She Shoots - She SCORES!

I rocked at the girls' classroom Christmas parties before I ever arrived.

The kindergarten class was looking for a game to play, and since I despise musical chairs, I volunteered to pull together a game I had read about online back when E1 was in KG (just after that year's Christmas party, of course). I named it Chimney Toss, and thanks to our local True Value Hardware's donation of a bunch of empty boxes I created a chimney and many tiny presents to toss in it.

Behold the creation of the chimney:




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Chimney Toss

Divide class into two teams: Red Team and Green Team. Give each Red Team member a red gift and each Green Team member a green gift (The teacher may have to play to make balanced teams).

Each team forms a line behind a designated foul line. When the game leader calls “GO!”, each gift holder will take a turn (one at a time, one shot only) tossing their gift into the chimney.

The team that gets the most gifts in the chimney wins.

Alternately, students could be paired for a ‘toss-off’ to see who can make the most shots.
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A few days ago, after volunteering to provide drinks for the Third Grade party, E1's teacher emailed to request ideas for a game they could play. I went out to the trusty internets and came back with :
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Gift Wrap Relay

This works best for 3rd - 5th graders, they are capable or wrapping gifts, but haven’t had much practice yet.

Select 2 small boxes of equal size. Gift wrap them. Cut extra sheets of wrapping paper to fit the size of the box. You will need one piece of wrapping paper for each child.

Divide the children into teams.

To play the game, a team member will leave their group, run to the gift station, unwrap the gift, rewrap the gift, and run back to tag the next team member. The first team to have each member wrap the gift wins.

To tease the teams before they start, a gift that rattles adds a fun touch. A box of macaroni and cheese works and it gives them a laugh when the first person unwraps it too.
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I arrived after the designated party start time today, having just returned for E3's gymnastics class. As I made my way down the school hallway I could hear excited shouting and wondered what was going on...I was passing classrooms where the teacher was reading a Christmas book...where the kids were watching a movie... All the quiet activities I was seeing were in direct contrast to all the enthusiasm I was hearing. And then, I arrived at the third grade classroom.

HOO-Boy - they were playing the relay and were having a grand old time. A couple of kids came over to tell me it was a fun game, and the principal even stopped in to watch the end of the relay. The last two contestants were E1 and Mrs W - and E1 won! Just by one piece of tape, really, but there was much jumping and celebrating all around and random third graders hugged me. The third grade students had brought school supplies, toys, and food items to donate, so I think the mac-n-cheese got added to that booty.

Then it was on to the kindergarten classroom. Mrs R was reading Twas The Night Before Christmas when I entered, but when she saw me she said (not breaking her story-reader-tone), "Your chimney game was a huge hit." The kg LOVED it, and apparently the Pre-K class did as well. As school dismissal was approaching, I told Mrs R she could keep the chimney game if she wanted. She was so excited I was almost embarrassed, "Really?! You don't want to keep it?! I'd love to keep it!"

In the end though, as E2 and I were walking down the hall, E2 asked, "Hey, what about our chimney game?" and I told her I'd given it to Mrs R. She was bummed. So, we went back and told Mrs R we were going to borrow it over Christmas and then we'd bring it back to her. Hopefully the teachers weren't planning on playing it at their party after school.

I'm feeling pretty darn satisfied by the results of my efforts with some boxes, paint, and wrapping paper. I was the cool Mom today.