A Kindergarten Smorgasboard Five For Friday!

These were the easiest and cutest parent gifts!!  Seriously..love these so much I wanna do it again for Valentine’s Day!

I bought $1 plates at The Dollar Tree, some acrylic paint and a metallic Sharpie.

I painted each ‘stache’s hand and made the hand print.  I wrote their name and the year.

Next, I baked them in the oven at 300 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

BAM!  Done.  These were a HUGE hit with parents!  So I’m hoping the one I made for my mommy is a huge hit with her.  No…really…I made one for my mommy.  The miter wrapped it and it’s under the tree!  Ain’t nothing wrong with a 35 year old giving his mommy a hand print plate!  

This is one of my favorite activities to do every year.  On the first day of school, we write our names.  Everyone does their best and we hang the chart in our room.  The day before winter break, we pull out our first day of school chart and discuss how far we’ve come in kindergarten and all of the things we’ve learned.  Then we write our names again.  I love that this is a concept that the ‘staches can understand and can really see their growth.  Here’s what I loved most:  as we were doing this, each time someone wrote their name we clapped.  I didn’t tell them to clap, they just clapped and cheered.  I love that my students are so happy for each other’s successes!  And the progress some of us have made on our names is astonishing!

I mean, look at how much better Mr. Greg is at writing his name!  

Mister Mustache the class pet loves hanging out on the mustache rug!

This week we decorated our ninja-bread men!  We had a blast getting wild with icing and sprinkles and red hots.  The ‘staches were unaware of the “spicy” nature of the red hots….hilarity ensued as they all ran to get water!  They’re so dang cute!

And finally, we ended our first semester together with The Polar Express and hot chocolate.  They thought these were the coolest cups of hot chocolate EVER!  One of the ‘staches said: “i’m gonna tell my mom you let me drink coffee and she’ll be mad at you!”  Gee thanks, kid!  

Here’s to a restful and productive winter break!

Don’t forget to come play with me on December 28th and 29th!  Click the picture to sign up so we know who’s coming!