Every year at Winter Break, Valentine's Day, and Summer Break, I get my students a gift. Being a teacher, I find it necessary to give something educational... This year every student got a copy of E.L. Konisburg's Newberry Medal winner
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Each bag also contained a holiday themed pencil, a regular sized candy cane, and a bag of chocolate coins! The most expensive part of the gift was the coins, surprisingly. The wrapping was simple, brown lunch bags stamped with white snowflakes, then a hole punched at the folded over top, and tied with a white tulle bow! The kids were ecstatic, and so impressive, the way they carefully untied and unthreaded their bows rather than tearing into the bag as I had expected. I have the sweetest and most amazing class, they continue to impress me with the little things. :)
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| Gifts! |
As part of our hallway decorations I created a simple bulletin board. It consisted of a chunk of white butcher paper, cut to resemble a hillside, and a few different figures courtesy of our Ellison paper punches! I punched green evergreen trees and light blue snow flakes to add to the scene. I then punched each child a snowman (person?) to decorate. Students could decorated in any way that they chose, provided they put their name on the front clearly. I got some great snowpeople! With such a simple project, the students exhibited subtle or not so subtle creativity in order to personalize their snowman. The "Season's Greetings" sign was made from Ellison letter punches that were layered red on top of green to give them some depth. The letters were then glued into place on strips of poster board so I can reuse it in the future!
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| Completed board. |
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| Variety of student work! |
Our final project was an ornament that students could take home as a gift if they so chose. The ornaments started as shades of white paint-chips and ended as happy snowmen! Creating these ornaments was very simple, each student needed a paint-chip, squares of black construction paper for hats and punching buttons/faces, small orange scrap of paper, a strip of patterned scrapbook paper, glue, and a hole punch! When selecting paint-chips, remember that the multi colored style have more character! Home Depot has very wide chips so the overall look is very square. I picked mine up from the Fred Meyer paint department. Walmart also has thin, multi colored chips.
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| Thin multi colored paint-chips as a foundation |
In order to make faces and buttons we used the hole punch to punch 2 eyes, 5-6 dots for a smile, and 3-4 for buttons. If I was making these in a smaller quantity I would use black buttons instead of using the paper.
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| Detail of the face. |
The hats are created from black paper, simply cut edges down on either side leaving about an 1/8 of an inch on either side for the brim. They are then glued across the top edge of the chip. Noses are thin triangles just trimmed from a scrap of paper. Scarves are strips of patterned paper that I pre-cut, then wrapped around the chip and glued to stay put. Students were encouraged to cut, wrap, and assemble in their own way so each snowman is unique! Students were then given a piece of ribbon to loop on the back for hanging purposes.
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| Final product! Hang and enjoy! |
