Classroom Party for 4Th Graders

Bingo has always been a big hit with my kids' classes. Instead of prizes I let the winner call the next game, that way nobody goes home without a prize. A few other games are, guessing how many pieces of candy are in a sports bottle - closest guesser keeps bottle, a 3 legged race or pillow case race, red rover, or making a craft for the teacher.

For food I suggest making monkey bread. You can actually get it in the freezer section at walmart. The kids love the name. You make them give you their best monkey impression before serving it too. For game ideas do a search on the internet on parlor games. I also think you should try familyfun.com for ideas. Hope this helps.

I am doing my third graders end of the year party as well and have decided to just keep it simple. The older they get the more they just like to "hang out" and eat. I made a cd of some fun age appropriate music to play in the background and am putting together little autograph books for each of them with a picture of their class on it and then they can spend time signing each others books. As for the food, we don't get to pick....each grade level has to do the same. Crazy! I loved the fruit kabob ideas or smoothies..YUM! Good Luck!

I am doing about 10 end of the year parties.

Try shaved ice! www.candisno.com

C.
Owner!

Do an island theme, and have moms bring in different island reciepes, like crackers turkey and pineapple, coccunut,cake etc. Some kind of tropical punch smoothie could be made on the spot with a blender. Also, you could do a hula hoop game, see who can be the hula champion. Take turns two at a time and the last two compete for the prize. Another game could be that they have to put goggles on and flippers and run back to the line. Make it a realy game.

L.

We had a make your own sundae party and played bingo with prizes which was a hit.

Pool or Beach Party theme is aways an end of the year hit. You can do Hot Dogs and chips. Then hit Micheals and find a easy to do craft project. Like a Foam photo frame, you can easily get a photo of each child or the entire class. Then have copies of it made before the day is over. 4th graders at this point in the year are really 5th graders (in thier lil minds) So games arent as cool anymore! But just having an hour or so of school time to hang with thier friends and make something simple is fun and cool!
Have fun with it and they will love ya for it! Good Luck!

Are you wanting to make the food or have people help you or wanting to buy the food?

I have a neat book that is called Classroom Treats. It has recipes for a variety of classroom snacks:

There is dipped, drizzled and decorated pretzels. bananna split cupcakes, reese's haystacks, polar bear banana bites, mini pizza cookies, ultimate rocky road cups, peanut butter chips and jelly bars, cookies that look like the sun called Sunshine Butter cookies. They have unusual cakes, brownies, cookies, and very creative. Not sure if you have help or if you are doing this all by yourself.

If you are wanting to buy things- what about getting help from a bakery. Bluebonnet Bakery in Fort Worth has great cookies in various shapes/sizes and if you have a theme, they could help you out with your theme. You might want to have mini sandwiches, you could do sausage biscuits, bisuits and ham, cheese and crackers, chicken nugget tray from Chick Fil A, you could hire a caterer, if you have the extra money. What about cantelope and get a melon scoop and scoop out cantelope and honey dew,etc.. What about strawberries dipped in chocolate.

I know that Kung Fu movie is coming out this summer with the Panda Bear. You could do a theme around that. You could do a beach party theme, with umbrellas, water, beach toys,etc...
That's all I can think of right now. I would try and get some help from other parents if you can or even the teachers might help also. Good Luck and let us know how it goes.

There are great ideas on here. I wanted to add a recipe for monkey cake. Everyone I know loves it!

4-pack biscuits (10 per can)
Cinnamon
Sugar
Brown Sugar
Butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix 1/2 cup granulated sugar with a teaspoon of cinnamon. If you run out, just make a little more.
Cut each biscuit into fours.
Roll each quarter into a ball.
Roll each ball in cinnamon/sugar mix
Place each cinnamon ball in a greased bundt pan

Mix 1 cup brown sugar with 1/2 cup of butter and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.
Heat on stove until melted.
Pour over biscuit balls

Heat for 35-40 minutes at 350. Turn upside down on a serving plate.

We've done an "Aloha" party for both of my kids that worked out great. The kids wore their school-appropriate "aloha attire" (hawaiian shirts, board shorts, etc.) We served things like "grilled pork" (aka pigs in a blanket)and pancakes (kept warm in a crock pot). The most popular, though, was the fruit kabobs. We had strawberries, watermelon, pineapples, and other tropical fruit. The kids built their own kabobs, so that's kind of like an activity for them. Only thing is that you must insist that they throw away the sticks when they're done because there's always some boys who will try to play swords with them!

We've done relays like "dress-the-tourist" that can be fun, though by that age, they usually just want to hang out.

Build-your-own sundae parties are also popular.

How about asemble your own Fruit Pizza? You'd need to do a little prep work the crust and sauce, but it'd be easy. The "crust" is a roll of sugar cookie dough rolled flat in the shape of your liking...large round ones, square ones, or individuals. The "sauce" is a brick of softened cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar and a squeeze or two of lemon juice. On the day of the party, the kids could decorate their own pizza with whatever fruit they like. I like to use any of the berries and peaches on mine. YUMMY! You could also do a veggie pizza w/ cresent rolls, herbed flavored cream cheese and veggies.

I've done fondue for a 3rd grade party before and the kids loved it. We used the small crock pots and had white and brown choc.. The kids dipped strawberries, marshmallows, prez. sticks, etc. They walked through the line like a buffet and then we allowed them to come thru again until everything was gone. The really had fun!

I have a similar problem so am anxiously waiting to read what people tell you.

How about a Mexican themed party, with a build your own taco salad, Piñata, etc.

Or a white elephant party, where everyone exchanges gag gifts, limit $2.

As a former teacher I'd like to advise you to save any sugary foods and red dyes for the VERY last thing they get at the end of the day! The kids will be wound up already because it's party day- add sugar and what a mess!

Bring twister- that's always fun. Bunch of board games if it's rainy.

Let kids decorate own cookies or sundaes.

We cut a watermelon into a "boat" and filled it with melon balls, grapes, star cut pineapples...

We've also done veggie trays with Frankenstein Green Ranch dip, Cherry Smiles 1,000 Island dip...

Cutting apples and pears into cool shapes and pairing them with cheese or peanut butter is fun (check for food allergies!)

Cheese, sandwich meat, and cracker trays go well.

We also had a popcorn-palooza. We brought in a huge batch of air popped popcorn and the students each brought 25 pieces of their favorite candy. We mixed it all together and "nuked" it. I think the carmel really made it all come together nicely. Each student felt ownership of the party and it was a very, sticky fun time. We played Dr. Seuss Trivia (asking questions about Dr. Seuss books kind of like trivial pursuit)...

When my son was 6th grade we did a western theme and brought in bbq, it was cool. We've also did a 50's themeed party one year.

GinaM.

Find a used book store and get enough cheapo books for each kid to have one, as a "party favor." Food stuff could be taquitos, or maybe tortilla wraps with bananas and nutella or peanut butter in them, like those fancy crepes at the creperies. Or you could slice them up like quesadillas.

I saw a new game at my son's Valentine party this year.... They used conversation hearts, chop sticks, and only ONE hand! It was a relay race and they had to use the chop sticks to pick up one heart and take it to a cup on the other end of the room. The first group to 10 in their cup won a prize. It was hysterical to watch. We finally had to let them use two hands for the chop sticks since the hearts were so hard and not easily picked up. We decided that if we ever did it again, we'd use marshmallows and stick to the one hand only rule. Be sure and have a video camera handy, it's really funny!!!

you already have so many good sugestion, but I was a room mom for over 18 years, and the best one was a pinja, sorry I don't spell very well, but we made packages with each childs name on the packages, that way they had to find their own. It was much more fun,and not greedy at all. Also to cut down on mess bake cup cakes in ice cream cones, they look great, are fun and much cleaner. hope you like these thoughts.
A. D.