Donated Easter Baskets

                    Donated 
      Easter Baskets

      Every year  my 5th graders begin a collection of empty clementine boxes.  In the spring the boxes are taken home by the students to paint and decorate. All families have a can or two of interior wall paint left over from a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, or  family room.  The kids paint the boxes and with smiling faces bring them back to school.

                       

  
          During Lent we begin to collect donations of candy, plastic eggs, Easter grass, stuffed animals, books, toys, school supplies, toothpaste and tooth brushes, just to name a few items. 

      The kids set up an " Easter Basket Store" in my classroom. Baskets are chosen and filled with Easter grass. Each child decides who they are shopping for, little boy or girl, older boy or girl.
             

        

The shopping begins!
                 

           

After shopping, each student made a tag for a boy or girl.

              As you can see, every basket is completely different.  Here is a small sample of the 104 Easter baskets that were filled by my outstanding students and their generous families.

      The baskets were wrapped in plastic bags and loaded  up to be delivered.  Parents have also volunteered to deliver all the Easter baskets to a local food pantry just in time for Easter!

 Everyone has realized

 that it is definitely better to give than receive.

             This is a wonderful Lenten project for children to understand being charitable.
           

 


Please feel free to leave a comment.  I always enjoy hearing from you.

Beti

Popsicle Stick and Felt Ornaments

   Popsicle Stick Ornaments!  An easy creative project for school or home.
            It's never to early to plan projects!

         In the past years I tried popsicle stick ornaments with my 5th graders. I could have used tongue depressors, but all I had on hand were popsicle sticks.  They glued the sticks together on sheets of wax paper. Each child was given five pieces of felt, red black, green, brown and white to start with. Mind you everyone asked for more felt as the creativity went into high gear.  I always cut the felt into pieces about 2 or 3 inches square.  That way they don't waste felt.  The googlily eyes always add that something special.  I showed some inspiration pictures that I found on Pinterest and the kids started designing very quickly. Students gained inspiration from their peers. Each one was unique in their own charming way.

 

   The facial expressions are priceless!

Isn't this the cutest little Santa?

              Instead of painting, the students used their markers.    In the way we didn't have to wait for the paint to dry before they hey started glueing the felt pieces onto  to wooden pieces.      I' m sure the ornaments would have looked better, but we only had a short period of time to complete this project. 

    Some were completely covered in felt, as you can see with this snowman,  while others just had tiny felt pieces for accents.

Little pieces of thread were added so these little darlings could hang on the tree.

         Each one has the date on the back. Hopefully, the kids can look back in years to come and have fond memories of making each one when they were in 5th grade.

   I guess I'm biased, but I think they are very cute!

Today I'm linking up with 

Stephanie at Forever in Fifth for 

Show and Tell Tuesday. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

 www.foreverinfifthgrade.blogspot.com

 Merry Christmas  and enjoy decorating your tree!

Beti

Bunnies and Eggs

Paint Chip Bunnies

   
      In Spring I need to engage my students in thinking about our Easter service project.  My students make and fill  Easter baskets for a local food pantry.  Here are some of my students with the Easter baskets that they have stuffed full of candy, toys, books, school supplies, and of course a stuffed animal.

      The baskets all need to have a tag.  The tags identify if the baskets is made for a "Little boy" , "Little girl",  Older boy", or "Older girl".  I went to the paint department of local stores to collect paint swatches to make these tags. Large tags were used for the bunnies and small swatches became the eggs. Bunny and egg templates were made from tag board for the students to trace before cutting.

         This young man is working on cutting out a bunny shape the he traced on the yellow paint swatch. You can see a completed purple bunny along with a pile of egg shapes on his desk. He has been very busy.

    A large pile of eggs has been finished by this young lady.

   One more purple bunny is coming soon.

   

            These paint swatches have such wonderful colors.  I try to pick Spring colors. There are so many colors and shades to pick from. The paint departments always have an unending supply.  My students are very diligent when cutting out the eggs and bunnies.  I am so very proud of my 5th graders because they are kind and generous. They enjoy making things to give to others.

Think Spring!
Beti 

Cracked Egg Cards and Envelope Baskets

 

Cracked Eggs  

  I found this cute cracked egg design to make an Easter card at 
http://www.sundayschoolkids.com/activities-lent-easter/1-cracked-egg-instructions.htm 

        My 5th graders made these cards for their 11st grade buddies.  They turned out quite cute.

     The directions were quite a challenge for some of the students.  First you had to read the directions from the bottom up. That was confusing for some.

The directions to reverse fold also stumped a group to children.  But the end result was very cute as you can see. 

 

    Envelopes came in handy to make a basket envelope for the Easter egg card.

          First, we took a legal size envelope and cut off the end with the return address. ( Our school gets donations, boxes of old recycle envelopes from local businesses).  

         Next, the remaining part was folded in half. The top flap was cut to match the curve.  Then a cut was made along the fold and following the curve to make a handle.  

        Finally, the open side of the "basket" was glued and decorated.  

       The cracked egg card fits nicely into the basket and ready for delivery. 

  Check out the Forever in 5th Grade Linky, SHOW and TELL.
www.foreverinfifthgrade.blogspot.com
    

 A joyous Easter to all!

Please leave a comment if you have the time. 

Beti

Clothespin Crucifix for Easter

                            

Clothespin Crucifix

           My 5th graders worked on their clothes pin Crucifix on Monday of Holy Week.   You begin with 8 wooden clip clothes pins.

         The you need to separate the metal spring from the wooden pieces.  If you twist the two pieces the spring comes away easier and hopefully does not fly across the room. Now there are 16 pieces.  I tell the kids to place 6 of  the pieces aside.

       Now take ten of the wooden pieces and group them in twos.  Glue these pairs together side by side. Make sure you have a large piece of wax paper to work on so the cross will not stick to your work surface.

       These will become the cross.  Glue three pairs together to form the base of the cross. Elmer's glue works fine.  After the glue is slightly dried I have the students write their name and the date on the flat side of one of the pairs. This pair will be placed flat side down so their name will appear on the back of the crucifix.

       Next place two crayons next to the cross.  These will support the arms of the cross.  Now glue the remaining two pairs to the cross.
You should have six separate wooden pieces left.  Now you will construct the body, arms, and legs of Christ on the Cross.

       This is a very wonderful activity for Holy Week.  My students come back when they are older and say that they still have their Crucifix that they made in 5th grade.
       
      I hope this post will help others to celebrate Easter in the best way possible.

May your Lenten season be meaningful to you.

Please leave me a comment on this activity.  I would love to hear from you.

Beti

Think Spring

        

Think Spring!

      Look for the purple striped bunny on the desk.  Isn't this bunny shape so basic but yet so cute?  I found these paint chips  in the paint section of our local hardware store. Wouldn't they make an adorable matching game for our younger children?   They would also make a great art project.  

     Just imagine many colorful bunnies sitting in blades of green grass or resting in a large Easter basket surrounded by lots of colored  eggs?  Your kinders or firsties would love creating a picture similar to that.

        If you are working with young children who are learning their colors, you could say,  " Please find the pink bunny or yellow bunny."  Numbers or rhyming words could be written on each colored section. There are so many possibilities.

      This young man is working on cutting out a cute yellow striped bunny. So many children need practice cutting. These would be very colorful for young preschool or elementary age students.

We were in the process of making Easter baskets to donate to a local food pantry.  This will make a cute tag for each basket.

 I linked this page to Teaching Blog Addict
 http://www.teachingblogaddict.com/2015/02/the-last-freebie-friday-of-february.html

For  a Freebie Friday  

Please visit this blog for lots of great teaching ideas.

Leave a comment if you have the time. I love to hear from you.
Beti

Valentine collection jug

     Valentine's Day

        Valentine's Day is coming soon.  The kids want to bring their Valentine's to school.  If the kids made Valentine bags in school from paper bags, they didn't take up a lot of room, but the bags weren't big enough to hold all the goodies. In addition, most of the bags ripped before the end of the day. 
Candy and cards were on the floor. The tears were flowing. I'm sure everyone has experienced this trauma.
    

        A plastic gallon milk jug was my perfect solution.  The gallon size holds all the Valentines.   My kiddos can carry their Valentines home on the bus without any problems.  

      My Valentine jug is very basic.  I just used a permanent marker.  My kids like to decorate theirs with all sorts of embellishments.  Doilies, stickers, felt, ribbon, etc.  Make sure you give the kids at least a week or two notice in order to design their creation and bring it to school.
   I hope this will help in your classroom. 

                       Happy Valentine's Day! 
   Today I linked up with Doodle Bugs Teaching.  Check out all the ideas other teachers have posted. 
www.doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com

Beti
   

Little Love Monsters

       My friend, Dawn, a second grade teacher put up these darling little 
          LOVE MONSTERS.

 

 Her second graders each designed one and wrote a short story. Each one is cuter than the next.  I couldn't resist taking pictures to share with everyone. 
Happy Valentine's Day!

Today I linked up with Kacey at 
Doodle Bugs Teaching for her weekly Five For Friday linky. 

www.doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com 

Enjoy a beautiful day.

  Beti