Teacher Appreciation Week Ideas

For teacher appreciation week I did 3 things:

1.) Brought the teachers lunch from Olive Garden(printed the menu and told them to pick out what they wanted, called it in and picked it up and delivered it to school during lunch). They loved this BTW

2.) Participated in a two peas swap to create an awesome teacher charm bracelet. They were wearing this when I went in to deliver lunch. They seemed to love this as well

3.) I created them a nameplate for their desk. It was so easy and it finally gave me an excuse to use the scrabble tile holders that I have been accumulating with buying all the scrabble games at yard sales for the actual tiles to make charms.

It's so easy...Here's what you need:

1.) Scrabble Tile Holder

2.) Scrabble Tiles

3.) Hot Glue or any other adhesive

You can customize the tile holder however you please. I didn't paint mine because I liked them in the wood finish but get creative as your heart desires. I just spelled out the teacher's name on the tile holder to make sure the spacing looked right and hot glued in place. For one of them I took a small drill and drilled a hole in top to stick 1/2 of a skewer down in the hole. I hot glued it as well and added a ribbon and jolee sticker. At this point you can customize however you want and have fun with it. I told you it was easy.

I hope you enjoy these ideas. Thanks to all the teachers out there!

Mini Easter Egg Earings

I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and they had a pack of 24 mini easter eggs for 34 cents so I picked a bag up. Last night my 7 year old daughter had the "I'm bored" syndrome so I pulled the eggs out. I had been working on charms so all my jewelry stuff was laying on the dining room table so we came up with these mini easter egg earings that she could give to her teacher's for Easter. Here is how we did it:

Mini Easter Eggs

E6000 Glue

Earring findings

jump ring

and the long finding with the loop on the top(sorry not sure what that's called)

1.) unscrew all the the eggs

2.) glue around the rims of the bottom and press the top on it and let them dry(at this point you could poke a hole in the top of the egg and put the long finding down in the hole and curl it so it can't come out)

3.) poke a hole on top of the egg, you can use a drill or a ice pick like I did since I didn't want to run out and get the drill.

4.) place a dab of glue on the hole you made and place the long finding down in it.

5.) Let that part dry very well before going on to the next step

6.) Place a jump ring and an earing finding on the loop of the long finding and your ready to wear you new mini egg earings.

I plan on making a matching necklace and wearing mine to the Easter Egg Hunt and the Easter craft day at school. I hope you enjoy this fun and easy Boredom Buster craft.

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School Snack Idea for St. Patrick's Day

I've been scouring the internet trying to come up with a snack idea for my daughter's class for St. Patrick's Day. Last night, since I couldn't fall asleep an idea popped in my head (maybe Lucky the Leprechaun placed it in my mind...hehe) So here's the idea and it's so easy you still have time to make it for your favorite class.

To make you will need:

Lucky Charms Cereal

Lucky Coins(one for each student)

Bags to package the Cereal

Here is the note that Lucky will leave me in the morning on my counter top:

Dear ___________ Mom,

I know you worked hard on your snack but since this is Saint Patrick's Day I hope you will do a little leprechaun a big favor. I have left some snacks for your daughter's class on your counter top in the kitchen. I hope you will read the story I have left and delivery these snacks to Ms. ________'s class for me today instead of your snacks.

Thanks and happy St. Patty's Day,

Lucky the Leprechaun

Then I will attach the story to the box that hold the treats. Ms. _______ will read the following story to the children before handing out the snacks.

Every March Lucky the Leprechaun watches all the First grade classes in the world. He watches to see which classes pay the most attention, do their homework every night, and try hard to do their very best. On the Eve of Saint Patrick's Day Lucky packages up bags of his favorite snack, Lucky Charms, for the top ten well behaved classes. After he packages the snacks he delivers them to the parent that has snack day scheduled on Saint Patrick's Day so they can take to the top ten classes. In one set of snacks there are lucky coins hidden in the snacks. These special coins are located in the classroom that Lucky felt was the very best behaved. If you are receiving this snack that means Lucky thought you were one of the top ten First grade classes in the world. While eating your snack be very careful because you may have a Lucky coin hidden within it. If you do find a lucky coin give yourself a big pat on the back because that means you are Lucky's very special class for St. Patrick's Day 2010.

ENJOY and Happy St. Patrick's Day. Once I get these packaged I'll try and remember to post a picture.

,

Valentine

This is so us....

Here is what I gave my hubby for Valentine's day!

Halloween Recycle for Valentine's Day

I have to admit it I start a lot of projects with good intentions that never get finished. At Halloween I saw the cutest black bats all over doors, windows, entryways, and porches and I bought the supplies, cut out a lot of bats and never adhered them to anything(maybe next year). So I was looking for a valentine project and guess what I spotted...my stack of bats..laying there since Halloween. Poor guys. I have recycled them into Valentine treats for my daughter's class. I hope you like them. I just used some black construction paper, a crayola white pencil and some recycle butterfly glitter foam sticker cut into shapes of hearts.

Easiest Coconut Bon Bon Recipe

About 10 years ago I went to a candy making class and they gave us a book of recipes. I love coconut so one of the first ones I tried was the coconut bon bon recipe. It looked easy and only had 3 ingredients so that was my kind of recipe. After I tried it once I was addicted. I have made these coconut bon bons for every type of event and with every color chocolate wafer there is. This is equally good with chocolate and vanilla melts in my opinion. I made some recently for work for valentine's so I thought I would share these easy treats.

Here is the 3 ingredients you need:

14 oz - coconut

1 cup - light corn syrup

Chocolate melts

Here is what you do:

1.) Pour coconut in bowl

2.) Pour corn syrup in microwave safe dish.

3.) Heat corn syrup for 1 minute in microwave

4.) Pour corn syrup over coconut and mix well

5.) Refrigerate a couple hours(I usually refrigerate overnight but it is not necessary)

6.) Remove from fridge and form coconut mixture into balls and place on wax paper

7.) Melt chocolate

8.) Dip coconut balls into melted chocolate

9.) Decorate as desired or just leave as is

When I make these for parties they are always the first thing to go. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

School Snack Idea

It's wintertime and the kids are hungry...wait a minute they are always hungry for a little fun snack at school. This snack idea comes from my daughter. I'm so proud of her she came up with this on her own. It almost made me tear up it's so cute. Finally she is doing something like me...thinking of crazy snack ideas. If you like this idea please comment and let her know. She is very proud of it :) It's nuts...no it's crackers....well yes it's NUTCRACKERS. Isn't that fun???? We went to Sam's and bought some indivudually wrapped peanuts and individually wrapped crackers stuck them in a small cup and used some nutcracker scrapbook paper to decorate. I hope the kids enjoy these next week as much as we enjoyed making them. fyi...no one in Nat's class are allergic to nuts so this is possible. If they are allergic to nuts maybe you could put a picture of nuts as a tag on a bunch of crackers?

Valentine Treat Ideas

Now that Christmas is over I have been brainstorming Valentines Day ideas. I will use some of these ideas for my daughter's 1st grade class valentine exchange, some for snack days at School, and some will be filed for later years but I wanted to document them on the old handy dandy blog so I didn't lose them.

After searching the net for Valentine's ideas I highly recommend the following website with lots of pics and great Valentine ideas - http://skiptomylou.org/ I particularly love skiptomylou's "Bomb" Valentine and intend to make some this year but instead of bath bombs I will most likely filll with candy for my nephews class. Example and Pic created by Skip to My Lou website.

Below I have some more ideas for Valentine's fun and I will post pics as I make them. If you decide to make some of these ideas I would love to see your pics.

"You Rock Valentine" - Gather Rocks, paint them, and write "You Rock" on the rock with a sharpie. I think this one would be great for a boy valentine exchange. Could also use this saying with pop rocks candy as well.

"Your Dynamite Valentine" - Make some dynamite with pretzel rods, red chocolate and red twizzlers and create a tag that says "Your Dynamite Valentine. Wrap 3 pretzel sticks together with string twizzlers and place in ziploc with the tag. Make sure you make a wick for the dynamite.

"Stick with me Valentine" - Get some valentine stickers and put them in a little baggie and attach a label that says "Stick with me Valentine" or you could do sticks of gum.

"Your my main squeeze Valentine" - Lemonade caprisun with a tag that says "Your my main squeeze" - or for teacher a stress ball with a tag that says "Your my main squeeze"

"You color my world valentine" - A bag or box of crayons and a coloring page of a globe with a tag.

"Your a blast valentine" - A rocket ship made out of lifesavers

"You complete me Valentine" - A picture of your child cut into 4 or 5 puzzle pieces in a bag with a tag. Example created by me.

"You have a heart of Gold Valentine" - Gold foil wrapped chocolate hearts in a baggie with a tag.

"You warm my heart Valentine" - A paper or fabric pocket with a packet of hot chocolate. Example created by me :)

"You Rule Valentine" - A small ruler with a tag. Idea and pic from Family Fun Magazine website.

"You suit me to a TEA Valentine" - Tea bag in jewelry sized baggie with a tag.

"Poppin by to say Happy Valentine's Day - Microwave Popcorn with tag.

"I dig you" - Shovel with Candy - idea and pic from Family Fun Magazine website.

"I'm banana's over you Valentine - Banana with tag.

"You make me float Valentine - Balloon with tag.

"I'm nuts for your Valentine" - Individual bag of nuts with tag. Example created by me.

"I'm a sucker for your Valentine" Sucker with tag.

"We connect Valentine" - Individual connect 4 candy favors(found at Toys R Us) with tag.

We attract each other Valentine. magnets with a tag.

"Valentine, your all that and a bag of chips" - Bag of Chips with Tag

For Teacher:

"You shape me Valentine" - Cookie Cutter with tag

"I'm lucky to have you as a Teacher Valentine" - Lucky Charms or Rabbits Foot

"Glad to BEE your student" - Honey with tag attached.

"Your an un-frog-gettable teacher" - stuffed frog with tag

"There is only one thing that could make you a cooler Valentine - Ice Cream GC with this tag.

Please let me know if you like these ideas or can think of any others. If you create some of these items I would love to see them. Once I get out of the house, I'm snowed in at the moment, I will be creating some of these so check back for pics.