that Bee

I cleaned the garage out for Hubby back in February.  I'm a romantic like that. I got rid of old toys, found homes for unused bikes and an old bed. I recycled and donated like a crazy lady.  He saved the day with my computer and reinstalled tons of programs and rescued all the files in the crash.  We're so sweet.  That must be the 13 year anniversary gift.  Household chores. 

So, I was confused when I walked into the garage and found this collection of random items that I didn't recognize. 

This is Bee's doing.  If you know my crazy gal, you know she's a bit of an entrepreneur.  She could sell ice to an Eskimo.  That's how that saying goes, right?

That's what she's doing here.  She's made themed centerpieces out of the spring neighborhood yard cleanup trash.  I couldn't figure out why she was so eager to participate in cleaning other people's yards.  Interesting here is how there was so much random trash between the yards in our neighborhood she's allowed to roam. 

Secondly, she's planning to sell these themed centerpieces at a summer yard sale.  That's right, if you're looking for a fall themed old leopard shoe or a sports themed dog bowl, you know where to find it.  Warning, they're not exactly priced to move quickly.

Guessing she didn't see this on Pinterest. 

You may remember, she used to sell Hankey Blankeys. 
and cookies
and produce from the garden
and art
and pretzels, flowers, kettle corn, cookies

Valentines

Last day of Valentines Day in April.

Here are some fun valentines we gave or got this year.

Here's Bees.  I used the 'print to cut' feature on the silhouette (because it's an awesome machine) to make and cut out scalloped cards.  It's an image that I purchased through the silhouette online shop.  It was in a group of 4 different scalloped shapes. I think the shapes will get used plenty.  We made up friendship bracelets for all the kids in her class.  There are only 13 kids total.  (Can you image teaching only 13!)

We attempted a new type of friendship bracelet.  You make a wheel out of something sturdy with 8 slits.  7 strings are laced through with 1 empty slot.  There is a whole in the middle for the work to pass through. The second string back from the blank gets brought up to the empty spot.  Repeat.  A million times.

The stitching was really cool.

But time consuming for even just 13 bracelets.  Here are some better directions for that type.  We ended up going with the way we used to make them at camp. Fast and cool enough.  I'll have to doing something with a tutorial for that in the summer.

Here are Lou's valentines.  I printed them free here at Sweet Muffin Suite.  Lou and Bee both stamped their valentines with little name stampers I ordered from Pick Your Plum.
 

I mentioned this one already, but we mailed a bottle of paper hearts and other little goodies to a buddy for Valentine's Day.

Here are some cute Valentines either I got from preschool friends or the kids got from their school parties.  Our neighborhood school does not celebrate Valentines day with treats and valentines.  How sad.

 

That's it for Valentines day.  For this year.  Promise.

valentines table activies- preschool style

We're looking at more valentines day things today.  In April.  We're running the air conditioner at this house today. 

So here are a few things from the preschool tables. 

I had out these heart erasers and little heart shaped containers.  The kids poured and closed up containers and shook them, and opened containers and dumped them out and did it again and again.  I think the containers and erasers are from the Target dollar section in years past.

I mentioned these missing number activity last year, they are from Musings of Me. They used to be a free download, but are now part of a bigger Valentines Day pack available in her TPT store.

The sensory box was random pink, purple, and white pom poms and feathers.  This class particularly likes the sensory boxes.  They're all about pouring the beans.

We left out various little paper hearts to color.  They came in handy as we had to make some last minute valentines for a friend who forgot on party day.   The kiddos made pretty hearts for their parents for a whole week.   The are available to print for free here at Creative Classroom.

This poor Valentines bingo is several years old and had been played at both Bee and Lou's parties as well as in my classroom.  I think we did play it whole class one day, but in the mornings, they just covered up the calling pieces with a bingo board.

Every year a few friends bring me chocolates in tins for valentines day.  I devour them happily.  Lou usually helps.  Bee's too picky for the unknown.  Some were set out with old conversation hearts and tweezers for a transferring activity.

A few others were set out with chocolate scented play dough.  We used coco powder to flavor the play dough which was made using this recipe.   The kids made the play dough into chocolates and placed them in the little dividers. 

Kids used their hands to work on this one-to-one correspondence activity. Previous years, we've played this with rolling a dice.

These pieces were also just set out for filling containers and closing and opening them.  I had so many of the big heart containers and was just glad that I found something to use them with.

Think were' done with valentines day... think again. 

valentines party- scond grade style

Yep, I'm talking about Valentines Day.  We had a lovely warm weekend (umm... April weekend), and I feel so far behind with the backlog of items to blog.  It's all because of the computer crash in February.

 

So we're looking at Bee's second grade Valentines Day party.  I got to help work it with another fun mom I've known for the whole time we've lived here.  We went with a 'minute to win it' theme.  The kids had a great time.  The party moved quickly and everyone was thoroughly entertained.

 

We did several games. One was the cup stack.  Apparently this friend had practiced.  We divided the kids into 4 teams so that everyone had lots of turns. He couldn't wait to be the representative for his team in the cup stacking event.  The kids had to stack 36 cups in a pyramid.  They had of course, 1 minute to do this.  He got close, but no one got it.

Here's Bee in the next event.  The four teams were each given a full tissue box.  One group member held it still and another pulled the tissues out one at a time. 

She won this for her group, although I think another group made it too and we gave them both points.

This one was the funniest.  Empty Kleenex boxes had been attached to belts.  The boxes had about 20 ping pong balls inside.  The kids put on the belts and then with one minute, tried to shake all the balls out.  Funny stuff.  I think all groups made it and all got a point.  But we laughed so hard!

We did a marshmallow toss. Just a simple, one player tossed marshmallows in a little container.  I think we had a number set to earn the point, but ended up just giving it to the team with the most.  It was a little harder than we though.  We used heart shaped marshmallows of course.

This was fun too.  One kid from each team put a tongue depressor in his mouth and then added conversation hearts in a stack to the edge of the stick.  Talk about cross eyed!  I think we said to get five for the point, but four was the most any player stacked.   

The best part of this one was that I used the old old candies from my preschool game stash for the game. In fact, I had to throw the white ones out because they turned a musty green color.  We told the kids up front that they were old, played with, germ covered and not to be eaten.  No problem.  One of the moms walked in late and apparently missed that message.  The candies were still laying on the table and she was munching away on them!  I ran over and said that the candies were so gross and not to eat them, and she said, "Oh no, I think conversation hearts are so good!"  Then took another handful.  I quickly explained what I meant by gross... preschool game pieces... little hands gross.  She didn't seem too freaked out, but didn't eat anymore.  We all had a good giggle.

We didn't get to this game.  It would have been a funny one too.  One kid from each team was to put a little dollop of Vaseline on their nose and then try to transfer as many cotton balls as they could from one bowl to another in the minute.  We'll save it for next year.

We also worked on this craft.  We had it set up at three different tables and they worked on each part at a different station. I handed each child a sturdy plastic plate with their name.  This way they could work in any order and just carry their pieces around to the different stations.  One table was decorating the pots.  The kids used white glue to attach tissue paper to the sides of a terra cotta pot.  Another table was adding a little loose crinkly paper filler and wrapping a gladiolas bulb in a coffee filter and tying it closed with a ribbon.   (I looked on the bulb bag to see how to spell gladiolis... it had an i.... now spell checker is saying it's an a at the end....Bee's teacher probably thinks I'm a moron. )

The last station had shortened shish kabob sticks. scraps of fabric, and precut paper toppers.  The kids assembled sticks to decorate their plant.   I printed and cut all the pieces with my silhouette.  It was fun to finally figure out the 'print to cut' option. 

Last year, with roughly the same group of kids, we did watercolor art at the Valentines party and the year before, we played some of these games.
Think this is the last of the valentines posts in April... nope.

that lovely cutter

I've been keeping that new cutter of mine busy.  Here are a few random projects. 

I cut out a bunch of robots for R day at school.  This is a purchased image from Silhouette.  I made my brother a car decal with it too in white vinyl.

I cut out a bunch of chalkboard vinyl (ordered from Pick Your Plum) and labeled everything.

I used my new birthday chalkboard markers (from Joanns) to write on them.  I ran out of chalkboard vinyl but will order more next time they offer it.  The labels are shapes I found online that I traced using the software, so they were free shapes.

These  t-shirts were made for Valentines day using some heat transfer vinyl (from Pick Your Plum).  There was a little learning curve but I love how they turned out.  Lou requested an arrow shooting a heart.  I couldn't find exactly what he wanted, but using the silhouette software, I was able to blend a few and move some parts around to get what he wanted. Bee's bird was an edited purchased picture.

 This heart shirt was for a buddy.  He requested a heart with an arrow.  We came up with a manly version.  This was a purchased image. 

Of course, Tippy and the cats got some fun labels on their food containers.  I told you I'm labeling everything.  These are all free images from found though google images usually with the addition of a little editing.

The vinyl I used here isn't special waterproof vinyl, but it's holding up great so far.

Love this one.  We traded 'water bottle customiation' for fresh eggs.  Birthday boy Lane plays ice hockey.

I used some vinyl as stencils to add our name to this old bench that sits by the front door.  I've been thinking about it for about two years.  We got it at a yard sale a few summers ago.  It holds all the winter gloves and hats. My lettering not centered well and drives me crazy when I look at it.

We added the children's teacher's names in their favorite colors to little notebooks we ordered for teacher appreciation week. The notebooks are from Pick Your Plum.  I'm sort of addicted to that site.

 
The pieces for this bulletin board in my classroom were all cut out with my silhouette too.

 
The images of the children were all free images I found though a google image search.  They were pieced together from different source.

I traced them using the silhouette software.  Most got a touch of editing, but nothing too hard.

 I laminated them and used tape to stick them up.  I'll use them for something again next year for sure.

I made another bunting for the area in the classroom behind the sink.  It reads, "He is risen."   I'm thinking of a spring saying next to carry us though the end of the year.

 
I cut out about a million paper hearts and filled up a bottle that we mailed to a buddy for Valentines day.  We added a few treats and several little notes.  I think it must have been fun to have received it in the mail.

Can I just say again, that my silhouette cameo has been one of the best presents ever!  They aren't even paying me to say that.  But, if they wanted to, I wouldn't complain.