Will your students be making holiday gifts for their families this year? If so, I’d love hear how you squeeze making the projects into a school day that is already packed. Are you able to have each kiddo complete part of the project at a center? Do you enlist the help of a volunteer? Do you set aside an afternoon to make gifts? How do you do it?
Eager to hear,
Diane
I plan parent Christmas gifts in September and buy supplies in October. We then sit with the kids and make them a few at a time each day until they are done. No fuss no muss. We are almost done already. I do their cards the same way. The gift bags I pick up are the plain gift bags you can pick up in bulk at any craft store. The kids decorate them with stamps and that is a large group activity.
I have also been known to pick up things right after Christmas for the next year.
One word of advice for this plan you always buy more than you need as you never know when your numbers may change.
But I find this to be less stressful.
I informed my parents that the Months of Nov and Dec were set aside to make our christmas presents. Meaning not to expect any arts and crafts during this time. Each child is making a 2013 calendar, with a different theme for each month.
I love to make jar cookie mixes for the moms, and since we’re right in the middle of our measurement unit it fits perfectly into our math center time!! Fun, fun, fun with food and capacity!!
I asked a parent to volunter….
At my campus (grades PreK-4th), each grade level is assigned a Christmas tree in the cafeteria to decorate. The ornaments the students make stay on the trees until the day we leave for winter break. The students take the ornaments home to hang on their own trees. Students who attend my campus throughout the years have a collection of ornaments to look back on and remember their time in elementary school. 🙂
We set aside an afternoon which runs into center time to create gifts. We make a different gift each day to correlate with the story we are reading.