Home Made Crayons!

We are a household that likes to up-cycle whenever we can. We love the idea of re-using things to create new things.  What we have plenty of around here is used up or broken crayons..... well we just have tonnes of crayons in general! They seem like a popular item to receive at restaurants, birthday loot bags, specials events...so we have more than enough to reuse for a fun craft.

Materials:
*Broken crayons with paper removed
*Silicone baking mould with fun small shapes

Directions:
Peel the paper off all your crayon pieces and break them into smaller pieces so they are as small as you can get them.

Place as many small piece with a variety of colours in each mould shape, you want to make sure that when the crayons melt they fill the shape up so load them up higher than the edges. If you don't the crayons will be thin and likely to break when you try to remove them from the mould.

Put the mould with crayon pieces into the oven and bake for 20 minutes at 200F.

Remove the mould from the oven and let it cool. To speed this process up you can put them in the fridge or freezer for 10 minutes.

When they are cool carefully remove them from the mould.

Have fun drawing with fun crayons in cool shapes!

Sight Word Fluency and Word Work!

I'm so excited to introduce you to this exciting project I have been working on for over a month now with my great friend Alisa from FirstGradeFunTimes. It all started with this wonderful little idea I had to combine word work with fluency! I knew I needed another partner in crime to make this a really thorough series, and Alisa was just the right teacher! Many long nights and plenty cups of coffee...... here it is our first adventure together.... We hope you love it as much as we do!!!!!!!

                             CLICK HERE to view this bundle on TeachersPayTeachers

Valentines lollipop covers

This is a fun project to help develop fine motor skills, hand sewing is a great way to start kiddos on their sewing journey!  Plus this would be a great project to have kids in class do, each could make one to bring home to mommy or daddy for Valentines!

Materials:
Felt sheets in pink, red or purple
yarn in any colour ( I used a variegated pink/purple)
easy to use large and dull embroidery needle, you can get these at craft stores in plastic or metal.
scissors
lollipops in standard size

 directions:
 draw a large heart with an open bottom (big enough to squeeze your lolli into) fold it over another sheet of felt and cut out 2.

string an arms length of yarn onto your needle, tie both ends together.

start stitching at the bottom of one heart leaving the bottom portion open so you can get your lolli in later, stitch from top to bottom, all along the sides of your heart.

when you get to the other side of your felt heart after stitching your way around, cut the string close to the needle leaving a large portion of string left to tie around the bottom to close it once your lolli is stuffed inside.

add your lolli by gently stuffing it inside the heart pocket, then tie it in with the loose string by wrapping them around the lolli stick.

share them with your favorie valentines and surprise them with a little heart shaped pocket of sweet love!

my girls certainly enjoyed them!

14 things i love about you jar

Since Valentines is fast approaching my daughter and I tried thinking of a great gift to give a grownup on valentines day since kids enjoy candy and adults enjoy sentiment. My daughter also wanted to create something special for her Grandma this valentines so we came up with the "14 things I love about you jar", something Grandma can enjoy long after Valentines has passed as well. 
The great thing about this project is it lends well to the classroom, since kids can make one for mom or dad and bring it home to surprise them!

Materials:
A glass jar with a lid, a great idea is to re purpose one that has been cleaned.
construction paper in pink and red
a sharpie pen or pencil
scissors
ribbon
sparkle self adhesive foam sheets
tag paper punch
one hole punch
heart stickers(optional)

Directions:
Fold construction paper in half and draw about three hearts on the fold for each section of folded paper, you can get about 10-12 hearts per sheet. They should be note sized and not too big since you want to fit 14 of them in a jar.

Cut out hearts and set aside.

Create a list of 14 things you love about the person you will give this gift to.
 Here are some examples that my daughter came up with:

1) I love that you play with me
2) I love that you take me horseback riding
3) I love your kisses and cuddles
4) I love waking up with you in the morning
5) I love when you make me breakfast
6) I love the colour of your hair
7) I love that you are funny
8) I love when you call me just to say hello
9) I love when you bring me presents
10) I love that you take me grocery shopping
11) I love when you tuck me in a read me stories
12) I love watching TV with you
13) I love your laugh
14) I love that you bring your dog to visit me

Write "I love" on each piece and have your child/students write each thing they love from their list on their heart shaped notes one at a time, this took a while since my daughter is not totally literate yet, and needed alot of help with spelling out her words, but that's is okay, this could be a project that has several steps that could span several classes....so that's not a bad thing.

Once all the notes are written fold them and stuff them in the jars and close the lid, put a little tag on the outside, you can either cut one out or use a paper punch like i did to create your tag, use a one hole punch to create a hole in your tag.  

Write in your nicest cursive on the tag"14 things i love about you to open when you are feeling blue".

Attach the tag via ribbon and create a pretty bow.  Cut out a nice sparkly heart from your sparkle foam and stick it to the top to add a bit of pizazz to the jar.  

Gift it to your Valentine!