Junie B. Jones Back to School Party

As soon as my daughter and I had started reading the first Junie B. Jones book, I began dreaming of how fun it would be to plan a Back to School Party revolving around the fun book series.
We invited her school friends over at the end of summer vacation to join us for lunch and some crafts, and to celebrate the new school year ahead.
As the 28 Junie B. Jones books all revolve around school, it was easy to incorporate a lot of details from the series into the party decorations.

I turned the backyard playhouse into “Room Nine”, Junie’s classroom. Made a “Welcome Back” banner for outside and a “Room Nine” banner for inside. Since I had fit two benches and a few chairs into the playhouse, up to ten kids were inside the “classroom” at times. They loved socializing and reading Junie B. Jones books in this cozy little space.
Since Junie B. Jones is all too often told to go see the principal, I had this idea of turning our shed into the principal’s office. I painted the door with black chalkboard paint so I could write a few “fun facts” about principal on there and added a pic of him lurking from his office. The lost and found box that the “Junie B. Jones is not a Crook” book revolves around can be found in principal’s office. I recreated the box and bought Junie B. Jones books on varagesale to put inside. Every child was allowed to pick a book from the box and take it home. This went perfectly with a craft the kids made: Junie B. Jones bookmarks using the printables found here and the Shrinky Dinks of Junie B. I had prepared.
I purchased a box of crayons, a pair of scissors and a glue stick for each child. These school supplies were used for crafting, but also served as a party favour and decor.
To set the stage for the school themed party, I painted a couple chalkboards and used some items as props that you can find in any classroom.
I wrote “I will not do a huffy breath at (Tattletale) May” on one chalkboard, and “School is where you go to meet new friends and not watch TV” on the other. Both chalkboards made for the perfect backdrop.
Since the goal was to get the kids involved and pumped to go back to school, I had prepared some crafts that would be both fun and double as sth. they could use during the new school year. One craft involved using school themed stickers to decorate a folder they can collect their favourite work from the 2017/2018 school year in.
I used a composition book template that I found on Deonna’s blog (Child at Heart), printed it and glued it onto a black folder. My daughter created Junie B. Jones buttons on the Junie B. Jones website, that we printed to glue onto the folders as well as the top of the little buckets that held the kids’ school supplies.
The kids also made a bookmark using a template from the website and added Junie B. Jones themed Shrinky Dinks I had prepared. Another fun craft was to cut out some purple glasses and tape them together so they could look like Junie B. Jones.
For lunch, we served pizza, fruit, veggies and some sweets. I displayed lots of food in the lunch stand. The “Boss of Lunch” book is one of our favourites and so we just had to incorporate it and of course Mrs. Gutzman.
We had alphabet-shaped cookies and delicious Junie. B Jones themed sugar cookies that the talented Eva de Blois of Jessika’s Treats made. We also served “Lucille’s fluffy white cupcakes with sprinkles” and a strawberry vanilla cake that was covered in whipped cream and looked like Mother would have made.
There was lemonade and milk served in milk bottles with paper straws and little flags made of school themed washi tape.
I bought a vintage school desk on varagesale and painted it yellow and decorated it with school supplies. It made for a perfect prop where we could take back to school pics of the kids.
The party was success as the moms were all telling me how much fun the kids had and how excited they were about the new school year when they got home. Wowie Wow Wow!?! What else can anyone hope for?

• What People Ate

  pizza, fruit, and veggies

• What People Drank

  milk, lemonade, water

• Desserts

  alphabet-shaped cookies; delicious Junie. B Jones themed sugar cookies, “Lucille’s fluffy white cupcakes with sprinkles”, a strawberry vanilla cake covered in whipped cream

• Party Favors

  Junie B. Jones book; a bucket with crayons, a pair of scissors, and a glue stick; a bookmark; a Junie B. Jones sugar cookie

• Activities / Games

  bookmark making folder decorating

• Eva de Blois of Jessika’ s Treats

  Cookies

  Eva made the delicious Junie B. Jones cookies.
  Please check out Eva's website here: http://jessikastreats.ca

• Jade McLean of Your Life, My Lens Photography

  Photographer

  Please check out Jade's Facebook page here:
  https://www.facebook.com/YourLifeMyLensPhotography/

• Deonna Wade of The Child at Heart Blog

  Composition book folder template

  Please check out Deonna's blog here:
  http://www.thechildatheartblog.com