Halloween School Parties

I'm room mom for Wyatt's class this year, which was so hard for me! After being room mom in Grant's class the last two years, its hard to not be involved in both parties! Luckily I was able to sneak down and check on Grant's party for a quick second! Wyatt's class is so much fun! Such good kids! We played some games, did some crafts, ate some snacks, and that was that!!! That was the perfect combination for a Happy Halloween Party!!

 Wyatt dressed for the occasion heading to school!!

Halloween School Parade

This was our first experience with the Halloween School Parade as it should be! Grant did it alone as a class in Kindergarten and then last year it rained, so it was neat to see what they really get to do! The whole school takes part and its so fun!! I helped the kindie kids get changed, so I only got to see Grant for a quick second during the parade, but I captured his costume perfectly!! Wyatt was second in the line in the entire parade, so they got a front row to watch the rest of the kids walk through after they went around the school! What a fun community building experience!!!

Wyatt's Halloween Party

Wyatt's little class had a parade and party of their very own!! They are the only afternoon class at the preschool, so their parade and party was a very low key event! But it didn't stop them from having fun! They paraded around the church office and then into the big room for the parents to see! Then Mrs. Moyer led them in some adorable Halloween songs. Wyatt is so funny during these performances- he is so serious and has to do every action just so. He tries not to smile at us because we are so distracting! He's a riot!! So they sang their adorable songs and that was that! They usually do their party activities and snacks without parents, so we snapped a few pictures and headed on our way so they could enjoy the rest of their afternoon!

Grant's School Halloween Party

Grant had a short week the week of Halloween, so we had their school party a few days before Halloween. The other room moms and I had been planning for quite some time, so we were excited for the first school party of the year! Lots of games and activities were involved, as we shared our party with one of the other first grade classes, but all turned out great!! Lots of fun, giggles, smiles, and happy first graders, which was exactly what we were hoping for! 

Since this is Grant's first year with all day school, we hadn't experienced the all-school halloween parade they do every day! The whole school does a parade around the school, which kicks off the beginning of party time. It was rainy this year, so they paraded inside. But the whole school goes around every pod and all the parents come to watch and see everyone's costumes! It was so cute to be able to see the whole school and all the creative costumes!

After everyone was back in their own pods, the party got started! We had three games in our room, three games in the other first grade room, and two stations out in the pod. Lots of fun and excitement! Even Mimi got to come help out at the party, which made Grant super excited!! I was juggling about 10 different things so I'm thankful for the pictures I do have!! I love Grant's class! He has a great group of kiddos and an amazing teacher!! It's a fun bunch to be around!!!

 Grant immediately took off his costume when the party games started! He was wearing his skeleton shirt and brought his raccoon hat with him, so he was dressed up at least!

Love my big first grade boy!!!!

Grant's Valentine Party

The last party of the school year is the Valentine's Party! They have such a good time playing their games and doing their projects. Nicole, our other room mom, always makes some craft for the kids to do that is a treasured keepsake. So before they started their party, I came up to help them paint their creations! They turned out so adorable and will be hanging on my wall every year!! 

 They did a few more activites before their party really started! But they did get a chance to look through their valentine bag, although they couldn't open anything yet! But Grant loved looking through all his goodies! 

 He was especially excited to give his classmates his valentine he specifically picked out...

 His buddies working on a puzzle together.

They started off the party with snacks!! Grant was especially happy to find all the letters to his name in his Cheez-It bag- well, he had to improvise his N from a Z, but it totally worked!! 

 Since I was leading a game, I didn't get to go around and take pictures of everything, but in my station, we played Valentine Head Banz. They also played Jenga, Minute-to-Win-It stacking conversation hearts, and Freeze Dance. What more could a kindergartener ask for? 

I can't believe that was their last school party!! Where has the year gone?!? 

And since I'm on school parties- Wyatt had a little celebration at school, but they don't make a big deal of it and parents done come. But he couldn't wait to deliver his valentine's to his friends! He signed the backs.

100th Day Celebration

The 100th Day of School is a pretty big deal anymore. I don't ever recall celebrating that when I was a kid, or even as a teacher! But nowadays, its a BIG deal!! Mrs. R made sure they had a day of celebrating!! After our morning Skype date with Levi, it was time for 100th Day centers! (Let me just say how thankful I am to be present in Grant's classroom. I go there every Monday for small groups, every school party or special event, and pretty much whenever his teacher needs a volunteer. I just love it and am so so so thankful!!!) I got to lead the Building with 100 Cups center!! I probably got the most fun one! The kids rotated through their centers for about 45 minutes and had a wonderful time!

 Filling in a 100's chart must be so fun!!!!

 Of course, knocking it over was the most fun!!!!

 100 thumbprints!

They got to fill a snack bag with 100 snacks- they got 10 pieces from each tray. The other trays not pictured had skittles, trix, and cookie crisp! This was probably a tie with the cup center for BEST center because they hardly ever get snacks at school!! 

After centers, the kids got to show their 100 items. Lots of creative ideas- 100 tiny balloons, 100 dixie cups, 100 pieces of candy, 100 googly eyes. Grant filled a small glass jar with 100 plastic hearts. He thought it was perfect because it had 100 items, PLUS it was "valentinesy." Couldn't argue with that logic!!! 

It was a wonderful celebration of their accomplishments this year! In Grant's 100 days of kindergarten, he has grown so much, learned so much, and experienced so much!! He's done better than I could've ever imagined and I'm so so so proud of the amazing little boy he is!!!

Skype Date With Daddy

 Grant's entire class got to Skype with Levi on their SmartBoard to kick off their 100th Day of School! Mrs. R. thought it would be the perfect day to talk to someone that lived over 100 miles away! Grant had been talking about it all last semester and was so excited to talk actually to Levi in front of all his class. Levi did get to come to Grant's winter school party, so he knew all his friends had actually met his dad in real life, but he thought that having his class hear Levi talk about his job would be pretty awesome! I think sometimes he forgets that all of these kiddos know NOTHING about the military or what the word deployment even means. But they all seemed pretty interested in what Levi had to say. And I was blown away at how well Levi talked to them all. He put together a powerpoint presentation to show them pictures of things like maps, the aircraft he's flown, ships he's been on in. He even wore his flight suit and showed all the kids his flight vest, helmet, and all his cool gadgets. He answered all their cute questions so well!! I was so proud of him and I could tell Grant was proud too! It was a very memorable experience for all of us!! 

Grant's Winter Party

I knew this time of year in Grant's school would be kind of hard on me. This was my first holiday with Grant going to a public school. While it doesn't sound like a big deal, it kind of is to me. It was hard for him to never come home with things about Jesus, the real Christmas story, or anything of the like. One day, he did come home with an easy reader about how all people celebrate the holidays. Other than my brief stint student teaching, I have ZERO experience with public schools! Luckily, I feel like I covered all our bases at home, so whatever was done at school was just extras! And I'd say the party we did to kick off Winter Break turned out to be pretty darn fun! Especially because Levi was back in town and got to help celebrate with Grant! It was his first time coming to Grant's school, so it was a big deal to Grant! 

I'm co-room mom for his class, so I was able help coordinate some of the fun activities! 45 minutes isn't a whole lot of time to do much, but we squeezed in quite a few activities! We always try to do class pictures, snack, and 4 games/activities! I was busy leading activities, so I got no pictures of those fun things! We started with a snack- they made snowmen with powdered donuts and fruit by the foot. For their activities, they did snowman bowling, photo booth, footprint snowmen, and snowball on a spoon races! Good times had by all the kids! His class is just wonderful- such sweet kids! It really is a joy to be a part of their class!! And Mrs. R is a great teacher! We are so lucky to have her as Grant's first "big school" experience. 

Wyatt's Christmas Program

Levi came home for Christmas just in time to see a little performance at Wyatt's school! Wyatt couldn't wait to bring him up there and show him around and introduce him to his teacher! Such a proud kiddo he was! 

Levi and I got to the church a few minutes early, so we could get seats front and center for Wyatt's class so Levi could watch Wyatt in all his glory! When the kids walked in, and his eyes met ours, his face lit up from ear to ear! It was priceless!! They sang only a few songs, but they were so cute! Wyatt was standing next to Vivian (in the navy dress), which I believe has a little crush on Wyatt because she kind of drives him crazy. He's always talking about her bothering him and what not. So when I saw them standing side by side, I wasn't sure what would happen. Well, come to find out, Vivian didn't really know any of the words to any of the songs, but she still sang as loud as she possibly could. She just sang random words or sounds, and Wyatt was completely thrown off. He's normally a pretty expressive singer, with all the hand motions and actions, but he just kind of stood there mouthing the words, and threw in a few hand motions every now and again. But he was still adorable, nonetheless!!! I just love the sound of little singing voices! After they sang their songs, Santa walked into the church and it was pretty hilarious to see some of the kids scatter, and run screaming for their parents! Wyatt didn't want to see Santa, he just wanted to take Levi to meet Mrs. Albrecht, and then head to his classroom and show him around. And then that was that- by 10:45 we were out the door for Christmas break! 

It was a cute little show and Wyatt and I are both thankful Levi got the chance to see his school and meet his teacher!