Thankful a long weekend is upon us and I am pumped.
Additionally, we survived Valentine's Day and I didn't want to run home and take a nap.
So I'll consider our party a success.
Parties typically stress me out. I always freak out about parties. Mainly because parents choose to not send in the items until the last minute, causing me to head to the store and purchase everything, only to have way too much food/cups/napkins/etc leftover. However, I'd rather be safe than sorry when it comes to parties. Also, I freak out about the lack of structure and how my typically super sweet class literally forgets how to listen during that magical one hour of time. I freak out about the parents who volunteer. Will they be a hang out by my kid the whole time and not help the class as a whole parent or a jump right in and do whatever is needed to help the party flow smoothly type of parent? I'll take the section option any day by the way. :)
I did not have a party mom for this party and it was actually the best party party we've had this year, structure wise. I had the kiddos rotate between four activity centers and then had our snack at the end. Loved it. There was an adult to cover each station and we able to get more games in than normal because of the smaller groups making them more manageable.
Station One: Candy Heart Games
Simplest games ever. I gave each kid a set of chopsticks and set a time for three minutes to see how many hearts they could get off the plate and into a small cup. Since most of my friends had never used chopsticks before, they loved this fun challenge! Then I set the timer to see how many candy hearts they could stack in a tower in a minute. I had a word search ready for groups that finished early and this helped the party flow as well!
Station Two: Cartoon Couples Match Up Game
My kids really loved this. It was challenging enough to keep them engaged but not so hard that lots of friends needed one on one assistance. Most kiddos buddy up at this center and they really enjoyed sharing their common knowledge about their favorite movies.
It's not a party without Bingo! I love playing Bingo in small groups at parties rather than as a big group so you can answer all the "Is this what you just called?" questions quickly.We used Kristin's bingo and loved it!
Station Four: Craft
We made a super generic Valentine's Day craft that only required scissors, crayons and clue. I totally forgot to take a picture of it.
For snack, we made root beer and coke floats and had some of the various sweet treats that the kiddos sent in.
Since we've been studying measurement, we also completed a measuring hearts activity during math. I got the idea from Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten. Only I had my students measure the lines I drew on the hearts in inches. They loved it and it was a great formative assessment!
I made the following recording sheet for my kiddos to use. Click {here} to download a copy to use next year!
