Winter Party Recap

Hi, friends! I had a few questions on IG about my fall and winter parties, so I'm here today to share some simple tips on how I make our holiday parties fun and exciting BUT enjoyable and calm for their teacher as well. :) 

I try to keep things simple when it comes to parties.  I've learned that just works best.  I have set up parties every way you could think of. I've had parents plan the entire party, I've had parents plan games and crafts, I've done activities as a whole class, and I've done activities in smaller groups.  I've had parties where the games where the activities took so long that we didn't get to even touch the food the kids brought it.  I've also had parties where we revert to playing tic tac toe or hangman because the games/activities didn't take up enough time. 

Over time, I learned that things work best when I'm in charge.  Parents naturally flock to you during parties to ask questions about activities, games, or crafts.  Even if you announce a fellow parent was in charge of the party planning.   For me, nothing is more stressful than shrugging my shoulders and saying "I don't know," to a parent during a party. 

So a few years ago, I just started planning it all.  I reuse many of the same activities from year to year, so it takes literally minutes to put everything into place. :) 

We rock our parties out in rotations.  I have six tables.  We have six stations/rotations.  They move from station to station with their table.  When it's time to switch, I just move the name names to their new station. So easy.  The rotations allow my kids to have fun in a very controlled way.  This allows me to have fun too and many of my classroom parents have remarked at how it allows them to enjoy the experience of volunteering more as well.

I have my students take "party bags" from rotation to rotation.  They put the put any papers, activities, or snacks from each station in them during the party.  It's a great way to keep everything together and to keep the party rolling. :) 

One of the stations always involves a fun snack.  For our winter/Christmas party, we decorated graham crackers.  I am usually in charge of this station. 

Each student had a graham cracker, that they broke in half, a knife with a dollop of icing on it, and sprinkles that they used to make little graham cracker sandwiches with. 

Three of the stations involve a game of some kind.  At our winter party we played Don't Eat Rudolph, a variation of Don't Eat Pete,  Holiday Bingo, and a Holiday Hedbanz/Guessing Game.  My parent volunteers are each assigned one of these stations and run the same station throughout the entire party. 

A few of my kids had never played Hedbanz before, so we made sure to play it during brain breaks the week of the party.

Two of the stations are a bit calmer and can run without any help, which is great if you don't have a lot of extra help at your party.  

My kids LOVE word searches and we never ever get to do them, so we always have a word search.  

We also do a simple craft. For this party, my students decorated Christmas Tree Magic Scratch Ornaments. I got them from Oriental Trading. 

The rotations take about thirty minutes, give or take, and then we end things with some snacks and a movie. 

The parents typically man a little buffet for our snacks at our back table and allow students to go table by table.  I don't go crazy on the snacks because for many years, the kids were throwing SO much food away.  I let the kids pick what they want and there is usually very little food left at the end of the party.  I typically have a least one student with a peanut allergy, so we usually stick to Oreos, Rice Krispie Treats, pretzels, and fruit snacks.  This year I have a student with an egg/diary allergy and he just brings his own snack pack to the party and keeps his own game boards/coutners for any games involving food in his party bag.

While my students eat their snacks and enjoy the movie, the parents and I clean up the stations.  I also send home the leftover cookies, fruit snacks, pretzels, etc. with the students who sent them in to avoid cluttering up my cabinets/counters. The movie gives my students a chance to calm down and we can go to the buses safely and calmly. 

To keep things even less stressful on party day, I put the items needed for each station in plastic tubs as they come in.  I have a tub for each station and this allows us to begin our party as soon as our parent helpers show up. 

I use Signup Genius  for our party donations and volunteers.  It takes minutes to create a sign up and I love how I don't have to coordinate who is sending in items, the website does it for me.  I send the link out to my homeroom parents in an email and usually within a DAY, everything is taken care off.  The website also sends parents an email about their donation/volunteer time a few days before.  

Even though our Christmas/Winter Parties are over, hopefully you found something helpful/useful for your future class parties.  We use the same set up at every party and it always works out great, even with my most challenging classes!

I also just wanted to let you know that my store will be on sale today and tomorrow to celebrate the New Year! You can check out Fourth and Ten on TpT {here}.

Happy New Year!

Winter Graphic Organizers and a Winter Multiplication Freebie

Hey friends! I'm working on my New Years Goal right now and focusing on balance.  After I hit publish, I'll be prepping and preparing for our first day back, so I can enjoy some down time this evening with my hubs and pups. 

I spent some time over break making the graphic organizers for this month.  I've been blown away by just how successful they have been.  Thank you SO much for your support!  I know my fourth graders love seeing a little seasonal flair when responding to their reading, especially since we don't always have time to do lots of seasonal activities.  

Many of my followers on TpT requested a winter theme for this month, so here they are!

Click on the picture or {here} to check them out on TpT or {here} on Teachers Notebook.

This month's multiplication roll and cover is also available.  My kids LOVE playing these games.  They've really helped with our fact fluency.  I've ordered some ten and twelve sided dice...so be on the look out for games with bigger numbers soon! Just click {here} or on the picture below to download them from TpT!

If you went back today, I hope that your days were wonderful! If you go back tomorrow, rest up today and take some time for you! 

Don't forget that Fourth and Ten has a Facebook page! It will be a perfect way for me to communicate with my fabulous followers more often as we head back to school! 

Blasts from the Past {Product Updates}

I started blogging and creating this time last year and boy have I learned a lot.  I've had updating some of my early products on my to do list and since I've been snowed in, today I was able to do so. :)  

For those of you who don't know I taught second grade last year, and one of our science standards had to do with the seasons changing.  When we returned from break last year, we did so many cool things with winter.  My kids and I had so much fun with this little unit!

 
Last year, my kids LOVED the science experiments, where they experimented the effect of salt on ice and snow, making snow paint snowflakes, and learning about winter animal adaptations.  I went through and cleaned up a lot of the pages today. I added easier to read fonts and different graphics to many of the pages. 

If you already own this unit, please go redownload all the awesome changes! :)  All you need to do is sign into your dashboard on Teachers Pay Teachers and click on My Purchases. Once you find the unit, the click download to download the updated unit for free.  

You can also access my winter unit on Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking {here} or by clicking on  the picture below.

 


I also updated my Double Digit Addition and Subtraction Scoot.  I love, love, love using scoot in my classroom.  It's amazing what a clip board, a recording sheet, and a set of equation cards can do on a cold winter day when your kiddos have had indoor recess.  :)  My original file had Valentine's Day clip art but I wanted to update my file to have more generic clip art, so it could be used year round! 

Again, it's amazing what an easy to read font and new graphics can do to a product! :)  I love the new look! :) I also included an answer key for easier grading/checking. I hope that your kiddos enjoy this updated pack. I know my kiddos really enjoyed the original last year! I would be including this in my back to school plans next week if I was still teaching second grade. :) If you would like to check it out on TpT, just click {here} or on the picture below!

Updating these products was such a walk down memory lane.  Even though I love my fourth graders a ton, I really enjoyed teaching second grade after January last year, they had matured a lot and I was over my "this isn't third grade anymore" culture shock. 

Before I hit publish, I wanted to remind you that Fourth and Ten has its own fanpage! One of my blogging goals this new year is to be more active on my fan page.  Click on the picture below or {here} to check it out and to follow Fourth and Ten on Facebook! :) 

Off to finish the laundry and catch up on my DVR. I LOVE Christmas break! :)

Craftivity Management and a Freebie

Hello, friends! I hope you all had a great Tuesday! Is it just me or did today drag on forever today?  The 4:00 bell to dismiss the kids couldn't come fast enough.  I have last plan and it makes days like today seem like they last for-ever.

Today we finished our winter unit and I'm a little sad to say goodbye.  We really did have a lot of fun with this unit over the past week or so.

Tonight I'm talking craftivities.  When I taught third grade, I never had the time in my curriculum map to really do any crafty projects with any of our units, the extent was making a foldable book to use as a reading graphic organizer.  However, since moving to second, I've dabbled into the world of craftivities and have loved every minute of it.  :)

My kids this year love to do craftivities too, so I'm lucky.  When we made the soliders from Deanna Jump's Veteran's Day unit, several of them exclaimed "Today is the best day ever!"  So I try to incorporate being crafty into our lessons when I can.

But I've learned a lot since our first crafty project in November where I gave them packets of tracers, some construction paper and said, "Have fun.  It looks like this."  Now I'm sure I said more than that but that was about gist of it.  It was quite the learning experience.

Since then, I've started trimming the extra paper off the tracers and make the construction paper cut more to size.  We then put the pieces of the craftivity together in sections, so if we run out of time at the end of the day, it's easier to stop.  Make sense?  If not, well here's a picture.

All the kids started with the face, hair and hat of their winter kid and then moved on to the body and arms, then the legs and then the mittens and shoes.  Eventually looking like this:

Pretty cute huh?  I think so.  I good chunk of my class is still working on them.  But we'll finish up tomorrow and do a little unit on Martin Luther King before moving on to a study on Africa.

I know every one manages craftivities differently, but that is what works for us in my room this year.  I'd love to be able to  to cut each little piece out on my own, so all the kids have to do is assemble, but I don't have that kind of time and we can't run construction paper through our copy machine.  That itself would be a HUGE time saer.

Instead, I just pick and choose craftivities I can hang up for a long time, like these winter kids.  Honestly, these babies will be up until March.  Generic and cute.  Love it.   On the coats of their winter kids, I had my friends write informational paragraphs about winter that I used as an assessment, gotta love rubric graded writing, for the end of the unit. We used this organizer to help us organize our thoughts.

Click on the organizer to download your own free copy!  :)

If you are interested in my winter unit, I have uploaded it to my TpT store. Click on the picture below to head there. 

I also uploaded the winter kid craftivity separately, just in case you don't need a winter unit but would still love a cute craftivity for winter!  Click on the picture below to pick up your own copy!

I'll be giving away three copies of my Winter Kid Craftivity Templates to the first three people who comment! :) Good luck!

Have a great Wednesday! Our three day weekend is almost in sight!