Grandparent's Day

     We had Grandparent's Day at our school yesterday.  I knew it was going to be difficult for me, but I don't think I realized how difficult it was going to be.  I lost my Grandmama this past July, two months ago.  This whole week I was just trying to get through it and get it over with.  That is so totally unlike me.  I love special projects, I love crafting with the kids, and I love when we have special visitors, especially grandparents visit our class.  I even love the preparing and planning part of it, and this year I could not even get that together.  I changed my mind a thousand time on what I wanted to do.  I just kept thinking about my sweet Grandmama is gone, and I now I don't have any more of these opportunities to spend with her.  I don't have many pictures because I really was trying to stay busy, so I wouldn't break down and cry.
     Our awesome Grandma came and read two stories this year, we made a special snack, sang a song, and gave them a little gift that we made.  I completely forgot to take a picture of the gift that we made.  It was a tile square (left over from last year's major remodel project at our house) with their handprints in the shape of a heart.  It also had a sweet little poem around the heart.  I believe everyone had a great time (even me), and next year I'll be back on my A game! :)

Our awesome Grandma read Caps for Sale and The Squeaky Door.  She is such a fabulous storyteller!

After we listened to the story, we made a special snack.  They had to listen and follow directions to make their snack.

We then sang a special song for our grandparents and other family members.

     We had several that their Grandparents have passed on or lived to far away attend, so we invited Grandfriends, Aunts, Uncles, or parents to attend in their place.  We did not want anyone to feel sad or left out.  My hope for everyone is that they made a special memory and will one day look back on this and know that they made these children feel very special.  That is one thing I will always remember about my Grandmama.  She was always there for me and always made me feel that I was the most special, important person in the world.  I love you Grandmama and look forward to the day that I will see you again!

Grandparent's Day

    I'm finally getting a chance to put the pictures up!  Today was work/clean up day at my house, and boy, did I have everyone working! :)  Thursday was just the best day, and I am so excited to share it with you all!

We had a special Grandma read to the entire 4/5K classes.  She read The Squeaky Door by Margaret Read MacDonald (so sorry I didn't take a picture!).  It is the cutest story about a little boy who spends the night at his grandma's house and is scared of her squeaky door.  Our Grandma was just precious and the children were totally mesmerized by her storytelling!

The class with Grandma

     I think I may have missed a few Grandparents!  I'm so sorry if I did! :)  We also had a few moms that came if because their Grandparent lived to far away, and I think I missed them as well!  After the story, we came back to the room, had the cookies that we made (yesterday's post) and lemonade, sang a song, and gave them their gifts (yesterday's post).  It was a very busy, but fun filled day!  I was a little stressed before the festivities because I wanted to have everything just perfect, and there was no need to be stressed!  It was absolutely perfect!

Grandparent's Day Preparation

    Happy Fall Y'all!  I just love saying that!  I absolutely loved Grandparent's Day!  It was a lot of work, but so worth it!  Here are some pictures and activities that we did for our special day.

We read Hooray for Grandparent's Day!  This is great book to share the day before because it discusses what happens if you don't have grandparents or they are unable to attend.  We allowed other family members, parents, or someone special to come if a grandparent was unavailable.  We also discussed that if their grandparent was unable to attend, they could either mail them their gifts or give it to them the next time that they visited.

I found this cute little heart at Handprint Art.  We cut the heart with decorative scissors and added their picture.

Totally used this from the Family Fun Math and Literacy by Kim Adsit!  They chose whether they wanted to do a grandma or grandpa.  We had to end up hot glueing the little glasses (pipe cleaners) because they wouldn't stay on with regular glue.  We also mounted these on black construction paper.

We made chocolate chip cookies!

They each took a turn putting in an ingredient.

They went over in small groups to watch the cookies being mixed.

They also each put in a spoonful of the chocolate chips because everyone wanted to put in the chocolate chips! :)

This class loves to cook!  Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of the cookies on the tray or the cooked cookies.  I also did not get a picture of the instructions for making the cookies.  The batteries on my camera died, and we had grandparents start to come in, so it just didn't happen.  I'll post pictures of our story time and their grandparents tomorrow!