Classroom parties can be a real challenge. You have to balance a very small budget against creating a memorable Valentine's Day party for your class. Luckily, Valentine's Day is one of the easiest classroom parties to plan. With a Valentine classroom party, you don't have to worry about religious differences or other political problems... you just need to concentrate on sharing a little love around your class.

Let's take a look at some of the quick and easy ways you can design your own classroom Valentine's Day party...

Setting The Stage For A Valentine's Day Party

Setting the stage for a classroom Valentine party is super simple and fun -- in fact, it only has to be as elaborate and and complicated as you want it to be.

For a simple party, cut out a bunch of paper hearts in pink, red, purple, and white and tape them up all over your party room. You can also get the children involved in the party preparation by enlisting them to make classroom decorations several days before the party. It will be fun and help build some anticipation for their party.

If you'd like to set up a little more elaborately decorated party and have a budget, here are some great ideas and products you might want to try...

You may want to start out with a great Valentine's Day banner. They come in all different sizes and it's one sure way to get everyone in the mood!

When it comes to decorating the classroom for Valentine's Day, you may want to mix in some pre-packaged Valentine decorations to save yourself a bunch of time. A large package of over 40 decorations(foil hearts, tissue balls, cupids, cutouts, and more) only costs about forty dollars and you can re-use them for years to come! A few selected decorations also make great bulletin board decorations!

Valentine Activities

No matter what type of party you're planning for kids, a craft project related to the theme always works well. There's two ways you can go when it comes to party crafts:

• You can create your own project, purchase supplies, and prepare them for your guests.
  
  
• You can purchase a craft kit.

My all time favorite place to get craft kits for children's parties is Oriental Trading Company. You can purchase a group of twelve kits for around $5 usually, and you don't have to do anything accept supply the kids!

If you decide that purchasing a children's craft kit isn't for you, then here are some free option for finding children's crafts for Valentine's Day:

• Kid Crafts Magazine - This free digitally delivered magazine is full of tons of craft ideas all year round.



• Free Kid Crafts.com - Free Kid Crafts is exactly what is sounds like -- free crafts. Many of the crafts are aimed at younger children, but you can find a lot of ideas to adapt to your own party.

Of course, there's much more to a Valentine Party than crafts, so let's talk about the other Valentine activities you can plan for your party...

Party Games

Some of these games listed here are very active games and may not be appropriate for your classroom party if you have a small classroom or your school doesn't allow these types of games in the classroom.

Guess How Many - This is an old standby game for many different kinds of parties. Fill a jar with heart candies and have guests guess how many are in the jar. (Don't forget to count as you put them in the jar!) Place the jar near the door and hand each guest a 3x5 card to put their name, their guess and their favorite Valentine candy. Halfway through the party read them all off and announce the winner.

Cupid Says - Play this game the same way as you would pay "Simon Says."

Valentine Gobble - Spread a pile of wrapped candy on a table or large tray. Give each guest a container like a small bag, bowl, or paper cup. Set a timer for 30 seconds and have the kids get as much candy into their containers as possible without using their hands. When time is up, the one with the most pieces wins, but everyone gets to keep the candy they maneuvered into their containers.

Valentine Memory Game - Place a few themed items such as a heart candy, a doiley, a rose, etc. on a tray. Show the tray to the guests for a few seconds, then have them write down (or call out) as many items as they can remember.

How Many Words - Hand each person a sheet of paper printed out with a famous couples' names. Ask each person to make as many words as they can out of the letters in the names you've given them.

Pass the Heart - Using small plastic hearts, or small stuffed animal, line the kids up in teams. The first person in each team is given a heart to place under their chin. The first in line must pass it to the next in line, but neither can use their hands. The first team to get the heart all the way to the end of the line is the winner.

Fishing for Hearts - Attatch a magnet to the end of the string of a small fishing pole, or make a fishing pole out of a wooden dowel. Create heart shapes out of pipe cleaners and put several in a large container on the floor. Let each child take turns "fishing."

Heart Bean Bag Toss - Create a large cardboard heart with a face on it. Cut out a large mouth. Paint it red or pink and let dry. Lean the heart up against a chair or desk and have the kids toss bean bags into the heart's mouth.

Valentine Scavenger Hunt - Create a list of several Valentine themed items. Break the kids into teams and give them the list. The first team to acquire all the items (or the team with the most) wins. You can make this a scavenger hunt inside a specific area and give them little clues to find it, or you can turn the teams loose on the entire school to hunt for the items.

Valentine Exchange - Most schools do this every year. Have children make and decorate a mailbox or mailbag(a recycled box or lunch paper bag works well). Have the children bring Valentines from home or make one for each child in class. Then during the party have the children deliver all their Valentines. Once all the Valentines are delivered, the children can open their mail!

There's probably lots of other games you can adapt to a Valentine theme... Use your imagination and have a ball! You'll also want to keep in mind that most classes make and/or exchange Valentines, so you'll want to leave plenty of time for the exchanging during the party.

What To Serve

Food for a Valentine Party is also fairly straight forward to make or purchase. It's also a great opportunity to get parents involved in the festivities... Ask them to send in some treats for the class!

Here's some simple classroom treats...

Heart Shaped Cupcakes - Whip up a batch of your favorite cupcake mix. Line your cupcake tins with paper baking liners. Fill the liners up half way, then place one small marble or a 1/2-inch ball of aluminum foil between each liner and one side of the cupcake tin. This will push the paper and the batter to form of a heart when it bakes. Bake the cupcakes according to package directions and decorate them any way you want.

Valentine Cookies - Make a batch of suger cookies and then use Valentine cookie cutters to make shaped cookies. Decorate them any way you want.

Sweetheart Brownies - Make a batch of brownies according to the package directions and then bake. When they come out of the oven, sprinkly a bunch of sweetheart candy (the kind with the printed sayings on it) all over the top. While the brownies are still warm, you can push the candy into the top of the brownie instead of just letting the candy lay on top.

Heart Shaped Rice Krispy Treats - You can get the recipe for this off the side panel of any box of Rice Krispies, then simply shape them into hearts. You can also drizzle some pink or red icing on top to make them more special.

Love Potion - Any simple punch can be served as "Love Potion." You could also use drink boxes and cover them with construction paper that says, "Love Potion."

Other Snacks

You'll want to add some other muchies to the party table to make sure that everyone has something to eat. Chips, popcorn, pretzels, trail mix, Valentine candy, etc. all work well.

Favors and Prizes

With the children already getting so many goodies, you may want to just forget about favors all together and provide little paper awards for prizes.

In addition, you may want to consider special memory favors for your guests. You could set up a photo booth, for example, and use a digital camera and printer on the spot. See Memory Making for more ideas. This would make a greate memory of the party for all the children and a nice keepsake for parents.

If you decide to purchase party favors and prizes, Oriental Trading Company can be a life saver. It's a great place to pick up some cheap prizes, decorations, and even Trick-or-Treat items.