First Day of School - 2016

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Last Day of School 2016

It's the last day of school!  That means it's time for the first and last day of school photo comparisons!

It's always fun to see how much they've grown throughout the school year!

Candy Flower Bouquet

Another quick and easy Teacher Appreciation gift or Mother's Day gift.  I made something like this last year for my Mom.  She loves the Dove chocolate candies, so I used those last year.  My daughter's teacher like Reese's peanut butter cups, so I bought a bag of those to make her a Mason Jar Candy Flower Bouquet for Teacher Apprication Week.

I used a mason jar, a bag of candies, double sided foam mounting squares, and some silk flowers.  Place a mounting square in the middle of each flower and attach a piece of chocolate.  Put your flowers in the mason jar and fill around the stems with the remaining chocolate.

I cut a scrap of paper to fit in the middle of the mason jar lid.  I added a little note, "How Sweet it is to be Taught by you!"  I taped the metal part of the lid to the outer rim to keep it in place.  Before taping the lid in place, I slid a piece of ribbon through the lid in order to tie it in place around the mouth of the jar.

Maybe Mom or your child's teacher would prefer real flowers!  I sent in this African Violet for another day of Teacher Appreciation Week.  I used a strip of paper with a note that read, "Teachers plant seeds of knowledge that grow forever."  I taped the two ends of that note to the end of skewers and stuck the other ends into the soil of the plant.  Super easy and a fun little banner to top your plant.  Need another idea?  Check out my Framed Word Art for an easy craft.  

Whatever you decide to do, make sure to tell the teachers in your life and Mom, Thank you!

Teacher Appreciation Word Art Gift

 Teacher appreciation week is here!  Hopefully you've made plans to show your child's teacher just how much they mean to you!  If not, don't worry.  I have an idea for you.

I'm class mom for my daughter's fourth grade class.  I didn't start the year that way, but I guess no one volunteered and they saw me in the school lobby one day and asked me to take over the position.  I wasn't sure how much time it would take up, but it hasn't been that bad.  I've decorated the class door for Red Ribbon Week.  I've organized the teacher's birthday gift and lunch.  Mostly it's been e-mails out to the few parents that would actually share their e-mail address with me.  The toughest part is that I have very few parents that are involved or want to participate.  The school has a basket night where families try to win baskets that the classes put together by buying tickets and using them as chances to win different baskets.  I asked for donations from our class, but no one responded.  I ended up making two different baskets for our class on my own.  I got donations from our local MLS team, Orlando City and made that into a basket.  Then I shopped after Halloween sales to make a costume/dress up basket as well.  I don't like the ball to be dropped so I just take it over.  It' gets to be a lot of work, since I tend to make it more than it needs to be.  But I'd rather do that than have nothing done at all.

So coming into Teacher Appreciation Week, I wasn't too hopeful to get donations.  I was pleasantly surprised to have a few generous donations that will definitely help me to show our teacher some love.  I had already planned to do a little gift each day, so this will help me to do that.

Today I sent in a framed Word Art gift that had all the kids names made into the shape of a flower.  I used Tagxedo to make my flower shape.  There are all different kinds of shapes to choose from and you can change what words you want to use to appear in your word art.  It really is so cool.  Plus it can be used for so many different projects!  I've used it for party invites as well!

After choosing my design and getting it laid out the way I wanted, I printed my flower onto cardstock.  Then I found a frame I liked to put it in.  Now I just wanted to add my message to the mat of the frame.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to print out Thanks for helping me Grow in vinyl.  You can also use sticker letters from the craft store as well.

On the bottom of the mat I added the school name and year.  You could also add the teacher's name or whatever message you choose.

I'm really happy with how it came out.  Perfect for Day 1 of surprises for Teacher Appreciation Week!

Easter Snacks

Easter is almost here.  My kids are on Spring Break!  It's nice to have this time off, but it's also a bit tough to get anything done with them here.  Since there's no school this week, that meant we had school Easter parties last week.  I was in charge of organizing the party for my daughter's preschool class.  It didn't have to be anything too big.  Just a snack, craft, and a book to read.

What little bunny doesn't love carrots?  Especially when they're filled with cheese crackers!  I used Stauffer's Whales which we think are so much better than Goldfish, but any kind will do.  I've found Whales at Dollar Tree, Target and Big Lots.  Annie's bunnies would be perfect but they are a bit pricey when I had to make these for a whole class.

No snack would be complete without a little juice.  I cut yellow scrapbook paper to fit around mini juice boxes.  I taped it in back and they stayed in place just fine.  On the front I used sharpies to color in eyes and a chicky beak.  So cute!

The kids all loved how cute the food looked.  These would be the perfect table decoration for the kids table at your Easter feast.  Plus the kids would have something to snack on while waiting for dinner.

The kids also decorated their own Easter eggs at our party.  I found the plain white plastic eggs at Walmart and then let them be creative with markers and stickers.  See how I made my Doodle Eggs here!  It's fun to see how the kids all chose to decorate in different ways.  Still need to decorate eggs?  I love these doodle eggs since it elimates the big mess that comes with dying eggs.  Have fun and be creative!  Happy Easter!

Red Ribbon Week Lego Door Decorations

I was recently cornered approached to be the room parent for my daughter's fourth grade class. Of course I couldn't say no. No other parent had volunteered and if I didn't do it, a school employee would have to do it. I really don't mind doing it.  Just seems like it all worked out to have a ton of things to be done on the same day.  I have a wedding that my whole family is in for my sister-in-law, our teacher's birthday, and donations for a holiday basket for the school fundraiser that is all supposed to be done on the same day!  I know I'll get it all done, but I always seem to overfill my plate.

Next week is Red Ribbon week at our school.  This is a drug awareness event that they use to incorporate fun activities into a anti-drug theme.  The room parent is supposed to decorate the class door to promote a drug prevention theme.  I've never decorated a door before, but I think it turned out great.  I started browsing Pinterest and told my daughter about some ideas I saw, but she told me some of those ideas were already in the school halls.  Soooo, back to the drawing board to make up an original idea.  That's when I came up with the Legos and the quote Building a Drug Free Future.

To create my Lego letters, I downloaded the Legothick font Here.  I typed my quote out on Word and printed it onto cardstock.  The letters were pretty easy to cut out since they are more bubbly in shape.  I found my Lego man Here.  I printed him on yellow paper.  I also made an extra copy and cut the pieces out to use as patterns to make my guys shirts and pants.  I traced my patterns onto colored cardstock, cut them out and glued them on my Lego guys.  I wanted the class to all be part of our door as well, so I used my Legothick font to print out a text box on Word with each of their names in one.  I printed them out on cardstock as well.

To make my Lego blocks, I cut my cardstock sheets in half to make two blocks.  If you have a 2 inch hole punch, that would probably be great to use to cut your block circles.  I'm too cheap to buy one, so I traced and cut out my circles by hand.  It really didn't take that long, but we've already decided that I'm a glutton for punishment.  I used foam dot stickers to adhere the circles to the blocks.  This helps them stand out a little and look a bit more like real Legos.

I'm not sure if I was supposed to put the door decorations all together in the middle of the hall, but all the kids (and teachers) that passed seemed to like it!  First duty as room parent done!  Hopefully I will find out more about what I'm supposed to be doing tomorrow at my first meeting!

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