It’s that time of the year again! It’s a time that every school-aged child celebrates (yet Moms dread) and a day that teachers live for…the last day of school.
Dun-Dun-Dun!!!
For the end of year celebration, two other room moms and I collaborated together to chose a theme that would cater to most.
Who doesn’t love a beach?
There you go BEACH PARTY! Per the teachers’ request, we combined all three classes in order to let the kids socialize outside their classroom and meet potential future classmates.
*There are Pros and Cons to meshing all three classes together. See my list here.
We divided the classes into 9 different ocean themed groups. Each group was named a color and animal (for example blue dolphin or red crab). Each group was identified by the corresponding sea charmed rainbow loom bracelet. Each child was able to keep their bracelet and a Hawaiian lei as a gift from the room parents.
It was nice to have the children labeled because one could easily see that a “red” group child was lost if he or she were fraternizing with blue bracelet wearing children.
Who made the bracelets?
Here is the finished product.
At first we started using a reverse fish tail to make the bracelets…but it took several minutes and a lot of bands per bracelet. The last night we wised up (we had 36 still to make) and switched to the simple rainbow loom design.
Each group started at a station and would rotate to the next station every 20 minutes. We used a cow bell to signify when it was time to switch… not very “beach themed” but it worked!
Looking for a few ideas for your own beach theme? Check out what we did.
Station 1- Snacks
Kids are bottomless pits. We capitalized on feeding them and made it into a station. In keeping with the beach theme. We served g, goldfish, and out of buckets. Yum!
Station 2- Bubbles/Hula Hoops and chalk
This station was one where they could calm down a little and let their tummies digest. You cannot go wrong with bubbles and chalk! We kept it by the food so that the food servers could watch these guys too.
Station 3- Ocean Craft
We let the kids use their imagination and design their own ocean scene. We used blue scrap book paper for the background and supplied an assortment of precut fish, rocks and sea-weed. We also provided glitter glue…which we abandoned after one group.
Glitter glue + Kindergartener= Wet STICKY mess art
The children were piling the stuff on! Their work would need hours to dry, which was not a luxury that is available at an end of year party on. the. last. day. of. the. year. And FYI, we used glue sticks to glue the ocean scene together.
I must add that this was another one of my babies. By the day of the party, I was so sick of cutting card stock. Here is another time-saving tip…when cutting shapes for 70+ kids, have a craft party and invite some friends. Though it is somewhat relaxing, it is extremely time-consuming. I vow NEVER to do this again…alone at least.
At first I made templates and traced it onto the paper, THEN cut it. After a few hours of this, I wised up. Draw several of your shapes onto paper, then copy the shapes onto neon/colored paper. Let the printer do the “tracing” then you can find helpers for the cutting.
Station 4- Sand Fun
Why not use the sand by the swing sets? We did! We buried shells donated by sea-loving families and let the kids find them.
Station 5- Beach Musical Chairs
I wanted to play this with rafts from the Dollar Store but the other room moms didn’t want to risk someone getting hurt. OK, fair enough. We bought little floaty toys instead. The kids passed them around until the music stopped. The kid without the toy was out. There were no tears during this game. Nope…..ahem.
Station 6- Fish Craft
Another craft! Because kids and glue are just plain adorable…and because we had over 1000 googly eyes to use!
Station 7- Limbo
What is a beach party without ?
Station 8- Beach Relay Game
Children raced around buckets while doing funny sea creature walks. Crab walk anyone?
Station 9- Parachute and Beach Ball Game
Playing with a giant parachute is a kid-friendly classic. Give it a beach twist by throwing a few beach balls onto it. The children had a blast bouncing (and chasing) beach balls all over the place. It was also fantastic for burning energy.
*We bought most of our beach themed materials (buckets, table cloths, leis, beach balls and so on) from our local dollar Store. If you are not near a beach, you can even purchase sea shells from the dollar store! The charms and S-Clips for the loom bracelets were purchased from Amazon. The inflatable limbo set was from Oriental Trading Company. Also, if this were a private party vs school, water activities would have been incorporated.*
Judging by my son and talking with other mothers, our children were spent after this party. It was the perfect way to start off summer break!
Have you ever hosted a beach-themed school party? Share some ideas with us!
