Attempting to Manage the Mayhem

What do you get when you combine loads of sugar and 27 ten/eleven year olds on a Friday afternoon Valentine's Day Party?!....PuRe mayhem. After nearly three years of experience, I've stolen/borrowed/begged ideas from others and come up with a few strategies of my own to make this recipe for ChAOs a bit less cRaZY!

To my fellow TeAchErs and ANYONE who has the privilege of serving/working with children in any capacity, I hope you will find these ideas helpful and use them if you would like...I'd also LOVE to beg and borrow your ideas. Please do tell!

My First Line of Defense:

I find the week leading up to the party is quite a challenge for many students. It's difficult to FoCuS on fractions and five paragraph essays when you're anticipating loads of candy, valentines, and games. I like to HELP my students out by offering them an incentive to work hard so we can party hard at the end of the week.

Exhibit A: Raffle Prizes

Above you see approximately $15 dollars of Valentine's Day loot from Walmart. AKA- a fantastic way to get your students to have a super productive week despite the excitement that can potentially cause them to act like kids that couldn't possibly be in YOUR class!

Throughout the week I pass out cut out hearts for students making good choices (trees for Christmas, pumpkins for Halloween, whatever fits your fancy). Students place their "ticket" in a basket. I pass out tickets all the way through the party. It's AMAZING how quickly the room is cleaned at the end of the bash when the raffle starts as soon as the room is spotless!!

Believe me this is a well spent $15! It keeps your room clean, your kids learning, your SaNiTy, and it's a great GIFT for your kids. They will LOVE it and so will YOU!

Exhibit B:

Here's an idea I got from a teammate. Use a banana as your Valentine to the kids, and it serves multiple purposes:

1. It eliminates wasting PReciOuS TIME in the Walmart aisle trying to decide between the endless cartoon characters, Hannah Montanna, Jonas Brothers, etc.

2. Your food contribution to the party...DoNe.

3. A great way to show LoVe for our world by making a GrEEn choice.

4. OBVIOUSLY fruit tastes better when your teacher writes on the peel!...a great way to RAGE against the major sugar injections taking place at such events!

5. This one could also be used by all of you moms and wives out there trying to encourage fruit consumption! As you pack those lunches, show a little LOVE by writing a message on the peel!

6. A FaNTaSTic Photo Op. The KIDS had a BLAST posing with the bananas as a smile, phone, or like this...

I'm SORRY I can't put their SuPEr FuN pics up on my personal site. This will have to do!


Exhibit C:



A creative mom brought in this SIMPLE yet CrEaTivE spin on cheese and crackers. It was a success! The kids actually had more of these puppies on their plates than the HOT CHEETOS! This is another one that could easily be modified for any holiday and used to add a little PEP to those sack lunches!

Well...that's all I've got for now! If you have any IdEAs, I'd greatly appreciate them...ALWAYS attempting to MANAGE the MAYHEM...and have a little FuN at the same time!