End of Year Teacher Thank You Craft from the Whole Class

At the beginning of the last school year, I signed up to help with the end of year thank you craft for the teachers at my son's preschool.  I love doing crafts, surely I could come up with something fun to do with almost no budget.  We wanted to do something that would allow participation from the kids but also could be useful for the teachers.  The previous year, we made the teachers custom tote bags.  We ironed on a class photo with a sentence from each student "I love XX because..."  The teachers loved the bags, but I knew that I would need to come up with a new idea for this year.

I polled my friends who are elementary and preschool teachers, and they all had similar responses.  They all said that they appreciated cards and thank you notes more than any other gift.  They didn't need more mugs or picture frames to clutter their homes, but cards and pictures from students were things that they held onto.

The sample folder I made to share with other parents.  

Lucky's preschool has 5 classes with over 22 teachers, specialists, administrators and staff.  We wanted a project that would be simple to execute, inexpensive (so most of the money we collect can go to gift cards for the teachers), useful (not clutter),  and something the kids can participate in.  Simple, right?

When I came across a Thank You Flower Card, I knew that I found a winning idea.  We would let all of the kids decorate petals for their teachers, and then assemble them together onto simple file folders.  I always need more folders and personalized ones would be super fun and potentially useful.  Decorating the petals didn't take very long, and I quickly whipped up a sample to share with the parents.  I knew that if I needed to, I would be able to decorate all of them myself.

Materials

• 1" long Brass Plated Paper Fasteners (aka Brads)
• 2-pocket file folders
• Hole Punch
• Construction Paper
• Scissors (to cut out the petals)
• Glitter glue for teacher's names
• (Optional) Craft Knife for making a hole in the folders.  
• (Optional) Envelopes to distribute petals 

For the first petals, I folded a piece of construction paper in half and free cut a petal like shape.  This length was a bit too long for the file folder, so I trimmed down the edges to make the petals a bit shorter.   I used my hole punch to make a hole in the edge of the petals and secured them to the folder just about where the pocket ended.  

I planned to send home 5 petals with each student.  Most classrooms had 3-4 teachers and there were multiple specialists. The teachers helped distribute the petals in the kids backpacks.  Since I knew that some might get lost on the way home, we sent a petal template in an email to the parents.  This way, parents could create their own petals out of whatever they wanted.  

Since I already did the hard work of figuring out the petal size, here is a printable template of the flower petals.  This is the exact template that I emailed the parents of the preschool.  

When I was preparing to distribute the petals, I realized that I needed to make enough to send 5 petals to about 60 students.  I didn't want to count the petals as I was counting.  I weighed 25 petals and then used that to calculate the total weight of petals I would need for this project.  It worked great!  I stuffed the petals plus a simple instruction sheet into envelopes to go home with the kids.  

End of Year Teacher Appreciation Craft Instructions (This is what we sent home with the envelopes.  A longer explanation was sent to the parents via email.)  

• Please decorate one side of one petal for each of your child’s teachers. (Draw a picture, write a note, etc). Please note that we will punch a hole near the pointy end when we assemble the flowers. The finished petals should be flat so please don’t use bumpy stickers or glue. Make sure to sign your child’s name on the petal! 
• Please also write the teacher’s name on the back if their name isn’t part of the decoration. 
• Return the petals to Rebecca Brown (Lucas’s Mom - Dubim) by MONDAY JUNE 5. 
• Extra decorated petals are welcome for non-classroom teachers and staff.

While I waited for the petal submissions, I started decorating the folders for teachers.  I added their names to the top and "Thank you for helping our children grow!" on the inside pocket.  

Lucky had a blast decorating petals.  He even started making petals for teachers in other classrooms!  I was nervous that we wouldn't have enough petals submissions, but the students and parents delivered.  I was able to make flowers of at least 10 petals for each of the teachers and staff we wanted to thank.  (Some of the specialists that see every student had a lot of submissions.)

Finally, we finished off these cards by adding Amazon gift cards and handwritten thank you notes from the parents into each folder.   We presented these cards to the teachers at the end of year portfolio breakfast and they were so excited!

I'm so glad that this project worked well... and now I'm already thinking about next year.  What kind of projects have you done to thank teachers?

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.  None of the product selections were solicited.  I selected all of the products in this post and all thoughts and opinions are my own.  

Lucky Dyes Yarn for the First Time!

Dear Future Rebecca, when you are space dyeing and the colors aren't binding fast enough, ADD MORE VINEGAR!  Thanks, Past Rebecca.

Lucky really likes playing "ChemKnits Video".  He also really loves to do "projects" with mommy.  These projects vary from creative Pinterest activities to kits we buy at the craft store for $1.  I thought it would be fun to make a "real" video with Lucky and let him dye his very own yarn.  We would then use this yarn to make his hat for next winter.  Sounds fun, right?

Lucky requested to use "alley of the colors" on his yarn.  We used all 9 tablets from the Deluxe PAAS Easter Egg Dyeing Kit.   I wanted to space dye the yarn because Lucky would be able to drop the tablets into the pot with minimal yes but a lot of fun.

I did this video right after my last space dyeing video, inserting Easter egg dye tablets into a pre-wound cake of yarn.  If you look at my blog post for the video, I also started that post with a reminder to add more vinegar.  I think that in both cases I erred on the side of less vinegar to let the colors spread more, but in this case the colors spread much further than I wanted.  The yarn Lucky created is STUNNING, but it isn't the rainbow/all of the colors yarn that he hoped to make.  (Not that Lucky is disappointed or knows the difference, I'm the one that is disappointed!)  The final colorway seems very sophisticated for a 3 year old, so maybe it will turn into something for his Daddy.

Since I was trying to get the yarn ready to show Lucky ASAP, I was not as careful with this 100% wool NON superwash yarn as I normally am.  (The yarn was still hot when I was rinsing it.) The result is that the yarn is a little "sticky" to each other.  It is still not felted and easily separates, but it isn't 100% unaltered either.  (I can untwist a skein of yarn so the fibers are still ordered, and definitely unfelted and knitable, but it is worth pointing out.)

The whole time I was editing this video, I kept thinking, "I should have added more vinegar!"  I didn't want to add too much vinegar because I wanted to allow the colors to spread out, but by not adding enough the colors spread out way too much!  Make sure you check out the whole video.  There are a lot of fun 3 year old extra bits thrown in, too.

Even with similar amounts of vinegar, look at the difference between the two colorways!  These yarns were dyed with the exact same color tablets.  The yarn bases are slightly different, but these examples show that you can get a lot of variation out of an Easter Egg Dyeing kit!  

We will need to try again to get the rainbow.  It looks like these Easter egg tablets "want" more vinegar than other food coloring that I use.  There are some choices for the future.  Add a lot more vinegar to start with (I'd start with 4T next time versus the 2T I used here), or start with a low amount of vinegar, allow the colors to spread and then pour in a splash of vinegar later on.

The reactions to Lucky's video have been very positive.  Some of you prefer non-toddler dyeing videos, and I still plan to do a lot of videos without a 3 year old's help.  I think that it is fun to show what a pre-schooler can do to help with dyeing yarn, and how it can be a fun activity.  Maybe I should try to teach Lucky to spin next.  What do you think?  Have you done any fiber crafts with your children?  At what age did they start?

I took pictures as the colors spread out.  Check out the awesome progression!  I think sometime I'll add a big splash of vinegar around the third picture.

This post contains some Amazon Affiliate Links.  None of the product selections were solicited.  All selections and opinions are my own.  

Dinoculars - A Craft Project for Multiple Kids

Rowdy turned one in January.  One year olds don't need a lot of planned activities at a birthday party, but his friends who are three and older would appreciate something to do.  I was on the hunt for a simple craft project that would require minimal supervision and then would be fun to play with at a dinosaur themed birthday party.

I have seen a few different dinoculars projects.  These involve decorating the tubes before gluing them together.  This would be great if you were working on the project with one kid, or if an adult wanted to make multiple, but a bunch of preschoolers and toddlers won't want to wait for glue to dry.  Therefore, I decided to take a different approach and glue the toilet paper tubes together BEFORE decorating them.  

The crafting station has:

1. Dinoculars bases - pre-glued toilet paper tubes (or cut in half paper towel tubes) with holes already punched
   
   
2. Pre-cut paper ready to decorate
3. Tape
4. Stickers (foam ones are best used after)
5. pre-cut ribbon for parents to tie to the ends.  ~2.5 ft
6. INSTRUCTIONS

I felt like this would be a simple craft project that kids could do with minimal supervision.  I hoped it would be self explanatory.  (Or at least easy enough to figure out what to do.)

DINOCULARS INSTRUCTIONS

1. Decorate Paper (save foam stickers for step #3)
2. Tape paper around pre-glued tubes
   
   
3. Add foam stickers (if desired)
4. Tie ribbon into holes
   
   
5. Search for Dinosaurs!!

When I created the instructions, I put Grandmama and Lucky to work to see if they could accomplish the project as written.

It was a success!  Lucky wanted to make some more straight away but I told him he needed to wait until Rowdy's birthday party.  

The dinoculars were a huge success!  it was wonderful to see kids having fun making them and then going around my house hunting for different dinosaurs!  

Lucky played with his long after the party.  I'm so glad I took the time to get this project ready for the party.  It was super easy to prep and the enjoyment was fantastic.  I also printed out some dinosaur coloring book pages for the kids to decorate.

Even Rowdy found the project very entertaining.  I wouldn't let him play with ones that had a ribbon, and he might have ripped off all of the stickers, but this is about as much enjoyment as a 12 month old can get out of a project!  

This wasn't just enjoyable for my human children, Indy really likes to chew on toilet paper rolls so he was very interested in this craft project.  

Don't worry, Indy.  I still have quite the stash of paper tubes.  I'll let you have some, too.

Winter Holiday Felt Crafts with Toddlers

I love doing craft projects with Lucky.  We've had a lot of success with $1 kids from craft stores and using glue and stickers to put things together.  It would be a lot cheaper if I designed my own crafts, so I wanted to see what simple crafts I could come up with that involved minimal cutting and giving him a lot of chance to glue.

The green felt I'm using is left over from the Dinosaur Hooded Sweatshirts I sewed for the boys.  The blue and white felt is left over from their R2D2 and BB8 Halloween Costumes (which isn't on the blog yet but you can check it out on my Instagram account.)

These projects are very simple, but I still wanted to provide step by step instructions to remove any guesswork so you can do it, too.  I highly recommend using a craft felt glue versus standard white glue because that doesn't sink into the felt as fast so things have a better chance at staying glued the first time.

Christmas Trees

1. Cut out 3 triangles and one little rectangle.  
2. Glue the rectangle to the bottom back of one of the triangles.
3. Glue the remaining two triangles on top of the first triangle.  Voila!  You have a tree
4. Decorate the tree with sequins or glitter glue.  (With an older child you could decorate right away, with a toddler I'd recommend waiting for the tree to dry before decorating.)

Star of David

1. Cut out two triangles. (I held two pieces of felt together while cutting so they would be the same size)
2. Flip one triangle over and glue on top of the second triangle as shown.
3. Decorate with sequins or glitter.  

I completed one of each of the projects by myself while Lucky was taking his nap.  This way I could make some that fit the vision in my head before I allow Lucky to have complete creative control.  I find that it helps stop me from "correcting" him.  

When I was waiting for my projects to dry, Lucky saw them and got really excited.  He couldn't wait to make his very own Christmas trees!  We glued the pieces together and then waited for them to dry before decorating.

It was hard for him to pick up the sequins, so it might be easier to (gasp) use glitter with a 3 year old than sequins, but nevertheless he had a blast.  

While Lucky was busy gluing, I was inspired to attempt a more complicated felt project.  

Menorah (or chanukiah as Lucky likes to "correct" me.)

1. For the Menorah itself, cut out a semi-circle,  a small triangle, a small rectangle, and then a rectangle large enough to fit all of the pieces.  
2. Cut 9 skinny rectangles for the candles (try to make sure they are thin enough so they can all fit on the menorah.)  
3. Cut 9 little orange diamonds to be the flames.  
4. Glue the pieces together.  
5. If desired, use some glitter glue (I used glitter puffy paint) to make the flames sparkle.
   
   
6. Decorate your menorah with sequins.  
7. (Optional) Cut a second rectangle large rectangle and glue it to the back of the entire project to reinforce it.  I glued my whole project onto some scrap felt and then cut it out after it had dried.
   

   

At the time I was writing this post, I hadn't had a chance to do the Menorah with Lucky. Since this one has so many more pieces I know that it will be harder.  However, since I've decorated a window ledge with our bedazzled holiday items Lucky has been asking to make his own Chanukiah every day.  I now need to wait for a Rowdy nap so we have some uninterrupted gluing time.

There are so many pieces this time but I plan to let Lucky take it step by step.  I'll show him my version and ask him how he thinks the pieces should go together.  I'll give him the menorah pieces first, then the candles and finally the flames.  I can't wait to see what he comes up with!  

This was a two-for-one project for me.  I added some more holiday cheer (especially some Jewish symbols since our tree sort of dominates a lot of the decorating process) AND had a lot of fun crafting with Lucky.