Room Mom Journal - Fall Parties

I am a room mom for both of my children's classes. It sounds crazy, but I'm so excited about it! I have my first party(ies) to organize. It's the fall/halloween party! For the Kindergarteners, the theme will be The Five Little Pumpkins. Part of their party will be spent outdoors where the kids can have a parade while wearing their costumes. I love that! The only thing is, that doesn't leave much time for the fun crafts and treats. The kids won't mind, though. It just makes it a little harder to organize.

I'm planning to have the kids color a book from DLTK that I'll probably already have put together for them and place on their desks. They can color in it when they're done putting on their costumes and waiting to be lined up for the parade. Then, after the parade, they can finish coloring while we hand out the treats and treat bags. I'm also planning to have 5 parent volunteers help me put on a skit for the kids about the Five Little Pumpkins. I made pumpkin 'puppets' for them to hold in front of their faces as they say their part. I think the kids will really get a kick out of it, even though the adults will probably feel silly. I already called the parents who have volunteered for the parties and they all seem to be for it!

We have a couple food allergies - gluten and dairy so we'll hand out orange juice pops and jello jigglers.

I'm also hoping I can decorate at least a table or something!! Just need to ask the teacher. I don't want to overstep my boundaries or appear too pushy.

For the First grade party, I'm pretty much just a chairperson. I'm responsible for calling all the parents who signed up to bring treats and coordinate what they'll be bringing. We need to be mindful of a peanut food allergy, but it shouldn't be too hard to work around it. I'll plan to bring treat bags for any leftovers because we have about 8 people signed up for treats! Cheese sticks, sugar cookies, rice crispies, veggies, fruit, crackers. I need to talk with two others about what they'd like to bring We have two volunteers bringing drinks and two bringing treat bags. We also have one signed up for the craft. She'll bring in pre-made craft kits so that should be nice and quick for our short time period.

Here's the poem for The Five Little Pumpkins in case you've never heard of it. It's a favorite of mine from when I was little.

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate;
The first one said, "Oh my it's getting late."
The second one said, "There are witches in the air."
The third one said, "But I don't care."
The fourth one said, "I'm ready for some fun!"
The fifth one said, "Let's run and run and run."
"Wooooooo" went the wind,
And out went the lights.

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Here's a pic of the pumpkins we'll be using.