Jazz Up Your Holiday Party {You need these hats in your life!}

I know, I know... it isn't even Halloween yet and I'm posting about Christmas.

But, trust me.

You want to read this post and I want to get it to you early so you can order these hats!!!!!

You need these hats in your life!

Exhibit A- these metallic cone party hats from Oriental Trading:

Click the picture to view the hats on Oriental Trading or HERE for all party supplies.

Your standard metallic party hat, right?

WRONG.

These hats are the canvas for the most fun your students will ever have at your holiday party.

The good people over at Oriental Trading sent me 300 of these hats... one for each student in my elementary school.  We are going to use them to create the "costumes" for our Holiday Music Program in early December.

Of course, as soon as these arrived this week, I could not WAIT to put the vision in my head for these "costumes" into reality.

Cue the glue gun, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, craft pom-poms, tape, and ribbons!!!!

A few short minutes later, I had created the most adorable hats for my kiddos to wear for our music program!  (Ok, I didn't make all 300 in a few short minutes.  But I did make one of each with the help of some of my little elementary friends...)

We have a Santa hat that just needed a few cotton balls...

A girl elf hat- just add ribbons and paper ears.  The ears were super easy to make- it's just a heart that I cut in half!

Yellow = REINDEER!  This took three brown pipe cleaners and may be my favorite hat of all.

Ok.  I lied.  The green is my favorite.

Blue is a boy elf- ribbon and ears!

And the silver make the perfect candy cane... just add some colored tape!

Here they are... all in a row...

I love them.  Like, seriously love.

I am so thankful that Oriental Trading helped make this possible for our school holiday program.  But, as a former classroom teacher, this would have made the PERFECT station at my classroom Christmas party!  I was THAT teacher... with organized stations and crafts at the party... and this would be the perfect one!

I know you have three thousand craft pom-poms, a variety of pipe cleaners, and miscellaneous ribbons in your storage bins in that closet right now.

Dig them out and order yourself these metallic party hats!  Your kiddos will LOVE making these hats at your holiday party.  Don't miss out on these other holiday finds at Oriental Trading too!

Party Time... Christmas Game FREEBIE!

First- I have to thank you all for your awesome support during the big Teachers pay Teachers sale these past two days.  Even if you didn't buy a thing from me (shame on you!... just kidding!), thanks for spreading the word, blogging about the sale yourself, and reading my blog posts about it.

My best sellers were Christmas Around the World Powerpoints and the PPT/Flippy Book bundle, my Partner Reading Party, Graphic Organizers for Big Kids, and Comprehension Flippy Books!  All that stuff is still on sale for 20% off until the end of the night.

TpT has been a huge blessing in my life this year as hubby and I are working to eliminate debt so we can start the process of our goal to adopt a baby next year (hopefully next year)!

Anywho, I just wanted to thank you for your support by sharing with you a free Christmas party game.  You can download it for free at my TpT store by clicking the picture below.  Enjoy and thanks for all you do to make this little blog special!  If you like it, I'd love to know about it!  Spread some love through comments, pins, and feedback!

Head to TBA to see more FREEBIES!

 

 

Thank You, Cassandra!!!!

About a month ago, I started compiling people's Christmas party ideas into a booklet to share and Cassandra suggested doing a hot chocolate bar.

I just want to send out a HUGE thank you to you, Cassandra, for the brilliant idea!

I planned to do one the last day we had school in December and had such a huge response from parents that I was able to share my hot chocolate bar with the entire first grade and we've decided to make it our new 1st grade tradition!

We set up a table with a hot water caraffe, the hot chocolate, and all the fixins' in the hallway between our three rooms. Each of us showed a different movie and the kiddos got to choose the one they wanted to view. While they were watching their movies, we called a few kids out at a time and they got to make their hot chocolate creations!

They LOVED it and every student who walked past in the hallway was green with envy (sorry guys!) for the fun thing we were doing!

So, thank you thank you thank you for sharing your idea!

Here are some pics of our delicious afternoon!
Ok- that's officially IT for 2011! Best wishes for a fun, safe night for everyone and an amazingly creative, educational new year!

Five Days of Christmas at the Teaching Oasis AND... Updated Christmas Party Handbook!

Ok... first:

We're doing some great freebies this week over at The Teaching Oasis! Click the image above to head to our Facebook page to find out more!

The Monday freebie is already up and it's FANTASTIC!

My "Strega Nona" unit and Sandy's fabulous math puzzles have been added to our site too and are ready to be purchased! Ms. Winston is working on getting some other goodies up too... including my Christmas Party "Naughty or Nice" candy game and a Christmas flippy book!

Second:

Thank you SO much for all of your contributions to my classroom Christmas party handbook! I've added the extra ideas that were submitted and now the handbook is complete! It is FULL of outstanding ideas and there are so many that I can't WAIT to try them out! I'm having my party the day before the last day. Once we had a snow day on the last day before break and we missed our party... so I always do it a day early. So, the last day, we're going to do the hot chocolate bar that Cassandra suggested!

Here is the finished copy! For some reason, Google Docs hates when I use Thistle Girl backgrounds... so the cover looks funky when you open it in Google Docs... but when you print it and/or download it in Adobe, it will be correct! I promise! :)
As someone who is not an expert on Google Docs, I didn't know how to just replace the old file, so I deleted it. So, if you had saved it, I think it will be deleted from your Google Docs and you'll need to re-save the new one! I *think*! Sorry for any inconvenience!

Wednesday Snow Day and Giveaway Winners!

I love my job. I do. A lot. BUT... there is just something about hearing your phone ring at 5am on a Wednesday morning that adds a little sprinkle of awesomeness to being a teacher. So, here I am with "Will and Grace" in the background, sipping on a coffee out of my mug I got in NYC this summer, while the sun glimmers off a TON of snow outside this morning! I'm not going to lie... I'm loving it! BUT... I am going to go in to school in a little bit. It's amazing how much work I can get done when there aren't 20 1st and 2nd graders who need my attention! Hahaha! :)

Did you see yesterday's blog post? I'm working on compiling a list of Christmas party foods, games, activities/crafts, and ways to do a gift exchange. I would LOVE to add your ideas to the booklet so we have a HUGE resource we can all use to plan for extraordinary holiday parties for our kiddos! A few people commented yesterday and said they plan to use the ideas as a guide for parents who are planning class parties, which I think is an awesome idea! If you didn't share your great ideas yet, please do! If you click the image below, it will take you to that blog post so you can share your ideas and I'll add them to the final product and share it this weekend. And, don't worry Mrs. Cash... I changed your name in the booklet! :)
Anyhow, I wanted to share the winners of my giveaway for the "Nice and Naughty" Christmas party math game that I blogged about earlier this week on my first post about Christmas party ideas.

So, if your lucky number appears below, please e-mail me at christina4062@hotmail.com so I can send you your free copy! The game will be available on The Teaching Oasis soon if you'd like to purchase it!

Christmas Party Handbook... free for you!

Ok. Earlier this week, I posted to ask for new ideas for Christmas parties and you all shared some GREAT ideas!

I put them together in a little party handbook, but I would really like to grow this into something awesome for all of us to share!

You can click the image to download a copy and get some great ideas for games, food, and activities. If I missed yours or you thought of something new you'd like to contribute, please please please leave me a comment and I'll compile the rest of the ideas into a complete handbook and share it with you this weekend!

I'm so excited about this... though I appear to everyone else to be very organized, I'm really not... as least I don't feel it! I tell my students on a daily basis that if I can ever find everything I need the second I need it, we'll have a party. But it will never happen so...! Anyway, I know this will be so helpful for me to have all these ideas in one place! Now it's just a matter of me keeping track of this document... HA!

Bulletin Board... Cute, Quick, and Easy! AND... the stocking letter!

Today we did our first bulletin board of the holiday season... this one is more "winter" themed as my area is looking forward to some snow flurries this week (and I'm sure my students for a snow day soon too... ok, I'm not going to lie. I wouldn't mind one either!).

I found foam snowflakes in the dollar spot at Target... 10 for $1.00. I also got foam gingerbread people, sparkly trees, sparkly stockings, and sparkly snowmen! I have no big plans yet for those, but here's what we did today...

I gave each student a foam snowflake and sequins, felt snowflake stickers, and glue. They had to create a symmetrical snowflake...

Then I gave them two cupcake liners- a big one with snowflakes on it and a little silver one. They had to flatten them, glue the little one on top of the big, and write their name in the center... sort of snowflake-esque. Here's mine:

And then, one of my kiddos colored this sign that I made (click to get your copy!)...
And we hung them with our foam snowflakes in the hallway!


Yesterday I posted about my Christmas Party and I asked for your ideas and suggestions. You've given some AWESOME ideas! I am definitely going to be trying a "Hot Chocolate Bar"... so thanks, Cassandra! I'll choose four winners from the comments to win a copy of my "Naughty or Nice" party game... so if you have other ideas, please share!

I also shared a little about the Christmas stockings that we do. They are just paper bags with stocking patterns on the front that the kids decorate, but I ask for donations of little items to put inside. It's usually pencils, candy canes, plastic holiday cups, little Slinkies and cups of Play Dough... just little party favor type things. The kids LOVE it and all get to take home a bag full of goodies! Teaching in a high-poverty school, I don't like asking families to do gift exchanges and things like that. This way people who are able to donate can and no one has to know who brought goodies and who didn't because I fill the stockings up the day before the party!

Anyway, here's an editable version of my letter for you to adopt! Let me know what you think and, if you use it, I'd love to hear how it goes over in your classroom too! Once you open it in Google docs, you'll need to download it in WORD so you can add your own information/make changes.
Enjoy!

Christmas Party Ideas

Am I the only one who's wheels are already turning about their class Christmas party? I looped up with half of my class, so I need to make sure that I do some different things this year for my kiddos... and I am trying (for the first time this year) to have a parent plan the party so that I can just sort of show-up. It worked out SO well for Halloween. The "party planner" did a fantastic job and the kids had a great time. I still want to have a few ideas in my back pocket, though, in case the Christmas party mom asks.

Here's what we did last year...

I'm pretty controlling routine when it comes to my parties. I like to run stations... a game, snack, craft, and maybe a coloring contest or something. We rotate every 15-minutes or so and I just flit from station to station to take pictures and talk with the kiddos. For Christmas, I do love to do a breakfast which we'll be doing again this year, even though we did it last year. Teaching in a school with over 80% free-and-reduced lunch, it's really important to me to give a good *meal* at my parties. One year when we did breakfast, one of my sweeties said, "Oh my goodness. Meat for breakfast! I can't believe we're having meat for breakfast!"... keep in mind this was a piece or two of bacon and maybe a sausage link. It both warmed my heart and made me so super sad all at the same time!
But, anyway, back to the party at hand...

We do a breakfast. Last year we had fruit, pancakes, bacon, and donuts.

We played a game where you had to get presents down a chimney. This was a totally on-the-fly-the-night-before idea that I threw together. I wrapped a box in red paper, drew bricks, and put garland around the top. I went to Dollar General and got little wrapped presents that were ornaments. Each kid had a gift bag with one color of presents inside and they had to throw the gifts down the chimney. They LOVED it! Whoever got the most gifts in the chimney got a prize... the prizes were left overs from our stockings... see the next picture!


I know a lot of people do gift exchanges, but instead of doing that, we do stockings. Each student makes a stocking (a paper stocking pattern, decorated and glued on the front of a brown lunch sack) and we hang them in front of our window. I send a note asking for donations of little items that we put in our stockings. Then, at the end of the Christmas party, we get to open our stockings! If you would be interested in a copy of my letter, let me know and, if there's a ton of interest, I'll make a generic one and post it later in the week!


A craft... last year I got these great paper tree lanterns on clearance from Oriental Trading. We used water color paints to make them at the party, the kids took them home that day, and there is a little clip inside that allows you to clip it on a light and hang from your tree!

And what party is complete without something totally ridiculous fun to eat (at about 3:08 when the bell is going to ring in 2 minutes and they can be crazy at home, right?!)? We always make edible trees! This is just an ice cream cone smothered in green tinted frosting, and then decorated with all sorts of candy!

So, what are your favorite Christmas Party activities? I will be doing the game that I shared at Halloween with the candy passing... if you missed that post, you can see it here.


I have made a new one for Christmas that will be available on The Teaching Oasis soon! This one's called "Naughty or Nice". If you leave a comment with a Christmas party game, craft, or other activity idea, I'll choose 4 winners at random to receive this game first before you can buy it later on this week!

That's it! I can't wait to hear your party ideas and maybe you found something useful from my ideas too! Remember to leave a comment with a party idea to be entered to win a copy of "Naughty of Nice"- a Christmas math party game!