| |
|
Room Parents
Resources
Holiday Parties /
Craft Ideas / Game Ideas
/ Snacks & Drinks
Holiday Parties
The room parent will work with the teacher to determine the time of
the parties during these half days and the duration of the parties.
Parties are usually 45 minutes to an hour in length.
The holiday parties are the responsibilities of the room parents, not
the teachers. Communicate with the teacher to determine their preference
for the parties. Utilize the parents who volunteered to assist. You
don’t have to do it all!
Other room parents are a great resource! Ask for assistance, tips, or
suggestions from your room parent peers.
Tips for successful classroom parties:
- Make them creative, memorable, and above all, FUN!
- Three station parties work well for the younger grades:
create/eat snack, active games, and other activity, such as a craft.
- The older children may enjoy a longer time on one, more involved
activity, followed by a snack.
- Keep the kids busy and active.
- Focus on the kids “doing” rather than getting.
Helpful websites:
Back to Top
Craft Ideas
- Make/decorate trick or treat bags to use on Halloween night.
- Make a ghost, using a tootsie pop, Kleenex and yarn.
- Create a Halloween mask, using a paper plate.
- Create ornaments – for themselves or as a gift for a special
someone.
- Make a family gift – like a small glass bowl decorated for
Valentines Day. (Two thumbprints together make a heart!)
- Make a Valentine for someone special. Use the children’s
handprints or fingerprints to decorate.
- Decorate a pumpkin, tree, or heart.
- Create picture frames and include a photo of each child. Easy to
do with a digital camera!
- Make a pencil cup.
- Cover textbooks.
- Utilize the cultural variances in the classrooms, by asking
parents to assist with a craft project related to their background.
Kwanza is a great example.
- Combine the craft and snack – decorate the food and eat it
Game Ideas
- Use TV shows as examples: Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Family
Feud, Win, Lose or Draw, Name that Tune, Whose Line is it Anyway,
Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Deal or No Deal.
- Traditional games, such as musical chairs, bingo with moving
prizes, bingo with holiday pictures on the cards,
- Trivia games, with questions regarding the holiday, holiday
symbols, and holiday music.
- Charades, with cartoons, current movies, book titles, song
titles, etc.
- Relay races, like hoola hoop pass, apple under the chin, eat a
cracker and try to whistle, dress up with different articles of
clothing, etc. Good to work as a team.
- Contests, like blowing the biggest bubble, paddle balls with the
most hits, tallest tower with blocks or cards, guess the number of
candies in a jar. The kids like the friendly competition.
- Bean bag or ring tosses into buckets or targets.
- Bob for apples or donuts, with the object hanging on a string.
- Spell out words using their bodies.
- Dancing, like the hokey-pokey, line dancing, club dances, etc.
- Stories, like a monster story and the different “parts” are
passed around (wet sponge for the brains, peeled grapes for the
eyeballs, cold spaghetti for the intestines, etc.)
- Pin the _____ on the _____, like nose on the jack-o-lantern,
star on the tree, arrow on cupid.
- Drop a penny into a shot glass submerged in a big jar of water.
- Face painting
- Decorate a classmate – a scare crow, a mummy, a Christmas tree,
etc.
- Utilize the cultural variances in the classrooms, by asking
parents to assist with a game related to their background. The
dradle is a great example.
- If the weather is nice, go outside for the activity.
Back to Top
Snacks and Drinks
Be aware of allergies in the classroom. Discuss this with the
teacher.
Ideas for snack:
- Decorate cookie or cupcake, using icing, sprinkles,
mini-chocolate chips, small candies, licorice, etc.
- Make ice cream “cookiewiches” with a scoop of ice cream between
2 cookies.
- Make your own sundae or banana split.
- Make fruit kabobs, using cut up fruit, like melon, grapes,
strawberries, apples on wooden skewers and drizzle with caramel or
chocolate.
- Fondue cups, by dipping marshmallows, pound/angel food cake,
fruits, etc. in small cups of caramel or chocolate syrup with fancy
toothpicks.
- Make trail mix with a variety of different dried fruits, nuts,
granola, small candies, etc.
- Cut jello jigglers in a variety of shapes, using cookie cutters
or other safe utensils.
- Make dirt/sand cuts, with chocolate or vanilla pudding cups,
sprinkled with crushed vanilla wafers or chocolate cookies, and
include gummie worms or fish.
- Make floats, with a scoop of ice cream and orange, grape, and
cherry soda in addition to root beer, and serve with a fun straw.
- Make smoothies, with frozen fruit, yogurt, and milk mixed in a
blender.
- Make milkshakes, with special mix-ins, like cookies or candies.
- Have a hot dog bar, with toppings such as ketchup, mustard,
relish, cheese, and chili.
- Have a taco/nacho bar, with taco shells or chips, beans, cheese,
lettuce, tomatoes, olives and onions.
- Popcorn in a plastic glove; decorate with fingernails, rings,
etc.
- Older children may enjoy having pizza delivered.
Back to Top
Ideas for drink:
- Juice boxes, not pouches, work great for the younger children.
- Older children may enjoy lemonade, juice or decaffeinated soda.
Two liter bottles with cups of ice are fine.
- Use of a punch bowl is fun. Make a special ice ring or mold. Use
ice cream in the punch.
- Dreamscicle: Float scoops of vanilla ice cream in an orange
drink.
- Lemonade punch: Float scoops of rainbow sherbet and/or slices of
fruit in lemonade.
- Witches Brew: Apple juice, with green food coloring, and plastic
spiders floating. Halloween Brew: Freeze plastic spiders, plastic
eyeballs, etc in a mold and float in green drink.\
- Ice Mold Wreath: Put cherries in the bottom of a ring mold,
freeze in a green beverage. Float in red drink.
- Valentine: Cran-raspberry juice with 7-Up and scoops of
raspberry sherbet.
Back to Top |