Mother's Day Handprint Calendar

This year for Mother's Day I decided to let my first grade students try something new. Normally, I do a recipe book for Mother's Day, but this year I wanted to try something a little more personal. We did a handprint calendar for their moms, and I have to say they turned out so PRECIOUS! I had to include them on the blog so I don't forget this idea. A few of you may even want to make this with your own little ones :) I first found this idea on this website. I took her idea and kind of rearranged the calendar to make it my own. This was the end result. Under each handprint we had the corresponding month on a blank calendar to make it a functional calendar. Our calendar went from May 2011 to May 2012 so that their moms would have a full year of special handprints :)

Cover Page

May 2011

June 2011

July 2011

August 2011

September 2011

October 2011

November 2011

December 2011

January 2012

February 2012

March 2012

April 2012

May 2012

Happy Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day this year, I wanted Eli to have a special Valentine Card for his friends, one that they wouldn't just throw away when they got home. I get the magazine Family Fun every month and one of the homemade Valentine's cards they featured was a recycled crayon heart card. I thought this would be perfect for his age group and I knew that Eli would be able to help make it.

I searched the internet for a cute card to go with it and found this one at The Long Thread. Perfect! We were ready to start our project!

First, we had to peel and break lots of crayons into little pieces. Eli loved this part because he got to step on them and he got to karate chop them!

Our crayons were ready to go!

Grammy found these cute silicone heart trays for me before she came down for the weekend. They were originally meant for making ice cubes, but they worked for this craft perfectly!

Eli and Grammy loaded up each heart with different colored pieces of crayons.

Ready for the oven!

We put them in a 250 degree oven for about 7-10 minutes or until the crayons were completely melted. Then we took them out and let them cool.

Eli thought the final product was pretty cool!

Our first handmade Valentine card turned out SO CUTE! Now I've got to think about what to do next year...

Eli's Handmade Ornaments and Crafts

A few days before Christmas, Eli and I sat down to make some ornaments for Grammy, Pop, and Zue-Zue. Both of the ornaments we made for the grandparents are ones that my first graders do every year for their parents. They were so easy, I thought that Eli would be able to do it, too...with a little help from Mommy, of course!

To make the first ornament all you need is waxed paper, glue, and cut up Mardi Gras beads. Put a huge circle of glue on waxed paper and drop the Mardi Gras beads on top. Next, sprinkle with glitter and then put in a spot where it can dry. The drying process takes the longest. When the ornament is dry, cut around the beads, and hot glue a hook on the back.

The second ornament we made was very easy to make as well. I used red, white, and peach paint and painted the inside of Eli's hand. When he put his handprint on paper, the result ended up looking like Santa Claus. We added some googly eyes, a red bead for a nose, and some winter snow for his beard. We cut around the handprint and attached a ribbon through Santa's hat for the final product. Both grandparents loved this ornament!

The next two pictures are Christmas crafts that Eli made at school. These are going in his file for Mommy to keep forever for sure :)

A reindeer made from his footprint and his handprints

Eli's Santa handprint from school

I can't wait to see what other cute handmade crafts/ornaments Eli is going to make over the years to come. Those are the ones that I will look back on fondly every time we put our Christmas tree up year after year.