Christmas Parent Gifts

I just wanted to pop on and share with you what I made my students' parents this year for Christmas. I wanted to do something different than I have done in the past since I have a student in my class this year (2nd grade) that I taught in kindergarten. Since I didn't have any "great" ideas popping into my head, I went searching on Pinterest (I don't know what I did before we had it!). I found a great idea where a mom had made silhouettes of her children and framed them for gifts. Well I decided to make them of my students and make ornaments out of them!

First I took each students side profile picture. This works well if you take their picture with a window as the background where there is a lot of light and you get a well defined image outline. Then I printed them off on my black and white printer in my classroom. Since I wanted them smaller and more ornament sized, I printed them 3 1/2 x 5" size. BTW: The smaller the size, the more tedious cutting them out is! Then I laid each child's picture on a piece of black construction paper and with my fine point scissors, I cut out their silhouettes. Then I glued them to the cardstock oval I made dated with the year and laminated them. Then I tied a red ribbon through the top for them to hang on the Christmas tree.

Here is what the finished products look like:

I think they are just precious and I am sure the parents will love hanging them on their tree year after year. I know that today is the last day of school for most places before Christmas, but I think they would make great Valentine's or Mother's Day! They would be great to do in a 5x7" frame!

Monthly Made-Its - October Edition

October is here, so here are my October Monday Made-It's. I didn't get as much completed this past month since I have been so busy with school, but here are the things I did get finished.

Classroom Made-It #1: Tidy Trash Tubs
I printed these labels from Rowdy in Room 300 and laminated them before hot gluing them to these plastic buckets. I found the buckets for $1.00 each at our local Family Dollar in the seasonal section. I made one for each table in my classroom for a total of 5. They are so functional and my kinders know to get them for their tables when we are doing a cutting activity. It keeps the mess around our room down to a minimum and it helps my kinders practice recycling the scrap paper since we have a new recycling program in our school.

Blogger wouldn't load the rotated version!

Classroom Made-It #2: Paint Chip Word Wall Words
I don't remember which blog I saw these on, but I know I saw them on Pinterest too. I got my paint chips from Walmart and got a few of each color to start with. Then I typed up our word wall words and cut them out in the shape of the word. I found the words showed up best on bright/dark colors. This is the word we are doing this week in Journeys. I didn't take a picture of the others...sorry!

Home Made-It #1: Fall Subway Art
This may not count as a Made-It since I just printed a free subway art sign from Pinterest and framed it, but I LOVE it. It looks great sitting on my mantel with my fall decor.

Blogger would not let me rotate this picture! Sorry!

I am linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for her October Monthly Made It linky party. Now I am off to see what other great things other bloggers have made this month.

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Please don't forget to enter my 1 year blogiversary! It ends tomorrow night at midnight!

September Monday Made It

I am a little late in posting this because since school began I haven't kept up with my crafting as much as I did over the summer, but here are my Made-It's for September.

Classroom Made-It #1
I sorted my leveled books into baskets and added cute labels and ribbons to help my students find the correct book basket.

 

Classroom Made-It #2
I made this adorable Post-It note frame that I saw on Pinterest to sit beside my classroom phone. This helps me when the office calls with important information for me to write down.

Monday Made It - Magnetic Memo Board

Well I am a little late posting this one due to the stresses of the 4th day of school, but I made myself a magnetic note board to go behind my desk a week or so ago. I think it turned out very cute and it was an inexpensive little project.

 

I used a $0.97 cookie sheet from Walmart, two sheets of scrapbook paper and some ribbon. I covered the pan with Modge Podge to make the paper stick and used E6000 glue to put the ribbon the back and the ribbon around the scrapbook paper. It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself!

I am linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for the Monday Made It linky party.

 

Hope everyone has had a great Monday!

Monday Made It - Quiet Dice

I am once again linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Folics for her Monday Made It linky party.

This week I made the quiet dice I have seen on other teacher's blogs. I found the foam dice at Dollar Tree in a pack of 50 for $1.00 which I thought was a great purchase! I bought 2 packs so that I would have lots of blank dice to make different types of dice to use in my classroom.

Since we use the EveryDay Math curriculum, these dice will fit in perfectly. There are so many games and activities in the lessons that require dice and it can get very loud with 24+ kinders rolling dice on tile floors and hard tables.

To make the dice, I used the foam blocks and a black paint pen, but I am going to try out a permanent marker on the next set and see how they turn out.

I made the traditional dot dice with 1-6 dots:

I made number dice with numerals 1-6:

I made letter dice with vowels on red dice and consonants on blue dice:

I still have plenty of blank dice left and I am sure I will be making other kinds of dice as I think of ideas. Does anyone have any other ideas for dice to make to use in kindergarten?

Monday Made It - Polka Dot Name Canvas

I am once again linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Folics for her Monday Made It linky party.

I saw this adorable canvas on Pinterest and thought it would fit in perfectly in my polka dot themed classroom for this upcoming school year.

http://pinterest.com/pin/39688040436722761/

So now I did my own take on the adorable canvas for my classroom. I wanted to use primary colors since I use those colors in my classroom. I used an 8x10 canvas from Michaels.

Before adding the ribbon

After adding the ribbon
(hanging on my kitchen door)

In other news, I can't believe the increase in my number of followers. I now have almost 200 followers! WOW! I can't believe it! Now I am planning a giveaway for my little blog when I reach 250 followers so please tell your friends about my little blog. Thanks!

Monday Made It - Welcome Banner

This week I am once again linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Folics for her Monday Made It linky party.

This week I made a welcome banner that I plan to hang above my classroom door. I think it turned out very cute! I found the pieces at Live Love Laugh Everyday in Kindergarten and printed them on cardstock. The ribbon that I used to tie them together came from Walmart on a roll for $1.00. So the entire project only cost about $1.50 with the cost of the ink and cardstock.

Of course right now it is laying on my living room floor
because I cannot get into my classroom to hang it.

Monday Made It - Dry Erase To Do Board

I am linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Folics for her Monday Made It linky party. Hop on over to see some other great things made by teachers! :)

Ok...I have been reading everyone's cute Made It Monday posts and feeling like such a bad teacher for not having one too. I have been so busy this summer and just haven't gotten around to completing all my projects. This week I did manage to complete my dry erase to do board.

I think it will be adorable sitting on my desk!


The idea came from Pinterest (of course!).

http://pinterest.com/pin/39688040436887598/