Crayons & Cuties In Kindergarten: Elf Craftivity Party!

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Elf Craftivity Party!

Each year our kindergarten has a holiday sing and then a special event follows in each kindergarten classroom. For years I did gingerbread houses, but the amount of waste was too much to handle- let alone the prep of all the little 'houses!'

Then I moved to a 'craft party' and last year a 'plate for Santa's cookies' designing party!

The cookie party was a ton of fun, so I was going to go with it again this year....until I found that the price of the plates had quadrupled in price!

I checked out Pinterest, and had found some cute ideas, but nothing that was really 'inspiring,' so as a last minute ditch effort, I ordered 2 craft kits from Oriental Trading during their Cyber Monday sales.

The night before our party I opened the kits to prep them....

MISSING PIECES!!!!!

NOOOOO!!!!!

I had 20+ adults coming to my classroom in less than 15 hours!!!!!!

(NOTE TO SELF- do NOT wait until the night before next time!!!)

What am I going to do???!!!!

I had created a red Solo cup elf craft for my post on The Primary Pack, so I ran around the house and found all that I needed (and thankfully had!) and decided to have my kinders make that craft!

I got right to work to make everything I needed to transform our room into Santa's Elf Station!

I thank my lucky stars each day for my home laminator, but tonight I was definitely singing its praises (the cute images and borders I had previously purchased from from Creative Clips). There would've been no way to get this all ready if I had to wait until I got to school to laminate and prep it all!

Afterall, we did have Holly Crazy Legs in our classroom and he would've loved a few elf friends- he must've know we would be up to some 'elf fun' in our room because he was hanging out that morning!

That morning I ran in and got to work getting it all set up! I have to admit- it did come out really cute!! At the time I didn't think I was going to get it all done in time- I had 45 minutes to get it all ready!!

So come on in and take a peek at our Santa Elf Shop!!!

First was to get the signs hanging to 'designate' each area!

Over each table I had a sign that said 'Elf Creation Station'

On each table were the cups, printables, instructions, glue, scissors, tape, crayons, paper strips, bells and ribbon!

Here is a close-up at the directions so that each family knew what to do and I didn't have to keep stopping the creative flow to direct everyone!

Once they created their elf, they were to take it to the Elf Naming Station!

At the 'Naming Station' were naming dice, adoption certificates, and fun elf pencils (all I did was tape an elf head to a pipe cleaner and twist the pipe cleaner around the pencil!)

After the elf was named, they got a pack of Magic Elf Dust!

The dust is a 'special' combination of red, green, gold and silver glitter!

Once the elf was named, and dust was in hand, it was time to visit the Sweets Station!

I was so lucky to have so many parents donate sweets to our party!

All I provided were the cups, plates, napkins, juice...and fun reindeer cupcakes!!!

There was so much left over we even had enough for our Polar Express Day later that week!

Before the party was over, I called each kid over to the 'Gift Giving Station!'

I gave each one their holiday gift (you can read about it on this post) from me (and a little holiday kiss!) and then had them give their gift to their grown up!

Inside the reindeer bags (just trace their hands and staple to the folded top of a regular lunch bag!) are their gifts!

Their gifts are these adorable ornaments made from their handprints! I have been making these for years! I always like to give them out when the parents are there so that I know they make it home somewhat safely!

Here are a few pictures from our party...I didn't get many as I put my phone down at one point and had NO idea where I had left it until I was cleaning up!!