A Very Bloggy Christmas

Sorry this is so late! I've been spending almost every second of my break playing and cuddling with my little baby (he's 6 months old today).

I just wanted to show you some great ideas I got from other blogs, and how I used their ideas in my classroom.

Gifts to Parents: Ceramic Leaf Bowls / Ornaments


I got this idea from Fun Art for Kids (also shown on Deep Space Sparkle) and although mine did not turn out nearly as cute, I still thought it was a fun project.

Things I learned from doing this project...
Plan ahead!
Do it more than just a week before Christmas break.
Spend the extra money and order the special glazes. (I'm sure it's worth it, I wish I had ordered them.)
Put on more than one layer of glaze. (Which is also why you need more time to do this project.)
Make sure the clay has adequate time to dry - 2 days is not enough! (We had some explode because they weren't completely dry. Oopsies!)
Tell students to make it thin. A couple of them were really thick, which is also a reason why some of them were not dry and exploded...)
The more rolling pins you have, the better. One per group would've been nice. 

Gifts to Faculty: Personalized Stationary
I got this adorable idea from First Grade Teaching. Our class made them for all the administrators, secretaries, janitors, etc. I think they turned out super cute!

Things I learned from doing this project...
Create a template - Use a marker to draw little squares around the edges of your paper, and use that paper to put behind the paper your students draw on. (Even 5th graders struggled without the template.)
Call students back to do this in small groups while your class is working on another project.
First Grade Teaching scanned the images into her computer, added the font, then shrunk them down. I didn't. I merged the two pages together and shrunk them down on the copier. It was super tricky to figure out. And took a LONG time.
Also, plan ahead. Don't wait until the night before the last day of school to finish this. It will take you all night! :)

I think the most important thing I learned from doing these projects: Don't be afraid to try new things. It may not turn our perfect the first time, but that's okay! You'll learn from your mistakes and be better in the future! :)
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