Dad's Day

We go to school until the end of June. Since Friday is Father's Day, we've been frantically working on a Dad's Day craft. On top of finishing everything up. And planning for all the year-end festivities. Good gracious.
Here is the craft in pictures. I am not going to lie-it was a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be. Tying 24 little ties out of ribbon was not fun. However, the end result is worth it. I've been assured by my hubby that the dad's will love these pencil/ pen/scissor/trinket holders.
The kids also made a card to go along with their gift. The card is full of details about each child's dad. His height, weight, eye colour, favourite food, sport, activity...VERY sweet and absolutely priceless. One dad weighs 10 pounds and is 8 feet tall. Another has red eyes and was born in 1824. Love them!

Step 1: Assemble materials. 

I used 1 soup can, 1 strip of mack tack, ribbon, three buttons and a head cut out for each child.

Here is a close up of the bristol board head. I made a template and then cut out each head shape for the kids. We have learned how to draw faces this year, so I reviewed the steps and had them create a portrait of their dad.

After dad's face is drawn and coloured, I attached it to the metal can under the mack tack. The kids then chose 3 buttons to hot glue (I did the gluing) to the front of dad's shirt. Tricky-I had to learn how to tie a tie. Not fun. However, I grew up around horses and it turns out that tying a tie is a lot like tying a girth on a saddle. Who knew? 

Another cute example. Check out dad's glasses and goatee.

Lovin' the spiky hair.

A close-up of the paisley tie. Cuz it's so gosh darn ADORABLE.

The kids are so excited to give these to their dad's on Father's Day. It was really inexpensive (ribbon, mack tack, glue came from Dollarama) and relatively easy. The ties were the hardest part-hubby helped me with the last ten because I had to bring them home to finish. All said, they were definitely worth it!

What are you doing for Father's Day?

Randomness and Eek It's Been a Month!

Well, this post isn't the second half of my strength wall post from May. I can't believe it's been that long since I posted. Eeeekers.
I have a short post tonight about my Pinterest-inspired volunteer gifts for my parents. I was very lucky to get the Roots of Empathy program this year. My ROE volunteer put in hours and hours of work on her own time. She delivered a wonderful program that both myself and the kids appreciated very much. So, for her I made this:

thumprint bugs from kids and grass from fingers

I painted a plain, inexpensive, largish terra cotta pot blue. It took four coats to cover and not look streaky. I then painted the little tray green to match the grass. Next, the I painted each kid's pointer finger with green paint and had them make a couple strands of grass. It's kinda hard to see but the grass is all around the bottom of the pot and is different lengths. Then I had each child put their thumb print on the "sky" part of the pot. Now, I am NOT a crafty person. But, I followed Ed Emberley's instructions and turned each thumb print into a bug. I included the kid's names beside their bug because they wanted me to. I then took the pot home and shellacked it three times. Inside and out. Tomorrow I am going to plant purple and yellow pansies inside the pot. Voila! A keepsake that I think our volunteer (who also happens to have a daughter in the class) will cherish. I hope.

I was inspired by this Pin:

from First Class Teacher. Please click on the picture to visit her lovely blog and post about this excellent craftivity.

Next, I  took individual pictures of each child in my class holding a letter that, when put together, spells out THANK YOU <3 GRADE 2/3. It turned out so cute! I absolutely adore this idea. Lots of finicky work but well worth it. It was also inspired by Pinterest.

I used a pink tablecloth as the backdrop for consistency (I taped it to my bookshelf) and had children hold up the letters. The font I used was Porky's and each letter was on a 8x11 piece of white paper. I then took each individual picture, cropped them and added them to MS Word as images. My next step was to make the document back into a picture, which I did using free software I downloaded from the Internet. Now I could send the picture to my local Shoppers Drugmart to be made into 6 cards (pictured above) for $5! I actually printed the photo for my ROE volunteer onto a 5x7 picture and had it framed but will use these cards for my other volunteers. This idea came from TUTUS and TURTLES.

And last, but not least, the volunteer gifts for the other three AMAZING moms/grandmoms who have helped out in my room this year. They have been wonderful, supportive and enthusiastic; I am going to miss them next year.

I bought three insulated eco cold drink cups (bpa free) from Winners. I was inspired by a pin from A MODERN TEACHER. She has made four really pretty labels to go with these types of cups. You can fill the cups with mints, lifesavers, even "Extra" gum OR tea...That got me to thinking...So, I have decided to make "Spiced Iced Tea" and put it in canning jars: one for each cup/volunteer. My directions on the mason jar will say "Go home, put your feet up, pour yourself a cup of iced tea, and RELAX" Inside the cup, I will include the ingredients to make the tea (ie tea bags, cinnamon sticks, cloves, etc). This way, my lovely volunteers can enjoy a cup of tea and then have the ingredients at hand to make more if desired!

PLEASE CLICK THE PHOTO FOR THE AMAZING POST FROM A MODERN TEACHER

Although time-consuming, these are really cost-effective, special gifts that I hope will be enjoyed by women who impacted our class in such a positive way this school year.

Whew! Well, that's it for now. See you soon and thanks so much for reading my post...I know it was long :)