B2S Treat Idea

Wellllll...maybe not a treat so much as a little gift for the kids...

Like everyone else, I have a tub of broken, dull crayons that seem

to grow each year. (you know; the ones that we pick up off the floor,

rescue from noses, stop from being eaten all year long). What to do with them??

This year, I've decided to try making these:

using the IKEA silicone ice cube heart trays I bought.

I have Googled and Pinterested (sp?) and, according to some very

adventurous bloggers, if I keep the heat at 220 or less, the trays WON'T

melt but the crayons will...worth a try!

So, here is my plan. I am going to make a multi-coloured crayon

for each child with a little colouring book. My "thing" is I {heart} t-shirts, of which I

have collected quite an assortment, so I made the cover of the

book in this theme. I plan on putting the book, crayon and magnet with

my information in a little bag for b2s in September.

Honestly, I've been doing little bags for the kids each year since 

I started teaching grade 2/3, but didn't think the kids really noticed.

Then, this June I had a parent approach me to tell me that her daughter 

(who I taught 4 years ago) still has the little gift I gave her at the

beginning of her grade 2! Wowza! So, I'll continue the tradition...

[this is the little colouring booklet I made] 

I should add that every year I do something different so that the kids

who I have taught already have something special and

the kids who have a sibling that I taught

have something brand new.

Do you have a B2S tradition that you do for your class? I'd love to 

hear about it if you do!

ps I will let you know how the crayons turn out!

 

Duct Tape Wallets/Coin Purses

This year I taught grade 2 with one (yup ONE) grade 3. In May, I decided to start "Class Store" in order to cover our unit on money and to keep the kids engaged. In grade 2, kids need to know money amounts to 1 dollar, as well as the coins and their value. I have never done CS before, and was a little nervous...however, it was AWESOMESAUCE!

Before we could start Kelly-Mart (lol) we had to have something to store the coins in that the kids earned. Enter...duct tape coin purses (which I called wallets). My plan was to have each student make their own, but this turned into ME making them as they were a little trickier than I anticipated.

My PINspiration came from SOPHIE'S WORLD. She has outlined every step in pictures and easy to follow instructions. It is a fantabulous tutorial. Click the picture to go to the link:

I made a template of the wallet, as instructed, and taped the duct tape to both sides. I was going to use hot glue to stick the folded sides together, but decided to use half strips of duct tape instead.

I used velcro dots (from Dollarama) to close the top part of the coin purse. Super easy.

At first, I was going to have the kids make their own...this was not wise. The tape was waaaaay too sticky and frustration ensued. Instead, kids chose their own colours from an assortment of tape that I bought from Amazon. I made 20 wallets and used a fraction of my 8 rolls of duct tape. Honestly, 3 rolls would have been lots.

The kids LOVED these coin purses. They loved Class Store, too, (more on that tomorrow) but the purses were a huge hit. At the end of the year, they took them home. One boy even brought his dad into our classroom at the end of the day to show him his wallet...super cute.

I will make these again. They didn't take me too long (a couple of hours, TOPS). Older kids could make them on their own no problemo. Maybe next year we'll make the wallets with our Social Skills/Reading/Math Buddies in grade 5...

I 100% recommend and endorse making these if you have Class Store or a craft that you need to complete with your class. Here is a (blurry and terrible) picture of two of my students holding their wallets during Kelly-Mart shopping time.

I "starred" the coin purses cuz I am cool like that!

Monday Made It and Giveaway Announcement

This is my first Monday Made It and I am linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics. I have things to share with everyone...
My first project is a Thumbprint Flower Pot.
The first time I made this was for a wonderful volunteer that I had. She ran the Roots of Empathy program for my class and was ah-mazing. I had so many compliments on it that I made a second one today with my own kids and nephews as a gift for my mom for her 60th birthday. It's a pretty easy craft, although (not gonna lie) it can be time consuming to make all the little bugs.
Materials:

• terra cotta plant pot with tray
• blue and green acrylic paint
• stamp ink
• fine tipped Sharpie
• varnish
• flowers of your choice

Steps:

1. Paint entire terra cotta pot and tray blue. Paint about halfway down the inside, too. Let dry and then paint again.

2. Using green paint, paint pointer fingers green and have kids lay their finger along bottom of pot with tip of finger pointing toward the top of the pot. This will be the grass so you will need to have many fingers along the bottom edge of the pot (it also looks great if they are different heights).

3. One at a time, kids stamp their thumb into their choice of colour and press gently onto blue "sky" part of pot. Staggering the thumbprints looks the best-don't forget to have prints on each "side" of the pot.

4. Add the kids names and bug details to the thumbprints with a fine-tip Sharpie marker. Use Ed Emberley's books as a guide {he's incredible}.

             

                                            

5. Stand back and appreciate all of your hardwork and skill! Yahoo! Now shellac the pot. Let dry and shellac again!

It's done! I planted flowers in the ones I gave my volunteer and my mom but you can use this pot to hold pens, pencils, rulers, signs, etc...so fun!

I am thinking ahead to Christmas presents to make with the kids and am thinking small terra white pot, brown thumbprints, red mini pompoms would = extremely cute reindeer pencil holder or fill with candies? So cute and so many possibilities!

My second Monday Made It is a little set of level book bin letters, book labels and a reading log. I am trying to revamp my library and have made these little signs using the *free*polka dot border set from GRAPHICS FROM THE POND. The font is Elephants in Cherry Trees from Kevin and Amanda. 

I colour coordinated my book labels by using red borders for fiction, blue borders for nonfiction, and yellow borders for magazines. The reading log is what I have been using for the last two years with my grade 2/3s and it works really well for the little guys. I am hoping that by coordinating the colours they'll have an easier time determining genre when colouring in the code. 

{click to get Level Labels A-S}

{click to get Book Bin Labels}

{click to get Reading Log}

Whew! I hope that someone gets some inspiration from my Monday Made Its...what a great way to share and show. Thanks, Tara, for a wonderful idea.

ps Here are a couple of really awful pictures (eeeekkk) of our other Monday Made It project...painting the kitchen. It's taken 3 years to agree on a colour, but Pyramid Gold now graces the walls of our kitchen. Honestly, this was NOT a colour that we had contemplated or talked about or researched on Behr's site (yup I am a regular on that site). I walked in the paint store, saw the sample and decided THIS is the colour we need. Hubster loves it, I love it, all is good.

*****I HAVE {ALMOST} REACHED 200 FOLLOWERS...PLEASE CHECK BACK TOMORROW FOR GIVEAWAY DETAILS YOU WON'T WANT TO MISS!!**********

Dad's Day

We go to school until the end of June. Since Friday is Father's Day, we've been frantically working on a Dad's Day craft. On top of finishing everything up. And planning for all the year-end festivities. Good gracious.
Here is the craft in pictures. I am not going to lie-it was a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be. Tying 24 little ties out of ribbon was not fun. However, the end result is worth it. I've been assured by my hubby that the dad's will love these pencil/ pen/scissor/trinket holders.
The kids also made a card to go along with their gift. The card is full of details about each child's dad. His height, weight, eye colour, favourite food, sport, activity...VERY sweet and absolutely priceless. One dad weighs 10 pounds and is 8 feet tall. Another has red eyes and was born in 1824. Love them!

Step 1: Assemble materials. 

I used 1 soup can, 1 strip of mack tack, ribbon, three buttons and a head cut out for each child.

Here is a close up of the bristol board head. I made a template and then cut out each head shape for the kids. We have learned how to draw faces this year, so I reviewed the steps and had them create a portrait of their dad.

After dad's face is drawn and coloured, I attached it to the metal can under the mack tack. The kids then chose 3 buttons to hot glue (I did the gluing) to the front of dad's shirt. Tricky-I had to learn how to tie a tie. Not fun. However, I grew up around horses and it turns out that tying a tie is a lot like tying a girth on a saddle. Who knew? 

Another cute example. Check out dad's glasses and goatee.

Lovin' the spiky hair.

A close-up of the paisley tie. Cuz it's so gosh darn ADORABLE.

The kids are so excited to give these to their dad's on Father's Day. It was really inexpensive (ribbon, mack tack, glue came from Dollarama) and relatively easy. The ties were the hardest part-hubby helped me with the last ten because I had to bring them home to finish. All said, they were definitely worth it!

What are you doing for Father's Day?

Seriously CUTE & Easy Fireflies for Classroom...

During my Independent Reading block, my kids love to grab a cushion, their book, and turn off the lights. At first, this drove me bananas-I was worried about them reading in the dark. We reached a compromise; half of the lights stay on and the other half off with soft, ambient lighting. Today, I stumbled upon (lol) an awesome why-didn't-I-think-of-that idea. Using plastic Easter eggs, make Firefly lights! I am thinking that these could also be made into bumblebees, butterflies, turtles...the possibilities are endless.
Here are the pictures and the link if you'd like to check them out. I will be making these and posting pictures of what they turned out like (very soon).

Aren't they sweet? Am thinking that maybe the kids can even make them on their own...maybe...possibly...

Fun Craft for Kids using Clipart and Picnik

I have been playing in Picnik using free clipart. I uploaded a free image of a bare tree from clicker into Picnik. I then added the frame, words and resized the whole image. Lastly, I saved it as a jpg on my desktop.
I was at our dollar store and purchased simple, black 8 x 11 diploma frames for $1 each. I am going to print out this image in my MS picture program and have the kids put their handprints on the blank tree using three different colours of paint. I think it will make a lovely keepsake for parents etc. I am excited to try this out!
If you haven't yet, I recommend getting a membership to Picnik. It's free for the basic (which is the one I've tried) pkg and affordable for the premium.

This project isn't my idea. I added the Picnik element but the first time I saw this idea was on a blog (I cannot find the blog/post but will keep looking)-what an absolutely wonderful idea for Christmas, Father's Day etc.