Opinions wanted! (re: first grade holiday party)

What do you think would be the best craft for a first grade class? It has to be something simple - that can be done in about 15 minutes max. There is one adult to help about 7 kids when doing the craft...

- sock snowmen (We would have to prepare a lot of this beforehand so the children would just place a baggie of poly pellets into white sock, rubber band it to close it, place sweater and hat on snowman, and glue on eyes and nose.)

- window clings (trace simple snowflake shapes with puffy paint) (children would have to leave these at school to dry overnight...kind of stinks!)

- I Spy Bottle (place small winter-y items in bottle along with "snow." )

- Canvas painting (place snowflake shapes on canvas and have children sponge paint on canvas. When snowflake shapes are removed, they will have a snowflake painting)

- Other??



Any ideas for a "favor" to give to the students? For Halloween, we gave pencils and spider rings. Maybe a candy cane? But non-food favors are always preferred =) . Any other ideas?

TIA!!!!!!!!

Message edited 11/15/2014 11:03:36 PM.

Opinions wanted! (re: first grade holiday party)

I would do the I Spy Bottle. We did I Spy Ornaments last year at home, and they came out great. Gluing stuff takes too long to dry, so depending on what time your party is, it might be still wet, and won't be able to go in the backpack.

As for favors, holiday book marks is cute, or a snowman soup favor would be cute

Re: Opinions wanted! (re: first grade holiday party)

Decorate small ginger bread houses. My daughter did it in kindergarten. You need...paper plates, small milk boxes like they drink at school, graham crackers, white frosting cans, some holiday candy, red and green sugar sprinkles. They cover the cartons with the icing then put the crackers on then cover again where they want the candy to go. We had one adult per table.

1st graders decorated sugar cookies. (Stop and shop sugar cookies) icing, and small bathroom size cups with candy. Each kid got 3-4 cookies. We had 4 parents for 24 kids.

Stickers of snowflakes and snowman and pencils or erasers are good non food favors. Sometimes michaels has little holiday or winter decorating kits for $1 or less. They are things like wooden snowmen or snowflakes and a few markers or glittle glue to decorate with.

Re: Opinions wanted! (re: first grade holiday party)

In our school the teachers always recommend the oriental trading crafts for the kids - everything they need comes individually wrapped and it's all ready to stick on - you just have to peel off the sticker backs. I usually do one as a sample at the front of the room for the class and then walk around the room to help whoever needs. They are cute crafts and VERY simple for the kids to do on their own. They also create very little mess. I think they have the gingerbread houses lillykat was referring to. Especially for first grade I think this is your best bet - you will be surpised at the varying degrees of "craftiness" the kids have - some are self sufficient with glue etc - others are not at all. And, once you are ordering from oriental trading you can get the favors there too. Good luck!

ETA: Just looked for ya and they refer to them as "craft kits" on their website - they are reasonable and have a nice variety and they are packaged for individual use :)

Message edited 11/16/2014 9:07:50 AM.

Re: Opinions wanted! (re: first grade holiday party)

ITA,

I am class parent for Chloe's first grade class. We are probably doing stations...

Icing cookies or rice Krispy treats, doing an oriental trading craft- the cheapest and easiest, reading a winter book, and bringing in the break the ice...

We might do snow globes--- use mini water bottles and put a marshmallow to cork it... We will see...

Opinions wanted! (re: first grade holiday party)

The ginerbread house idea is cute too, our teacher did that last year as a separate activity than the class party. After the kids decorated them, and they dried a bit, we wrapped them up in cello and tied a bow on them. They came out adorable! If you have an allergy class (we did not), you would just have to make sure everything is from a non peanut facility.

Re: Opinions wanted! (re: first grade holiday party)

oops wrong post

Message edited 11/16/2014 10:44:00 AM.

Re: Opinions wanted! (re: first grade holiday party)

The sock snowman sounds cute. I think that's the easiest idea since there's no dry time and you can do a lot of prep in advance.

I am the class captain for my DS's kindergarten class, so I plan all of the class parties. I am thinking of a picture frame (or magnet picture frame) for the winter party. They can even give it as a gift to parents, etc. For the Halloween and Thanksgiving party, I've made the craft myself (bought the supplies, etc.), but I may just order the oriental trading frames.

I am finding so many cute ideas on Pinterest for the class party crafts and snacks - there are a lot of things I wouldn't have thought of but that help me stay "on theme." (Our winter party is right before the holiday break, but it's not a "holiday" party so I need to do generic winter themed stuff.)

For a favor, I am thinking I may do cookie pops (individually wrapped). But for non-edible - oriental trading also has cute favor ideas.... My DS has a December birthday, so last year I got Penguin coloring books and penguin push up crayons from Oriental trading for the birthday party favors, and they were really inexpensive.

Another non-edible idea could be holiday/winter themed cups/straws. My co-captain found Halloween cups that were 3 for $1 at Party City and got "crazy straws" to match... we figured it's something the kids can use. If you want to include a treat, you can fill the cup with a few pieces of candy, too.

Opinions wanted! (re: first grade holiday party)

We did those sock snowmen in DS 4th grade class. We added "hair" as an option so that was an extra step. They came out really cute but for 1st grade it might be a little difficult. I remember some kids having difficulty forming the body with the rubber bands. If you do make them I would go with polyfill rather than pellets to keep the mess factor down..

Re: Opinions wanted! (re: first grade holiday party)

I went with oriental trading for our first grade class. Just ordered snowman/snowflake picture frames.