Grandparent's Day!

 

Our school always has a special Grandparent's Day in May.  Grandparents (or someone special for each child) are invited to come visit the classrooms an hour before lunch, and then they eat a special lunch in the beautifully decorated gym with their grandchild.

 

 This is always one of my very favorite days- after it is over.  I always get worked up planning for the day , because I want it to be really special and memorable- but at the same time I realize that it will be hot, humid, completely crowded and crazy in my room, so I do the best that I can.  Once again, once it was over, it was one of my very favorite days!

 

In past years, I have made ice cream in a bag, which I love- but  I was going to have 57 people in the classroom this year- so I thought I would not attempt that.  (I am going to make that on my birthday in June with the kids outside when my daughter is going to come help me!) It is usually lots of fun- and a fun idea for grandparents to have to use at home over the summer with their grandchildren.  The last time I made it in the classroom, one grandma put ALL of the ingredients (including the salt and ice which is supposed to be in a separate bag) into one bag- and then didn't seal it completely, so when her grandson shook it... yeah...  :(    I am going to do this under our pavilion outside this year.  :)

This year, we stared a couple weeks ahead by planting our forget-me-not seeds.  We decorated the cups that we planted in by drawing on forget-me-not flowers with Sharpies. We also made cards that said, "Forget-me-nots for unforgettable grandparents!"  to go with the plants.

Our grandparents arrived about noon.  Many come early, so I am always playing some of our favorite class games as the are arriving, so grandparents have a chance to see some of the educational games we play.  My class LOVES any version of "I have, Who has."  We played with names, numbers, and sight words.  We also played "Sparkle."  If you are not familiar with this game, here are the rules:
Everyone stands in a circle.  I choose a sight word to be spelled- let's say it is "can."  I begin with the leader of the day, and that person says the first letter, "c", the next person says the next letter "a", and then the next person finishes the word with an "n."  The next person in the circle says "Sparkle" once the word has been spelled. The next person then sits down. Then I start a new word to be spelled.  We continue until only one person is standing.  The children love this game and actually are such great sports sitting down.  I have seen rules where a student has to sit if he/she says the wrong letter, but my intent for the game is to review and learn how to spell these sight words, so I just help the child figure out the correct letter and we continue on.  That takes away the fear of making a mistakes and works best for my little group. 

After all the grandparents arrived, we gave a concert of some of our favorite songs.  The children lined up in the front of the class.  We even practiced this.  I lined them up during the week the way I wanted them to stand (you know how you just know who needs to be in a certain spot by or NOT by a certain child!). I had them remember who they stood by and where their spot was.  During the day I would say, "OK- Line up in front of the class!"  They knew exactly where to go, so when I had 39 grandparents in the classroom and said, "Line up for our concert," the children knew just where to go!

We sang The National Anthem, My Mother is a Baker, Tooty Ta, My Favorite Things, and recited our Punctuation Poem.  They were pros!

Next, I had several "stations" set up around the room. I brought in some extra "grown-up" chairs to put around the room.  I had one table set up with Writing Folders, so children could share their books they had written.  Each child had 3 favorite reading books in his/her cubby to read on the rug to their grandparents. 

 

 

 

I had one table set up with Oreos, milk, and water, so the children and their grandparents could help us make our Oreo Graph. 

The last table was set up with a refrigerator magnet or card flower craft with the child's picture in the middle of a cupcake container as the middle of the flower. This is a sample flower using a construction paper flower.

I had fun-foam flowers of different colors they could choose.

 

They cut out a stem and leaves and glued it all together. They either put a magnet on back or glued it onto a card and wrote a note to their grandparents. 

My front reading table had our plants ready to go, and our Class Books out to look at. 

I had my Prezi of pictures from the year playing so they could watch that as well. 

With about 10 minutes left, I gathered my children on the rug and we read Grandpa's Slippers to the grandparents.  We had practiced this book together a couple times, and the class helped me read it beautifully! My class loves it because it is a circle story- our favorite!

 

Then, we were off to the gym for our special lunch. 

 

The grandparents are always SO appreciative and so relaxed. I think that is why I love the day so much.  The children are just precious anticipating the arrival of their special grandparents, and so excited to show every detail of the room to them.  I think I used up my new Clorox wipes before everyone came, so the room was as clean and dust free as possible! :) 

 

I also sleep really well after this day is over! It is only an hour, but you would think it was a week long!

Thank you for visiting!

 

Happy Teaching,

Carolyn