Easy(ish) parent gifts

Hi All!! Better late posting than never right?!

 So I was going to post about dinosaurs today, but that will be waiting until next week.  Today I am going to share some of the Christmas gifts I have made with my students in the past in hopes of inspiring a few people!

#1 is was using one of the mugs that you can find at a craft store  that comes with a coloring sheet.  Instead of the included sheet, I just used my own paper.   To make the mugs the kids used brown paint and the finger of their choice to make finger prints on green paper.  I then added a nose, eyes, and antlers with permanent markers to make reindeer.  I just love the way they came out!  

For #2   I used a wreath die cut to cut out wreaths from foam in varying colors.  The kids picked which wreath they wanted to decorate.  They added stickers to it to make it their own. This made for lots of fine motor work as they had to peel the backs off of the stickers to get put it on their wreath.   After they finished, I added a piece of white foam to the back. I attached it with glue dots, but I am sure hot glue would work great also.  Then to add a picture to the middle I used the pictures that we get from our school pictures every year.  In addition to the kids pictures that they order we get 4 "stickers" with their pictures on it.  I stuck one of those stickers in the middle.  I then hole punched on the top and added a piece of yarn. Simple, yet cute and no out of pocket expenses.  Everything I used I had in my classroom already.

There are tons of other ideas that you can use.  You can find a bunch on my Pinterest boards. I especially love this one from Coffee Cups & Crayons. You can also check out a calendar I made a few years ago, but that definitely was not considered easy.   

I would love to see what you are making with your students!  Please share in the comments. 

Parent Gifts 2014

Well since Christmas is over I feel I can safely share the parents gifts we made.  I am not sure if any of my students parents actually read my blog, but I wanted to be on the safe side just in case!

With having such varying ages this year I did a few different things.  The first gift we made is an ornament.  All of the kids made these and I think they came out super cute!  I used a wreath die cut to cut out wreaths from foam in varying colors.  The kids then picked which wreath they wanted to decorate.  They then added stickers to it to make it their own. This made for lots of fine motor work as they had to peel the backs off of the stickers to get put it on their wreath.  My two year old class LOVED this activity.  After they finished, I added a piece of white foam to the back. I attached it with glue dots, but I am sure hot glue would work great also.  Then to add a picture to the middle I used the pictures that we get from our school pictures every year.  In addition to the kids pictures that they order we get 4 "stickers" with their pictures on it.  I stuck one of those stickers in the middle.  I then hole punched on the top and added a piece of yarn. Simple, yet cute and no out of pocket expenses.  Everything I used I had in my classroom already.

The next gift my older kids made. On the giveaway table I found some of the create your own mugs.  You know the kind that come with a coloring sheet.  We used something similar last year for Mother's day to make plant pots (Hmmm, did I ever write a post about those?).  To make the mugs the kids used brown paint and the finger of their choice to make finger prints on green paper.  I then added a nose, eyes, and antlers to make reindeer.  I just love the way they came out.  Personally as a parent I love these types of gifts and use them to store pens on my desk or my makeup in my bedroom.  I am hoping my students' parents treasure them as much as I do.

To wrap everything the kiddos used simple brown bags and added stickers and colored on them.  We then stapled the tops shut.  Not fancy, but done by the kids.  You can see them in the pictures above behind the mugs.

What kinds of parent gifts did you do this year?  If you wrote about it or have pictures please leave them in the comments. I always love new ideas!

Parent gifts

This year for parent gifts we made handprint calendars.  These came out super cute, but they were a lot of work to complete.  If you wanted to do this with your students I highly suggest giving yourself more than 3 weeks.  If I do this project again next year we will start in September as to allow for lots of time to fix mistakes, dry, and put it all together.   

To wrap the calendars I took big white envelopes and let the kids decorate them with stickers, markers, etc.  We then just slid in the calendar and sealed it shut. 

 

Did you make any gifts for parents?