Valentine Bag Decorating Craft Ideas

With Valentines Day coming up, these were 2 super cute ideas that I saw by googling for decorating Valentine Bags.  It's amazing the kinds of animals you can make out of hearts.  I love the play on words with:

• Some "Buggy" Loves You!
• Some "Bunny" Loves You!

On the bunny one, we did a variety of different color combinations for the boys and the girls.  What a cute and fun way for the kids to decorate their V-Day bags before Valentine's Day.

You can get a 2 pack of the white paper handle bags at the dollar store or dollar tree.

Kindness Project

The Kindness project went over very well and turned out beautifully.  After reading "Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler" to the class, each of them received 4 folded cutouts to attach to their kindness boquets.  I wrote School, Home, and Community on the whiteboard to show the different categories of kindness.  On each folded cutout, the class wrote a category of kindness and inside the folded cutout, they thought of an act of kindness that went with that category.  With the 4th cutout, they could choose any of the 3 categories and come up with another act of kindness.  Once they finished coming up with their acts of kindness, they attached them to their boquets using a gluestick.  They came up with some awesome acts of kindess and really enjoyed themselves.  Some of the students referred to the kindness boquets as kindness broccolis :).

In the end, we assembled all the boquets into the shape of a heart.  They did a super job and were proud to take their boquets home.

Dazzling Snowflakes using Tri-Beads - Sparkling Ice Crystals

For the Classroom holiday activity and party for the the 1st and 2nd Grade classrooms, we made beautiful snowflakes out of iridescent pipe cleaners and an assortment of transparent purple, pink, clear, green, and red tri-beads. Both the 1st and 2nd Graders LOVED this.  One of the 2nd Graders said, "Wow.  We should sell these."  Hahaha.  Both classrooms were able to do this activity quite independently.  Definitely get the transparent, NOT opaque tri-beads because the transparent ones look so much better on the snow flake.  Also, try to find some of the silver iridescent pipe cleaners.  They look the best as well for this activity.

Materials Needed:
Transparent Tri-Beads (90 tri-beads per student)
Pack of 12" iridescent pipe cleaners(5 pipe cleaners per student)
Bowls or a Tray to keep the different colored beads organized

You can get tri-beads for pretty cheap on Amazon and also, ebay.  I used the following link, but did not use the pom poms or the fishing line part.

http://spoonful.com/crafts/sparkling-ice-crystals

Christmas Ornaments - Reindeer, Snowman, and Christmas Tree

After doing the Turkey Project, the students asked to do another project where they broke off into teams and had to follow instructions for the upcoming Christmas holiday.  They came up with the idea of making ornaments and broke off into reindeer, snowman, and Christmas tree teams.  They had a great time, and the ornaments turned out beautifully.  The kids hung the ornaments on the classroom tree and took the home before getting out for winter break.  If you would like to see the Microsoft Word instructions for the reindeer, snowman, and/or Christmas tree, then just let me know.

Working in Teams and Following Instructions

As November was approaching, this is an activity that was done with the 1st and 2nd Graders to make their own turkeys.  The students were split into teams of 4, where one person was designated as the leader.  Prior to beginning, we talked about what it means to be a leader and what it means to be a team member. 

Step by Step Instructions were given to each team lead.  I'm not seeing where I can upload a file, but that may not be a feature of this blog.  If you would like a copy of the word document, then just let me know.  Sorry about that.

This is what it ended up looking like.  The 1st graders ended up glueing their turkeys to their Thanksgiving Write-ups, which was really cute.  If you would like that word doc template for the Thanksgiving Write-up, then just let me know since I can't attach a file here.  The second graders decided to make pop-out cards with their turkeys, which turned out super creative. 

Dreamcatchers

This is one of the more challenging projects that we did in the 2nd Grade Classroom, but it was very fun and good practice for the students to do with their hand eye coordination as well as knot tieing skills.  You can find a set of 12 kits on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Fun-Express-48-2969-Catcher/dp/B00A8U7L72/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391970404&sr=8-1&keywords=dreamcatcher+kit

Some of the students brought in extra beads and feathers to use for their dreamcatcher.  They really got into it and were so proud of their work.  It was also great because the students really helped each other out.

Prep Work:

Go ahead and tie the initial string around the hoop so the students can begin weaving once the project begins. 

Halloween Pop-Out Cards

These are so fun and were done with both the First and Second grade classrooms.  You can google Pop Out cards and see the numerous links and videos for how to make them.  Here are a couple links.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/halloween/ghostcard/

http://ohhappyday.com/2011/05/diy-pop-up-cards/

For the most part, all you need is:

• construction paper (orange/white/black)
• scissors
• glue stick
• sticker eyeballs (optional)
• fun halloween stickers (optional)
• cotton or filelr(optional)
• chalk (Use the side of the chalk and a small paper towel to create that smoky effect)(optional)

Prep Work:
If you have any cutouts you want to make like ghosts, pumpkins, bats, etc., then you can go ahead ad cut those out for the students to choose from.

This was my first time making these, and it was so much fun.  Feel free to get as creative as you want.  By the way, the inner piece of the construction paper doesn't have to be the exact size as the background.  It can have that layered effect also.  We did these on a Friday, and had so much fun :).