1st, 2nd & 3rd Grade

in your child's class???

we didn't, none of the first grades did. Last year in kindergarten they did and they got to dress up but Liam was sick. Now this year earlier this month at the open house she mentioned no more parties for birthdays that there were too my allergies in the school and they were trying to eliminate parties (now a different teacher gave a different reason about no food in classrooms for spillage) so we wondered about holidays and figured if they had one they let us know and sure enough not a word spoken by the teacher and nothing came home so OK no biggy like I really want to carry 26 cup cakes on the city bus, but then we were in the school yard and some kids in older grades brought stuff so we were wondering if they are phasing it out starting in younger grades. Another school in the city is totally party free, birthdays, holidays etc. Guess I have mixed feelings, we have a summer birthday and I didn't know how I felt about the bday thing, for summer bdays they combined it with an end of the year and parents of summer bday kids could bring things in but then thats not fair because the other kids got their own day but then again I did a party invited the class so whats the point of bringing in stuff in school too. The holiday parties are more an issue to think he may never experience a halloween party. those were kind of special memories I had as a kid. and what about valentines day will they do anything for that??? Now last year they had an end of the year ice cream party thanks to the PTA so will be interested in seeing what happens the rest of the year but just curious because some of the mom's this morning did mention other friends in other towns are seeing similar party free trends???

When my now-10th grade ds was in elementary, they had Halloween parties, dressed up and had a small parade around the school. When he was in 3rd grade, they didn't have a parade because they were building a new school building next door and didn't have room to march around.

After that, they weren't allowed to dress up at all, but still had Halloween parties. Now, they don't have Halloween parties, they have "fall" or "harvest" parties.

The classes also have Christmas parties and an end-of-year picnic.

They had a "fall party" today, but it wasn't anything special really.  They do dress in their costumes and march around outside the school.  But the only snacks allowed for the party is a fruit tray purchased through group contribution of money, and juice boxes.  Parents are not allowed to bring in treats or other snacks on party days.  Once they finished their snacks they had coloring pages they could do.  But a lot of kids just left with their parents when they were done eating.

Our school does Christmas, Valentine, and "spring" parties, but they are all about the same - fruit trays and juice boxes for snacks, and then some sort of activity.

 

 

 

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My daughters school had a party. I did not get to go in and help since I had a party with my youngest that I needed to go to. They make Where the Wild Things are costumes and maskes to parade around school. They wrapped the teacher in tp to look like a mummy, decorated cookies and I think that is all the info she gave me. It looked like older grades were having parties too.

We were at the fall party - normally a costume parade too, but it was awful outside yesterday (windy, stormy, cold). The party was fun. We do games and activities. In 4th grade, I ran a mummy wrap in the hall with crepe paper. It got a little crazy, but it was fun. We also did bozo buckets with "eyeballs" and Halloween hangman on the smartboard. My second grader seemed to have fun too, but his explanation was so convoluted, who knows what he did :)

We have never done birthday celebrations - too many imho, so I'm glad. I'd rather them do classroom work and those things turn into competitions. However, they do each write a letter to their classmate on birthdays and those are so sweet. It's all about what's great about that person.

We also have a winter party and a "friendship" party (instead of Valentines).

I think it's a good mix of fun and academics.

As far as food, if you're in a peanut-free classroom (both boys were last year) there are some restrictions, but other than that, whatever is fine. They encourage limiting the food. In ds9's class we had grapes and small cookies (everything must be store bought). The PTA provides juice boxes. A few years back it was pretty overboard - parents bringing in pizzas and cakes and goodie bags. Geez, the parties are only 45 minutes or an hour - it would take most of that time to eat all the junk!

Theresa