I have to admit my husband looked less than convinced when I excitedly tried to explain, this, my latest crafty light-bulb moment. “Why on earth would you want…
When my kids were younger, we had so many marbles. Seriously, those little things could be found in every crack and corner of my house. Now that the kids have sort of outgrown their marble playing days, I started thinking about what I could do with those marbles. I mean, we’re talking so many marbles!
So I have the ULTIMATE project going on - Baby #4 in the oven - just in time for Valentine's Day! And you all know how much I love V-Day - perfect timing! {gasp!} So not only will winter be long, hard, miserable, and cold, I'm going to have an extra 50 pounds on my bladder and have the appearance of a wounded, beached walrus! Sweet - bring it on. Now I have an awesome excuse to make all kinds of cute baby things all for myself!! haha. {FYI - I got this picture from this Etsy site - totally perfect}
I wish I were one of those crafty types who could look at an old sweater and see more than a Goodwill deduction. If you're Viola Hale of Viola Studio, you
Elissa Campbell is a bookbinder who lives and works in Montpelier, Vermont. Her school lead her to pursue graduate studies in Art Therapy and along the way, she took a job at Paper Source, the paper store that all of...
Are you on the GAPS Diet? Have you thought about starting it? Do you know why, when, & how to stop? Get the answers here.
Trying to teach your kids about plants? Here are several fun classroom activities that will get children interested in growing plants and finding out more about them. Some of these activities are what first captured my imagination as a child and are the reason I love growing plants to this day.
My eyeballs almost exploded when I spotted the Not Knot - Turk's Head pillow by Ragnheiður Ösp Sigurðardóttir. Love at first sight!
PinterestTwitterFacebook Here’s another Vintage Sheet project. Easy to do only 3 seams and some elastic. I love how the PJ bottoms turned out. This is an easy project to make if you have limited sewing skills. I used my favorite flannel pajama bottoms as a pattern. They were full of holes in all the wrong...
I think more people would cross-stitch if it were called 'pixelated thread art', which, in 21st century parlance, is exactly what it is. A series of X's
Best science experiment ever! Make a fantastic eruption with hydrogen peroxide, yeast, soap, and food coloring! This science project is perfect for science shows for all ages: preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school! Even adults enjoy this one!
It's not hard to sit down with your kids and make a list of things to do before the summer ends. (granted, some of these are still INDOOR a...
We're big fans of taking your stitchery to the next level with a little LED action, so I'm excited to see this new embroidery pattern from our gal, Haley.
Do you have any suggestions for fun, quiet and small toys for a looooong flight/travel day for a 2yo and a 4yo, both boys? Would love to hear your
Homemade Stilts: I have been wanting to make a large monster costume for Halloween for awhile now. I looked into getting some drywall stilts bet found they were $60 or more. I figured I could make my own for cheaper than that and get the pleasure of making something…
If I Were a Veterinarian Craftivity Writing prompts are great....but they are definitely more fun for your students when a craft is added to the activity. This set is perfect learning about community helpers and includes: A Veterinarian Craftivity with a picture, patterns, and directions - Writing Prompt: If I were a veterinarian...(1 line and 3 dotted) - Writing Prompt: Veterinarians are... (1 line and 3 dotted) - Writing Prompt: Veterinarians help by... (1 line and 3 dotted) - Writing Prompt: I want to be a veterinarian because...(1 line and 3 dotted) Please note: I have been creating projects and templates for Xeroxing for years. All my projects are created by me and templates are hand traced with spacing in mind. I try to fit as many pieces as I can onto a piece of construction paper while still giving children space to hold the paper and turn it for cutting. I do my best to make clean cut traced lines, but I am not perfect. My hand drawn templates have been used by many ages who have easily traced them and created replicas of my sample. Also, the colors I have selected for this project are just a suggestion, feel free to change them! ***************************************************************************** Check out the complete Community Helper Craftivity Set here: Community Helper Craftivities. ***************************************************************************** Customer Tips: How to get TPT credit to use on future purchases: • Please go to your My Purchases page (you may need to login). Beside each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button. Simply click it and you will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. Each time you give feedback, TPT gives you feedback credits that you use to lower the cost of your future purchases. I value your feedback greatly as it helps me determine which products are most valuable for your classroom so I can create more for you. ☺ Be the first to know about my new discounts, freebies and product launches: • Look for the green star next to my store logo and click it to become a follower. Voila! You will now receive email updates about this store. ☺ *****************************************************************************
I thought it would be fun to make some clear bean bags for Benjamin to play with so that he could see all of the different (not baby-safe) objects inside. These were really easy to make and it was a lot of fun to pick out different things to go inside of the bean bags. Since there are small parts that could come loose and become choking hazards, I would
After all the hype about Fashion week in NYC, we're in the mood for some serious couture. However, we're not in the mood to spend all that money. So we
Photos from Craft PassionThe other day I shared some adorable Sock Sheep on Facebook. They were designed and c
"Today, we're going to write an autobiography in class. Okay, I want you to take ten minutes and brainstorm as much as you can about your life then write a one page paper. You will start with an introduction, and the body of your paper will be in chronological order, beginning with your earlier childhood and evolving into who you are, and who you want to become. You must have a catchy ending as well. Got it? Good! You may begin." (As I stare upon overwhelmed, confused, and stressed fifth graders...) Hmm... What did I do wrong? What I said made COMPLETE sense to me! Let's take a step back and evaluate my approach. Do you think that this approach will produce amazing autobiographies? Or will it be a jumbled mess? I'm opting for the second. Why? BECAUSE I saw it happen! I have been teaching since 2007...not including my subbing time, and time spent in college. I have come to find, like many of us do, that the success in a lesson can single-handedly depend upon our approach and introduction to a topic. No, I didn't start my lesson on writing autobiographies like this. :) I may have done these things in bits and pieces, but they were spread out and with explanations and examples. I start with reading an autobiography. We started with our basal reader, and the story of William Joyce Scrapbook. This story is all about this author/illustrator and how his life evolved into one that celebrates creativity, as well as how he gets inspired for new projects. To do something well, it helps for our students to SEE and/or LISTEN to a finished product. I always provide a visual aid and classroom discussion on how to approach the task. I LOVE anchor charts! Here's the one that I created for this project: I love to make my anchor charts bright and fun to look at. I believe that it engages my students, and almost lures them into reading them top to bottom. I also provide a structure. I like something tangible that they can write on. I gave my students this print out to engage their thoughts. The size of the blocks allowed them to focus on the most important details. You can grab a copy of this worksheet HERE. Don't get me wrong, we love to do messy brainstorming sessions, where we spend a great deal of time making notes, organizing our thoughts, and creating webs that guide our work. They are a wonderfully messy, yet organized way of pulling details out of us. Oxymoron?...maybe...but that works, too! This works really well for introductions and conclusions. If your students are anything like mine, this is where they struggle. I get the same, "Hi! My name is John Doe. I am writing about myself, so sit back, relax, and learn all about me!" BORING. I have a bulletin board that is dedicated to "Bold Beginnings," "Mighty Middles," and "Exciting Endings." I'm sure you've seen them...they look like this: I put these babies to work! They really ARE great conversation starters. I think it's SO important to SHARE what we have created with one another. We provide constructive criticism on what we liked, or ways that we could improve something that we hear. It's a form of friendly competition in my classroom. Who can create the boldest beginning, or the most exciting ending? I'm also the type of teacher that says..."Eh...not exactly what I'm looking for here. Let's try this!" I tell my kiddos that it takes great practice and care in creating a perfect paper. The first copy, the second copy, and possibly even the third, fourth, and fifth copy may need to be tweaked a bit. I stress that we... And that it's okay! ************************************************************ I want to take a minute to talk about the actual assignment I gave to my students. I LOVE a good at-home project to get our parents to sit down with their kiddos to work on something together. This works for the most part. I know...I know...there are students who just don't have a great home life. I'm blessed with students this year, who even in a broken home, have someone that is willing to pitch in and make the most of what it is that they are to do. You use common sense and assign these assignments based on the needs of your students. So, I started with a letter describing that we were reading an autobiography in class and that the students were working on writing their very own. I sent that home, along with a skin-colored piece of construction paper and directions for making a crafty student model to accompany their writings. I'm never quite sure how these assignments will turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results! I loved seeing how students viewed themselves. Have a look! These are just a couple that came back. Have a look at our hallway... So cute! Overall, this lesson was a great success! I would be lying if I said that our grammar was 100% perfect, but that's certainly something that we're working on...and that's OKAY! The point is that we are writing. We are working through the writing process and becoming more alert of our mistakes, as well as recognizing when we should celebrate our creativity! What about you?? What have you done lately in your classroom to help promote the writing process? I'd love to hear how you make your students better writers! Let's talk in the comments below! Take a peek at what else I'm up to... Bloglovin' Facebook Pinterest TpT My Blog
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