Halloween Goodie Bags for the Brain

Our school has enforced a strict policy that food is not to be part of holiday celebrations in the classroom. A cookie and a juice has always been an easy treat to bring in for special times of the year. So, for this Halloween I had to think outside of the box. I considered running to the dollar store and throwing a bunch of plastic trinkets in a bag and calling it a goodie bag. But, just last week my 1st grade daughter brought home a bag very similar to that from a birthday party she had gone to and as soon as she wasn't looking I dumped it in the trash. I don't need anymore whistles, yo-yo's, bouncy balls, rubber bracelets, etc. So instead, I came up with a goodie bag for the brain. I printed out a Halloween Wordle which is always a hit with kids, a couple pages of Halloween jokes, and a sweet Shel Silverstein poem about trick or treating.
Halloween Poem
Halloween Wordle

Halloween Jokes

Candy Bar Card Tradition

My kids have declared candy bar cards the official gift for teacher birthdays. Its a little bit of a challenge coming up with new things to write using the same old candy bars. I know I could probably just do the same script each time...but, I feel compelled to make each one original. Here's the most recent:

Fathers Day Gift for Grandpa

My sister-in-law just did the CUTEST project for our father-in-law for Fathers' Day. She had an 8x10 canvas and cut out a heart from cardstock, taping the cardstock over the canvas. She assigned each of the grandkids a color from the ink pad. The grandkids filled the inside of the heart with 20 fingerprints each. Then, at the bottom of the canvas, she had the kids put one of their fingerprints with their assigned color and write their name next to it. The idea was inspired by a gift done in her son's preschool class for the teachers for an end of the year gift. I just love how it turned out.

This is the canvas with the cardstock taped over it.

Here's an example of a project done as
an end of the year teacher gift.

Here is our finished product for Grandpa!

Pool Parties

My daughter waited until the last minute to give her input on her 6th birthday party. We begged her to make up her mind. Would you like to go bowling? To the beach? To the trampoline place? No. No. No. Her birthday was soon upon us and I needed to get on with the rest of our lives. So, I suggested to my husband that we take matters into our own hands. If we beat her to the punch and plan a surprise party for her, we no longer have to wait for her to make up her mind. We planned it a week early so that it would catch her off guard. An evite alerted all parents that this was a surprise so please keep a secret from the invites if they can't keep it quiet, or let them know to not tell the guest of honor.
The party was a huge hit. Her friends loved hiding and yelling "Surprise!"

More Fathers Day ECards

iMovie is a fun way to take simple home videos and spice them up a little. Here are a couple more ideas  to make Dad smile on his special day. Click on the links below to see the Ecards on YouTube.


ILoveYou Fathers Day Card

ILoveYou Fathers Day Card with still photos

Fathers Day 2013 Ecard

Here’s a fun and easy project for Father’s Day that can be done at home or even in the classroom. This lesson is modeled after one of the current video trends on YouTube.

Click on the link below to see one of our finished projects filmed on the iPhone and dropped into iMovie:

Fathers Day Project 2013

Here’s how to create a Father’s Day Project of your own:

1) Draw a portrait of Dad

2) Follow this worksheet which you will turn into individual pages as seen in the video. Younger children might need help coming up with similes. You can guide them by suggesting…”Hmmm…dad is pretty strong…what is a strong animal that you can think of that we can compare to Dad?” Some examples are: He is as busy as a bee. He is as funny as a hyena.

3) Then type each line of the worksheet onto a separate piece of paper.

4) You can use a camera phone or any other type of video camera to film. Practice with children taking their time with switching the papers. Have them watch the video of the final project so that they can see what they are trying to achieve.

5) Send to Dad on Father’s Day giving him a video that will melt his heart.

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