Classroom Valentine's Day Parties

I have a few other classroom parties to post on here as part of my catch-up plan, but to keep it current, I will show some ideas from last year's Valentine's Day party. Did I say current? I guess I mean to say relevant to this time of year. I'm planning this year's party, but I wanted to post the ideas from last year. It helps me to remember and maybe it will help spark some ideas as well.

Last year for my daughter's 1st grade class, we had snacks, an activity and a photo booth. We divided the class into 3 groups for 3 stations: 1st station activity was for reading Valentine's (a parent was here to help read if they needed it and Valentine's were handed out earlier in the day); 2nd station was a snack area; and 3rd was for the photo booth. We had 8 students per group. We switched stations every 10 minutes for a 30-minute party.

Our photo booth turned out pretty cute. While one was getting their picture taken, the rest were decorating heart pencil toppers. Can you believe I don't have any pictures of that? What happened? Anyway, for the pencil toppers, I took in plain paper hearts that I cut out using my Making Memories Slice that I've had for a few years now. I precut two holes for the pencil. I also had crayons, markers and stickers. All they had to do was decorate the hearts while they waited for the picture to be taken and after while waiting for the others. I also provided pencils for the toppers.

For the "photo booth" I made a heart banner and hung it on the wall. I also brought a few props: a heart, a mustache and bow. The kids had fun. I actually did the photo booth for my son's 2nd grade class as well. I might even do the same thing again this year.

Some of the boys used the bow as a bow tie...

And some of the girls used it as a hair bow...

While others used just the heart...

or just the mustache...

I had the pictures printed and sent home with the kids in their take-home folders. I like to do this because, especially for the parents who can't be there, they still get a keepsake from their child's 1st grade party. My hope is that the parents keep the pictures and are happy to have them. 

Here's a picture of the snack table. I love seeing what parents bring in for snacks. They really come up with some adorable ideas. And the kids have such a fun time! You can't really see everything because I took the picture after it was over : ( But you can still see the cute marshmallows dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. They looked so cute! 

The owl placemats were from Target a few years ago. Our teacher loves owls so I couldn't resist decorating with them! 

 Here are the Valentine's my daughter gave out last year. I found the super cute heart-shaped ring pops at Dollar Tree! I loved that the packaging was clear without a logo or anything. I had her draw a heart, then I scanned her drawing and made stickers. We added the stickers and then we had our Valentines. I know -- sugar, sugar, sugar -- but isn't Valentine's Day supposed to be sweet? I might try something healthier this year, but I'm not promising anything. 

Enjoy!