Teacher Appreciation Gift Day 5

Well...I kinda had to scramble to get this project together. Haha - sometimes our best plans just don't work out.

I have had this idea for a week or so that I wanted my kids to make up "fortunes" for their teachers and then I was going to MAKE fortune cookies and put the fortunes inside the cookies, put them in a chinese take out bag and include a note that said, "I'm FORTUNATE to have you as a teacher." Well, we have been so busy with end of the year activities that I didn't get my kids to sit down and write fortunes until last night. And so at 10:00pm, I start making fortune cookies. They are NOT super hard to make, however they did take some time and practice on learning how to cook them just right and fold them. I went through the first batch and only had about 6 cookies that were decent. It's now 11:30pm and I have lost all motivation for this project....maybe next year. Although, I absolutely LOVED one of Chance's fortunes for his teacher. He said, "You will be haunted by cookies." So cute - wish I could have made this one work.

And so early this morning, I had my kids sit down with at the computer (thank goodness for computers!) and we came up with these. Luckily, I had the kid's class lists on hand. I thought about having them come up with words that described their teacher - but I was VERY short on time so we just used the names of all the kids in the class.

We used this website to create this project: Tagxedo

Calista's teacher gift (her teacher served a mission to Mongolia and has taught the kids alot about Mongolia. She loves the people of Mongolia so very much and it is very important to her so we made her gift in the shape of Mongolia.)
Hailey's teacher gift - the website has some premade shapes and Hailey picked a heartChance's teacher gift - Chance's teacher LOVES music and so we used a music note. (to come)

Teacher Appreciation Day 4

Today we are gonna sweeten up the teacher with some candy. I found out the teacher's favorite candy and we made these candy sundaes. They are so easy - the kids helped make most of them.

You will need a sundae glass, a styrofoam ball to fit on the glass, packaging tape (heavy duty), and lots and lots of candy!! We started by placing some candy into the sundae glass and then we used the packaging tape to tape the styrofoam ball onto the glass. I placed the "straw" into the ball so I knew where it would be and could work around it. Then we just started at the bottom and worked our way around and up the ball. We used the packaging tape to adhere the candy. I tried using a stapler because I thought it would be easier to just pull off one candy at a time but that didn't work so well. I might if you have the green ball but I was using the white styrofoam ball. Tape you cherry cordial on top and you are ready to go!

The teachers absolutely loved these and the kids had a great time making them.


Estimated cost:
Sundae dish $1 (gotta love the dollar store)
styrofoam ball $1 (again the dollar store)
candy $7 (depends on if you use one kind or several)
Total Cost is about $10

Teacher Appreciation Day 3

I really wanted to do some projects that my kids could help with. I wanted them to draw a picture or write something on a glass plate using etching cream - HOWEVER - my oldest daughter asked if we could use an image from the computer and then all THREE kids wanted to. And so that's what we did - I let them design the plate, help apply the vinyl to the plate, and apply the etching cream.

I used my silhouette to cut out the images...be sure to reverse the image so you can apply it to the bottom of the plate.

Calista's plate (her teacher loves to golf)
Hailey's teacher loves baseball - it is also her classroom theme
Chance's teacher uses knights, princesses, dragons, etc as her classroom theme. Chance wanted a dragon and simply wanted a plate that said "Thank You"..haha..here is his plate.
And a cost breakdown for this project per plate:
Glass Plate -$1.50
Etching Cream -FREE (I had this at home however a bottle would cost approx $6.00
Vinyl -FREE (I also had this at home)
Total Cost -$1.50

Teacher Appreciation Gift Day 2

I have modge podged clipboards in years past but I saw a blog where someone posted that they had found these at Target and decided that it was worth it to buy them ready made and then add the vinyl to personalize them.

Way way easy project!!

Personalized Clipboard with matching pencil holder and pencilsAnd here is the cost breakdown for this project:
Clipboard -$1.00
Pencil Holder -$1.00
Pencils -$1.00
Vinyl -FREE (I already had this at home)
Total Cost -$3.00

Another Teacher Appreciation Door

Well...after setting up Friday afternoon...I was pretty sure that I would need to do at least ONE more door. I ended up doing one more door and helping with another.

So, here is the door that I did for the nurse:

And here is the door that I helped with. It is for our school facilitator.

Teacher Appreciation Gift Day 1

I know I am not a room mom this year - but I usually am and so I out of habit I sent a gift for the teacher each day of the week. I LOVE my kids teachers and this is a great week to show how much we appreciate them. Like many others, I find many of my ideas online....here's what we did this year:

Post It Note Holder with personalized pens


These are pretty simple and easy to make although it took me a while to find the 5x7 acrylic horizontal frame. I made the design on the computer but I've seen people make them with scrapbook paper and they are darling as well.

Sometimes I see an idea and decide to make it and then find that it cost more than I thought so this year I'm gonna post how much it project cost so I can decide if it is something that I want to do again.

Post It Note Project
5x7 acrylic frame (Hobby Lobby) - 2.47
Scrapbook Design - FREE
Post It Note - $1.00
Pens (Walmart or Dollar Tree) -$1.00
Paper for inside pen - FREE
Total Cost Approx $3.47

Teacher Appreciation Doors

Whew!! So, lucky me got roped into not 1....not 2....not 3...but FOUR teacher appreciation doors!! We have 18 "extra" doors and we TRIED and TRIED to get volunteers to help and we did get a few but we still ended up with 9 doors between me and the PTA President...so discouraging that out of 800 students we can't get 9 moms to help with one activity...sigh....BIG SIGH.

Anyway, we split the rooms up and here's what I did..remember I had FOUR doors to do so they are nothing spectacular. (OH...and I should mention that we are currently short 2 doors..so I may be doing 2 more this weekend..sigh..BIG SIGH...BIG BIG SIGH!)

This is a door that I did for the ART teacher. It is a poster size "box" of crayons..

This is for the school psychologist..I don't even know his name.haha.

This is the door for the principal..got the idea from another website..and got the idea for the popcorn from a card found HERE...the popcorn is "puffy"..see next picture

So...you can't really tell in the picture but I made puffy paint by mixing shaving cream and Elmer's glue. I dabbed it onto the paper using a sponge brush and let it dry. Then I inked the edges with yellow and brown paint and lightly painted some of the puffy paint. If you click on the picture and enlarge it..you can see it better.

And finally...here is the door that I did for the lunch ladies...oh..but it is not on the door. We started encouraging the use of the walls next to the doors because some room moms have gone so overboard on the door that it won't open or close properly. HAHA! And some doors have been damaged so I put this one on the wall..It's the thought that counts, right!?!

Birthday and Mother's Day gifts

Needed a fun idea for a birthday and for mother's day from a little boy. Here is what I came up with using my silhouette to cut the vinyl with. Very simple once I got the idea.