker.  Deliver the invitation/toy to each guest.
• Tropical Bottle Invitations - this is a really cute idea.  The invitation kit comes with small plastic bottles, mailing labels, preprinted invitations, real sand and luau novelties.  The host fills out the invitation, rolls it up and slides it into the bottle, along with sand and little beach trinkets!  (shindigz.com $9.99/six)

Menu

• Plan to serve fun summer foods like hamburgers, hotdogs, sandwiches cut with a cookie cutter in a summer shape and lemonade.
• For Dessert try a make-your-own sundae bar, popsicles and ice cream cones.   You can also make my cute pail of sand cake or seaside cupcakes.

Set your Table

Do this with the kids in mind!  For one of my own last day of school parties, I served each girl’s lunch in Barbie sized plastic swimming pools that I picked up at the Dollar Store.  Other clever ideas for serving lunch include:

• Beach pails
• Bandanas - for boys, tie up lunch into individual bandanas that are ready to be picked up and eaten outdoors!
• Frisbees - wash them up and use as dishes!
• Beach towels - use a beach towel(s) as your tablecloth.  Decorate your tablecloth with sand, seashells, and mini beach balls.  Set up some beach chairs around your house or yard.  Think everything summer!

Games

• Musical Beach Towels - line up beach towels instead of chairs!  Follow the traditional musical chairs game rules.
• Lei Games - purchase a large quantity of plastic leis from your favorite party supply store.  Divide kids into teams of two.  One member of the team is the lei tosser and the other is the lei catcher.  Place a bucket of leis between each team. The object is to toss as many leis as possible onto the catcher’s head in 30 seconds.  The catcher cannot move their feet or hands!  The team with the most leis caught wins! (American Girl Magazine, July, 2003)
• Outdoor Treasure Hunt - order small plastic bugs, animals, sea life, or whatever appeals to your child.  Try one of the novelty web sites such as orientaltrading.com.  Hide the little creatures all around the yard and let the kids go!  Small “bug boxes” from the Dollar Store could be used to collect the treasures!
• Limbo – Use a bamboo rod (or a broom stick in a pinch!) to play limbo!
• Water Balloons – For an active crowd - water balloons can be fun if the weather is right!

Crafts

Create an Adorable Sea Shell Necklace

Prep work:

• Cook jumbo pasta shells in boiling water for 3 – 4 minutes.
• Plan to cook about six shells for each necklace that you want to make.
• Drain and cool the shells.
• While the shells are still soft, poke a hole into each end of each shell with a needle.
• Allow the shells to dry.

At the party:

• Have the children paint the shells with bright acrylic paints and sprinkle with glitter while the paint is still wet.
• String the dry shells together with strong thread, interspersing silk flowers if you’d like.
• Tie off the end with a sturdy knot!

Put Together a “Keep in Touch Kit”

This is a fun project for the over seven crowd!  Here’s what to do:

• If you’ve invited six kids to the party, purchase five prepaid post cards for each guest.
• Before the party, address five cards with the address of each attendee.
• Divide the post cards so that all guests go home with five post cards addressed to five friends.
• During the party, have the party goers decorate the front of the post cards with creative, beachy art work.
• All summer long, the friends can stay in touch!

Party Favors

If you’ve followed one of my ideas for serving lunch, you’ll already have a party favor to send home!  If not, consider ideas such as:

• Beach towels
• Inflatable pool toys
• Flip flops
• Sunglasses
• Try this cute idea from American Girl Magazine – Purchase pretty little conch shells.  Write summer fortunes on small pieces of paper and slip the fortunes into the shells fortune cookie style!

Try the dollar bins at Target or your local Dollar Store for fun favors.

I know that as the school year comes to a close, most parents are really tapped out!  But, if you can, go ahead and host this party!  Your children will not forget this fabulous end to their year!  Happy Summer!!

You may also enjoy:

• Fabulous Beach Birthday Party
• Party Games for Kids
• Unique Birthday Treats for School
• Family Dinner Activities

Tags: last day of school party for kids, end of year party, summer kids party, party ideas for end of school, last day of school, kids’ parties

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