Good ideas for a classroom activity for 2nd graders?

[cristina47454]

I've been tasked to come up with a "winter" holiday themed craft or game for the class party. Posting this in frugality bcs i don't want to spend a lot of money! We're doing paper snowflakes, but wondering what else might work? We already did bingo at Halloween...any ideas? It needs to be "Winter" and not specifically "Christmas"...

There are 20 kids in the class, and most of the games that I've come across seem kind of chaotic and a lot of the crafts seem messy! Or else elaborate in terms of materials....Help please!!!

[Siouxsie]

Snow globes could be fun. I've made them with my kid before, If you or someone you know has baby food jars that would be perfect and then you could get some glitter and 'winter' confetti like snowflakes or even little winter figures like snowmen(at the dollar store probably) and put them all in the jars with water and glue the lids shut. We glued a little figure onto the lid before filling it with water but if you do that you probably want to do that part ahead of time because it takes a while to dry.

Or even something more simple like decorating snowmen You could have felt or even paper cut outs for them to decorate.... good luck!

[nd_deadhead]

I think my son was in 2nd grade when his class made "find the items" bottles. They used empty pop or water bottles (with straight sides), filled them most of the way with bird seed, then added a number of household items - a button, a paper clip, a crayon, a fishhook, a penny, safety pin, rubber band, bobby pin, etc. The teacher printed out a list of all the items and attached it to the lid with a piece of yarn (she was able to laminate the lists, which made them last a lot longer).

Once filled, the game is to find each item in the bootle (without taking the lid off, of course!) Our family spent hour playing with that thing over the holidays (adults as much as kids).

The biggest expense would be the bird seed (I don't know what that costs); the rest of the items can be found around the house - as long as you have 20 of everything (so you only have to make one list).

[eirual]

http://dawnsdaybreak.blogspot.com/2008/12/five-little-snowmen.html ...the poem won't work so well for 2011, but cute.

Take a picture of each kid, cut it in a circle, glue it to a small paper plate that's already been decorated in green and red to look like a wreath.

Q-tip snowflakes glued to paper.

[greenmom4]

My son did push pin art and he loved it so much, it's hanging in his window.  Decorate felt gingerbread men.  Make pinecone birdfeeders w/ nut butters and birdseed (or sunflower butter or something).  Make "gingerbread houses" out of paper and decorate (color).  Guessing game - guess how many ___ are in the jar and then count them out together - you could find a cheap winter themed item to put in.