I decided to make cookies for the pre-K classes (daughter and nephew - one in each class) to decorate during their Halloween parties. These kids are all 4 and 5. I THOUGHT it was a good idea, now I'm not so sure! My daughter makes her own sndwiches, and decorates her own cookies and cupcakes. How many of these kids will understand?
So, I'm not sure exactly the setup for this. Should I ice them prior, or let them spread bc on them? And for decorations, I wanted to bring tiny bags of black and green icing. Perhaps candies instead? I really don't know what level most of these kids are! I do plan on bringing a cheap plastic tablecloth for easy cleanup.
All suggestions welcome! There will be 30 kids total - 15 each day, with a minimum of 3 adults helping.
Oh trust me...the kids will know what to do.Just bring the cookies un -iced,all the colors in the bags and maybe some colored sugars and sprinkles and let them have at it!!! I did this for my son's 4th birthday and the kids loved it!!
I did this before in my son's pre-k class at Christmas. I made mini-snowmen from the wilton pan and iced them before taking them in. I provided all the decorative stuff (for eyes, nose, mouth and arms,ect). It turned out very well.....the kids had a blast and I think pre-icing helped! 
But I had snowmen---cookies are easier to ice!
I would bring little candies and probably allow them to spread their own icing. It will be a sticky mess, but that's half of the fun. It might be easier to have sparkles and such in shakers. The kids will all be at different levelsin what they are capable of, but I know that they will all enjoy it very much.
Sounds like a great idea. Good luck!
Have you asked the teachers what they think?
If they don't really want a mess you could ice in royal and bring edible markers, kids that age would definatly be able to do that.
If they don't mind the inevitable mess bring them in uniced, the kids would love doing it no matter how the cookies really turned out. Kids love to make messes. 
There are so many ways to do it I'm sure you'll find a way to make it fun for everyone.
I just did this with my DD's grade 1 class last Friday! They are trying to entice Robert Muncsh to come to the school. I made 6 colours of Antonia's icing and put them in squeeze bottles (less messy), brought in sugars, candies, etc. My suggestions for you - if possible bring icing in squeeze bottle(s), bring candies instead of sugars because go completely overboard with the sugars and most of it falls off so it's a HUGE waste. If you do decide on sugars, bring in some cookies sheets for them to sprinkle the cookies on that ways it's not all over the table/floor.
No matter what you decide and what the cookies end up looking like, they will love them because they made them! Just remember to have fun with it - I did 18 kids by myself and we worked in groups of 4ish around one table in the classroom. I was pooped by the end of it but the kids had a great time. Also, bring in some ziploc bags incase some kids want to bring their cookie home.
Good luck!
Great idea. Take into account how much time you have for this. You don't want to be rushing. Some kids will finish before the others. I agree; shakers with sparkles would be great. I did this with the 3&4 yr. olds @ church. I iced them & immediately gave it to the kids to decorate. The ones you will be with could possibly ice their own with time allowing. Good luck. Take a deep breath before going in. 
Oh Yeah, Have a blast. The kids will remember this.
Thank you for all the advice!
I don't have squeeze bottles, or plan on going to the city this week where I can get them. Would disposable dec bags work? And bowls of orange frosting? I have the cheap shakers of jimmies for them to use, and plan on bringing green and black and yellow icing to dec with. Plastic knives to spread frosting work, or would I need plastic spoons? EVERYTHING will be disposable, as we never know how many kids will be licking the supplies. The teachers are great, and we will have plenty of time to decorate!
I was wondering how many cookies per child to bring? Of course one for them, but a couple to take home to show as well? I am (permanently) in charge of sweet treats for parties for both classes of PreK, and hope to make it fun and successful so we can do it again for the other two parties. Plus, me not dec-ing saves lots of time!!!
So I would let them ice them & bring them candies to use. I know you are used to great things and are super picky if you are anything like me. But let them go wild & do whatever it will be fun who cares if they do not look preety have fun & good luck
Zmama wrote:
Would disposable dec bags work? And bowls of orange frosting? I have the cheap shakers of jimmies for them to use, and plan on bringing green and black and yellow icing to dec with. Plastic knives to spread frosting work, or would I need plastic spoons? EVERYTHING will be disposable, as we never know how many kids will be licking the supplies. The teachers are great, and we will have plenty of time to decorate!
I think that all sounds great! I'm pretty sure I used the disposable decorating bags and they worked great, and plastic knives should work fine. Good luck and have fun!
With kids this age, they don't necessarily care what the finished product looks like, its the process of doing it that is the fun part for them! I would let them do everything, just give them the guidelines before they have the cookies (keep your cookies on the table, licking the icing bag is gross, etc.) The teachers will help you I'm sure. As for how many cookies? They will enjoy 1, but if you have time to make more, they would love to have one to take home in a bag. good luck!
I just went to a halloween party on Sat and they had the cookies plain. The kids spread on buter cream and them used sprinkles. They had so much fun!!! My daughter is two and she knew exactly what to. Don't worry the kids will have a blast!!! Bring wipes and clean up should be easy enough. Good luck.
Everyone else pretty much covered what I would have said, but MOST IMPORTANT for me was to have each kid have their own supplies!!!!!
My very first time I did this 26 yrs. ago, I have never seen so many wiping of noses and 'buggers' that went back into things! From then on I have always given each child their own supplies even though it was a lot of work for me! Even sandwich baggies work great for their own supplies or icing (clip a small end and it's a decorators bag). Otherwise, I used to use small plastic ramekins with lids for frosting. You can use popcicle sticks for spreading frosting. Also....make sure if you have candies, etc. that you pack EXTRA since most will be eaten before they are put ON the cookies!!
Make sure you take pictures and these will be priceless!!!
I love the sanwich baggie idea for individual frosting bags! That is a fantastic way to stop the spread of germs!
I think if you're going to go with the decorator bags you might as well go with a ziploc freezer bag because in my experience the kids don't understand how to hold it and NOT make it squeeze out of the top and then it's a huge mess......I would also stay away from black icing.....it's hard to make and it stains EVERYTHING.go for orange, purple, white, yellow those types of halloweenish colors. If you have a Sam's club within close proximity they sell squeeze bottles 12 for like 2.50 I use them all the time for cookies and they work great! Also instead of plastic knives (which can still cut if you're not careful) just get a bunch of popsicle sticks they spread icing just as well. Also you might want to go ahead and divy up the candies and sugars for individual servings for each kid ahead of time and stick them in individual baggies.......then you can just hand a cookie to each kid a bag of icing and a bag of goodies to decorate with (you could also include the popsicle stick in the bag with the candies) then that's much less time spent setting the whole thing up. Definitely take photos.......might be nice to even take at least one photo of each kid and give it to your neice/nephew to bring to each child afterwards so they can share their experience with their family.......I'm sure by then everyone they know will have heard about how so and so has the coolest aunt in the world and she let them decorate their own cookies LOL
As the last post said, 'Coolest Aunt', she's right! My kids from 26 years ago and to the present STILL talk about the stuff I brought in for the classes!! Of course I was always a head Room Mom so I was always there, but I had kids that wanted to switch classes for the parties to come to my goodies! I'm very proud I took the extra time to do these things as now I realize how important it was to these kids. So my thought is, when it comes to kids, go for broke! It'll be worth it in the end!!
Oh, and even though I mentioned taking photos, I agree with the last post about sending along a copy for the kids since most parents don't get the joy of that experience!!
I did this for a group of 5-6 yr olds a couple years back. I took the cookies and prefilled disposable piping bags of frosting. I made two bags of each color frosting - one with a round tip and one with a star tip. I also brought a variety of sprinkles. Make sure you use a twisty tie on the icing bags so they don't squeeze the frosting out of the wrong end! 
I took in coffee filters for them to sit their cookies in to take home knowing the icing would probably stick to the baggie if I used them.
They had fun and so did I!
Debbie
Great ideas! Baggies are so much easier, and we have a TON of popsicle sticks of course. I can't wait! My daughter helps make the cookies, and she will be SURE to tell her friends she did! Her cousin only eats them, but I make him put his own frosting on.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%