Valentine's Day Party Snack Ideas

Valentine's Day Party Snack Ideas

No comments Holidays, Valentine's Day

Our district allows us a certain number of holiday parties each year. Valentine's Day is one of those approved "party" days. Rather than have the students bring in way too many packages of cookies, cupcakes, and other sugary foods they tend to over consume, I provide the party snack. Over the years, I've settled on a few go to snack ideas. Ideas that are always a hit with my students.

Before I share the snacks themselves, I will point out that I do reach out to families and ask them to send in the items we need for our snack. This saves me from doing a bunch of running around town, and it saves money.

I highly suggest you reach out to families and ask for donations. You could easily send a message out via Remind/Dojo/Bloomz, etc. Or, you could create a SignUpGenius form and send that out to families.

On to the snack ideas!

Strawberry Floats

These are by far, my all time favorite. It's basically a root beer float made with strawberry soda. Oh, and instead of a straw, we use licorice. Fun, right?

Here's what you'll need:

• vanilla ice cream
• strawberry soda
• licorice
• ice cream scoop
• plastic spoons
• cups

To serve:

• Scoop 1-2 scoops of vanilla ice cream into the cup (this will depend on how big your cups are).
• Pour some strawberry soda over the ice cream.
• Add a piece of licorice and spoon.
• Enjoy!

Tips: 

• If you have a parent helper available, have them help you scoop the ice cream. It's a huge time saver when you have over 20 students.
• If you have a student with a dairy allergy, check with the parents to see what kind of alternative ice cream works for him/her. There have been years when I've had an alternative non-dairy ice cream available for the student(s) that needed it. 

Ice Cream Sandwich Sundae

This is another super easy snack idea. I set up a sundae bar at our reading table and have the kids come over a few at a time. They tell me what they want on their sundae and I make it to order. 

You'll need:

• ice cream sandwiches (1 per student)
• whipped cream
• chocolate syrup
• sprinkles
• chocolate chips
• marshmallows
• any other fun topping you can think of
• paper plates

To serve:

• Place an ice cream sandwich on a paper plate.
• Put some whipped cream on top (some kids may not want this).
• Drizzle with chocolate syrup (again, some kids may not want this). 
• Sprinkle toppings on top.
• Enjoy!

Tips:

• Again, a parent helper would be an amazing help. With a second pair of hands, the kids get their snack a bit quicker. So, if you have a parent that is willing to help, let them.
• Don't try and get these started without the kids present. If you unwrap a bunch of ice cream sandwiches and top them with whipped cream and chocolate syrup, you'll find that some of your kids only want whipped cream and some only want chocolate syrup. It's an easy snack to make and you can easily customize each sundae by calling them over in groups of 2-3.
• Again, if you have a student with a dairy allergy, be prepared to offer a dairy free alternative.

Decorated Sugar Cookies

This is actually what I do at my Winter Holiday party, but it would definitely be a fun Valentine's Day party snack too! 

Sadly, I do not  have any pictures of the cookies we decorated this past year. Sorry about that! But, I think you'll get the idea.

Basically, your students will decorate a plain sugar cookie with frosting and sprinkles. Get it? I knew you would!

You'll need:

• 1-2 sugar cookies per student (get the kind they sell in the grocery store bakeries-the size is generous and they taste homemade)
• frosting (the same kind you use to frost a cake)
• sprinkles
• plastic knives

To serve:

• Put some cookies, frosting, sprinkles, plates, and plastic knives on a tray.
• Place a tray at each table group/work area.
• Students will take 1-2 cookies and put them on their plate.
• They'll use the knives to spread frosting on their cookies.
• Last, they'll add sprinkles and enjoy!

I hope that one of these snack ideas works for you! It really is so much nicer to serve one fun snack than offering a mismatched party spread. Feel free to share your favorite Valentine's Day snack idea in the comments. :)

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New Year's Picture Books

New Year's Picture Books

No comments Classroom Ideas, Holidays, New Year's, Picture Books

New Year's is a fun holiday, but it's often overlooked in the classroom. And, I get it. We come back from break tired and maybe even a bit frazzled. But, it is a big tradition here in America, and other countries around the world too.

This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my links. For more information about my Disclosure Policy, please visit this link.

We always return to school a week after the new year begins, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about the traditions, customs, and goal setting. I like to share how people around the world celebrate this day in their cultures. And, of course, picture books are one of my favorite ways to do all this.

Can I just say that there are not enough books on this topic? With that said, at least the selection that is available isn't overwhelming.

Here's a peek at some great books you might want to use in your classroom. Oh, and if you keep on reading, there are a few ideas for you too!

Celebrations Around the World (Great illustrations and lots of info-you can use this book year round!)
Squirrel's New Year's Resolution (Keep reading for an idea to go with this book.)
The Night Before New Year's (This is a fun series.)
Happy New Year Around the World (This is actually a coloring book! You could copy certain pages for your class to color, or just read it as is.)
New Year's Day (Great info about traditions students may be familiar with.)
Shante Keys and the New Year's Peas (A fun story about New Year's customs from different traditions.)

Classroom Ideas

Have a Mini Celebration
At noon, on the day you return, have a mini celebration. Give your students some noise makers, like these, and let them shout out "Happy New Year!" You can add some flair by putting up some simple decorations. You could serve a snack, but then your mini celebration may turn into much more than that.

I have some fun gold garland that I drape across the top of the whiteboard along with a fun polka dot banner and matching balloons from the Target Dollar Spot (or whatever it's called these days-ha!). It isn't much, and it's easy to put up and take down, But, it also doesn't go unnoticed.

Make Some Resolutions
I like to read the books shared above throughout the week. They are great for facilitating discussions about the customs we read about. I encourage the students to make connections, compare and contrast, share what they think is interesting, and to ask questions.

But, I also like to do a simple goal setting activity. Simple is my cup of tea, and it doesn't get any easier than making a class book.

First, I read Squirrel's New Year's Resolution. It's great for talking about what a resolution is (a big word that is often unfamiliar to many of my second graders).

Then, I let the students talk with a partner about a goal they might have (this also helps them get an idea for a goal if they can't think of one).

Finally, they write about their goal. I take all the pages and bind them together to make a class book that the kids can read over and over. This allows them to revisit this idea often so they don't forget about those goals.

You can grab these free class book templates here. 

I hope you enjoy these activities and books with your students. Happy New Year!

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Wood Slice Snowman Ornaments {Tutorial}

Wood Slice Snowman Ornaments {Tutorial}

1 comment gift, Holidays, ornament, parent gift idea, snowman ornament tutorial, student craft, Tutorials

Every year I have my students make a holiday gift for their families. What they make seems to change every few years. I like to try new things, apparently. Hehe.

This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my links. For more information about my Disclosure Policy, please visit this link.

Last year, my students made some adorable snowman canvas ornaments. But this year, I switched it up, and simplified the project by using wood slices to make these fun thumbprint ornaments.

These were pretty easy to make. Keep reading!

What You'll Need

• wood slices (with holes at the top)
• blue acrylic paint
• white acrylic paint
• black paint markers (at least two)
• orange paint markers (at least two)
• q-tips

You can find the wood slices on Amazon.

Click here for thinner slices 

Click here for thicker slices

You can find Mod Podge at your local craft store, but for ease, you can also find it on Amazon.

Here's What You Need to Do
Paint the wood slices blue. Depending upon the amount of time you have available to devote to this, you may want to paint the blue yourself. You will need to paint two coats.

Pull one or two students at a time to make the snowman. To create the snowman, paint your students' thumbs. They will make three thumbprints stacked on top of each other to create the three parts of the snowman. Be sure to apply fresh paint to their thumb before each thumbprint. Let dry.

Pull two students at a time to add details. Paint markers are easy to use and create bold lines and accents. Have students use the black paint marker to draw a hat, eyes, mouth, buttons, and arms. They will use the orange paint marker to draw a carrot nose.

*Pulling kids for these last two steps means you don't have to carve out time for the project at the expense of instruction. It also allows you to closely monitor and help students with the task (they get nervous about doing it wrong sometimes). If it seems overwhelming to pull them in small numbers, shake that feeling, it will go by much faster than you think. Chances are you have several opportunities each day to pull a few kids for 3 minutes at a time.

Use a q-tip dipped in white acrylic paint to create snowflakes. You can do this when you call students over to add their details, or you can call them over at a different time.

Next, you'll want to seal the ornament with some Mod Podge. Use a foam brush to apply, it's much faster.

Finally, tie a piece of ribbon or jute through the hole. If you order the wood slices linked in this post, you'll also get the jute that is shown below.

That's it!

Troubleshooting
This project is simply adorable, and lots of fun for students to make. BUT, it isn't always perfect. Some of the wooden slices may crack when you paint them (see pic below).

There is no way to predict whether or not this will happen. In speaking with an avid wood worker and carver (my dad-hehe), I learned that when wood dries too fast it can crack. So, if the wood isn't properly aged and then you paint it (which can be drying), it isn't uncommon for cracks to appear.

Sometimes those cracks might be negligible (think hairline crack). Other times, the cracks might be large rendering the slice unusable. It's best to start with dry wood, aged at least two years to help prevent things like cracking. Sadly, there's no way to really know how long the manufacturers of these wood slices are aging the wood before they sell it.

So, how can you prevent the cracks? The jury is still out on that. There are waxes that can be used to help seal wood and prevent it from cracking, but you cannot paint over it. You just have to know going in that you may have some cracking.

Last year I made these, I had about 4-5 slices crack (2-3 of those I could not use at all). This year, I only had one crack, and it was a hairline crack at that. Cracking will vary from batch to batch.

Be sure to have extra slices on hand. I purchase the sets with at least 30 slices (and I usually have about 23 students or so). This way, if a few crack, I still have enough for my class.

Here's how I handle cracks.

If you notice a tiny crack in the slice (see below), no worries, when you seal the ornament with Mod Podge, it will be protected. After sealing the entire ornament, put another coat or two of Mod Podge directly over the small crack, on the front and back.

If you experience any large cracks, you might find that those slices aren't usable. These would be the cracks that make the wood split apart to create a large open space, or go through the hole at the top. This is why making sure you have extras on hand is a good idea.

Kids love to create things, and they always enjoy making something special for their families. I hope you can use this idea, or modify it to meet your needs this holiday season. :)

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All About Thanksgiving {Integrating Language Arts & Social Studies}

All About Thanksgiving {Integrating Language Arts & Social Studies}

No comments Freebies, Holidays, Integrated Units, Thanksgiving

Do you love Thanksgiving as much as me?  The food, the traditions, the parade, the food, family time, the food.....;)  Of course, these are the things I love about celebrating this holiday, but I also love teaching my students about all things Thanksgiving.

This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience.  I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my links.  For more information about my Disclosure Policy, please visit this link.

Honestly, there is so much content surrounding the topic of Thanksgiving that it can be hard to narrow it all down, but I rely on our state standards to narrow my focus.  Our standards tend to lean toward teaching our students about life in earlier times and the reason we celebrate holidays, so that's what I focus on in my instruction.

When I cover the Mayflower Voyage, the Pilgrims/Pilgrim life, and the First Thanksgiving, I integrate this content with language arts (and speaking and listening).  It lends itself perfectly to this subject area.  I cover the content during reading, writing, and social studies time throughout the month of November.  We take notes, discuss topics as we learn about them, write about the content, organize information using graphic organizers, compare and contrast, and more.

Most of my lessons are centered around purposeful read alouds.  More specifically, picture books tend to be the basis of my teaching during this unit. They are written at an appropriate level for my students and the pictures help bring the story of the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving to life.

When I begin my Thanksgiving unit, I like to start by introducing/reviewing who the Pilgrims were.  In second grade, most students are familiar with the Pilgrims, but I always start by reading the first several pages from The First Thanksgiving.  It does a nice job of introducing who the Pilgrims were.

After we read these pages, I like to have my students show what they've learned.  I love the little mini book shown above.  It covers the 5 W's and the students get to practice restating the question.  On the first day, I have them answer the WHO question and decorate the cover.  They are always super excited to make a book!

The following day, I read more pages from The First Thanksgiving.  Then, the students complete the rest of the mini book.  

This introduction to the Pilgrims is a great way to kick off the unit.  Once they know who the Pilgrims are and why they are important, we can move on to other topics that center around this group of individuals.

Once my students are familiar with the Pilgrims, I like to spend some time learning about the Mayflower voyage.  I like to begin by facilitating a discussion about transportation.  I ask the students to share how they travel from one place to another.  Then, I remind them that the Pilgrims traveled by ship.  I go on to explain that while that may be similar to how people travel in today's world, their experience was unlike any experience people today may have.

I read several pages from If You Sailed the Mayflower and the students practice their note taking skills.  At the end of the read aloud, I have the students share their notes and I compile them on a chart.  The students then use the chart to make a mini book about the voyage. The students write a sentence about the Mayflower/the voyage on each page. Clearly, we make a lot of mini books in my class.  ;)

I love making mini books because they get my students practicing their sentence writing skills without worrying about organizing an entire paragraph. 

When the mini books, are done, I like to have my students do some reading of their own. We are always practicing the skill of going back to the text to answer a question, and reading passages are a great way to sneak in more practice with that skill.  You can easily add some fun to this by letting your students use a highlighter to find their text evidence.

At some point during this portion of our unit, I always like to visit the Scholastic First Thanksgiving website. They have several amazing videos related to the Pilgrims and they really bring the content to life.  If you've never visited their First Thanksgiving site, do yourself a favor and go there now.  You won't regret it!

Before wrapping up our look into the Mayflower voyage, I like to ask my students to share the kinds of things they take when they travel.  Then, I ask them what kinds of things they take with them when they move (our town is very transient, so most of my students have experience with moving) to a new house (or town).  I use this conversation to point out that the Pilgrims were very limited in what they were allowed to bring with them when they moved to the New World.  I read a little more from If You Sailed on the Mayflower and then follow up with this activity.

Even though I start my unit with an introduction to the Pilgrims, I always return to this topic.  I like to take a look at life as a Pilgrim in Plymouth so that the students can do a little compare and contrast.  This National Geographic Pilgrims of Plymouth book is great!  It has great photos of people reenacting Pilgrim life, and it provides an overview of Pilgrim life.  I like to read it and then follow up with a graphic organizer that allows the students to record their take always from the reading.

Remember the Scholastic site I mentioned earlier in this post?  I usually visit it during this portion of our unit of study as they have some great videos about life in the Pilgrim village.  Definitely check out their videos!

After looking at Pilgrim life in general, I like to focus on what life was like for Pilgrim children.  The students always think it's interesting to learn about life as a kid in the past.  Once again, I like to use picture books to cover this content.  Sarah Morton's Day and Samuel Eaton's Day are great books to give students an inside look at a day in the life of Pilgrim kids.  The text is written in first person and is written in the vernacular of the day. 

After reading these books, it's time to compare and contrast our daily lives to that of Pilgrim kids.  This is always a successful activity.  The kids are always fascinated by the differences, and despite them being so drastically different, they are always able to identify the similarities.

Before moving on, I like to have my students write a paragraph about Pilgrim life.  It's a good way to give them more practice with informative writing and it gives me a good idea of what they have learned.

I always wrap our unit up by covering the First Thanksgiving.  I want my students to know why/how it was celebrated, and what kinds of food the Pilgrims ate.

A great book for explaining all of this is The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving.  I usually take two days to read this book because it is long. On day one, we usually just talk about the text or do a stop and jot as I read. On day two, when we read about the First Thanksgiving, I have the students complete a circle map of important details. Then, they use that information to write about the First Thanksgiving.

Once we reach the end of the unit, I like to do this cumulative I Spy activity.  The students have to read the statement printed on the card and decide if it is true or false. It's a great way to get your students up and moving, and thinking critically. You could also use it as an assessment tool!

When/if time permits, I like to spend a bit of time covering Thanksgiving traditions, like the Macy's Day Parade.  Every year I am surprised at how many of my second graders have never heard of it, let alone watched it. 

There are lots of video options on You Tube, if you like the idea of showing them some actual parade footage.  Just be sure to watch whatever video you want to show before you actually show it.  It is You Tube, after all, who knows what might pop up.  Conde Nast has a short video that shows lots of different balloons from bird's eye view.  It's in fast motion (that's a thing, right?) but it still gives you a good look at the balloons.

After watching the video, I like to follow up with this reading passage.  It gives the students more information about the parade and gives them a chance to practice their text evidence skills.  And, if time permits, we might even complete the constructed response that goes with it.

You can grab this free reading passage by clicking HERE. :)

It also includes a passage about wild turkeys, another fun topic to cover when you're ready to expand your unit of study!  Use the link above to grab your freebie!

Many of the resources featured in this post can be found in my Thanksgiving unit on TPT.  It includes what you see here, and soooooo much more.  Check it out HERE.

Looking for more reading passages?  My Nonfiction Close Reads Bundle is formatted just like the freebie above and is jam packed with nonfiction passages that will get you through the entire year! 

Thanks for stopping by today! 

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