Holiday Gift Ideas (Students, Parents, Colleagues)

I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that it is almost December! I have no idea where this year has gone. I swear, the older we get the faster time goes. It really makes me try to enjoy each and every moment because life is so short! 

Now that Thanksgiving is in the past, it is time to prepare for the Christmas holiday. I always have good intentions when it comes to preparing early for student, parent and colleague gifts....but I'm usually stressed out in the end trying to come up with something!

 Well I'm linking up with the Weekend Warriors to help me (and hopefully help you) have some inspiration!

This year, all of my students keep asking me for a 3x5 card that they can use as a bookmark. So I thought that they'd probably love to have a personalized bookmark with their name on it!

I found these adorable (FREE) bookmarks from The Brown Bag Teacher on TpT and am going to make them for my class! I plan on laminating them so they (hopefully) stay nice throughout the rest of the year.

(Click the picture for the link)

 I work at a Christian private school and think that a smaller version of this would go along nicely with the bookmarks.

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Last, but not least, I'm going to include two homework passes for each student that can be used on any homework assignment that they either don't want to do, don't have time to do, or just want a break from doing! I'm planning on copying them on colored paper to make it more fun.

Click on the image above to grab your own copy!

In the past I have made the Applesauce/Cinnamon ornaments with my kinders...but this year I've jumped up to third grade and want to switch things up. I still haven't decided for sure what I'm going to do, but here are some fun ideas that I've come across:

Funny pose ornaments:

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Fingerprint picture frame:

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Baby Jesus ornament:

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Stained Glass Nativity. This could be larger as a decoration, or smaller to be used as an ornament:

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I always forget about gifts for coworkers until the last minute so I'm going to be better this year!

I love simple, fast and easy ideas (as I'm sure you all do too)! Here are some fun and quick ideas I have recently come across:

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I LOVE this idea!
I would have a very hard time not eating all of the pretzels!

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I have decided this year I'm going to make Homemade Cinnamon Almonds for my coworkers (and probably our neighbors while I'm at it):

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Who DOESN'T like these!? And this recipe I came across is SO easy.
All you need is:
1 cup sugar
3 cups raw almonds (or any other nut)
1/2 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 cup water

Click on the "Source" link under the picture for the full directions! There are also multiple sites with directions or downloads to make your own cone paper holders.


What are you planning on doing for your gifts this year? Link up with the Weekend Warriors to share your own ideas.

Want more gift ideas? Check out my "Gift Ideas" board on Pinterest.


Last but not least....This is what I want for Christmas!

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Teaching with Hope shared a very easy tutorial on how to make your own. I just haven't had time to actually make mine yet...does anyone want to make it for me!?

Maybe it can be my Christmas break project since we're staying home this year.

I hope you all enjoy this wonderful holiday season with your scholars and are able to share with them the true meaning of the season by doing acts of kindness and spreading love throughout your classrooms.

Merry Christmas!

End of Year Gift Freebies

Can't believe it's that time of year again!!

Are you busy trying to get everything ready for the end of the year?

Are you looking for a simple, inexpensive gift you can give you your students?
Are you searching for the perfect thank you gift to give to your parent volunteers?


Look no further. I have two simple gifts ideas that are INEXPENSIVE and EASY!

For my student gifts, I grabbed enough of the 3-pack Pop Rocks from Dollar Tree for each of my students to have one and attached this note onto each individual pack....done and done.

My parent volunteer gifts were just about as easy. I purchased plastic tumbler cups at Walmart along with Crystal Light Lemonade packets to put inside. Printed out the notes, cut a slit above and below the apple and put the straw through it!


Now...what could make these ideas even MORE easy for you??

You can grab these notes for free to use for your own gifts!
Just click on the picture below to download them for yourself.

Happy end of the year everyone!
Hope you have a fantastic week.

An Adorable Mothers Day Gift Idea

Are you searching for gift ideas that your students can make for Mother's Day?

I have an absolutely ADORABLE idea for you that each Mother is sure to LOVE.

Their own personalized candle!

I made these candles with my class last year and they had so much fun personalizing them for their mom. We paired them with a cute card and gift bag (the bags were 3 for $1 at Dollar Tree). ALL of the mom's LOVED them!!

The best part was that they didn't break the bank. I already had white tissue paper, we made the card in class and the candles and gift bags were from Dollar Tree!

Here's an easy-to-follow tutorial for you on how to make them in your classroom:
First things first, you need to cut your tissue paper to match the size of the candles you use. They don't have to go all the way around the candle, but I think they are a lot cuter if you DO have it all the way around. It's also best if you use white so your students artwork is the main focus (on a white candle as well.)

Next give each student one piece of tissue paper (I recommend having them do it on top of paper because the markers bleed through.) I had each student write "Happy Mother's Day 2014" along with their name, then they could do anything else they wanted on it.

We did find that the darker marker colors definitely showed up better and last longer.

I also had each of my students write their name on a piece for me to keep! I am so glad I did! It is such a fun decoration for my desk and I plan to do it every year to add to the collection!

After they were all done, I took them home to finish putting them together:

You will need to remove all packaging from the candle and wrap the tissue paper around the candle, making sure to place it how you want it.

Next, grab a piece of wax paper and wrap it around the entire candle (I recommend making it a little wider then the candle to give you extra to hold onto so your fingers don't burn!) Then pull out the hair dryer. 

It takes a minute for it to heat up enough to start sticking to the candle, but you will be able to see it melting onto the candle. Make sure you do it all the way around the tissue paper so there are no loose ends.

Once you have it down, remove the wax paper. I used the blow dryer again without the wax paper for just a few seconds.

 It's complete! I placed the clear packaging back on the candle (the top and the wrap) to help protect it.

Here were their finished products! Are they so stinking cute!?

Let me know if you decide to make these for Mother's Day in your classroom! I'd love to see pictures of what your students come up with!

I hope you all have a wonderful teacher appreciation week! Thank you for all you do for your students each and every day!

 Make sure you don't miss out on the "TpT Teacher Appreciation" sale that starts tomorrow! My entire store will be on sale along with a lot of other stores. Use promo code: thankyou for an extra 10% off!

Welcome to Another Fabulous Product Swap!

Welcome to my third Stop, SWAP & Roll Product Swap!

I would like to give a BIG thank you all the participants who have been so great to work with this time around!

I have had the amazing pleasure of swapping products with Alex from:


It has been so fun getting to know her and becoming blogging friends! We even found out that we're both going to the Vegas TPT Conference this July and I can't wait to meet her in person! I seriously love this amazing online community we have and how friendly everyone is.

If you haven't heard of her or her blog yet then you are definitely in for a treat today!

I was able to choose a product from Alex' store to print out, use and blog about- just like everyone else did!

After adding a TON of her products to my wishlist (seriously, you NEED to browse her store!) I was finally able to decide which one I'd like to use for the swap....her Fluency Passages for Early Readers CVC Word Families pack:

I emailed Alex letting her know, and you know what that sweet girl did!? She sent me her entire Fluency Passages for Early Readers Bundle! That includes both her CVC and CVCe word families packs! 

So today, I am very excited to share with you all about her Fluency Passages and how much fun we had with them!

These packs have a fabulous variety and are fiiled with 23 CVC passages and 18 CVCe word family passages with room for illustrations at the bottom of each page.

First, we talked talked about what it meant to be an illustrator. I told them that we were going to illustrate a short story....you would have thought I told them we were having an ice cream party with all the squeals and cheering that happened. (They are not art deprived either!)

Each student had a different story and we talked about taking our time and drawing details in our pictures.

Once I passed these out you could hear a pin drop! They were all concentrating so hard and trying to decide how to draw their pictures. I really like how easily you can differentiate with all of the different passages included too!

They turned out adorable! Seriously, look at the detail in "Mike's Bike" above!
Some of the girls even wanted to color the border fancy to match their pictures.

I also had them find and color each punctuation mark throughout their passage. You could easily have them search and color the word families too! (That's the plan next time)

As an added bonus, both the CVC and CVCe packs have fluency phrase pages to allow students to practice reading phrases in isolation! 

Now, you probably want to try out a couple of these passages right!? Alex has a Sampler pack in her store for you! Included are 2 fluency passages and 2 pages of fluency phrases from her bundle!

After you check out this sampler pack you're probably going to want to buy it! Well, Alex has this bundle on sale right now in her store! Grab it at this discounted price while you can!

Alex is such a sweetheart and is allowing one of my lucky readers to win her BUNDLE! She will email the lucky winner their very own copy!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Alex also got to choose a product of her choice from my store!
She picked my Read it, Bead it, Type it, Wipe it pack: 

Click on the image above to check out how she used this fun pack in her classroom and enter to win your own copy! AND as a special treat...all of my Read it, Bead it packs are 20% off in my TPT store for the next 3 days!!


The best part about these swaps are finding new amazing products from a variety of sellers, so make sure you visit the other swaps going on this weekend and enter to win some fabulous products!

KINDERGARTEN - 1ST GRADE

2ND GRADE - 3RD GRADE

UPPER ELEMENTARY


If you're interested in participating in the next swap follow my blog by email or through bloglovin to be notified when I post the next sign ups!
(It will be end of June/beginning of July)

Thanks for stopping by!!