Hip, hip, hooray for Friday! Remember that through this Sunday we are welcoming ideas and suggestions for classroom parties (see “Holiday Giveaway 3” for details). If you’d like to be entered in the surprise giveaway, all you need to do is share a favorite classroom party idea. Who knows? You might win a trip to Hawaii! (Folks, I’m seriously kidding about the trip to Hawaii. Although you could win a gift certificate and a holiday surprise, which you could then take to Hawaii, if you cared to. 🙂 )
Have a great weekend!
Smiles,
Diane
I teach kindergarten, and I love Christmas parties!!!
We make mini gingerbread houses out of small milk cartons (usually available at school’s lunch programs).
We cover it with white frosing and use graham crackers, then put more white frosting and decorate it with lots of different kinds of candy!!!
Yes, we have a sugar high, but lots and lots of fun!!!!
After we exchange presents. This year, I bought games for the classroom, and let each one of the children open one. (I have a very small class of 6):)
We then watch a Christmas movie and have special treats.
Happy Holidays everyone!!!
We are decorating sugar cookies at our party this year (Kdg.). We will have larger, store-bought cookies and parents are sending in icing and a small bag of candy to share with the class (M&M’s, licorice, marshmallows, ect.).
We have a Christmas party where the parents are included in a circle time experience with their children. We sing songs with sign language and perform favorite holiday fingerplays. This allows the children to be with parents, share their learning and not have the pressure of standing up and performing. I set up several centers where the children and parents can participate in ornament preparation and/or crafts. We also have a family scavenger hunt for items that the children have made during the month. We have a secret santa drawing where each child picks the name of a friend and buys and/or prepares a present for that one child. They also are encouraged to perform kind acts for their secret santa during the month. Santa arrives to visit with the children and allow pictures for parents. We culcumate with Santa handing out the presents. The preschool is in my home and we have a Christmas village with trains setup that the children and families also enjoy visiting during the party.
I have the parents donate snacks. They come in for the last 45 mins. of our day. We sing them 6 songs and then have snacks together. The children really enjoy singing and the parents are very proud.
We are having a family activity day where the parents can come in and do activities with the children. We will have crafts set up at different tables were the children we be able to go and work on and we have the parents help us with doing the crafts with the children. It is a great way to get the parents involved in their childrens school.
My 6th grade class does a “winter/holiday mug exchage and ask each student bring in one winter/holiday ceramic mug. The students will exchange mugs with one of their peers. The mug should cost no more than $2 and it should be able to be given to a boy or a girl. The holiday time is when people greet one another with good cheer. During our mug exchange, we discuss why it is important to treat people with love, respect, and kindness not only at the holiday time, but throughout the year. We drink hot chocolate from our new mugs and make “Sugar Cone Trees” while enjoying a holiday movie. On that day, the students are allowed to wear their favorite fuzzy slippers (bedroom shoes) during our social time. I want them to be comfortable and have a special day!
I teach fourth grade and our roomparents are a big help with our classroom Christmas party. Santa visits all our classrooms and we play Christmas charades. It is fun watching the children act out tree, reindeer, Santa, etc. We also decorate cookies. We have our party in the morning and then the children are dismissed at noon. When the children are dismissed, I have time to put all the Christmas decorations away before I leave for the holidays. I also have time to write thank you letters to my students and parents for the fun party and gifts.
at our school we will have a christmas morning where parents will come and see their children perform a 5 to 10 minute program.they will then join us in our classrooms for a small christmas party with snacks and refreshments.morning is completed with a visit from santa!
Each year I have my students make a book. On our party day, the students draw pictures of one of the following:
1) what their snowman would look like if they could build one here in South Texas
2) what they would like to give a friend for Christmas
3) how Santa gets in to deliver presents if they don’t have a chimney
The books turn out great. I laminate the pages over break, and the students have the book in our library center when they return from vacation.
Amy and I (the teacher I work with) have created a huge map of the earth on our kindergarten classroom bulletin board titled “Holidays around the World!”
We plan to put signs(ex. student-made menorah etc) of the holidays celebrated in our classroom on or close to the countries that celebrate them.
I am teaching a lesson about holidays I celebrate* on Monday with the key points being:
-What I do
-Who I am with
-What I wear
Every child will get a chance to do this activity and share it with the class then we will put their pictures/answers on the bulletin board in the back.
* For students that do not celebrate a holiday I am also going to share about what I do during breaks from school (spring,winter or summer break) with the same key points and instead of putting up a sign of a holiday the child that does not celebrate a holiday can put up a cut out of what they do.
I’m EXCITED!!!!
A great party activity is to have the kids frost with green frosting the brown sugar ice cream cones turn them upside down on a plate. Then let the kids decorate them as trees with assorted candies. They love it.
Our school also has a school holiday party with dinner, dessert, a craft for the kids and a visit with Santa where we take pictures and each child gets a gift. Great fun and its always fun to relax with Parents this way.
Merry Christmas Everyone.
The students exchange gifts with their secret pal and watch classic holiday movies such as Rudolph & Santa Clause is coming 2 town. Students enjoy various treats parents send in !
This year we had several of our parents that celebrate Hanukkah come in for the day. They read the children stories, helped make Hanukkah crafts(spin art dreidels and fingerprint menorahs) and they also brought in homemade latkes, applesauce and jelly donuts. To celebrate Christmas this week we will decorate a gingerbread train made with graham crackers and boxes, we will host a sing a long with holiday songs and act out a Christmas Show where all the children play a role and then we will end the week with a pajama party. We will watch a holiday show(Polar Express or Frosty) and eat cookies with hot cocoa. In the past when we have done the Polar Express we made tickets that we punched and handed out bells on a string at the end of the movie.
Thank you, everyone, for posting such awesome ideas. I can’t wait to try some of them in my classroom this year! 🙂
We decorate cookies, watch a movie, open a present from our Secret Santa, and of course we eat treats. We’ll sing songs and undecorate the tree so we can take all of the ornaments we made home for the holidays. We also make a present and card for our parents.
I usually set up Christmas themed centers. In the past centers we have done include: decorating sugar cookies, playing Christmas bingo, Pin the star on the Christmas tree, gift wrapping of gifts to parents, “stained glass” (permanent marker on transparency), listending center (one of our class favorite seasonal books read by a special friend on tape), etc. The kids love it. We also leave our stockings out the night before and hope for a special visitor. When all the centers are completed, we eat snacks brought in by parents and open our Christmas present and stocking.