Planning a Party with Paperless Post

I can't believe that another year of teaching Kindergarten is almost done!

With that in mind, I am beginning to plan my class end-of-year party! Planning a party can be stressful. Add 16 Kindergarteners who are ready for summer vacation and their families (including younger and older sibs) to the mix and it becomes stress level 6 billion!

I want to share a few tips and tricks that I use to make sure the planning (and the party itself) goes smoothly!

First things first: THEME

In the past, I have invited families to join our class for an ice-cream party. However, storing the ice cream in our tiny staff freezer and all of the melting made me a little bit nuts.  I decided to change things up this year with cookie-decorating party! No school freezer required!

Now, for the INVITATIONS

I've noticed that many parents rarely check their child's cubby, so putting a paper invitation inside seems unproductive. With everything, from school events to field trips, email is best. I'm all about the presentation, so I used Paperless Post to send cute invitations to my class parents via email! There are so many adorable designs to choose from. I ended up going with a sprinkle blasted card to go along with the cookie decorating theme!

So stinkin' sweet, right? That was the easy part. The harder part is organizing the supplies, decorations, and of course, the cookies!

Making the COOKIES

I love to bake from scratch, but when it comes down to it, shortcuts are always the better option when there's a large crowd! For sugar cookies, I always buy the easy pre-made dough (check out how I used it to bake cookies for Chanukah!) Sugar cookie dough freezes really well, so I am going to make the dough over the weekend and freeze it until it's time to defrost, roll out, cut and bake a day or two before the party. I have 16 kids in my class, so I will most likely need to make four batches of dough to accommodate everyone.

Since it is a party to celebrate summer, I ordered these cute cookie cutters from Amazon. I am particularly excited about the pineapple shape :) I'm pretty sure the kiddos will like the fish, sun and octopus shapes as well!

Gotta have the FROSTING

Again, I'm taking the easy route here. You can buy a case of eight 10 oz. containers of Pillsbury Vanilla icing at Dollar Tree! The day of the party, I will mix in a different food coloring to each tub so students can choose what colors they want their cookies to be. And we can't forget the sprinkles!!!!

Ask the PARENTS-

 I've done a lot of work! Time to hand over the baton. I plan on asking the parents to sign up to bring items like napkins, tablecloths, plates, plastic knives for frosting application, drinks and cups. And guess what? You can include the sign up on your Paperless Post invitation when you get to the "add details" section of your design!

Check back in a couple of weeks to see photos from the party! I can't wait to celebrate the end of the school year!

My Five Favorite Alphabet Books

Teaching Kindergarten, I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year re- familiarizing (or sometimes familiarizing) ABC order with my kiddos. One way I do this is by reading fun ABC read alouds. I've compiled a list of my favorite titles for you below!

1. Feelings to Share from A to Z

I love this one, especially for the beginning of the school year. At this age, children are just beginning to practice expressing  and identifying their feelings. What a great way to teach about emotions while reinforcing ABC order!

2. The Sleepy Little Alphabet 

Kids think this one is hilarious! I like it because it helps kids differentiate between uppercase and lowercase letters. In this story, the lowercase letters are the "kids" and the uppercase letters are the "grown-ups". The lowercase letters do not want to go to bed at bed time so the uppercase "grown ups" get very frustrated!

3. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

You can't have an ABC book list without this one. A classic!

4.  Z is for Moose

Get ready to have your kiddos laughing out loud! This ABC book is a silly one. Moose is so excited to be featured in the ABC book, he rushes onto pages waaaaay before it's his turn. When it finally is Moose's turn, he finds out that he isn't featured for letter M after all! With the help of a friend, Moose finally finds his place in the ABC book.

5. LMNO Peas 

So many kids have difficulties with this section of the ABC's. I can't tell you how many times I do assessments during the first half of the year where students recite "LMNO" like it is ONE letter! This is a great story that describes different occupations in ABC order. It doesn't hurt that adorable little peas are doing each job! This series has many wonderful installments. Another favorite of mine that helps teach the months of the year is Hap-pea All Year!

Do you have any favorite ABC read alouds? I'd love to find some new titles!

I Still Exist, I Swear!

Remember me? I won't be angry if you don't. It's actually kind of embarrassing how long it's been since I last shared with you....#bloggerfail

A lot has happened since I last posted in....January 2017. I finished my first year as a Kindergarten teacher at my new school! Hubs and I bought our first home and moved from Irvine to Laguna Beach! We went to Italy! Teaching Kindergarten started up again!

I can't promise that from now on there will more consistent posts, but it feels good to "get back out there". Here's what I'm hoping to blog about over the next month or two:

School related:
* CVC/Sight Word lessons and activities
* A "how-to" on writing report card narratives
* Planning for an admin observation

Lifestyle related:
* Must listen to podcasts
* Stitch Fix clothing reviews
* Book club reads

I'm curious to hear from readers what you're interested in. Pipe up people!

Ok, see ya again realllllll soon!