Etta's Fall Party at School 2012

This morning Etta's class celebrated Fall with a party! I am the Room Mom for her class this year so I planned the whole party. It really wasn't much of a stretch for me since I taught Pre-K for a while and had some ideas already. It did involve some planning and collaborating with the afternoon room mom so we could share ideas and supplies and some of the cost. It felt like a lot of work, but it really wasn't, it was really just a matter of timing. I had been working hard and planning for several events in recent days (including the GiGi's Playhouse Cocktail Reception on Saturday night and Daniel's birthday party on Sunday afternoon) and the class party just got thrown into the mix, but it was all good and it actually turned out great (and I felt "in my element" today, not stressed)!

I had a few other parents sign up to bring some of the items we needed for the party, but I still ended up needing to get several items and I spent the evening last night making pumpkin-shaped cookies and my mom helped me put together the treat bags (meant to look like pumpkins). This morning, I took E to school, went back home and had a little breakfast and loaded up the car and headed back up to the school. I took the kids' wagon with me so I could load it with the 50 pound bag of feed corn I had bought to put in the sensory table and all of the other stuff I needed to take in with me.

I went ahead and set up the little treat bag pumpkin patch outside the classroom while I was waiting for the kids to go outside to play.

When they came back in we had an orange themed snack with carrots, cheese, cheetos, cheez-its, mandarin oranges (fruit cups that I drew jack-o-lantern faces on), and the pumpkin shaped cookie that they got to spread orange colored frosting on and top with sprinkles. Etta enjoyed the oranges and the cheese.

After snack, the kids split into pairs and went through center rotations. There are only eight kids in her class, so we had two kids in four different centers. They spent about 12-13 minutes in each center, which was just the right about of time! Etta started out in the Dramatic Play center where we had some faux fall leaves and a couple of child sized rakes that a parent from the afternoon class donated for the day.

Then, she moved on to the painting activity. The kids used corn cobs to roll fall colored paint onto white butcher paper.

Next, we went over to play with the feed corn in the sensory table. Etta had fun scooping and pouring the corn.

lol.

Finally, we moved on to the play-doh. The afternoon room mom made orange and brown play doh which was scented with pumpkin spice. We used rolling pins and Fall themed cookie cutters (leaves, acorns, pumpkins).

Then, the kids did a little dancing over at the circle before they got their backpacks and lined up to head out the door.

On their way out, the kids stopped by the "pumpkin patch" to pick up their pumpkin treat bags. I loaded Etta and the rest of my stuff back into our wagon and we headed home.

I think it was a successful little party!