Back To School

I've already shared about my obsession with Pinterest.  I keep seeing great Back To School gift ideas for teachers.  I thought I'd post this blog about the gift we made for Brewer and Maddox's teachers last year.

Brewer had 2 teachers so each of them got a 4-pack of glass bottles.  On the back of each "container" is a pocket with a gift card to Walmart for supplies for the classroom.  The bottles are each filled with things like M&Ms, colored goldfish, erasers, paper clips, pencils, colored rubber bands, etc.


They turned out super cute!


Most of the things I do are "spin offs" of other ideas.  The original idea was for a Father's Day gift.  You can find that information by clicking {here}.  I remade the labels for each bottle and for the front of the container/holder...what's that cardboard thing called??  And ummm....I hope my organization was good...b/c I sure would like to use those labels again this year.  Guess I need to start searching my computer for those.

Christmas in July

Santa Hand Print Canvases with Brewer's Class

Do you ever have plans to blog about something and then other things in life take over?  Well, I think that's what happened here, so let's call this post "Christmas in July".


Volunteering in my kids' classroom is one of my most favorite things to do.  Honestly, I miss my kids when they are at school and being in their classroom helps cure this for me.  Brewer's teachers this past year were great about letting me in the classroom.  There was some discussion between the moms about the Christmas party craft.  All of the ones picked were not keepsakes in my opinion.  So I decided during my volunteer time we would make canvas Santa's out of the kids' hand prints...this would be a keepsake for sure.  


I think they turned out so cute!


Now, I will admit that once I get my mind on something, I will make it happen...no matter how long it takes me.  Sooooooo -- be warned ---- these take awhile.  I purchased the canvases at Michael's and I pre-painted the background.  Brewer only had 12 kids in his class this year, so it wasn't awful.  BUT it did take time.  You have to give the colors more than one coat and there is the drying time in between, etc.  After they were done, I added the ribbon to the canvases. Basically, it took over our kitchen for an entire weekend.  However, I think it was worth it (if I do say so myself)...I mean, LOOK AT THESE --> PRECIOUS!!


Working with the kids was a two step project.  One of my volunteer days, I came in and did my "regular" volunteer time.  I had pre-arranged with the teacher to stay after and call the kids out one at a time to have them place their painted hand print.  She said this would work and so that was step one.

Step One with Kids

Step two with the kids was adding the felt hat.  I had a pattern they traced and then cut out the hat, adding the pom poms, adding the eyes, the nose, etc.  


I hope to do these again -- I love a hand print keepsake.  Then again, I could use their foot and do a snowman.  It will be a new class of kids and parents...Hmmmm.....

Step Two with Kids - Finished canvases

Tuesday Teacher Day

Because I used to teach, I am going to dedicate some Tuesdays to blogging about things of the classroom.  

And man, do I wish blogs were popular when I taught b/c there are so many adorable ideas for the classroom in blogland.

One of the many things that is new to me is Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT).  What a fun idea and website!  A place teachers and go and sell and/or buy teaching materials.  One of my mottos when in the classroom was, "Why re-create the wheel?"  



When you're in the classroom with 22 8-year-olds, the tattle telling can be overwhelming.  I used a system where the kids could write down their tattles and put them into our tattle jar.  I would always read the tattles.  First of all, I wanted their voice to be heard.  But they were also very comical.  Sometimes tattles do need to be dealt with, so I did need to read them.  Check out this Tattle Turtle that you can buy for your classroom.  Cute, cute, cute!

Sending kids home at the end of the day used to stress me out, especially at the beginning of the year.  Now that I'm a mommy, it stresses me out from the parents' point of view also.  I found a blog with adorable stickers to print for your students to wear.  I am thinking of printing these for Brewer's teacher and including them in a little gift that we give her the first day of school.  Click {here} to see them.  How cute!

Generosity

Generosity of people is amazing!  I found this adorable blog (in fact, so adorable that I decided to copy her background pattern from CBOTB).  In this blog, Ms. Male writes about her classroom and things related to teaching.  She is a Mac user like me but knows SOOOOOOOO MMMMUUUUUCCCCHHHHHH MMMMMMOOOOOOORRRRRRREEEEEE SO MUCH MORE than me about the Mac!!!  She has been helpful with downloading fun fonts for the Mac and then she taught us blog readers how to capture an image from the computer screen.  Look at this --->

Came from Ms. Male's blog: http://brittmale.blogspot.com

This is a direct photo of her comments section on her blog.  It worked!!!  She taught me on the Mac if you want a screen shot, you 'command+shift+4'.  AMAZING! EASY!  LOVE!  I told Ms. Male she should post a Mac tip of the day on her blog!!!  I'm hooked!  Thank you, Ms. Male, for your generosity!  I can't wait to see what you teach us (well, me) next!  If you want to check out her blog, click {here}. 

How To Make Rainbow Jello

1. Select as many colors as you want for your rainbow.  I picked 4 colors.  Purchase those colors of the boxed Jello.

2. Make the color that you want on the bottom of your layering.  Put approximately 1/4 cup of that Jello in the bottom of each individual container and refrigerate for about 1 hour (make sure Jello is set before moving onto the next color).

3. In the photo shown above, you can see my first color was purple.  Next, I made green Jello and added a 1/4 cup of green Jello to each of the individual containers.  Refrigerate for about an hour or until the green Jello is set.

4. Make the next color of Jello.  I made yellow.  Put 1/4 cup of Jello in each container and refrigerate until set.

Look at how it is coming along!

5. Add your next color (mine was red) as in previous steps.

6. VIOLA!  Once the last color has set...you have your rainbow Jello!!

7. Add whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles (as shown in first photo) before serving to finish off your rainbow treat!

Rainbow-themed Playgroup

I love our Mondays in the summer.  Many of them mean it is PLAYGROUP MONDAY.  A group of my friends that I've known since before we had kids have gotten together in the summers for playgroups with our kids for years.  Usually each family hosts one time in the summer...and today was our Monday.

We had a rainbow theme.


We read the Bible story of Noah and God's promise.  God sent a rainbow as a reminder that He always keeps His promises.  We had rainbow sheets.  Some of the kids decided to color their rainbow and other kids decorated it with Fruit Loops.

The kids played with lots and lots of toys.  After all, it is a playgroup.  And the mommies got to talk and talk and talk!!  (YEAH for playgroup Mondays!)


We had lunch with rainbow bread.  You can order this from Publix.  Isn't it neat??!!  The kids seemed to think it was. 

Once school starts, this will be a great thing to order for school lunches.  Your kids will be the talk of the cafeteria!

We had a rainbow drink station with darling paper straws to help in our rainbow theme.

These came from HEY YO YO.

We had a rainbow fruit tray, rainbow goldfish, and rainbow Fruit By The Foot. 

For dessert, we had rainbow Jello.  If you want a tutorial on how to make rainbow Jello, click {here}.

It was a fun playgroup.  

And yes, Brewer and Avery were here but didn't make it into any of the photos.  They were quick with eating and getting back to playing!

Pinterest

I'm addicted to Pinterest.com.  I love the ideas...now just to find the time for the ideas.

If you'd like to follow me, click {here}.  If you need help with the ins and outs of Pinterest go {here} for a tutorial.  


Are you on Pinterest? I'd love to follow you!  Let me know.