Classroom Party Trends

Classroom parties have changed a lot over the last few decades and we are on the brink of even larger changes. A term that is being used more frequently in the education world, student equity, is likely to soon have a drastic impact on how your school celebrates holiday parties in the classroom, if it hasn’t already.  

Student equity generally applies to opportunities and outcomes of students in the classroom as it pertains to teaching and learning. As educators are working hard to address this concept in the classroom, they are beginning to identify other areas this concept can be applied to make sure some students don’t have opportunities that other students don’t.  Many schools are moving towards rules that all classes in each grade, and even all classrooms in the school, have to have the exact same party for the holidays.  While this is a novel concept to ensure some students don’t get indulgent parties while others don’t get anything, it can be a headache figuring out how to put this into practice.  

If room parents are in charge of planning the parties, this means there has to be multiple meetings where the room parents in each grade get together and all have to agree on what games to play and snacks to bring. In some cases, schools are moving away from having room parents throw parties for this reason and are burdening the PTO or PTA with planning classroom parties for the entire school.  The PTO and PTA parents are often already overworked and under thanked, and adding this massive task to their list is receiving pushback. 

A company, like MyClassroomPARTY, is a good solution in these situations and is likely going to be the trend going forward.  MyClassroomPARTY is offering a solution to ensure that every student gets to experience a memorable and fun holiday party and that no student or classroom is left out.  All classrooms at the school can have amazing, yet very similar experiences without requiring work from overworked teachers, administrators or PTA parents.  

Schools are finding different ways to cover the cost of these parties that are now being purchased.  Many PTO and PTA organizations are making this part of their annual budget and are purchasing them for all the classrooms.  In other situations, classes are asking parents for monetary donations for the parties, similar to how they used to send out a sign-up list asking for parents to bring in different party supplies. MyClassroomPARTY, mentioned above, is donating a portion of all sales to help provide these parties at no cost to schools that cannot afford to purchase them. Finally, some corporations are donating parties to schools. This option is a great way for corporations to partner with schools and gain goodwill in the community and an excellent way for schools to cover the cost of providing enriching parties for their students.