Snowman Soup

Are you planning on giving your students 'Snowman Soup' this holiday season?

I have given this to my students in years past and never 'loved' my topper, but during the last TpT Cyber Sale I found a Snowman Soup clipart set from Scappin' Doodles!

I was so excited to use it to make this topper:

So it was time to get to work!

I got these adorable bags from Michaels yesterday...and they were 50% off!

There are 25 bags in the package...and it came down to less than $1 after my 15% off teacher discount (if you don't already know about it, click the link...simply show teacher ID each time you shop at Michaels and you get 15% off your order!)

I gathered my supplies...

hot chocolate packets, marshmallows, Hershey Kisses and candy canes

Each bag got 1 packet of hot cocoa, 2 large marshmallows, 2 Hershey Kisses and 1 mini candy cane:

I then got the excess air out and zipped them closed.

I am waiting on printer ink (to be delivered tomorrow!) so I could not print my toppers yet, but I will print them, cut, fold over the top and affix with a staple.

I bought these cute mugs from Oriental Trading

 and will put them in the kids gift bags with the Snowman Soup packs!

I put the tags into a FREE and EDITABLE pack in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store:

It will open in Power Point.

You can print the tags 'as is'

or add your name:

You can even add your own text to the back (maybe your recipe is a bit different!)

And as you can see, the tags come in both color and black and white!

You can print the b&w version on colored paper to conserve ink!

I have some other food/snack toppers in my TpT Store too:

If you are searching for more winter and/or snow resources, be sure to visit my store:

and find the 'custom category' on the left sidebar for Winter!

Happy Holidays!

Wishing you 'snow' much fun this holiday season!

Until next post,

Parent Gift- Snowman Ornament!

Our holiday gift making is in full swing!

When I left school on Friday we had 7 completely done!

Next week the rest will finish up...then we will add our tags and make gift bags!

In the past I have always done the '5 Little Snowmen' handprint/poem on a blue glass (and sometimes plastic) ornament:

But this year I was seeking an alternative so that when they traveled home with students there would be less risk of damage!

Most of the ornaments went home with parents after our annual Kindergarten Holiday Sing, but I have many parents that cannot make it this year, so I didn't want to have to send a lot of precious ornaments home in backpacks and risk them getting crushed broken by excitable innocent kids sitting on the bus on the day before Christmas break (and this year that is December 23rd!).

So I sought out an alternative!

I started using my Silhouette Cameo this year and became part of a few Facebook groups of people who use their machines for the most incredible and creative crafts!

Many were talking about how they were using Lowes and Home Depot tiles to make ornaments:

(aren't they CUTE?!)

This got me thinking....

So I purchased 2 different size tile sheets from Home Depot (my Lowes was OUT- and the salesman was SHOCKED when he couldn't find them in any Lowes stores in the area...I told him they were used for crafting and were all over Pinterest and he looked at me as if I was just dropped from Santa's sleigh!)

The top tile is good for 1 finger (and is the one used in the pin above).

It comes with 18 to a sheet for $7.98

The bottom tile (that my hand is on) is what I decided to go with.

There are 12 to a sheet for $12.98.

The cost basically came out to about $1 per ornament!

My younger son is in kindergarten this year, so I used him as a guinea pig model to see how it would go, if I liked it as much as the ball ornament and if it was something I wanted to tackle with my 20 students!

Using white acylic paint, I brushed 3 of his fingers and a part of his palm and pressed it on the tile:

Once it was dry I had him use Sharpie markers to decorate!

First 'draw a line and a square' on each snowman as a hat:

Add black 'coal' eyes and mouth:

And then use orange to give each one a 'carrot' nose:

Then he added brown 'stick' arms:

and completed the snowmen with scarves and buttons:

Finally I had him add his name to the bottom:

I learned from his, that I needed to make the snowman a tad 'lower' on the tile to allow for space to put the year, so I made sure I did that with my students!

My husband had bought special drill bits and was going to drill holes for me but that was a FAIL, so I was advised by the group that made a bazillion of the ornaments seen above to use D-ring hooks and E6000 glue.  So last weekend we set the tiles up outside (thanks Mother Nature for the mild December!) and glued them all on!  The glue is a bit stinky, but it sure holds well!

I got some thin holiday ribbon from Michaels (the roll has red, white and green polka dot print on one roll) and let them choose the color, cut a piece and tied it on!

I haven't decided yet if I am going to modge podge their holiday picture onto the back of the ornament or glue and laminate onto the back of the tag.

These tags will be printed on cardstock and they will be writing their name and the year on it:

that will go with the ornament.

You can click to download it for free!  I also have the Spanish version included (I translated via Google Translate) because I have many Spanish-speaking families this year.

I only have it in color, but you can always print in 'grayscale' if you wanted to conserve ink.

We'll probably be wrapping them up in these reindeer gift bags:

which is just a brown paper bag that they decorate with a reindeer face.  Trace their hands/have them cut.  They wrap their ornament in tissue paper and place it in the bag.  I then fold the bag down and staple it closed while attaching the handprint 'antlers!'

(Make sure you have them put their name on the bottom/back of the bag first!)

But I also saw this cute idea to make wrapping paper using a sponge:

from I Heart Arts and Crafts!

I think it will all depend on how hectic the week gets!

If you need some other holiday craft ideas, be sure to check out my TPT store for both free and paid resources:

Happy Crafting!

Until next post,

Holiday Centers & Candy Cane Word Work!

There is definitely excitement in the air so my motto this time of year is 'if you can't beat them, join them!'

All of my centers for next week are holiday related...

Stamping Center:

The kids will stamp their sight words in the ornaments and then use Holiday Smencils to write the words!

Want to make for yourself?  It's super easy:

Simply insert a table into a PowerPoint document.  Type the words you want and then insert ornament clip art (you can find images for free) to match the number of letters.

The following week (yes...we go until 3:30pm on 12/23!) they will write the letters with white crayon in the lightbulbs and then use watercolor paint over them to 'reveal' the letters to make the lights 'twinkle':

(I copied this one on cardstock to make it sturdier!)

Sight Word Puzzles:

You can find 27 'Ready To Go' Puzzles, plus editable templates for 2-5 letter words here:

My kids LOVE doing these puzzles!  Some weeks they choose to do 2 puzzles instead of going to early finisher baskets!

Listening Center:

They love the Froggy stories!  They will write about/draw what Christmas looks like to them!

Phonics Center:

I am breaking out stockings for this one!

I have 'stuffed' each stocking with pictures and they will reach in and pull out a 'toy'- they will write what letter the picture (toy) starts with!

You can find this editable pack here:

Read It, Build It, Draw It:

The students read the sentence (our sight word this week is 'said') and then build the sentence.  Some students draw and others re-write the sentence.  They then circle 'said' in the sight word reader and practice reading it to a friend.

We do this center every week and it has really helped them with sight word development, concepts about print and given them confidence as readers!

If you are working on 'said' and would like this set, you can download it for free here!

And their new favorite center...

Read the Room:

This will be our second week doing 'read the room' this year.

They will be walking around to find the holiday images.  They will ID what letter the picture on that card starts with and write it on the recording sheet:

It is specific to the letters we are currently working on and my students are having trouble with, but if you can find it useful, as well, I have put it up for FREE in this Dropbox download!

As I mentioned earlier, we go until 12/23, so for the following week I have a candy cane word work activity all prepped and ready to go!

It came from an idea I saw on Pinterest:

  

shared by Carolyn Kisloski on her blog Kindergarten Holding Hands and Sticking Together.

I thought it was such a cute idea and I shared it on my Facebook page it and it got so many shares!

But I didn't want my students to just glue words without practicing them, so I came up with an idea!

I printed large 'J's' on red cardstock (because I couldn't find a candy cane image without stripes!) and then found a 15-spot spinner from Graphics From The Pond to put all the sight words we have covered onto it!

I then made text boxes for all the words with dotted lines so the kids could cut them out to glue to the candy cane.

I made an EDITABLE TEMPLATE for you for FREE to download too!

(The first set is the set of words you see here, the second set can be edited to fit any words you are working on!)

Each child (or you could have them work in pairs) gets a spinner, candy cane and set of words:

Using a paper clip/pencil, spin a word: 

Find the word that the paperclip landed on in the pile of words: 

and then glue it to the candy cane: 

Continue to spin, read word, find word and glue it to the candy cane until the candy cane is full and/or you have run out of words!

If a word is spun that was already landed on, spin again: 

Extra words can be glued to the back: 

To make the candy cane 'neater' you can trim off the excess white from the word strips: 

And here is your completed candy cane! 

BUT it doesn't have to stop there!

You can then use the candy cane and spinner for a word work game!

Put out some fun pom poms (or holiday erasers, candy, counters, etc!)

Students spin and then cover the word on their candy cane! 

Continue to spin/cover until all the words are covered!

The kids could even take the spinners home and continue to practice and play with their families over holiday break!

If you are still in need of some holiday resources, you can find my free and paid resources here:

and be sure to check out my New Year goodies too so that you are all prepped and ready to kick off 2016!

Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy holiday season!

Until next post.