That is my mantra tonight. I can do it right???
We’ve done some really neat things in the last week so I thought I would share them with my lovely followers.
This is our scratch art that we started last week but ran out of time. If you haven’t tried this before it’s super easy! Just color the page with a design in various colors using crayon. It needs to be as dark as possible with no white left on the paper.
Then give each student 1-2 tbsp of black tempera paint mixed with one drop of dish soap. Mix the soap in really well. Students can then paint over top of their drawing until you can’t see the color anymore.
Once the paint is dry, use a tooth pick to scratch a design into the paint!
The students always love how the colors look when it’s finished!
This week we started our parent presents for Christmas. Everyone wanted to take them home today but they aren’t totally finished yet. I’m going to fill them with candy and wrap them in tissue paper to send home:
I got the idea for these from this website:
First I gave each student one overhead transparency and some permanent markers. Each student colored their own design onto the transparency. To make it easier for them to see I put a sheet of white paper underneath the transparency.
When their designs were done they brought it to me and I folded it over a clay pot. I used an elastic to hold it in place. Then I turned on my heat gun to the high heat setting and moved it over the transparency. You don’t want to hold it in one place for too long or you will create a hole in the plastic (ask me how I know!). The plastic will start to shrink up and harden a little more. Although it looks like glass when finished it still feels flimsy like plastic but holds its shape.
I bought peppermint candies to fill them with and I will wrap it in tissue paper to send home for their parents for Christmas.
We also had a special visitor to our room on Friday!
Last week we wrote letters to Santa and he responded. It scared poor Martha Mouse (our imaginary classroom pet) half to death!
Martha Mouse took a bite out of the gingerbread man and chewed her way into the house to hide from the man in the red suit.
The man in the red suit turned out to be none other than Santa Claus himself. He responded to our letters and left a treat!
Did your kids make parent gifts this year? What did they make?
Three more days, three more days, three more days…..
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These are wonderful ideas! Thanks for sharing. Since I'm a reading teacher, I didn't have kids make gifts (left that to their classroom teacher), I had them do lots of fun writing prompts, and made elf shoes. But this would've been sooo much fun!
Do you think washable felts would work and what could I use if I don't have a heat gun. ?
I don't think washable felts would work, I would be worried they would run when the heat is added. You could try using a hair dryer instead of a heat gun but I don't know if it would get hot enough. I would suggest trying it ahead of time to see if it works before planning to do it with your students. You can get a heat gun for relatively cheap at Home Depot or Lowes.