L.O.V.E.

Oh my goodness! I LOVE the holiday of Love, Valentine's Day! Not that you shouldn't show, give, share love throughout the year, I just appreciate a day focused solely on love. What a great reason to give my students awesome Valentine's!

 It wouldn't be appropriate to create Valentine's projects without a plethora of pink and red supplies. Pink scissors? Check. Pink ribbon? Check. Red and white baker's twine? Check. Pink and red stamping ink (in a variety of shades)? Check. Pink and red pens? Check. Stamps and punches full of hearts? Check. I think I'm ready to start!

Using the stamp seen in the picture above, I used two ink colors in order to create more play on the tags. 

Twenty-five tags later!

As usual, I packed the gifts in brown, paper lunch sacks. What can I say, they are inexpensive. Cheap version of craft wrap, but in a more convenient, mass-gifting, sort of way. 

I used the same two ink colors from the tags to stamp the heart pairs on each bag.  One color at a time to increase speed by not having to keep rewashing the stamp. 

I also own the most perfect Valentine themed punch, the one that I purchased for the bookmark and card projects from last year! I picked it up at JoAnn Fabrics with a 50% off coupon and my 15% off teachers' discount card. 

So it only made sense that when I punch the hole for tying the bags shut, the hole should be heart shaped. 

 When I finished packing the bags with novels, pencils, and Tootsie Pops, I sealed them by folding the top down once. The heart shaped punch allowed me to thread baker's twine through the tags and bag and finish with a small bow.  

All lined up and ready for anxious little (I suppose not really that little) hands to open them and create big, beaming smiles. 

How can you not LOVE Valentine's Day? For me it is a great excuse to spoil my students (They actually outdid me in that category, my desk was out of control with wonderful treasures) and remind them in a tangible way of how much I care about them.

It's not a day to think about the love you don't have, or wish for. It's about giving and sharing love with ones who are in your life at that time. And perhaps people you loved have come and gone, which exactly why you have to embrace the day and love people while they are with you. Don't let a single day pass without telling, showing, sharing, love to someone.  Your love may make all the difference. ©

Book Nerd!

Let's get something clear... I love books. Heart them. Adore. Obsess. So needless to say, I am constantly adding to my classroom library, updating and sorting. After purchasing and sharing these books with my students, but I was struggling with books being taken and never returned. Plus many of my students haven't the foggiest idea how to locate books in an actual library.  In order to resolve both of these issues, I decided to make my classroom a little more official.  I purchased small labels and packing tape to use as my book-labeling system.  Then I printed the first three letters of the author's last name.  

Of course each book was labeled with care, and once organized by author, I ordered the titles too.  

Can you tell I'm a Gary Paulsen fan?! All of his books aren't even on the shelf yet! I only made about twenty labels for him. And used them all! 

I worked through author's who had multiple books on my shelf. This allowed me to create a bulk set of labels and organize books within authors as well.  Then I went through and pulled neighboring letters of author's names that were still undone.  I simply tucked books into place as I went from that point on.  

In the end, my shelves are beautifully organized and hopefully a bit more deterring from sticky fingers.