School Christmas PArTy!

 I helped out at Melissa's First Grade Christmas Party at school this year...well...LAST year, 2011. Melissa's good friend Lily's Mom, Becca, organized the party. I love going in to help with the class parties because I can get new game and craft ideas. Plus it's a great way to get to know the kids that your children are with everyday. I always enjoy the greeting, "Hi Melissa's Mom" from the kids.
Feel free to use any of these game ideas. I even used a couple for my family Christmas Gathering.

My job was to come up with a game and I put together a Christmas Relay. This was our first game.

Christmas Relay
Supplies: Candy canes, a big pile of Christmas bows, bucket of Hershey kisses, and 2 stockings. (Bring enough of each item to have for each child in class and some extra.)

 We divided the class into two groups. I had two parents hold stockings (or you could use Christmas gift bags) for each team.
The first station: Each team lines up behind the parent that is holding their team stocking. The first Child has to run to a pile of candy canes, pick one up, and hook another candy cane to it. They will carry the hooked candy cane back to their team and drop it in the stocking.The next player takes the candy cane and runs back to the candy cane pile. Once everyone has had a turn with the candy canes, the first player goes to the next station.













The second station: Still using the first candy cane, the kids will run to a pile of bows and try to pick it up with the hook. Again, they run back to their team stocking and drop the bow inside. After all players get through the bows, the first player goes to the last station.






The third station: The first player then runs to a bucket of Hershey kisses. They have to put on a mitten, and reach inside to try to pick out only 1 kiss. When they have one kiss, they run it back to their stocking.

First team through all the stations wins!






T.P. Snowman
Supplies: 4 sets of gloves, hatt, and scarves. 4 Rolls of T.P. (hint: use the good kind. We found out when we did this that the cheap stuff doesn't hold together real well)


Becca organized this game. We divided the class into four teams. Each team had to choose a person to be a "snowman." The other team mates had to wrap their "snowman" in t.p and put a hat, gloves, and scarf on them. They had a fun time doing this game! The "snowmen" were very creative!












After these two games, we took a cookie break and the kids got to decorate their own cookies. We cleaned up the sprinkles and then Becca had a craft for them to do. She had come in a week early to take each of their pictures. Becca brought the pictures and they got to glue them onto craft foam and decorate them with sequins and stickers. They also had a craft foam ornament kit to put together. They sell these at Walmart and Target.

We had time for one more game.
Melted Snowman
Supplies: Mini marshmallows, 8 bowls, 4 spoons-one for each team.

Becca had the class divide into four teams again and they had to move their melted snowman from one bowl to another. Each team lined up. At one end, they had a bowl full of mini marshmallows and at the other end of their line, they had an empty bowl. The first player got to scoop out a spoonful of marshmallows and handed it off to the next player. They kept passing the spoon down their line till the last player in line dumped the marshmallows in the empty bowl. You can either time this game or the first team to finish "moving" their melted snowman wins.
One suggestion we thought might help is to rotate the kids in their line so they each get a turn scooping out marshmallows and dumping marshmallows. An idea would be that the last person in line who dumps the marshmallows in the empty bowl can then run back around to the front of the line. That way they each can have a turn scooping and dumping.
(Picture from my Family Christmas Party)

Snowball Fight
Supplies: A whole lot of tissue paper.
Becca told me about this cute game too. We didn't do this at our party but kids would sure love this. You divide the class into 2 sides. Make a line down the middle of the playing area. (You need some cleared space) You can use masking tape or even line up some chairs. For an allotted time, each team sees how many "snowballs" (crunched up tissue paper) they can get on the other team's side. After the timer goes off, the players have to stop and the adults judge which team has the fewest snowballs and their are the winners. Play as long as time allows.

Fun ideas! Hope you can use some at your next kid party!