CHRISTMAS FUN

Hey, y'all. I thought it would be fun to show you what some of what I'm doing with the kids (my own, as well as my older 2 boys' classmates.)

First off, tomorrow we are having Christmas parties in the classrooms. Second grade should have the video/TV player. We will either watch Charlie Brown Christmas or The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. I might read a story to them...just depends on our time.

Those kiddos will do paper activities: word searches, crosswords and other things. We are going to have a gift exchange. They are exchanging books. We are also going to have LOTS of snacks. Then we are going to make ornaments.

Here is a picture of what we are making in 2nd grade.

I took card stock and cut them into quarters. I then took these glittery trees (actually gift tags) and removed the string. They were glued onto the card stock. I added star confetti and "snow." I put my name and date (hence the scissors over part of the writing), then punched a hole at the top and used the original cold cord as the loop. Cute, huh? Took me about 5 minutes....it will take them about 30. =)

For 4th grade, we will probably read a story, have our book exchange, then eat. We chipped in money for a Chick-Fil-A tray. We will also have chips, cookies, cupcakes and juice. When they are all going nuts, we will have an ornament relay. I bought ornaments (that won't shatter) that the kids have to pass, using ONLY ornament hooks. The winners get a chocolate candy cane. We are making ornaments - an idea that I stole borrowed from one of my posters on Making a Happy Home Monday. My sample looks like this.



I saved the best for last.

This is something I have been doing for YEARS. I got this idea from a teacher friend of mine.

I trace the right hand of all my children. Each year, I alternate green or red construction paper, trace their hand and cut it out. In the palm part, I write their name and the year. Eventually, I will laminate these. I keep them in an envelope in our fire-box.

It is such a simple thing, but these are SO SO precious. When I see the tiny hand from the first tracing, compared to their hand now....wow....it just makes me tear up just thinking about it. It's not too late to start this tradition. Here they are. (They are turned over so as not to show their names. Therefore, they look like the left hand.)

These are from the first year when we had all 4 boys.

A BUNCH of hands.