Christmas Card Recycling - 2 EASY Projects

It's never as much fun to put AWAY for Christmas is it? 

 

 

I am sharing a couple of ideas I designed to use with leftover Christmas cards.

The first is a gift that my students make for their parents.  Placemats from Recycled Christmas Cards.  They arrange the cards any way they want on a large piece of red construction paper.

 

 

We cut out interesting shapes of the cards such as circles and ovals.  We also add cutouts like white snowflakes and green pine trees.  Adding some of the inspirational words from the inside of the card is also a nice touch.

 

Lastly, laminate for durability.  I have a set of 4 I use on my table each Christmas.

 

 

The second project I like to do with recycled cards is to make an ornament.

 

I have shown the steps in the below pictures.

 

 

 

This tag to attach is the last of my Christmas Freebies...

 

#25

 

 

In other news...

Don't forget to enter my HUGE Blogiversary Giveaway.  The winner will be announced Jan. 1st.

 



 

 

This is a value of $350!!!!!  Read the details here.

 

 

My Blogiversary Sale also continues until the 31st.

 

 

Continue sticking with me into the New Year, and you'll find out...
I'm just one of those Southern Ladies who enjoys giving and sharing!

I'm also helping out one of my bloggy friends over at Hopkins' Hoppin Happenings as he celebrates his blogiversary.  You can grab one of my best selling items tomorrow ONLY for FREE!

 

Do you have any ideas that you use for recycling Christmas Cards? 



Christmas Craft Day and Freebie #6

Today was one of my favorite days of the entire school year…Christmas Craft Day!!

I love to invite parents to come help us as we have an afternoon of fun.

We started off our day by making elf hats as the students arrived to school.

 

 The students got to choose red or green to create their hats.  Aren't they adorable?

 

 Before we started making crafts, we had to pose as a class.

 

Christmas music played as we began making all the different crafts.  I had enough crafts that I could limit 4 to a table.  They were able to move freely to a different craft at their own speed.

 

The students will crossout a number each day to countdown the days until Christmas.

Snowmen from paperplates.

 

 Foam snowflakes and glitter glue.

 

More crafts...

 

A yummy snack to end our day of fun.

 

We also made the decorations for our cutie-patootie door during our fun day.

 

Here's today's freebie...

 

 

Do you have a Christmas Craft (or several) to share?

Link up below.  Please add the below pix to your blogpost so everyone can find lots of great crafts!

 

  

 

 

Super, Sizzling Summer Special Monday Linky

Welcome to the very first, SUPER, SIZZLING SUMMER SPECIAL Linky Party.  I will be hosting this party each Monday until July 31st to offer you some great deals in my TPT and TN store.  This week's special is:

Buy

Click here for TPT store and here to purchase at my TN store.

for $10.00. and receive

FREE!!!! 

Click here to view on TPT.

That's 10 math stations & 10 literacy stations...a total of 20, for 50 cents each!!!

Just purchase the first, send me a message on here or an e-mail (found at end of the unit) and I will send you the 2nd one free via e-mail.  Do NOT attempt to purchase through the store. 

Well, that's my SUPER, SIZZLING SUMMER SPECIAL for this week.  Check the links below to see other great deals.  I know we would ALL appreciate if you took the time to be a follower of our blogs and stores when you come across a new one!

If you would like to link up, just right click on the picture at the top, save to your computer and post each Monday with a link back to my blog.  Be sure you link up so everyone can find the great deals.  Feel free to link up just once, each Monday, or just a few of your choice.  ENTIRELY up to you.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Cynthia

Most Memorable Moment Of 2011-12 School Year

I'm busy, busy, busy packing up my room.  I'm also joining up with

I would have to say my most memorable moment of 2011-2012 school year was not a good one.  On day 24 into the school year, on a Friday afternoon, 10 minutes before the dismissal bell we were informed that there would be a faculty meeting by the superintendent immediately after buses.  Well, we were expecting bad news since that's all we had had for several months, but we weren't expecting to have a bomb dropped on us.  However, he informed us that our principal and asst. principal had been removed from our school and on Monday morning we would have a new principal.  This was extremely shocking as we were completely blindsided by this as well as that they were both brand-new into their positions.  After 24 days...REALLY????  Yep, really...

Don't forget to enter for a chance to win a personalized, theme of your choice, Back-to-School unit.  Click on the picture for more details.

Cynthia

A Freebie and Packing for the End of the School Year

What do you have to/want to/need to do before you can leave for the summer?  At my school, we have to have EVERYTHING packed up and put away so that the custodians can move all of the furniture out, strip the floors, deep clean, and wax the floors to prepare for the little darlings to scuff them up within the first week of returning.  hahaha... Seriously, sometimes, I wonder why they spend so much time and effort (and make us pack/unpack yearly). 

As a veteran teacher of 23 years, I have learned the more I do now, the easier it will be on me when I return to the most stressful time of the school year...PRE-PLANNING!   Here are some things that I am doing in preparation already...

1)  All new items for my walls, door, etc., I have already sent in for laminating.  Then I will only have to put them up during pre-planning.  I visited the Dollar Tree last week and saw these large cutouts in the teacher section.  I thought they would be cute to make a new birthday display.  Since we have not received money to spend in our classroom for several years, this was a cheap frugal way to get a cute updated one.

2)  I use fabric for my bulletin boards.  Then I do not have to worry about fading.  I go ahead and hang everything up.  If I am worried about dust, I just cover with bulletin board paper and then remove in the fall.  You can see that in the above pictures.  I also turn my calendar, schedule, et.al. pocket charts around toward the board.  They are all ready.  I just have to flip them back over come August! 

3)  This was my first year in this classroom and everything just kind of got shoved in during pre-planning last year because we couldn't get into the building during the summer, so I have been pulling out everything from the cabinets and organinzing my shelves by subjects/items.

4)  I have all copies ready for the first couple of weeks of school.

5)  I leave a space on one of the shelves empty for all of my desk items.  That is the FIRST thing I do when I return for pre-planning.

6)  I have students sort all of my books by levels or genres to make sure they are in the correct bin.  (I'll do that the last couple of days of school.)

7)  We prepared a 2nd grade supply list which will be copied and placed at Walmart for parents to use when purchasing.

8)  We are adopting the Whole Brain Teaching Behavior Management for 2nd grade next year.  I made the rules for all 2nd grade teachers.  We have them posted, ready to go.

I'm sure there are MANY more tidbits that will help everyone out, but I want to leave room for others.  SO, link up your post below telling how you prepare for next year now and what you are required to do for this year.  Be sure to grab the linky party picture to link back to my blog so we can all learn from each other. 

HAPPY PACKING!

AND for reaching 200 followers on my blog, here is a freebie to help you teach Collective Nouns next year (one of those new 2nd grade standards)!  Thanks so much for being a follower!  :-)

Cynthia