Thanksgiving gift to parents

As a gift to the parents before Thanksgiving break, the kiddo's and I made turkeys!  We traced out their hand prints and cut a lot of them out in fall colors.  Then used baby food jars, painted the inside with clear glue, covered in glitter, then glued on the hand prints in a turkey feather fan pattern on the back.  They came out super nice and I even made a teacher one for myself that has one hand print from each child as the feathers.

Name Caterpillars

Forgive the photo shopping on the art, but we do try to protect our kids identities at all times here, so no faces in pictures or complete names.

That being said, we used this as an opportunity to help the little ones know their names and the names of their friends.

I had the circles all cut out and ready and would write the letters of their names as they said them after me, then they placed them on the glue on the paper to make their caterpillars.

Art for You Fundraising Project 2012

This is a fundraiser we do every fall.  Each class comes up with a project for their kids to do with certain restrictions (size, craft items allowed, etc), and has all their kids do one.  Then the parents get to order anything from T-shirts to coffee mugs, to tote bags, and so much more with this art image on it.  We send off the orders and a few weeks later (in plenty of time for Christmas gifts!), the items come back and get handed out.  This is what our class chose to do:

While you can't see their faces in the pictures (security reasons), what you are missing is priceless.  The expressions of wonder and ooooooooooo while I'm painting their feet were great!

They each chose the colors they wanted for their hand flowers.

Added names and dates for the finishing touch.  Wonderful project all around!

Water Color Initials

For another all about me craft, I hand drew the first initial of the kid's first names on contact paper, cut it out, then applied it to the back of a paper plate.  Each child then got to water color paint all over it.  When it was dry, peeled off the contact paper, punched some holes for the string and had a very cute personalized craft.  The little ones LOVED getting to use the paintbrushes and choose their own colors.

The Secret Project Reveal!

So here is the post with the pictures of the Secret Project we were working on as a Welcome to the class type gift for my kiddo's and their parents.

Found these great frames at Michael's for $1 each.  I thankfully also have a very talented husband who has access to a laser cutter.  He designed the cutting on the frames after asking what I wanted on there and took care of them all for me.
I then took my rainbow pack of Sharpies and colored / stained the letters.  The wood burn line stopped the colors from spreading on the wood any further then needed.
On all the kids first day, I made sure to get a really nice close up head shot of them, printed them off and put them in the frames.  Added some colorful rope to picture hanging rings I made and hot glued on the back and also hot glued on wooden laundry clothespins.
Now they have a super special item to hang in their home that will always give them a place to hang any crafts we send home that we do in class.  The kids will always know where to go to point at their art and say "I did that!".