Adventures in First Grade

Thursday, May 31, 2012

School's Out For Summer!

I woke up this morning to the beautiful sound of...NOTHING.  No irritating alarm going off in my ear.  It took me a few seconds to remember that:

I MADE IT!

Our last day of school was on Thursday and I finished the required teacher workdays yesterday! 

The last month or so has been SUPER busy and I am very excited to just relax.  I've got some ideas in mind for some units, so stay tuned!

I hope that you are either enjoying your summer vacation, or getting close!

Happy Thursday!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Red Solo Cup

Since my husband is constantly singing this Toby Keith song, and the project I am going to tell you about actually needs a plastic cup, I figured...why not to my title.

This week we have been working on our Mother's Day project: a fabric basket. This project is pretty easy, but it takes some time.

Here are the supplies that you will need:
1.  Fabric like gingham that doesn't have a right or wrong side
2.  Elmer's liquid glue
3.  Rubber bands
4.  Solo Cups (they don't have to be red!)
5.  Ribbon
6.  Hershey Kisses
7.  An aluminum roasting pan
8.  White paper bags
9.  Different color tissue paper

You will need a fabric circle, rubber band, and plastic cup for each child.

Start by cutting your fabric in identical sized circles.  I usually use a salad plate as a pattern:


Pour glue into the aluminum roasting pan (2-3 large bottles). 

Completely cover the fabric circle in glue on both sides.  The use your fingers to remove the excess.  Turn a plastic cup upside down and evenly spread the fabric circle over the top.  Put a rubber band over the fabric circle to give the basket a gathered edge look:



Allow the fabric to dry overnight. 

Once dry, gently remove the cup and rubber band from the basket.  Trim the edges and tie a ribbon in the rubber band groove.

Fill the basket!  I used to use potpourri, but for the last few years I have filled the baskets with Hershey Kisses.

Let the children decorate their bag and pick out a color of tissue paper to gift wrap the baskets.

What do you do for Mother's Day in your classrooms?

Happy Thursday!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Hello Out There

The end of this year is just flying by, and I apologize for not posting since April 30!  I am sure that we all feel that there is just SO much to do before the end of the year.

Just wanted to let you know that I am still here, and I will be back this week with a Mother's Day project.  Stay tuned....

Happy Sunday!