Owl Valentines

Owl Be You’re Valentine

I love Valentines day.  I love pink, red and hearts.  So I really enjoy decorating and making my treats and gifts for friends and family.  I especially like to make valentines for my little ones at school. 

I try to make my valentines match my theme for the year.  This project was a bit intense this year.  It took me three nights.  There were a lot of little steps.  

They did turn out sooooo cute.  
I hope you have a fun Valentine's Day tomorrow.

House Keeping Area

This is what my housekeeping area looked like last week.  I did a little updating......

well actually I repainted the doll bed that belongs in the area.

Before

After

I was so excited to take the finish  bed  to school today to share with the children.  The area looked great.....

I even added a green carpet from Target and a little green bucket for utensils....

The little girls in my class had one question for me,  "Where are the baby dolls?"   

I will try to remember to bring them back to school tomorrow.  I left them at home, after I cleaned them too.  

See my polka dot plan for the file cabinets.  I am thinking of covering the back of the file cabinets with white contact paper and then placing large polka dots back there similar to the picture below, of course in a pattern.

image from pinterest

Candy Owl Pops

I like to give my students a treat after working hard on their first day of school.  I always try to tie it in to my theme.  I was so excited when I saw all these neat ideas on Pinterest this summer and I love to bake.

It was going to be so hard to choose, but then along came Parent Night.  And would you believe that one of my students is allergic to almost everything..................so no baking for me.  :(

New Plan Quick

This is my version of the cake pops.............Candy Owl Pops.   

All 24 Candy Owl Pops ready to go and would you believe I just got an email from the little girl's mom and she can not have Tootsie Pops. (I did check the bag and it looked safe, but that is why I sent a email to double check.)  

Back to the store tomorrow to buy her Dum Dum Pops, she can eat one of those.  

Classroom Sign

I saw lots of teachers who have cute signs in their classroom with their names.  I thought what a neat idea for my classroom door.  I keep the door open all day long and my name is on the outside of the door.....why not have something on the inside of the door as well.

We have a lot of guests in our building and I think it would be very welcoming......and easy for them to find the kindergarten room as well.

I like to change things a lot so I made my board on a bulletin board so when I change my mind next year I can easily add changes to my sign.  

I have the background on black contact paper and green vinyl letters......easy to wash.

 The boarder, apple, and owl can change each year with my theme.  

I may add a speech bubble to my owl.....what do you think???

Owl Tree

This is my polka dot owl tree I created today.   It was my fun project for the day.  I saw some ideas similar to this on Pinterest and I thought this would be perfect for the listening center.

It was so easy to create......I used my circle cutters,

 some scrapbook paper from scrap basket and a leftover owl from another project.  

I laminated everything to make dusting easier throughout the school year and it will help the paper from fading.

Now I just need to put a new tape player on my wish list.

PS....I needed a fun project today because I spent the rest of the day...sanding, taping and washing my lockers in my classroom.   Saturday is paint day.

Gift Bag for Students

Each year I give my students a little gift bag before school starts.  It is part of the packet I give the parents on Parent Night.  I have to be honest, I found this idea on the internet years ago.  Unfortunately I do not remember what website and so now I can not give credit to the proper person.

Each year I have to change my bag a bit to fit my theme.......

This is the tag I made on Word to put in the front of the bag.

These are the supplies that go in each bag.   I did not make the star cookies yet, because parent night is Aug. 24.   I do have an awesome sugar cookie recipe my mother-in-law gave me years ago.

The owl head idea I found ...........of course from my owl board on Pinterest.

I used my circle punches and heart punch and scrapbook paper to create them.

This is what each student bag will look like :)

My bucket waiting for the cookies..........

Hand Sanitizer

Yesterday I told you I was a bit of a clean freak......so when you see my project today you will understand.  I have my students use hand sanitizer a lot.....before snack, after snack, after recess, when they return to the classroom.  Even when they arrive at my center.....clean hands are important to me.

So last year when I started blogging one of the first projects I came upon was decorated bottles of hand sanitizer.  So of course I gave it a try.....my students loved them.....they were cleaning their hands all the time........and I had so much fun making the bottles.  I made them for all the teachers at school for Christmas.


You start with bottles of hand sanitizer.

You peel off the labels and then use a rag and Goo Gone to take the sticky stuff off the bottle.  You may have to use several coats of Goo Gone to get the sticky stuff off.

Next I used stickers I picked up at Target and Michaels to decorate the bottles.

I finished off the project with a lime green polka dot bow.

So Cute!

Bathroom Passes

I know there are so many different ways to have the children let you know that they are in the bathroom.

I just have them put a stuffed animal at their spot.  I have four stuffed animals for the bathroom.

This year with all the cute owls out there in the blogging world I decided to make my own. ( To tell the truth I had to have help from my mom because I do not sew very well.)

I found this idea months ago at 5 Orange Potatoes  and she has step by step directions there if you are interested..

5 Orange Potatoes

I made my owls out of baby hats I found on the clearance racks at Target for 25 cents so they turned out a little bit bigger and brighter.

I know some of you may be thinking how do I keep them clean.....and I am a clean freak.....I teach my kids to use hand sanitizer each time they walk into the room ......that way when they pick up the owl .....I know they have clean hands.  :)

This project was featured on:

Welcome Cards for Students

Next week the new class lists will be published at my school.  This is a big deal for our students.....they have been waiting all summer to find out who will be their new teacher.

I like to welcome my students with a little card in the mail as well.  I try my best to time it so they get the card on the same day as the list posting on the school website.

Each year my card is a little different depending on my theme, this year my plan was simple: an owl in a tree.

Using my silhouette machine

btw......i love this machine

I cut out this tree shape

 

dot_tree_C00871_20509 

Here are my supplies all ready to start the project :)  I like to have everything ready before I start.

if you want a copy of the pdf of the HOOT labels click on the picture

click on here if you want a copy of the pdf

If you decide to make your own inside of the card I made it on Word.  It took me a while to line up the box correctly.

When I mail these cards out to the children I will add a little page of owl stickers that I found at the Learning Shop as well.   Just a little goodie to make each child smile. :)

Owl Theme

 I picked up two things for my classroom this weekend.  Soooo Cute ........ I could not pass them up.

I found this cute bank at Urban Outfitters for $1.99, can you believe it.  

This was not on sale .... but it is so cute.   I am going to put it in the housekeeping area.     This pillow is from Target.