Classroom Christmas/Winter Parties - Room Mom Journal

Well, the excitement for me is over. The classroom Christmas parties have come to an end. I must say that I feel both parties I planned were a success. I really didn't have to plan much for my son's 1st grade -- just coordinate, and it turned out really nice. Another volunteer brought in holiday bingo for their activity and the kids enjoyed that. I did actually make cutouts to take in (I got a lot of ideas off of Pinterest for these) so I did feel I contributed something.
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But I did have to plan all five of the stations for my daughter's Kindergarten class (and I loved every minute of it). I ran my ornament idea by another room parent, but ended up having to get creative with my idea since I couldn't find enough items I needed for it.

I planned to do this (the wreath) but add a photo to the center of it. The only problem for me was finding enough green pompoms at a reasonable price.


So, while I was looking around for the pompoms I spotted these little grapevine wreaths and bows. They were at Hobby Lobby for 50% off making them only 30 cents each! I thought I can do that, buy a few pompoms for embellishments, and still add a photo. I bought enough wreaths for the boys and the bows for the girls. The bows would later become angels. Clever, eh? Well, I thought so for me anyway.

Here was the plan: go to school the day before the party and take pictures of the students. Check.
Print out pics, circle punch, put in baggies and take to school. Not check. Well, the picture part went off without a hitch. The kids were so quick and all smiled for me. I took them home and made them all the same size (1.5" circles in Indesign and then punched with the my circle punch. The plan started going south when I realized I needed a back to the wreaths (sorry no pictures of those) and to the angels for their dresses. I needed a back for the wreaths to put the photo on. No big deal, right? Well, the grapevine isn't so easy to glue things onto exactly. I managed to glue the wreaths to green construction paper and placed a heavy book on them overnight, but the glue wasn't going to work for the pompoms. The angel dresses, I attached with glue strips.

Here were the pieces for the angels -- since all grapevines are not created equal, I had to trace and cut out cardstock to fit in each one.

I soon realized glue dots were my only hope at keeping the photos attached to the grapevine. 

Then, pompoms could be glued to the cardstock.

The thing about this project was once we got to school, I hadn't informed the other volunteers what the plan was. I put all the pieces into sandwich baggies for each child. A lot of the children wanted to glue the pompoms to the grapevine, which was great, but the glue didn't keep them on. We tried to have them dry overnight, but I'm not really sure they stayed on. I think even without the pompoms, the pictures looked adorable and I really really REALLY hope the parents will treasure this little ornament for years to come because that was the main reason for doing them. 

The other stations included making snowflakes out of pipecleaners, a snack station, a reading station and my favorite: "If I were an Elf, my house would look like this..." station. Here's the sheet I designed. My husband helped run this station. : ) Please feel free to use this if you'd like. The kids had fun using their imaginations!

I wish the ornament station would have gone a little smoother, but overall, I think the kids really had a good time. I love it that all the volunteers are so helpful and made the party a success!!

First Christmas/winter party as a room mom complete? Check!