Tipton Elementary Chrismtas Party 2009

For the past ten years I've helped with the Tipton elementary Christmas party through our PTO (Parent Teacher Organization), but for the last six years, I've had the priviledge of getting to plan the whole party. While this might not be something many (or even most) people would enjoy, for me it is something I not only enjoy, but look forward to all year long.

This year's party theme was "Elves".  Each student was given an elf hat to wear for the party.  Early in the day the students got a visit from Santa.  Each student is given a picture of himself/herself and Santa. 

Each year, the students go to four stations during the party and come together at the end for cookies and hot chocolate.  This year at one of the stations, the students decorated sugar cookies.  After decorating their cookies, they took them to their designated seat in the cafeteria.  This is the cookie they eat at the end of the party.  This year the students decorated elf shaped sugar cookies.

I couldn't figure out why no one was making the cookies look like elves.  Little did I know that no one recognized that the un-iced cookies were elves!!  They thought they were stockings or something! After I finally said something, the last group was able to get a few real looking elf cookies.  So funny!

Another station is always a book reading.  This year the PTO purchased "An Elf on the Shelf" workbook, book, CD, and elf for the teachers to use during the month of December.  There are lots of worksheets and crafts in the workbook, so it's worth getting and using in the classroom.  The students never actually heard the book until the party.  They enjoyed hearing the book and learning about the little elf.

The next station is the ornament-making station.  This year's ornament was an elf (of course!).  The ornaments were so cute and the students had fun making them.  It's important for me for the students to have an ornament for each year of the elementary school.  Of course some of them make them in their classrooms, too.

Since the theme was elves, I wanted the students to "build" something in a center called "Santa's Workshop".  Last February I took the 4-H members to the Oklahoma Science Museum (formerly Omniplex) Lock-In.  One of the projects they made was a mousetrap catapult.  It "catapults" a ping pong ball!  I knew this would be a perfect toy for the students to build for this Christmas party.

Here's the finished project.  Each student was given their ping pong ball at the end of the day.  It seemed that 128 ping pong balls being flung all over the school wouldn't be a smart idea!  Of course, the students were warned to not catapult anything dangerous.  Marshmallows would be fun to try, though!

It's always fun when the students come together at the end of the four stations.  The enjoy eating their decorated cookie and drinking the hot chocolate.  They enjoy singing songs, too.

This year two my two oldest children were exempt from semester tests, so I recruited them to help with the party. Daughter, Lauren, and her friend were elves.  Of course I had to get their picture as elves.  Zachary helped in the toy workshop.

My younger two children are in the 1st and 5th grades and enjoyed attending the Christmas party.  It's Jacob's last elementary Christmas party.  Kinda makes me sad!  Tyler has several more to go, though.

Here's a family picture below with my children and I.  My husband actually helped in the toy making shop too, but he was gone by the time we took this picture.  He didn't dress up, though! I think it's fun to dress up and the students really like it when some of us dress up.

Santa walked up and down to school hall, which is connected to the gym.  Some of the junior high and high school boys were practicing and we were able to take a quick picture, interrupting their practice.  They didn't seem to mind at all!

My mind is spinning thinking about next year's Christmas party.  This one was a lot of fun as you can see, but, then again, they all are fun to me! 

Other party themes have been snowmen, reindeer, gingerbread man (my absolute favorite!), Oklahoma Country Christmas, and Santa.  Whatever is chosen, one thing is for certain:  Special memories are made in the lives of these students.  That's important to me and that's why I am so thankful to have the oppotunity to

 plan the parties for them.

This year at the end of the party, one of the teachers had the students sing "Jingle Bells" to me as a thank you for the party.  It was so sweet and they did such a good job!  I had lots of helpers during the party and they deserve a big thank you, too.

Two of the helpers are here visiting family for Christmas.  They are having a break from their missionary work in England and volunteered to help with the party.  (The link to their website is on my blogroll under "Lovejoys in Morley", if you're interested.) Thank you, Jed and Shiloh, for all of your help!  Shiloh actually baked half of the sugar cookies from me (and she didn't even know what they were while she was baking them - hee! hee!). 

Merry Christmas, Tipton Elementary!