With that in mind, I am beginning to plan my class end-of-year party! Planning a party can be stressful. Add 16 Kindergarteners who are ready for summer vacation and their families (including younger and older sibs) to the mix and it becomes stress level 6 billion!
I want to share a few tips and tricks that I use to make sure the planning (and the party itself) goes smoothly!
First things first: THEME
In the past, I have invited families to join our class for an ice-cream party. However, storing the ice cream in our tiny staff freezer and all of the melting made me a little bit nuts. I decided to change things up this year with cookie-decorating party! No school freezer required!
Now, for the INVITATIONS
I've noticed that many parents rarely check their child's cubby, so putting a paper invitation inside seems unproductive. With everything, from school events to field trips, email is best. I'm all about the presentation, so I used Paperless Post to send cute invitations to my class parents via email! There are so many adorable designs to choose from. I ended up going with a sprinkle blasted card to go along with the cookie decorating theme!
So stinkin' sweet, right? That was the easy part. The harder part is organizing the supplies, decorations, and of course, the cookies!
Making the COOKIES
I love to bake from scratch, but when it comes down to it, shortcuts are always the better option when there's a large crowd! For sugar cookies, I always buy the easy pre-made dough (check out how I used it to bake cookies for Chanukah!) Sugar cookie dough freezes really well, so I am going to make the dough over the weekend and freeze it until it's time to defrost, roll out, cut and bake a day or two before the party. I have 16 kids in my class, so I will most likely need to make four batches of dough to accommodate everyone.
Since it is a party to celebrate summer, I ordered these cute cookie cutters from Amazon. I am particularly excited about the pineapple shape :) I'm pretty sure the kiddos will like the fish, sun and octopus shapes as well!
Gotta have the FROSTING
Again, I'm taking the easy route here. You can buy a case of eight 10 oz. containers of Pillsbury Vanilla icing at Dollar Tree! The day of the party, I will mix in a different food coloring to each tub so students can choose what colors they want their cookies to be. And we can't forget the sprinkles!!!!
Ask the PARENTS-
I've done a lot of work! Time to hand over the baton. I plan on asking the parents to sign up to bring items like napkins, tablecloths, plates, plastic knives for frosting application, drinks and cups. And guess what? You can include the sign up on your Paperless Post invitation when you get to the "add details" section of your design!
Check back in a couple of weeks to see photos from the party! I can't wait to celebrate the end of the school year!
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