Winter Party Ideas  

Ice Cream in a Bag

2nd Grade and Up

For each child you will need:  1 gallon & 1 quart sized freezer bag, 3 C. ice, ¼ -1/2 C. rock salt, ½ C. milk, ½ tsp. vanilla, 1 T. sugar.  Directions (assembly line works best!):  Put milk, vanilla and sugar into the quart sized bag.  Squeeze out air and seal.  Put ice and rock salt into the gallon sized bag.  Place the quart bag inside the gallon bag and seal carefully.  Shake the mixture for about 5-7 minutes until it turns into ice cream.  Wipe off the small bag before dumping into a bowl.  Serve with your favorite toppings.  Tips:  Have a couple of buckets in the classroom to put the bags of melted ice in.  Have extra rags!  Make sure the kids wear mittens or gloves.  Have band aids available—salt and paper cuts hurt!

Winter Party Book Exchange

Any Age

Have each child bring in a gently used, wrapped book.  Label it "boy" or "girl".  At the start of your exchange, have the boys stand or sit in a circle with their book, and have the girls sit or stand in a circle with their book.  For space saving purposes, you could have one circle inside the other!  Begin reading the story The Gingerbread Man.  Each time the word "run" or "ran" is read, they are to pass their book to the right.  When the story is finished, they should have a new book to open.  You could also play the exchange like musical chairs.  Pass the books while music is playing.  When the music stops, you have a new book to open.  

Pinecone Birdfeeders---No Peanut butter!
For a class of 25
25 pinecones (large, with good openings), Sturdy string or ribbon,
1- 3lb. can of shortening (6C) (Cheap Walmart version of Crisco!), 1 1/2 C. flour, 3 C. oatmeal, 9 + C. birdseed, newspaper, paper plates, wax paper, plastic knives, baggie for each child.  Pre attach ribbon or string to each pinecone.  Pre-make birdseed mixture:  Melt shorening in a large microwave safe bowl.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Cool completely.  Give each child newspaper to cover desk.  Give roughly 1/2 C. of birdseed mixture to each child on a small paper plate.  Have them spread & poke the mixture real well into the pine cone with plastic knife.  Once finished, put wax paper around pinecone and then into the baggie for tranport home.  
Blind Snowman Game
8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper for each child.  Give each child a piece of white paper.  Tell them they will be closing their eyes and you will be telling them what to draw.  No Peaking!  DON'T tell them they are drawing a snowman!  You say:  Draw 3 circles, one on top of each other.  Each circle gets smaller from the bottom to the top.  In the middle circle draw three small circles going vertically down the center.  In the top circle, draw two eyes, a carrot nose and a mouth.  Draw a hat on top of the smallest circle.  Draw stick arms on both sides of the middle circle.  Draw a broom in one stick hand.  Open your eyes.  For older children, give points for accuracy such as 5 pts. for each circle that touches the other.  Points for the hat touching the head, the eyes being in the top circle etc.
Silly Tongue Twisters
Seven Santas sang silly songs.  Santa's sleigh slides on slick snow.  Bobby brings bright bells.  Running reindeer romp 'round red wreaths. 
Tiny Timmy trims the tall tree with tinsel.  Chilly chipper children cheerfully chant.  Two trains travel together to Toyland.  Santa's sack sags slightly.  Tip-top tiny tot toys.  Eleven elves licked eleven little licorice lollipops.  Comet cuddles cute Christmas kittens carefully.  Santa stuffs Stephie's striped stocking. 
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