Class Christmas Party

Today we hosted Elina's class Christmas party at our house. KT and I taught the Christmas lesson and provided snacks...although KT did most of the teaching. KT really did an awesome job...teaching about the birth of Jesus, showing the kids rhythm with drumsticks (to The Little Drummer Boy), and providing fruit sticks, red and green chips with green salsa, and cookies.



So what did I do? I made cookies, made star-shaped cheese, and chocolate-covered pretzel rods. I also spent a lot of time cleaning the 1st floor of the house the night before. I had to put half of the kids' toys in my bedroom (since I didn't want to clean everything after all the kids left), vacuum, and hide a lot of clutter. Hiding clutter actually took a lot of work, but in the end, our house looked so much cleaner and neater once all the clutter was stuffed into my room. The parents at the party actually said my house looked so clean and organized. I told them they had to peek into my bedroom to see what was really going on.

I also did a Right-Left Nativity Game where the kids each had to pass a gift to their neighbor to the left or right whenever they heard me say the word "right" or "left" during the Nativity story. I found a Right-Left Nativity story online, so I edited it so that it was shorter and more appropriate for 4 year olds. Well, it turned out that 4 year olds can't really grasp the left-right concept well enough to play this game. It was kind of a disaster. I put stickers on each kids' right hand and they would still get really confused. Some kids wouldn't pass their gifts; some would keep passing it on more than once. So I ended up cutting the story WAY short. I only got as far as Jesus' birth...I never made it to the arrival of the shepherds and the wise men. Oh well. KT said I covered the most important part. I guess she's right.Even though my game was a bust, we had so much fun hosting the party. Everyone seemed to have a great time and Elina really loved having her friends over at the house. Elina was especially excited to have D come see her house. (For those of you who don't remember, D is a boy in Elina's class who is totally in love with her. I seriously had to tell B to stop eyeing D while he was at the house.) What surprised KT and I was how well-behaved the class was. They were such good listeners and we didn't have any problems at all during the entire party. It was impressive. The teacher said that this is one of the best classes she's had in all the years she's been at the school.

Even though it was a lot of prep work, it was a fun morning. Thanks, KT, for being such a great teacher and hosting this thing with me!