Mr. Washington goes to the hall!!!

Better late than never, here is the cute thing we made for Washington's birthday. We colored and cut out the card stock and glued on his hair. His hair is made of low loft quilt batting, I get it at Wal-Mart but you can find it at Hobby Lobby or Michael's too. The kids glob on LOTS of glue or it won't stick, and no one wants a bald George! Then I cut it to fit his head and give him a pony tail. Kiddo scissors won't cut the batting and I don't trust my darlings to use big scissors! Then you punch a hole in poor George's neck and tie on a ribbon to "hold" his pony tail. I love making these with the kids, they always turn out SO funny!! We put them all up in the hall outside the room and all the other kids thought they were SO cool cause they had "real hair" LOL!

Hopefully I will have some more cute Spring things to share soon!!

Lindsay

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day!

So I know Valentine's Day was over the weekend, but I just didn't get myself in gear in time to post these pictures of the fun stuff we made at school! This was the first year I have made both of these fun things (sometimes I recycle crafts, I'm only human I can't make all new stuff EVERY year!)

This was the kid's gift to their parents! We made cups with thumb print hearts in them and tied on a tag that said "Thumbody" Loves You! The kids laughed so hard when they finally figured out the joke! All we did was take a plastic Valentine cup (I got mine on clearance at Hobby Lobby for 60 cents for 4!!) and filled it with tissue paper, put in a hunk of clay to hold up the sticks and then we made our hearts. I cut out paper hearts and the kids put their thunb prints on them with ink pads, then we glued them to popsicle sticks using glue dots (those things are the best!! Super sticky and NO MESS!!!). Then we stuck them in the clay and tied on the tag! Super easy and pretty cheap craft, and I thought they came out pretty darn cute!!!

Here's a close up of one of the kid's projects!

The other project I am posting today is not something the kids made but something I made for them! I made the kids a treat bag full of pencils, slinkies, bubbles, erasers and a little bit of candy! These were SUPER simple to make but came out so precious. I put all the goodies in a white paper sack, used a gold paint pen to write the kids' names on construction paper hearts and then hot glued a heart on both sides of a spring clothes pin. I folded over the top of the bag and cliped it with the pin! That's it! I told you it was easy! The kids LOVED them, they love seeing their names on things!

Well, that's all I have for now, I will have a GREAT President's Day craft later this week!!!

Lindsay

First Grade Is FUN!

I teach first grade for a living. This officially makes me crazy. Most people enjoy sending their little darlings to school for the day. I am the person greeting all the little darlings at the door and spending the rest of my day telling them not to poke each other, helping them tie their shoes, asking them where their homework is and listening to the story about what the dog did on the living room carpet last night. But at the end of the day I am convinced that there isn't a better job on the face of the planet. I LOVE what I do!!!! Watching kids learn to read and discover new things for the first time is the most rewarding thing! I intend to use this blog as not only a place to talk about teaching but as a place to share ideas with other teachers or mommies looking for fun things to do! I love doing fun activities with my kids and I will post as many pictures of things we do as I can, however, I cannot post pictures of my children actually doing the activities due to my obligation to protect their privacy. I also will be changing all of their names for the same reason. I have followed several blogs for a while now and I have been so impressed by the way that people you have never met come out to support you. I have seen people ask for prayer on their blog and wonderful and miraculous things have happened. I can't wait to be part of that community. Like I said, I am a first grader teacher in a small town in central Illinois. I am engaged to a wonderful man, Chris and we are planning on getting married sometime in the next year, no actual date set yet. We are very active in our church and we love our three fuzzy children, Evan, Clover and Daisy, our minature rabbits. I am back in grad school at a local university persuing my master's degree in elementary curriculum and I can't wait to be done! I prefer being the teacher to being the student any day(ha!)! I hope to have some pictures of the cute Valentine's day things we did soon!