Well friends, it’s that time again. August is here, which means the vacays, summer camps, late nights and slow mornings are coming to a close.
But don’t get it twisted – the early alarm clocks and new structured routines doesn’t have to mean that the celebrations are over.
In fact, if you know us at all, we’re all about celebrating and making moments for all seasons of life.
So with that, it’s time for some back to school bash ideas to keep the excitement high 🎉
We’ll go ahead and preface this blog post by saying that these ideas were created with elementary school aged children in mind.
If you don’t yet have school aged children or your kids are older, take these ideas and add your twist to create a moment that best suits their age!
First Day Breakfast & Photo Op
One of the best ways to make the first day of school memorable is to carve out some extra time for a first day back breakfast complete with a photo op.
For this option, turn your dining room into a total school themed party with a tablescape with fun plates, napkins and straws, then fill it with balloons and include all the props.
To keep things easy, choose a theme and stick with it! Some common back to school party themes include: apples, books, and the alphabet.
Our choice: pencils ✏️
For this back to school bash, we would stick to the color scheme of yellow and pink, create a balloon arch with foil banners as the background and add in pencil shaped garland to make the perfect first day photo op.
For the tablescape, we would use fun confetti like plates and napkins and use school desk name plates to create the place setting.
Then, add your kiddos favorite breakfast foods and voilà!
To help you create a similar celebration, we’ve linked everything you need in THIS party kit!
After School Celebration
If you can’t quite swing the before school party, we totally get it! There’s a lot of moving pieces that come with back to school and these ideas are definitely not meant to add more stress.
An after school celebration will be just as exciting for them and serves as an intentional way for your kids to tell you about their day.
You can keep this one simple by setting up some light decor in your kitchen and making (or buying) a special afternoon treat.
We still suggest choosing a theme or color scheme so that everything flows together nicely!
If you want to stick with the pencil theme we shared above, blow up a few pink and yellow balloons and snag these pencil shaped sugar cookies from Target!
Back to School Bash with Friends
If you really want to close out summer and involve your kids, their friends and their parents, a great way to do that is to host a full back to school bash before school begins.
This one is of course a little more time intensive since you’ll be hosting a large group of people, but if you have the time to do it, we are so here for it!
First things first, like anything we do, you’ll want to choose your theme.
Next, refer to our tried and true party checklist to make sure you have all the essentials:
✅ Themed Plates + Napkins
✅ Tablecloths (if needed)
✅ Bar Cart + Drink Accessories (straws, stir sticks, etc.)
✅ Fun Cups
✅ Party Favors
✅ Balloons
✅ Extra Signage, Banners, Garland or Wall Decor
✅ Photo Props (our go to’s are themed sunglasses, headbands & DIY signs)
✅ Themed Food Menu
A few ideas you can incorporate to make this the coolest back to school party ever:
- Themed mocktail for the kids – set up your bar cart with all kinds of fun accessories with a fun drink for them to enjoy
- Pencil or book swap – have each child bring a fun pencil or their favorite book to swap with a friend (this could serve as your party favor!)
- Serve all the favorite kid foods and add a special touch to cookies with this pencil shaped cookie cutter
You can still use THIS party kit to get you started!
Back to School Basket
Finally, probably the most simple and least time intensive of them all, you can create a back to school basket to surprise your kiddos with on their first day!
We know you already have a Target trip planned, so go ahead and grab things like:
- Knick knacks from the dollar section that they always beg for
- Favorite treats for an after school snack
- New water bottle for the year
- Personalized pencils & pencil case
- Themed notebook
- New book
Wrap it all up in a cute HomeGoods basket and call it a day!
These are just a few ways that you can celebrate back to school season and our hope is that you feel excited and empowered to make a moment with your kids, no matter which idea you choose 🤩
Don’t forget to tag us in your back to school celebrations on Instagram, so we can cheer you on for being a true moment maker 🥰