Winter Class Party

Heads up, this is a slightly long post.  Just wanted to share what we did for my son's kindergarten winter class party.  It will be divided into three parts - the Disassembled Snowman Snack, Snowman Water Bottle Craft and my favorite - the DIY Snowglobe Gift Card...obviously a snowman theme going on.  The great thing is that you could use any of these ideas throughout the winter just for fun.

Playing off our snowman theme, we created a "disassembled snowman" snack.  It was simple, fun and it covered sweet, salty and healthy.

Disassembled Snowman Snack

• Carrot Noses
• Melted Snow (Ranch dip)
• Coal Eyes & Mouth (mini Oreos)
• Stick Arms (mini pretzel sticks)
• Hats (crackers with cheese cube stuck on top with squeeze cheese, could also do with fudge cookie and smaller cookie on top, but we needed to balance the sweet and salty)
• Snowballs (powdered doughnut holes)
• Juice and water (we were going to do hot chocolate, but logistically, juice and water were easier)

I used a dispenser for the water, rather than water bottles to give kids the choice between juice or water.  My jug looked too much like summer, so I wrapped it with a white towel and cut out foam shapes for the face of  a snowman and added a hat I had from a snowman kit.

  

Water Bottle Snowmen Craft

What you'll need:

brown pipe cleaners, black and orange beads, glue dots (my new best friend), cotton balls, black paint, black construction paper, 2 inch hole punch and/or scissors, garland or ribbon for a scarf

We were working on limited time and with a group of kindergartners so I did a bit of prep work.  I painted the lids black and tied on the scarves.  For the arms, I cut one pipe cleaner in half, then folded each piece in half and twisted around itself until I had a "y" shape.  Then I used a razor to create slits on each side of the water bottle to insert the arms.  I used glue dots to stick the beads on strips for each child.  This way there was no glue mess or dry time time to contend with.  It was also helpful because it provided each child the amount of beads they needed without beads rolling around everywhere.  I also pre-packaged sandwich bags with 10 cotton balls each because you know they would stuff that water bottle with as many cotton balls as they could if given the option:).  The rims of the hats were two inch circles of black construction paper with a hole the size of the cap in the center so it could be slipped right on top.  (I used my two inch hole punch, then traced the cap in the center, then cut out centers.)

Don't these look like dot candies?

We had a volunteer to lead the craft at each table, so I gave each volunteer a grocery bag with all the supplies needed for that table.  It was lot easier to have a person at each table teaching six kids, rather than one person trying to keep the attention of all 24 kids at once.  I will definitely do that again!

Sandwich bag with 6 bead strips and 6 hat rims ready to go
in a grocery bag with the other supplies.

To avoid snowman mix ups, we gave each child a white lunch bag to decorate with a snowman face and their names.  That way they could pop their little snowmen in the bag for a safe ride home.  Added bonus:  if any body parts fell off, they would fall into the bag for repair when it got home.

I also made glitter and peppermint scented play dough as a back up in case we had extra time.  But the snack and craft were just enough.  You could also make snowmen out of the play dough with the same supplies.

Teacher Gift: Snowglobe Gift Cards

We presented our gift cards to the teachers in DIY snowglobes.  A few years ago, my sister tipped me off to the DIY snow globe and it's been on my to do list ever since.  You can do the snowglobe wet or dry.  I read an article that said they tested putting a gift card in water for a week, but I really didn't want to chance it, so I kept our snowglobes dry.

Supplies:

jar (I used salsa jar,already had silver lid too),

 mini snowmen, trees, fake snow, snowflake confetti, glitter, glue gun, gift card

To attach the gift card to the lid, just run a thick bead of glue onto the lid and stick it in.  I did a test run and found it took some muscle to pull the gift card off, so I traced white cardstock and folded it up about a 1/2 inch in the front and covered the entire back of the gift card.  The cardstock would be easier to break free and I simply put a glue dot on the back of the gift card so the cardstock stayed attached like a one sided envelope.  You can certainly do it without the cardstock.


Aren't they cute? 







I made one for myself while I was at it!  For mine, I used a pickle jar and wasn't so lucky with the lid color this time, so I painted it silver.  And I decided to experiment with glue dots instead of the glue gun to adhere the tree.  It worked!  Love those glue dots!





These would make great gifts on their own without a gift card, especially to bring for the host of a holiday party.  Inexpensive, easy and very fun! LOVE!