Rainbow of Appreciation: DIY

I can't wait for Teacher Appreciation Week! My son's school sends home a list of themed ideas for each day of teacher appreciation week. It emphasizes that kids can make their own gifts and show appreciation in many ways, instead of just buying gifts. I love that it emphasizes that they can draw, find, or create a gift. In this way, money is taken out of the equation and ALL children are able to participate.

As you've probably seen, I love to create. My kids really get into the spirit of creating out of junk. My husband just rolls his eyes when my son or daughter tells him not to recycle a cool looking glass or bottle. I've once heard them telling my husband, "But Daddy, we are going to make it into a Sneetch Star Machine." True story...

So, this was the perfect time to get my kids involved in a fun project! We hit Pinterest for some fun and easy ideas. We were immediately drawn to a colorful container from Place of My Taste. You need to head over to this amazing blog for her post on Getting Creative With Crayola. Loved it! We decided to create pencil containers, but we wanted to customize container to each specific teacher.

We started out with a bunch of aluminum cans. Ours were from cans of black beans. The small containers were from a 15.5 oz container. The large container was from a 28 oz can. The tall owl container is a glass container from some type of sauce.  Any container will work! You will just customize based on the size of your container.

First, choose your container and cover it with scrapbooking paper. Hot glue the paper directly to the can. Hot glue the crayons to the top of the can. The crayons should be about 1/2 inch taller than the top of the can.

 We decided to choose objects to glue to the bottom of the can. I got a bunch of erasers to glue in a diagonal pattern across the bottom. This gives more depth to the pencil container.

The finishing touch is to tie a ribbon around the middle of the crayons. I hot glued the ribbon directly to the crayons. Use any color ribbon that you like!

Our completed can!

 One of my son's teachers loves owls, so I went to the craft store to get some fun owls. I found these owls in the bargain bins! The large owl is a wooden owl and the smaller ones are scrapbooking accents, but you can really use anything.

 I hot glued the small owl accents to a small clothespin. Adding the clothespin to the accent will prop the accents out a little bit and make the jar look more balanced.

We also created a butterfly themed container. The butterflies are scrapbooking materials.

Glue the scrapbooking accents to the small clothespins.

The last project that we made is a decorative box. My son's homeroom teacher already has a pencil container on her desk, so he wanted to make her something special. I found him a wooden box in my craft supplies and let him paint it. He took the initiative to find out her favorite colors :)

 

After painting the entire box, he chose a stencil to paint on the top. He picked out dandelions flying in the air. This was his choice, because he said his teacher was his wish come true. He wanted a teacher that made him love to learn and she does!!

We taped the stencil to the top of the box and he used a paintbrush to fill in the stencil. Then, we used the Cricut machine to cut the letters out with vinyl adhesive. We peeled them off and attached them to the box. Easy!

All of our projects were completed in one afternoon and I made all of them with my kids! Hope you enjoyed these easy DIY presents and have a wonderful week!

 

I feel so blessed that my kids spend their days learning with such special teachers! Thank you to ALL of the amazing teachers out there. You are so appreciated!!

Here are the Amazon affiliate links that I used:

Playing with Base Ten Blocks!

A few weeks ago I found an amazing activity on Step Into Second Grade with Mrs. Lemon's blog!  She used place value blocks to create her name and then found the value of each name. You can see her blog post here.  I knew right away that we needed to try this activity! I had kids ages 5-8 playing with the base ten blocks together, so I needed to be able to differentiate for their learning needs and abilities. We ended up working with letters, names, and sight words and it was a hit!!

We broke out actual base ten blocks, but you could have kids cut out paper blocks to create their names and glue to paper.  The kids had tons of fun using the blocks to create their names.

After creating their name, they wrote out the value of their name on a post it note.

The values were broken down by hundreds, tens, and ones.

After watching how each individual child used the base ten blocks to create the specific numbers, I thought it might be interesting to have two different kids to create the same name. It turned out really cool! We ended up with different values for the same name.

 

The next idea was inspired by an awesome kid! She wondered out loud if there was a difference between her real name and nickname. This led to more exploring!



We couldn't stop at names. My daughter (she just turned 5) wanted in on the fun. She knows all her letters and is starting to learn sight words, so we brought in learning that was appropriate for her, too!

 

She created her upper and lowercase letters. Then, she counted all the blocks that she used. I had her use the 'ones' blocks. After counting, she either dictated the number of blocks or wrote it herself.

Then, we brought out the "Greater Gator" and compared the amounts!

You can create your own "Greater Gator" or use popsicle sticks or just a symbol on a post-it.

Then, we moved on to sight words. All the kids created sight words and differentiated in the way they  recorded the value of the word.

 We loved all the fun that we had with base ten blocks! It kept kids ages 5-8 engaged and learning on their own level. I thought it was a huge success!  Thanks so much to Step Into Second Grade with Mrs. Lemons for the fantastic idea :)

DIY: Five Little Monkeys!

I LOVE hands on activities for children!  I am a big believer in learning through doing.  I've seen that using manipulatives and hands on activities is very beneficial, especially in the area of mathematics.  When children are able to use manipulatives to explore math concepts, they are able to truly interact with, and develop authentic understanding of, mathematical concepts.  As an added bonus, hands-on activities are engaging and fun!

One of the most cherished stories from my childhood is "5 Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed". I remember being fascinated with jumping on the bed and with the visual of all those silly monkeys bouncing all over the place.  This is still a song and story that captures kids imaginations and interest.  I decided to create a manipulative that could be used in the telling of "Five Little Monkeys" and then set in a center for kids to retell and use their imaginations to create their own stories. 

I love to use my hot glue gun and this project was a lot of fun!  Here are the DIY directions for creating a manipulative to help students explore the concept of subtraction and so much more...

Materials:

- Wooden box from clementine oranges

- Acrylic paint

- Hot glue

- Small cardboard boxes or small piece of foam rubber

- Felt or craft foam

- Small plastic monkeys- monkey finger puppets

- Cotton balls

- Velcro

- Optional- Ribbon

 

 Here are the affiliate link to my favorite glue gun!  It is a must in my DIY projects :)

This project starts out with a wooden box.  I used the box that held clementine oranges.  First, we ate all the clementines and then got to work!  



You will be creating a bed out of the clementine box.  The wooden box creates a sturdy "four poster bed" for your monkeys.

My kids got involved by choosing the color and painting the entire box.  You only need to paint the visible parts of the box, but I had enthusiastic helpers.

I filled the inside of the box with other cardboard boxes.  I happened to have some that were the exact width of the clementine box, but you can fill the inside of the bed with anything solid.  By filling the inside of the bed, you give a good surface for the monkeys to "jump" on.  You can also use the foam rubber or any other material that is firm.

 Then, place a piece of cardboard on top of the filler that you chose.  Cut it out to fit the top of the bed.  I cut it a little larger to overlap and fold down into the inside edge of the bed.

 Hot glue a piece of foam or felt to the top of the cardboard.  This will be the sheet for your bed.

Hot glue the cardboard to the top of your filler.  I hot glued the felt to the sides of my filler (the cardboard boxes).

 Hot glue the cardboard boxes or foam rubber into the base of the bed. 

Cut out a piece of felt or foam craft sheet for the comforter.  I used felt for my first bed, but I believe the foam craft sheets are more durable for pulling the Velcro on and off.  My next bed will definitely have a foam comforter!



 Fold the felt or foam over to create the look of a comforter.  Hot glue the felt or foam back on to itself.

 This is not a necessary step, but you can hot glue ribbon across the top and bottom of the comforter.  This is just to add the cute factor.

Now, you are ready to create your pillows.  I cut a large square of felt to make each pillow.  Place 2-3 cotton palls inside the felt and hot glue the edges down.

 Hot glue the end of the pillow (see #1 below) about 1/2" from the bottom of the pillow (see #2 below).  Then, hot glue #2 back on top of #1.  This will keep all the edges of the pillow underneath.  It will make it more durable for kids to use, because they will not be able to reach the hot glued edges.

If you choose, hot glue ribbon to the ends of the pillows.  This is just for aesthetics.  Hot glue the pillows to the top of the bed.  Be liberal with the hot glue.  I put a little lake of hot glue under each pillow.  The pillows tend to get a lot of wear and tear, because kids can't resist playing with them. 

 

Another option would be to Velcro them to the bed, so that kids could pull them on and off.  If you choose this option, realize that you will probably go through a lot of pillows :)

 The last step is to create your monkey manipulatives.  You will need finger puppets or some other small plastic monkey.  I used small plastic finger puppets.  I included the affiliate link at the bottom of the post.
You can see a more indepth post of creating manipulatives out of finger puppets here.  The basic gist of it is to fill the puppet with cotton balls or hot glue to give it a little heft.  Then place a layer of hot glue on top of your filling.  Add a piece of Velcro to the wet hot glue.  As the hot glue dries, it will strengthen the bond to the Velcro.

To keep all my manipulatives consistent, I always use the soft Velcro on the base (in this case, the bed) and the rough Velcro on the manpulatives.  This allows me to use any manipulative with any base.
Hot glue the Velcro to the top of the bed.  I wanted to have five monkeys, so I added five pieces of Velcro to the top of the bed.  Add as many Velcro pieces as you want!

 Add your monkeys to the bed and you are ready to play!

Here are the affiliate links for the supplies I used to create this manipulative:

 

Thanks so much for joining me for the DIY tutorial on making a "Five Little Monkeys" manipulative.  I hope your kids have a great time learning and exploring with these little guys. 

Exciting and New!!

I have some exciting news!  I have teamed up with 29 other bloggers to create a brand new collaborative blog- Classroom Tested Resources!  The range and experience of each teacher is so varied and the content will be fabulous!

The blog is starting out with a bang!  Check out the amazing giveaway with Teacher SWAG!!!  Each bundle in the giveaway is valued at $100.

You can enter the giveaway here!

Getting Crafty with Trashy Crafter!

I am so excited to share a brand new product line from Trashy Crafter!  Last September, I was able to review and share an adorable set of bracelets with you!  You can read about the bracelets here.  These are still my favorite accessory, but I have to wrestle my daughter for them!!

Today, I get to share Kimberly's newest set of creations- lanyards!  The lanyards are beautiful and so functional for any teacher, librarian, or book lover!

Before I get started sharing the lanyards, I want to give you a little information about Kimberly and Trashy Crafter.  Kimberly got together with her mom to create beautiful jewelry out of damaged books.  All of this is so close to my heart.  I am lucky enough to be able to collaborate with my mom to create ideas for kids.  It is such a blessing to love and enjoy your mom so much that you are able to actually "work" together!

This dynamic duo came together to create these amazing pieces of beauty.  You can see my lanyard below.  It was created out of "Fox In Socks", by Dr. Seuss.  This was a favorite in our house.  I can't even begin to count the number of times that I've read this book! 

If your tongue is a little twisted from reading "Fox In Socks", take a breather with this video of the book being read on YouTube.  I needed a break!

My lanyard came packaged in a map.  Love the recycling, not to mention the cute factor!

Each of the beads for the lanyard are carefully cut and individually crafted to perfection.  I can attest that the beads are durable.  I have been wearing my bracelet for over 6 months and it looks as beautiful as the day I got it. 



These lanyards are perfect for anyone that works with kids, or anyone who is nuts for books!  You can carry your keys, cards, etc. around in style.

 Trashy Crafter jewelry is an attention getter!  Kids and adults alike can't get enough of every bead.  I've had people double take when told that the jewelry is made out of books.  It is so pretty that it's sometimes hard to believe!

 Thanks for taking the time to check out my awesome new lanyard!

If you love it and would love to see more of Kimberly's creations, check out her store for all the one-of-a-kind gems!  You can see my set of "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" bracelets below.  These beads are made from "If You Give a Mouse A Cookie", by Laura Numeroff.  Stunning!

You can find Trashy Crafter in so many places!

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YouTube

Etsy

And Her Shop!

Have fun checking out all the awesome ideas that Kimberly has to share!  I know that I did :)