End of Year Reading Gift

I don't know about you, but I'm always trying to come up with an end of year gift that my kids will love and somehow will remind them throughout the summer to keep learning. This year, I made these pinwheels to my kinder kids.

The label says, "Keep your brain spinning this summer! Read every day!"

I made them promise that they were going to read every day by repeating, "I promise that I will read every day. I know that I'm a good reader and am smart!"

Then we all blew on them and made them spin.  I suggested that they could keep it next to their bed and when they woke up, to blow on it and think about what book they want to read!

I found the pinwheels in a pack of 3 at Dollar Tree (steal!) and used mailing labels to print the message.

Mason Jar Sewing Kits

Not my original idea, but below is the link to the page on how to make these cute mason jar sewing kits!


http://www.momtastic.com/diy/168161-diy-mason-jar-sewing-kit

They are great gifts and you can really fit them into any theme. I made them for my team I left this year to say "I'll miss you 'sew' much" . For my my parent volunteers, they had a note that said, "Thank you 'sew' much."


Credit::  http://www.momtastic.com/diy/168161-diy-mason-jar-sewing-kit

Say it like a Turtle/Rabbit Pointers

When teaching my students how to read, I often say "Say it like a turtle" to stretch out sounds in a word.  When I want them to put all the sounds together, I say, "Say it like a rabbit."
For example I would teach,

"Alright, lets look at this word. I see the letters "c" "a" and "t".  Let's sound each of them out like a turtle would because turtles like to be cautious and go real sloooooooow. Say it like a turtle: /c/ /a/ /t/. One more time, /c/ /a/ /t/. Now, this time when we read, we want to put the sounds together fast like a rabbit. Let's read it like a rabbit. Cat!"

I wanted to help them visualize it so I made these super duper cute pointers for cheap.

First you need these items:
*wood cut out of the animals (found these at hobby lobby for 67 cents each)  You could even use paper cut outs/images and laminate them. 
*acrylic paint & brush
*Super glue, (I LOVE Goop. It works so well on all my crafts)
* wooden dowel rods

I painted the dowel rods and let them dry. Then I super glued the rod to the wood cut out.  

So that the glue didn't show, I put a piece of scrapbook paper over the glue & stick while it was still wet.

Let dry according the super glue instructions and then you have cute pointers to use to help your students visualize segmenting and blending words! 

You can be as creative as you want make as many pointers maybe for reading centers or to match themes! I'm might not be that ambitious. :) 

Mod Podge + IKEA

One thing you have to know about me, I love decoupage and scrapbook paper. Perhaps a little too much.....

I had a friend give me a small depressed white side table from IKEA last summer. I've been using it my classroom as a printer stand, but I wanted to use it to put my CD player and other teaching things for group instruction next year.

So I grabbed a can a of spray paint, my beloved Mod Podge, a brush, 5 sheets of scrapbook paper and a clear finisher and went to work!

(obviously not the patterned paper I used, but it's the same size (12 * 12)

I sprayed down the table, legs in all with the spray paint. Then decoupaged the scrap paper on. I used a total of 5 sheets. I REALLY hate cutting straight so this is how I layed it down.

Here is the birds eye view of the table. The shaded area represents the piece of scrapbook paper I layed down. 1-4 I aligned a piece of paper to each corner, overlapping them. 5) I placed a piece in the middle to make it look a little better.

I did about 3 layers of decoupage on top. After the decoupage set and dried overnight, I sprayed 3 times with the clear finisher to make a permanent, protective coating.


And here's the finished project!


top view: 















Tip: Check out the different types of finishes in decoupage and finishers to get the look you want (matte, glossy, antique, etc.) I like shiny so I used gloss Mod Podge and a gloss sealer.

Hello!

I love summer because I get really crafty! (Seriously, I need to make some room in my budget dedicated to Hobby Lobby alone.) 


Since I've become a teacher, I've incorporated what others have done in their classrooms into mine.  I'm appreciative of everyone who shares with me and would like to start sharing somethings that I've come up with or that I have found are really helpful.  I don't know how much I'll keep up with this, but I thought I'd start some where! We shall see!

Enjoy & happy crafting!