Mother's Day

My students and I worked on our gifts for our moms today.  

This one is mine.  I haven't put their names on their gifts- wanted to give them plenty of time to dry!

Want to know what we did?

I bought a 6x6 inch tile at Lowes for each student.  I used acrylic paint to paint their hand.  They used their thumbs for the heart in the middle, and then I just filled them in with more paint.  (I was going to mix Glass and Tile Medium in with the paint, but I couldn't find mine and JoAnn Fabrics didn't have any last night! :-(  So I bought some clear coat instead, and sprayed over the entire tile about 4 times (to give it a nice thick coat and protect their little hands!)  Tomorrow we're going to wrap them in tissue paper or decorate colored lunch bags (so they don't get scratched up in backpacks!) and send them home for their moms, or another special person in their life!


We almost had a serious issue today with these!  I had the kids help me walk them outside (each kid took one and brought it out to the garden outside our window).  I gave them a quick spray with the first layer of clear coat, and left them outside.  After school, I had SCM (Safe Crisis Management) training, so I didn't bring them in right away.  Just as SCM training was letting out, it started RAINING.  On our work!  I literally RAN down the hallway to bring their gifts inside!  Luckily, the clear coat I used dries in 10-15 minutes, so I was able to bring them in and they weren't ruined.  Whew!  

^This stuff is the best!  Dries in 15 minutes! :-)  

I borrowed the idea from Pinterest.  It came from the blog Totally Terrific in Texas. While I liked the scrapbook paper idea, I thought it would be cuter to use their actual hands.  I talked to my mom, and she confirmed what I was thinking.  So I went with paint instead of scrapbook paper. :-)


The kids also made a card in library today, so they have a card and this gift for their mothers.  Sounds like a great gift to me!

*Sorry, mom, for ruining your Mother's Day present surprise.  :-)  Not that you didn't already know what I was making.

**And yes, I am actually going to give my mom the one I made.  Last year, we made frames out of puzzle pieces, and I gave my mom the one I made with a picture of my dog in it.  She still has it hanging on the fridge- with the picture of Molly in it!

Happy Mother's Day to all my teacher mom friends!

Kentucky Derby Freebie!

We're having a blast celebrating the Kentucky Derby this week, and I can't wait to share our celebrations with you!  We don't have school tomorrow, so today will be our last day of Derby fun.  I'm kind of sad, but glad for a long weekend!

I whipped up a quick making words activity to use with my class, and I thought I'd share it in case anybody is interested!


It is not in my Kentucky Derby unit, though I may go back and add it in later.  If you are interested in some more Kentucky Derby activities, check out my Kentucky Derby unit.  




Have a great Thursday!