2nd Grade Winter Party by Tracy Leventhal

We had our party after lunch which meant only about an hour...12:15-1:16 (banking day). We decided to do 3 centers at 20 minutes each but it was more like 15 minutes after we included time to eat treats and hand out teacher gifts. Overall, it seemed rushed but it was nice not to have to entertain the kids for too long. Center 1 was cookie decorating. We got the sugar cookies from Ralphs and the kids decorated with the icing in the kit as well as some additional decorations we brought. As it seems to be the case, we over bought on extra frosting and cookies. The kids never use as much as I think they will! Center 2 was an ornament craft from Michaels. They were really cute beaded candy canes. The wiring at the end was tricky but we had a lot of parents to help. Center 3 was a game - Left, Right, Center. Everyone got a holiday eraser for playing and the winner got a pencil as well. This game was tough because the kids get confused as to which is right and which is left. The room was so noisy that I ended up yelling "No, your other right!" so often that it got a little frustrating. Also, 15 minutes isn't always enough time to finish which made handing out a prize a little tricky. The food we served was a hit despite the fact that they had all just eaten lunch. We offered cheese, crackers, grapes, strawberries, cupcakes and juice and hardly had anything left over. The whole thing seemed to be nice and festive. My biggest recommendation is to get parent helpers assigned to centers ahead of time so room moms can supervise, take pictures and not run around like crazy people the whole time!