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Valentine’s Day is more than candy or flowers from your sweetheart. Valentine’s Day means that it’s time for another class party at school!  I am a room mom (class parent) at my younger daughter’s school.  I love this volunteer position.  It takes a lot of time during the major class parties (Halloween, Holiday and Valentine’s Day) BUT this volunteer post is  low key for the rest of the school year.
Even if you didn’t sign up to be a room mom, the class parties are usually when parents get hit up (I mean ASKED) to help for an afternoon.  As a veteran of many holiday class parties, take some advice from years of experience with a few of my NO FAIL VALENTINE’S DAY  treats, crafts and games for the class party.

Treats and Gift Bags for the Fiesta
One of my favorite places on the web is the Oriental Trading Company.  If you want party favors and fun stuff, this should be your number one destination.  This place has EVERYTHING for parties and it’s good and cheap.  They sell their novelty items by the dozen and this is my first stop before any classroom fiesta.  Go to www.orientaltrading.com.

It goes without saying that candy, candy and more candy is mandatory for Valentine’s Day parties.  We’ll get to the candy in a minute.  To make your party a big hit and not have the other parents cursing you for giving the kids too much candy, it’s always a good idea to make some “novelty items” part of the party bag or to give away at the party.  Pencils, erasers and stickers are good ideas but pretty common.  If you want to add some zing to the class party, add these to the party.

Valentine’s Bracelets
These are fun and not too “lovey dovey” as a classroom gift.  Plastic bracelets (like the popular “Live Strong” yellow bracelets) are a fun gift for a treat bag.

Warning Label Bracelets
Perfect for the “too cool for school” older elementary school kids, these bracelets have warnings imprinted on each one.  Sayings like “Toxic” and “Radioactive” are a sure hit with the older kids.  At $5.95 for TWO DOZEN of the bracelets, you can’t go wrong.

Candy
Any kind of candy, chocolate candy is a must.  M&M’s, Hershey’s Kisses, Candy Hearts are the favorites and I like to stick to the standard candy choices for the holiday class parties.  When you are trying to please a large group, it’s a good idea to go with the most popular choices around.  The other reason I like single candies such as candy kisses and candy hearts----these make the best BINGO markers for the best classroom game ever…BINGO.

Games
My favorite game and one I use in nearly every party at school is BINGO.
Bingo
I was turned on to the magic of Bingo for class parties by my friend Allison. I served with her as a room mom and she showed me the power of Bingo.  It’s the perfect game for class parties because:
1)You can use candy in the game
2)You offer prizes making every child pay attention to the game
3)It does not involve glue or staples
4)You can play Bingo over and over.  They never get tired of it.

I even purchased a Bingo hopper and some cards.  It was the best $30.00 I’ve ever spent and I take it to the holiday parties every year.

Crafts
My personal opinion on crafts and class parties is this:  DON’T DO IT!  There are brave mothers and fathers out there who believe that it’s just not a holiday party unless there is a craft.  However, I think some of these parents have not actually volunteered to help with a craft for a room of sugared up 8 year olds.  

If you must have a craft at your class party, then go straight to Michael’s or another craft store in your area.  I like Michael’s because the craft supplies are endless AND this store gives you instructions (SIMPLE instructions) on how to do each craft.  Find the online store at www.michaels.com.

Foam is Your Friend
I am a lazy crafter and I like easy crafts for classrooms of children who consume large amounts of candy.  My advice is to go with a FOAM craft of some kind.  See the link below for a foam bookmark.  Using some kind of foam for a project is relatively painless in the classroom craft world.

Valentine Spinner Craft
A Valentine spinner would make a great craft project for a Valentine’s party. This is a craft for older kids or smaller classes.

As a rule, I try to avoid anything that involves lots of GLUE or PAINT for the classroom craft.  Call me a whimp but I’ve had some scary craft moments over the years and I like to opt out of the crafts during the holiday parties.

I hope this little post gives you some ideas to make your class party a breeze.  Please let me know what has worked for you at parties, I love to hear new ideas.