Teacher Appreciation Week Giveaway!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!
I'm so excited to be teaming up with the girls from The Primary Pack to bring you this fabulous Giveaway!

We really want you to know how much we appreciate you and how amazing we think you are. Teachers are the most dedicated, hard-working people around, and we want to celebrate you! So we are each giving away a gift card to one of our favorite places to shop. But we didn't stop there! We are also giving away one big GRAND PRIZE on The Primary Pack blog!

Here on my blog, I am giving away one 25.00 gift card to....winner's choice!  Choose from Teachers Pay Teachers, Target, Lakeshore Learning, Starbucks, Etsy, Dunkin Donuts, Amazon or Coach! Choose to use it for something for your classroom, home or splurge on yourself!

Enter below in the Rafflecopter to win!
The entry window is from 5am EST 5/4 through 11:59pm EST 5/10.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And now, for the GRAND PRIZE!

Over at The Primary Pack, we are giving way a 250.00 gift card to Tieks! That's right, Tieks! The most COLORFUL, comfortable, Italian leather shoes around!

I was so fortunate to finally get my toes into a pair to bring in 2015 (thanks to an awesome promo code)!

They truly live up to their reputation!  I am itching to get another pair...I actually set it as a fitness/weight loss goal for myself!  Once I lose 20 pounds, I am treating myself to a pair!

We know how much money you have undoubtedly put into your classroom this year for resources and supplies--so this giveaway is all about a splurge just for you! For 250.00, you can even get a fancy pair! To enter, click HERE or click on the image below!

And don't forget to visit each of our blogs for chances to win even more great prizes!

An InLinkz Link-up

If you missed my post yesterday with some easy Teacher Appreciation Gifts,
be sure to check it out here:

You can find my post from last year here too:

And don't forget!

Teachers Pay Teachers is hosting a Teacher Appreciation Sale May 5th and 6th!

Everything in my Teachers Pay Teachers store will be 20% off- then use the code THANKYOU for an additional 10% off!

Stock up on Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Father's Day, End of Year, Summer AND if you are super eager, Back-to-School Resources!

My wishlist is full- now to go leave feedback on all my prior purchases so I can gain credits for free stuff!

Wishing you a wonderful Teacher Appreciation Week!

You deserve it!

Best of luck in all the giveaways!

Until next post,

Teachers Are The 'Balm'! Easy Teacher Appreciation Gift!

Teacher Appreciation Week is here!

Time to let my boys' teachers know how much we appreciate all they do!

Last year I made these cups:

for the boys teachers (click the picture to get the download for free)...

But wanted to do something different this year!

At Christmas I came upon a cute gift using EOS lip balm but had already purchased the teacher gifts.  I said to myself...remember to make something like this for Teacher Appreciation Week!

And...to my surprise...I remembered!

I wanted it to be pretty and spring-y after the winter we had this year!

So I purchased some cute flower and tea party clipart from Etsy and WALLAH...here it is:

I purchased a whole bunch of different colored EOS lip balms (CVS had the yellow 1/2 price!)

I needed 11 total!

Assembly was SUPER easy!

First cut a small slit in the flower:

Then cut the center of the flower out.  You want to leave a bit of the green so that it is snug enough the 'hold' the lip balm.  I made the mistake of trimming all the way to blue and the lip balm just fell through! 

It is going to be snug and look like it doesn't fit- that is OK!  Just keep pushing it through gently.  You may get a little tear- that is OK too (see the tear in mine!)  If it is too tight, put a few slits in the green to give it more 'give.' 

This is what the back looked like on mine (see- another tear- it is OK!) 

Looking at is 'sideways' should look like this: 

The EOS lip balm has a 'line' where the top twists off the bottom.  I used that as my guide.  I pushed it in to the line and then knew it was in right!

I wanted the teacher to know it was new, and the 'flavor,' so I slipped the cardboard sleeve into the back too! 

For the tea side, simply tape a tea bag onto the mug:

You can choose to use both by folding it in half and securing the edges with a piece of tape

Or choose to just cut on the dotted line and use just one part!

My son has a new math teacher push-in to his class 1x a week.  He was adamant she get a gift too, but I was out of EOS lip balm, so we made her just a tea one.  I had originally bought a box of Celestial Seasons 'calming' tea bags for this project, but when I opened them they were not individually wrapped (4 bags to a package), so that worked great for this one:

Now it was time to wrap it!

My original intention was to wrap each in cellophane

BUT....I ran out...and so did the store when I went to get more, so I found these tall 'Loot Bags' at Dollar Tree and they worked great too!

I made up some tags to put on the outside and label with the teachers' names.  I also wanted them to know they were for teacher appreciation since it wasn't 'mentioned' anywhere on the lip balm or tea bag templates!

So now all 12 are wrapped and ready to be delivered tomorrow!

I am off to bake a batch of cookies for the before/aftercare teachers too!

Want to do something similar for a special teacher you know?

Download the templates and tags for FREE by clicking here:

But don't go too far....

You'll want to come back tomorrow for:

Each blogger from The Primary Pack will be giving away a gift card (up to $25 each) on her blog AND there will be a grand prize on The Primary Pack that you WON'T want to miss!  It will surely put a 'spring' in your 'step' if you were to win!! (HINT HINT!!!)  

You can find out all about what gift card I chose to give away...and links to all the participating blogs and the GRAND PRIZE entry link on this post that will go live at 5am EST May 4th!

And don't forget Teachers Pay Teachers is appreciating teachers too!

May 5th-May 6th my entire store will be 20% off...use code THANKYOU for an additional 10% off!

My wishlist is overflowing...and I have racked up a lot of TPT credits from leaving feedback, so I am ready to treat myself!

Our PTA is treating us to a wonderful luncheon next week!  I hope your school treats you to something fabulous too!

Hope to see your name in the entries...or even as a winner in one of the giveaways!

Until next post,

Clipboard Makeover!

My students LOVE read, write and count the room activities so much that they nearly wore out our clipboards last year.

So this summer I decided to get some new ones...but I wanted to make them fun and decorative!

SO....

I now have 24 boards that went from

I chose to detail how I made these boards so that if you want to 'dress up' your boards for the year you'll have the easy how-to!  This project took NO time at all- all you'll need are boards and craft/duct tape!

I also chose to highlight my brand new 'count the room' product that I made for my kinders to use to try out these boards as part of 

It will be only $1 all week!

and will be a perfect way to try out your new boards too!!!

I'll tell more about it later in the post...

SO now onto how to make the boards fun and fabulous!

 I ordered a case of clipboards from Amazon

and purchased craft tape from CVS (50% off this week- only $2.99 a roll) and patterned Duct Tape from a few different craft and discount stores.

Starting on the front side of the board, measure a piece that fits across the board with a little 'leftover' to hang off each edge.

make sure your first piece is lined up right on the bottom edge

You can measure/cut with scissors, but I found it easier to rip the piece off as I went along

 Once the front was covered, I flipped the board over.  Starting at the bottom corner I folded the 'center' first and then the sides to make a nice rounded corner

 then I folded each piece over as I made my way to the top and did the same with the top corner pieces

This is what the back looked like once all the pieces were folded over

to make a pen/marker loop cut a small piece of tape (I eyed it) and fold one edge down about half way

and then folded the bottom edge up to meet and 'seal' in the sticky!

fold it into a loop

Once the pen/marker loop is secured, cut pieces of tape to cover the back.  You want these to be a tad shorter so that it fits in the space without having to fold it over the edge (if it is too long and you have to fold it over it doesn't look bad- it happened a few times to me!)

 and here is the back all covered:

put a pen or marker in the loop!

(You can make it w/o the loop if you choose)

Now- I found that one of designs had tape that was a bit thinner so it didn't fit to the top perfectly.  If this happens to you, here is how to 'finish' off the top.

Lay a piece over the clip part... 

 and then use a knife to trim off the excess (I used a pairing knife- you could use an exacto blade)

and then 'peel' away the excess tape that was covering the clip

and when it's all trimmed it fits in neatly! 

So here are all my boards ready for fun and learning this year!

And I also made some for my sons to give to their teachers for the first day of school!

I am going to write in the teachers names and have each of them 'sign' their names at the bottom.

The poem I wrote says to 'sit down with a cup of tea' so I attached a tea bag to the clipboard too.

These adorable bags were only $1 at Target!

Now onto the $1 item for the week.... 

This is a fun way to try out those new boards!  PLUS it is virtually NO prep on your part!  Simply print the cards on cardstock, laminate and cut!

Print the recording sheets and copy- BAM- you are done!

PLUS the cards can be used for multiple activities (see below) so your 'prep' will pay off!

You will get 10 picture cards that you can tape around the room (or if you prefer they can be put in a basket and kept on a table)

 and 10 number cards

 There are 3 different recording sheets so that you can differentiate.

The first one is for students who do not need any number writing/ID assistance.

The second one has a number line on top for reference.

The third has the numbers (answers) dotted- students would simply have to trace the number after finding/counting the objects.

In addition for using it as a 'count the room' center, you could also use it for ordering numbers 1-10, matching objects to numbers 1-10 and/or as a 'partner' game.  Distribute picture and number cards to students.  Have them then walk around to find their 'partner' (match number to number of objects)- perfect for back to school and getting to know you too!

If your students aren't quite ready to use this right in the beginning of the year it is an easy one to use at any other time of the year because the 'theme' is 'school!'

This pack will be 50% off ($1) through 8/31!

Are you ready to make some fun boards for your kids for this year?

I'd love to see pictures of the patterns you choose!  There are so many to choose from- it was so hard!

And now I am thinking of ways to use the 'excess' tape!!!

This is my last week of summer vacation...I will be working in my classroom and having fun in the sun with my kiddos!  I am hoping to post 'classroom reveal pictures' but back-to-school crazies may get in the way!

Until next post,