Dec
21

Holiday Cheer Through Silly Gifts

Filed Under (Classroom Life) by Jan Smith on 21-12-2008 and tagged ,
On the last day of school we held a Wacky Gift Exchange. The rules were simple: bring a wrapped, non-store bought gift, and secretly give it to Ms Smith.
Ahead if time we talked about the difference between Wacky and Junky: ie a Barbie is ok, but a Barbie with hair cut off and marker on her face is not. The gifts ranged from helpful to hilarious, and there was a lot of laughing.
Here’s how the worked:
  • The pile of gifts was placed in the middle of our circle of chairs.
  • Student names were randomly drawn.
  • The first person chose a gift from the pile and opened it, saying: “Wow, I always wanted a…..”
  • The group responds with ooohs and aaahs.
  • The rest of the people, in turn, can take from the pile or “steal” from another person, who can either take from the pile or “steal” from another player.
  • Gifts can be stolen only three times.
  • The very last player can take any gift.

As you can see in the slide show below we had a blast and everyone had a great attitude about the “gifts” they received.

(I am experimenting with different slide show formats–let me know what you think of this Image Loop. I do find ads & logos distracting, but is this tool still worth using?)
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6 Responses to “Holiday Cheer Through Silly Gifts”

  1.   anne marie Says:
      December 21st, 2008 at 7:49 pm

    I like the Image Loop slide show- very creative and festive!

    [Reply]

  2.   brittanyh16 Says:
      December 23rd, 2008 at 7:29 pm

    Some of those saying were hilarious. I am glad you thought of the idea.

    [Reply]

  3.   tidertechie Says:
      December 28th, 2008 at 5:25 pm

    I am always looking for slide show possibilities. So far everything I have tried has been blocked by our parish smartfilter. I haven’t tried imageloop; I’ll try it as soon as we get back to see if maybe…just maybe it won’t be blocked. Thanks for your comment on my blog:)

    [Reply]

  4.   Pam Thompson Says:
      December 29th, 2008 at 6:08 pm

    Great idea. We do this as a staff at the last staff meeting before Christmas! The stealing aspect was hilarious this year.

    I think the Imageloop works well. I’ve only used rockyou on my blog.

    [Reply]

  5.   inpi Says:
      February 28th, 2009 at 1:19 pm

    Hi Jan,
    I think imageloop is okay and, thanks to you, I’ve tried it myself with photos of my students.
    However, as we are not allowed to show their plain faces, I can’t embed it in our class blog.
    I wonder if you know how to slightly veil their features, without taking away all the fun of the picture it self.
    See you soon during the next student’s challenge.
    Ines

    [Reply]

  6.   Birce Says:
      March 18th, 2009 at 12:26 am

    hii ı am birce ı am 12 years old
    ı think your so cute

    [Reply]

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