Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Elementary Christmas Party


Today was party day at school! I was in charge of all the games and activities for the Elementary party. I had it down in the Kindergarten classroom...a bit crowded at times, but since my room was all decorated for Christmas, I wanted to have it in there. There were two teams: Red Team & Green Team (who would have thought!?)

To start off our fun day, they first played musical chairs - thankfully no serious injuries as they pounced on the chairs when the Christmas music stopped!

The next game we played was called, "Christmas Chaos" - most commonly referred to as Fruit Basket Upset. The children were each given a name - Christmas tree, ornament, present & star. One child would stand in the middle, and call out 1 or 2 of these names. The children would then have to jump up and find another seat. The whole point was not to be the one left standing in the middle! If they wanted to call everyone's name, they would just yell, "Christmas Chaos!!" and indeed, there was mass chaos as all the children scrambled for another seat!

After these two rowdy games were over, we then played Christmas Hang-man. However, instead of hanging a man (oh the horror of it all!), I drew a Christmas tree on the board. Every time a team member would yell out a letter that was not in the word, I would erase part of the tree. The children were really good guessers! Next, we played Christmas pictionary where each child had a chance to draw something on the board for their team to guess. When both of these games were over, we then had a Christmas Tree contest. I gave each team a certain amount of art supplies to create their own Christmas tree. However, they only had 15 minutes to put this tree together!! I was pretty thrilled with how well they were all working together on it. In fact, I overheard one of the girls comment, "Isn't it nice how we are all talking to each other and working together? Normally, we are just yelling at one another!" This teacher's heart did a nice little *sigh* and a happy dance when she heard that! :P Its so encouraging to see (and hear!) teamwork in progress!

The Red Team working on their tree:

The Green Team working on their tree:

Isn't it amazing how 2 trees can look soooo different even though both teams were given the same exact supplies?! :D

The Green Team's Christmas Tree

The Red Team's Christmas Tree

While I took the trees around the church for people to vote which one they liked the best, the children watched a Christmas movie. (Notice the pattern of the chairs? I wonder whose idea that was??? :D)

For the Christmas present exchange, I thought I would do something a little different. I had 2 baskets of goodies for them to pick from, so I decided to turn it into a game. I turned on the Christmas music once again and they had to pass the basket around the circle. When the music stopped, then that person could pick out their Christmas present from me. After they got their present from me, they were then allowed to hand their friend the present they got them, and leave the circle.

It was definitely "Christmas Chaos" in the classroom for a bit while the children opened the presents they got from their friends.

Mrs. L then served us a scrumptious Christmas dinner of baked ziti, buttered bread, carrots, fruit punch, and cupcakes to finish off our day! What a fun, tiring day! *Phew* I can now breathe a sigh of relief....Christmas break, here I come!!!

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