It's my birthday and I have a freebie for you!

Hello! It's been a long time since I've posted. This year with the pandemic and also going to IVF treatments has made me a VERY tired teacher! Also, I was just notified that my blog designs have been disconnected...I guess it's time for me to get a blog makeover soon. Anyways, I'm so glad it's May. We have one more day of school before summer break over here in Ohio! Yesterday was my birthday and I thought a great way to celebrate with you is to share this fun and easy gift tag freebie! The Freebie is at the end of this post!

I've been working on my end-of-the-year gifts for my students and sometimes I started doing it for about a year now, adding a sticker note on the inside cover with a QR code. The QR code links to a YouTube video of me reading the book aloud. I love adding this element to my gift because the student can listen to me read anytime and anywhere!

I chose to gift my students the book, On the First Day of Summer Vacation by Tish Rabe. I linked the book to Amazon if you wish to purchase it! I used my Scholastic Book points to purchase the books for my class. When I bought it, it was $1.50/book.

These book gift tags make this an easy and memorable gift for students! This year, I wrote my student's name at the top corner of the gift tag. Other times, I didn't write student names and just passed it out.

All of the instructions on how to make these personalized gift tags are in the Freebie. Make your own QR code, personalize your message, and there is space for you to add your own mascot or clipart. I used our school mascot, which is a lion. The link is connected to my Google Drive and it is a PowerPoint file so you can personalize the text with any font. Download the file and open it PowerPoint.

Click Here To Download Freebie!

Winter Holiday Class Gift Ideas

Do you give your class a winter holiday gift? Do you need more ideas on what to give? Giving 20-some gifts can get expensive. Here is what I am giving my students this year.

*None of the links are sponsored or advertised.

I used my Scholastic points to buy 10 books for $10. This year I got "There Was A Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow". 

Inside the book, I record myself reading the book and turn my video into a QR code for students to use. I love adding this in my books so kids can listen to me read to them whenever!

During Black Friday, I found 5 kid face masks for $5. What a deal! They are usually around $9 for 5 face masks. Here is the link for the Old Navy masks.

At Costco, these mini Playdohs come in a set of 50. The cost is around $20. You can also find them on Amazon. 

The cute winter gingerbread cookie ziploc bag is from Hobby Lobby. They come in a set of 30 bags. 

I made the scarf from anti-pill plush fleece from Jo-Ann Fabrics. They usually have good deals and I try to buy the fleece during Black Friday. All fabrics were 70% off this year! For a set of 18 scarfs, I bought 2.5 yards of fabric and cut the fabric into 5.5 inches. If you have students with longer names, I made the scarf 6 or 6.5 inches. These are super easy to make and the kids love wearing them throughout the winter months.

What have you given to students in the past? I would love to know!

Update on Nail Polish Gift Tag Freebie

In the past couple of days, I've been receiving a lot of requests on adding a "volunteer" page to my Nail Polish Gift Tag freebie.  Click {here} to read more about the fabulous end of the year gift freebie!

So I listened and added the volunteer file.  I even added my new and beautiful blog button on the title page too! (If you haven't noticed from my previous posts, I am obsessed with my new blog design!) Hope you guys will enjoy and share the news! Click on the poms below to download.

  

Have a happy Monday!

Nail Polish Gift Tags Freebie and Bloggy News

Today was the last day for Kindergarteners!!!  I can't believe the school year is over! Do you still have a couple more days left or are you done?  Technically, our last day in the district should have been Yesterday (Monday for Kinders) but we had 2 make up days-- 1 snow day, 1 flood day.

I wanted to so share with you what I gave my co-workers as an end of the year gift.  I wanted something small, cute, and easy to put together because I work with a big team!  In the classroom, I work in there are 8 adults total (1 special ed teacher, 5 aides-including me, OT, Speech, and adaptive PE teacher).  

This is perfect for End of the year, teacher appreciation, or any special occasion. 

There are two different sayings on the tags: "to a toe-tally awesome ________" and "to a toe-rific ______"

Click of the respective stores to download this freebie!!! 

I hope your teachers, friends, and co-workers will enjoy this cute gift tag as my team did!  It's perfect for the summer weather!

TN

TpT

On to my bloggy news, if you haven't noticed my blog looks kind of bare or I like to call "naked" because I'm getting a bloggy makeover through Honey Bunch Blog Design!  They are awesome to work with and are WORTH the money if you are thinking about getting a new blog design.  So please come back to my blog for my blog makeover debut!! :)

Have a great end of the school year/start of summer!!  Now I need to pack for my little vaca to Washington, DC before I start teaching summer school next week!

Student Teacher & Teacher Mentor Gift Ideas

It's been a crazy last few weeks for me and I wish I spent more of my time blogging and blog reading.  But instead I've been slaying away on the computer trying to complete countless of job applications.  I've always had a bittersweet feeling around this time of year because of the school year ending and knowing there are schools hiring teachers.  I'm also anxious and stressed all of the time because of job hunting.  So in the last couple days I've been interviewing with different schools.  (I'm hoping and praying that finally this is the year someone will give me the chance to start my teaching career!)

Hopefully by the summer I can get back into gear and start blogging more!

Anyways today I wanted to briefly blog about gift ideas for student teachers and teacher mentors.  Many of the student teachers at my school have already left for the year and it reminded me how I wanted to share what I received and gave when I student taught.

For Student Teachers
I know for many teachers, they want to give their student teachers something to start their teaching careers.  Here is one of the pictures of what my student teacher gave me.  I wish I had a picture of everything when I received it!

Inside the cute little woven basket, my teacher mentor put in lotion, nail file, scissors, a small stapler, glue sticks, Papermate pens (she knew I was obsessed with them), a flower pen she made, a grading chart, and a tuning stick (not sure of the proper name but it's an attention grabber tool).

Here is what the "tuning stick" looks like.  My teacher mentor said she ordered from one of the classroom catalogs.  I saw one of the kindergarten classrooms at my student teacher school using this in their classroom and I thought it was amazing!  Both the teacher and students like to use it as an attention grabber and listening tool.  When you hit it against anything, it makes a neat ringing sound.

Other things I also received as a gift from my student teaching class was a hand written note from each student and a book with everyone's names signed in the inside cover.  

What have you given your student teachers in the past?

For Teacher Mentor
Now I really wished I took a picture of my awesome gift to my teacher mentor.  For some reason in our First Grade classroom, our pencil sharpeners always broke.  It was a hassle to always sharpen pencils because it won't work correctly, so for my gift I bought a new one.  Always try and think of things to give that your teacher may want in her classroom but doesn't really have the time or money to go out and buy.

My teacher mentor's daughter was in another 1st grade classroom, so I would always see her before and after school.  Another gift I gave both of them was a T-shirt from my college (my teacher mentor also happened to attend the same college as me).  Additionally, I ordered a notepad with her name on it from  Vistaprint.

What have you given your teacher mentors or co-workers?

Lastly, I wanted to share with you that I donated one of my products, Summer Olympics Mini Unit to the Teacher's Notebook Moore, OK relief bundle.  Click below to donate and receive over $1,000 worth of products!  My thoughts and prayers go out to the families in OK over the recent tragedy from the tornadoes.



Click on the picture to review this product in TN or here for TpT.

BTW, this weekend is my birthday weekend so come back to my blog for a freebie that I've been working on!!! It's another fun science experiment that I can't wait to share!  And maybe (if I have time to plan) I'll do a giveaway of one of my products!

My Teacher Appreciation Week

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  Did you feel loved from both students and parents? I know I did! All the flowers, candies, chocolate and cards sure brighten up my days!

I wanted to share with you what my school did this week to thank our teachers and staff.  My school's PTA had a picnic theme this year.  I loved how they decorated the teacher's lounge.

The banner says: Thank You Bower Teachers & Staff For Making Learning A Picnic!

They also hung colorful pennants with each staff's name on it.  It definitely cheered up our hallway.  I wish they could keep this up all year long!

On Monday morning, the PTA set up a continental breakfast for us.  It was a great way to start the week with wonderful muffins, bagels, fruits, yogurt, and LOTS of HOT HOT HOT Coffee!

To go along with the picnic theme, our PTA planned a wonderful luncheon today.  It included a lot of picnic-y foods like pulled pork sandwiches, fried chicken, salads, watermelon, corn bread, and yummy desserts.  I wish I had taken a picture before I ate my plate because it was TO DIE FOR!

On top of the delicious luncheon, the PTA set up a raffle table on things we could win.  We had 6 tickets to put into bags with a label on what you could possibly win.  Some of the raffle prizes were gift cards to Starbucks, Target, nail salons, hair salons, Whole Foods, bakeries, iTunes, and local restaurants (ranging from $20-$50).

Then as each staffer left the teacher's lounge, we were each personally thanked by a parent who gave us a huge Smart Water bottle and a $5 gift card of our choice (Target, Subway, Chipotle, Walgreens, and Starbucks).  Obviously, I had to get my hands on the Target card!

Isn't this the cutest little tag?!

How did you get appreciated this week?  What did your school do this week to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week?  I would love to hear your stories!

Rewarding All Dads With a Trophy!

With Father's Day coming around the corner, do your little ones have a present to give to dad yet?  If not, why not give him an awesome gold trophy to place on his desk at work.  This easy peasy homemade craft is perfect for a father's day present.  I just did this with my little campers this week and they all enjoyed it (even the middle schoolers)! 

Materials Needed:

• 2 styrofoam or paper cups (I used styrofoam because they were cheaper)
• small paper plate
• 1 gold pipe cleaner
• masking tape
• puffy paint
• gold acrylic paint
• Elmer's glue or glue gun

Directions:

1. Glue the bottoms of the cups together. Let it dry.
2. Then tape the same part of cups that meet to reinforce the cup stability.
3. Cut the pipe cleaners in half. Then insert the stems on the sides to make trophy handles.
4. Use gold paint to cover the entire cup.  It took me 2 layers to get a good coverage of the foam cups.  
5. Also paint the bottom side of the paper plate with gold paint.
6. After it dries, glue the trophy to the plate.
7. Then use the puffy paint to write "World's Best Dad", "#1 Dad", "Best Dad Award", etc.  I used sparkling black paint.  

** You can add Dad's favorite candy inside the trophy.

What do you usually give your dad for a father's day present?  I like to take my dad to a Columbus Crew game.  He's a big soccer fanatic!

End Of The Year Gift: Class Address Book Freebie

Have you seen Tessa @ Tales from Outside the Classroom and Courtney @ Swimming Into Second's End of the Year Gift Linky Party?  Click the images to check out all of the other great ideas you can do for your students.  Also, don't forget to link up if you have an End of the Year Gift you would like to share!

As you read in my older posts, my family is trying to sell our house because we are relocating to Chicago.    While I was packing my room up a couple weeks ago, I found many old school memories tucked in my desk and closet.  I found this and thought I could share it with you guys!  This is when I was in 2nd grade (circa 1996-1997, yes I know I'm young!)

My 2nd grade teacher called this "Treasured Memories".  It is basically an address book for students to write to peers over the summer.  This is great for kids who go on vacation and can send a postcard to a friend.

This is the cover page.  I put it on top of an 8x11 booklet so you can compare the size.  (I wish my teacher took a cuter picture of me for my cover page! haha)

Here is what the inside pages look like.  One page per student. 

Katie was one of my best friends in this class so my teacher put a picture of us on colored card stock.  She had 3 pages like this in my booklet.  All of the pictures on card stock and cover pages (front and back) were laminated.  

All of my pages were signed by my classmates, so I'm pretty sure we passed our booklets around the class during the last week of school.  I think this is a wonderful idea to include for your end of the year gift!  To make this address book gift up-to-date, I would also include space for the student's email and phone number.  Don't forget to include yourself in the address book! My teacher added her information on the last page as well.  

To make your life simpler, I know how the end of the year can get hectic for y'all, here's a template you can use to fill in your student's info.  The Document is in landscape form and just cut it down the middle and bind it together! Click here for the freebie!

Let me know what you think about this gift! I love to hear your comments and thoughts!  

A SEUSS-tasic day and a Craftivity

First, I want to thank everyone who gave me great feedback on how to create those awesome 50+ unit pages!!  I've been playing around with it a couple times this week and hopefully I can share my new creations soon (maybe a giveaway too)!  

"Today you are You, that is truer than true.  There is no one alive who is Youer than You." 
--Dr. Seuss
I hope everyone had a wonderful Dr. Seuss day/week!!  I wish I had a sub job today but instead I got my haircut.  So no fun pictures of Dr. Seuss activities I saw this year. :( But here's a picture of my boyfriend and I at Universal Florida 2 winters ago at the Grinchmas exhibit.  I'm so sad my Cat in the Hat 'hat' fell backwards!

The fun craft that my students at my after-school program did were so cute!  We took picture frames that I bought from Michael's and used small square tissue papers to decorate it.  These frames would be a great gift for parents for them to display on their fridges.

<---This is what mine looked like.  I forgot to attach a picture to it!

The kids took little square pieces of tissue paper and crumpled them up and glued them onto the frame.  Then I let them use markers to write their name or whatever they want.  Next, we put 2 strips of magnetic tape on the back so then they could hang these frames on the fridge.  Some kids made cool designs with the tissue paper like flowers and stars.  I wish I took pictures of their frames but I couldn't find my iPhone at the time.

Supplies:
-paper frames (From Michael's, they came in packs of 12)
-lots of small cut tissue paper
-elmer's glue (you can dilute the glue with water and use Q-tips to spread the glue)
-markers to decorate
-magnetic tape (cut into 2 strips per frame)

Also, I got a sweet blog reward from Kaleigh from Kaleigh's Klassroom that I will write about later this weekend!!  Have a SEUSS-tasic day bloggy friends!

Cute Teacher's gift

While subbing, I saw this adorable lamp that the teacher's students made for her one year.  And I thought this would be a great end of the year or teacher appreciation day gift!  On the lamp shade it says, "Mrs. Phillips You Brighten Our Day".  And then all of the children signed their names with sharpie.  So simple and cute for any classroom!  I am definitely going to keep this in mind for the future! :)