I was so excited when Michaels asked me to join their Back to School Adventure! I knew exactly what I wanted to do!!
Let me set the scene… It’s registration day at your school. You head up to school, kid(s) in tow, prepared to fill out form after form after form. Registration forms, health forms, school handbook contracts, computer lab forms, and on and on and on. And while you’re filling out the forms, your child will most likely be tugging on your arm telling he’s “booooored” and asking, “I’m hungry. When’s lunch?” Or worse. Running around and pulling books of the library shelves as you’re trying to locate your doctor’s phone number.
But what if your school PTA anticipated this, and set up a table with activities to keep the kiddos entertained while you took care of your registration business? How much easier, more stress-free it would be!
That’s what I did for the Michaels Back to School Adventure!
It’s true that Michaels is packed with aisle after aisle of crafting supplies. But they also have tons of creative activities to keep kids busy.
I used the gift card they sent me to put together a table of fun activities. I focused on items that would appeal to a range of kids’ age and development levels, and on activities that were quickly picked up and put down.
Here’s what I got:
–> A giant magnet
–> Monster kits that include modeling clay and plastic pieces for arms, legs, eyes, etc.
–> A pack of soft play clay
–> 4 coloring books
–> Word search book
–> Two dry erase boards
–> 5 dry erase markers
–> Scribble slate
–> Felt play board with a dinosaur scene
–> Two “Woolly Willy” faces with the iron filings to make funny hair
–> Fashion designer drawing set with stencils
–> Plastic basket (with lid) to store it all so we can take it out next year
When parents came in with their kids, our PTA reps could point the parents to the library and then let them know that the kids could hang out in the hallway with us if they got bored. Parent loved the face that they could get their paperwork done in peace. The kids’ faces would light up and they’d find a spot at our table. They’d color or make clay monsters or draw on the dry erase boards. Often, they’d get a conversation going with other kids, perhaps meeting new friends before the school year. And for families new to our school, it showed our school to be a warm, welcoming environment for their kids.
It was an all-around school registration success!!
It’s easy enough to put together a creative table for your own school registration. You can find everything you need in one trip to your Michaels store – and it won’t cost a bunch, either! I got everything I needed (including the storage bucket) for roughly $60.
Look! It all packs into this tote at the end of registration, ready for next year!
For more back-to-school crafting ideas, go to the Michaels Back To School Pinterest board.
Disclosure: Michaels provided a gift card to purchase supplies for my Back To School Adventure craft and asked that I blog about what I made, but made no requirements that I give a favorable review of their store. My opinions are entirely mine.
