Monhegan School's Christmas Morning

It is our tradition to have a big holiday celebration on the last day of school before Christmas break! We only have school in the morning because we take the afternoon to rest up for the Holiday play and party which always happens the night before break...

The last few years we have kicked off our holiday party with a BIG breakfast! Students and their families are invited! This year our guidance councilor, Jean, was here for the event as well!

Angela and the boys played a round of Rummy before breakfast we served!

Cheers to a happy holiday!

MMMM! Delicious breakfast!

And I almost ate it all!

After breakfast it was time to open gifts! Not many schools have the tradition of getting presents for all the teachers AND students!

Margaret gave out her presents first!

I got BEAUTIFUL handmade ornaments for my tree! There was an ornament for each member of our school family... even Millie! It was the bestest gift I could ask for!

Daltini got a new puzzle! He looooves puzzles!

The boys gave Margaret her present... first she had to figure out what it spelled...

Then she opened them! PET ROCKS! It was a Millie pet rock!

Look at all those amazing pets!

And if you flip them over... you have MARGARET! Such creative gifts!

Jean opening her gift from the boys... a beautiful handprinted pillow!

And a lovely box from all the school with the kids pictures on it!

Donna's gorgeous pillow from the boys!

Dalton's pillow to me (the #1 in the WORLD, might I add!)

And Quinn's beautiful pillow for me. Have I mentioned I am the luckiest teacher ever!?

The kids opening their gifts from me... new MONHEGAN SCHOOL SWEATSHIRTS!

Ooo la la!

Hats and mittens from Donna! She's the best!

Looking wicked sharp.

New game for the whole school from Santa! That Santa... he is too much!

And another gift from Santa... another new puzzle! We are going to be BUSY this winter!

All of us in our new school sweatshirts!

The backs have our "class number" on it.

Margaret's back is my favorite!

Names of the sleeves... they are pretty sweet if I do say so myself!

After presents we moved on to gingerbread houses!

Any project that involve sugar and messes have our name on it!

So grateful Donna stuck around to help with this project! We needed all the hands we could get!

Quinn was not enjoying this morning at all!

Margaret worked hard on her house... it was a piece of art!

Dalton just put as much frosting as possible on his!

Love the little people... Quinn said this was Millie and I on the top of his house :)

Quinn and Donna trying to fix my house. I was having lots of issues.

This makes me feel ill just looking at it.

Dalton's finished product.

Scout kept eyeing the houses.

Quinn being Quinn!

Proud of his masterpiece.

Teacher's house.... it was a joint effort!

Margaret with her perfect little house.

Gingerbread house village!

We ended the day playing our new school game!

I love this picture AND this game!

And a quick game of Rudolph Monopoly to end the morning! A perfect holiday morning of fun and celebration!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!!!!!

Virtual Secret Santa!

The Inter-Island Student Council had the BEST idea EVER... have an Inter-Island Secret Santa to celebrate the holidays across our island schools! YES! I couldn't have been MORE on board for this idea! SOOO FUN! When the Student Council met to talk about the rules and plan for the project they decided that we would do the Secret Santa by islands so each school would get the name of another school and have to put together a package to send with lots of goodies and surprises! The catch was, the packages could not cost the schools more than FIVE dollars! That meant all of the goodies and surprises had to be handmade and crafted... ALL THE MORE FUN, if you ask me!

The teachers pulled the school names so the students would not know who got who. I told my kids who we got and we went straight to work! Monhegan got Islesford School (the largest of the TLC schools) so we had a lot of goodies to make.

We spent some time initially brainstorming what we could make for the kids and teachers on Islesford that would not cost a lot and would be fun for them to receive! Dalton came up with the idea of making and decorating paper airplanes for all 12 students on Islesford! Lots of folding for Dalton!

We also came up with the idea of making pet rocks! We had done some sluething and had found out what every Islesford student's favorite animal was... so it was fun making personalized pet rocks for them all!

We also made a DANCE PARTY CD for the whole school because we KNOW how much Islesford loves a good dance party. Lastly, we make little mini sugar cookies for all of the kids and teachers!

Time to pack up our gift box!

We had an assembly line going to back this monsterous box of goodies!

Individual cups of cookies! YAY!

Paper airplanes on top!

Margaret rolling out paper for wrapping!

Stickers are obviously a must! We sent off our package and then waited anxiously for ours!

A few days later all the island packages had been received and it was time for our VIRTUAL Secret Santa PARTY via the Tanberg!

We pulled names and each school got to open their packages! Matinicus was up first!

Cliff's turn! These kids were PUMPED to open their gift!

And then Islesford's turn. I think we were more excited for Islesford to open their gift then we were to open our own!

The Isle Au Haut boys opening their awesome gift package!

Monhegan's turn to open!!!!!

Our package was from Cliff and we were SO excited!

Even Millie enjoyed our Christmas package!

We then had Mr. President (Daltini) read some holiday riddles for the group!

And of course we ended our party with...

Some holiday dancing!

Jingle bell rock!

Even our friends from the Island Institute joined us for some Christmas fun!

Bust a holiday move!!

After our super fun party it was time to enjoy a homemade cookie from our secret santa, Cliff Island!

So much fun! Happy Holidays TLC! We love you all!