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Polar Express, Pajamas, and a Freebie

Every year we snuggle up and watch the Polar Express  in my first grade classroom. 

You do too? 

That’s because you are AMAZING! 

I am gearing up, shopping, and running copies- including this little freebie.

Tips for the Best Ever Pajama Day4

I am also unpacking my most favorite jammies ever! 

Tips for the Best Ever Pajama Day2

These were sent to me from my friends at Chasing Fireflies. Here is why I love these jammies: 

  1. They are comfy and slimming. 
  2. I ALWAYS end up running all over town in my PJ’s on pajama day. I forget I am wearing PJs, so I am super confused when people look at me strangely. These teacher jammies stop the confusion.
  3. Now that I have “teacher” on the front of my jammies, I don’t get crazy looks from people at Starbucks, the grocery store, or Target. Now I get joyful, twinkling-eyed smiles.
  4. These jammies are conversation starters and help me be a positive impact on my parent community. “So it’s pajama day at school, huh? What grade do you teach?”  Seriously, people are warmer and kinder, and they seem to come out of their shells when they see my teacher jammies!
  5. UPDATE: The quality is amazing. I have had them for 8 years and they still look amazing!
  6. You want these jammies from Chasing Fireflies!

I cannot recommend Chasing Fireflies jammies enough. My son has quite a few pair and the quality and fit cannot be beat! My little guy wears them all the time and gets really excited when he sees a Chasing Fireflies box at the front door!

Here are his Christmas Jammies

Of course we have Easter Jammies too!

Now my hubby wants a pair of jammies as well. Maybe next year I can get a family PJ picture for our Christmas card! 


Until then, I am loving every minute of “train week” in first grade.

In preparation for the movie,  I am reading this book which you can buy on Amazon {here}

We are also reading and writing about trains. This week our perfect paragraph is written inside the train art as a booklet! Too cute!


Ok are you ready to party and talk about some seriously fun stress-free party tips?

Tips for a Stress-Free Party

  1. Let the parents know what's needed! ( I use my Parent Reminder Pack for this) 
  2. Shop with a list ( Paper lists are great, but a phone app like "paperless" is my favorite!
  3. Make the food easy (Crock Pot Cocoa - for the win)
  4. Keep activities easy and mess free (Easy Cookie Decorating is my favorite because it is fun for the kids and becomes a food item for the party!
  5. Add in some themed academics to make the party longer and more meaningful.

Here is my Polar Express Shopping List:

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Make the Food Easy with Crock Pot Cocoa:

Here is a little tip for making cocoa. 

  • DO NOT USE THE PACKETS of DRY MIX. 
  • Instead buy gallons of hot cocoa and warm them in a crock pot! So much easier!!! 
  • Watch the temp since it can get hot fast. 
  • I warm 1 and 1/3 gallons, and I keep 2/3 in the fridge to cool off the cocoa if it gets too hot. 
  • This is so so so much easier than the dry mix!

Tips for the Best Ever Pajama Day3

An Academic Party? Yes, Double Yes!

During our Cocoa Party we take the time to write an opinion statement on what we want on top of our cocoa. Let's capitalize on what is already happening during a cocoa party. This little craft takes a nice 20 minutes and get's them doing a fill in the blank perfect paragraph! That's a total win for a party day!


Even on party days I like to include academics for these reasons:

  1. They are so excited they will do or learn anything just to get to the party part
  2. When we include academics in the "party part" they naturally think the learning is fun.
  3. Anything attached to strong emotion is remembered longer. You know the kids are hyper and super happy on party days. That strong emotion can take the learning deeper in their long-term memories. 

Keep the activities easy:

Another cool party trick is to make the food an activity. For this I like to decorate cookies. To make it easy:
  •  Decorate cookies using a popsicle stick as a knife. They are cheap, easy and you probably already have a box of 2,000 in your cupboard somewhere!
  • You can plop a little frosting on each cookie with the stick and then hand the whole thing to a child
  • OR you can have the cookies all "pre-plopped / prepared" for the kids to grab a cookie as they walk by. You can se how I pre-plopped them in the picture above.


Party Decorations: Not necessary because the walls are already darling and thematic!

The students have already decorated my wall with these darling Santas that help kids practice their contractions! 


Also delighting the parent helpers, who are swarming my classroom, are these darling deer "perfect paragraphs" and art projects. 

So there you have it, a stress-free party!

  1. Let the parents know what's needed! ( I use my Parent Reminder Pack for this) 
  2. Shop with a list ( Paper lists are great, but a phone app like "paperless" is my favorite!
  3. Make the food easy (Crock Pot Cocoa - for the win)
  4. Keep activities easy, low-prep and low-mess (Easy Cookie Decorating is my favorite because it is fun for the kids and becomes a food item for the party!)
  5. Add in some themed academics to make the party longer and more meaningful




You can download the PJ Day Parent Reminder {here} for free!

Parent Reminder Pack Available on TpT {here}




I hope that you enjoy the freebies and that you try gallons of chocolate milk instead of the dry mix for your cocoa this year!!! I am cheering you on!!!