Paper bag scrapbook album - 3rd Grade

The end of the school year...

time to thank another great teacher...

and another paper bag photo scrapbook album has been delivered.

 

 

 

You can see last years album HERE.

I had some school themed scrapbook paper in my supply, and I also had some new ones. Whenever I see new patterns at Michaels I can't resist grabbing a few when they are on sale for .12c each! I really like the owl pattern, but my favorite is the cursive writing one. Since the class learned cursive writing this year, I thought it was perfect!

 

I also have a small collection of school themed stickers/embellishments.

Now that I have been making these for teacher gifts for a few years now, I always bring my camera to school functions/parties/trips. I also remind the other parents to send me any good pictures they take throughout the year. I wish I had more pictures of classroom parties, but there is so much going on I usually just don't have enough time to get pictures. But there are plenty of other things throughout the year to capture, like Mini-art, Family Night, Spring Program, and the baby chicks that hatched in the classroom this spring! This year I also made sure to snap some pictures of their projects displayed in the hallway...the graphing project, the Beverly Cleary book project, and the solar system models.

On the front cover, I used my cricut to cut out the teacher's name and school year. On the back cover, I left it blank so that all the students could sign their names. I also had a page in the middle that I left for "special messages" if anyone wanted to write her a special thank you note.

 

 

 

I used school colors of orange and blue ribbon for the edge of the album.

I know the kids love to look through the pictures on the last day of school, and what kid doesn't look for themselves on every page? Ha!

Have a great summer!

Girl Scouts May Meeting

Well, I survived my first year as troop leader! Whew! I feel like I almost know what I'm doing now...and it only took me a year to figure it out. :)

This was our final meeting for this school year so I had a LOT planned.

First, we had spring registration also known as Early Bird Registration. That should make things a little easier in the fall. It will also allow me to start buying new uniforms in plenty of time for our fall bridging ceremony. These Brownies will be bridging to Juniors next year!

The girls worked on their Early Bird patch designs to be entered for the drawing.



Next we read letters from a neighboring Brownie troop about 20minutes from us. My friend and fellow troop leader, Holly, decided to have our girls write letters to each other. So her troop was first and I read the letters to my girls. Next year we will write letters back describing ourselves and our favorite things. Kind of like Brownie pen pals!
Letters we read:

Since summer vacation is almost here, I wanted to make something really fun that they can enjoy this summer. And decorating flip flops were at the front of my mind. At first I thought about decorating them using water balloons tied around the straps. But I tried it out and decided that it was not easy enough for them to do on their own. Water balloons are too tiny for young hands to be able to tie a knot so I needed to try something easier and quicker. So I saw this idea for bandana flip flops. Click here for the link.

I ordered a bunch of different color and patterns of bandanas from Hobby Lobby at $.99 each. I bought a pair of flip flops for each girl also at $.99 each. So this is an easy $2 project! Unless you have sensitive skin like me and prefer fabric over plastic flip flops. But you could decorate ANY pair your heart desires! They have some very fun and festive red white and blue ones at Dollar Tree that I might decorate just for vacation!

Here is the pair I decorated at home before the meeting. I used a multicolored fat quarter single from Walmart ($.97) and only needed half of it.

So as soon as Mr Fed Ex man delivered my bandanas, I set to work tearing them into strips. 5 inches works best. The width can be anywhere from 1-2 inches. You can get about 80 strips of fabric from 1 bandanna, which is the perfect amount needed for a pair of flip flops.

Then I dumped all the fabric on the table and let them go crazy! They LOVED it! A few of them chose 2 colors and alternated them. But most of them just used all colors and patterns and they turned out cute!

 

I told them to bring nail polish in case we had extra time to paint toes!

Here is Emma's pair; she went for the red, white, blue look:

Another pair:

Finally, I gave out goody bags which contained their well-deserved cookie patches and prizes, their Magic House patches from our recent overnight camp-in, and a copy of our troop picture from the camp-in.

Wishing everyone a great summer!!!

Kitten Scrappy Tutu

Laila has a huge love for kittens right now. She sleeps with her stuffed kitty every night, she keeps asking for more "kitty apps", and I recently found her an adorable gray and pink kitten jumper at Goodwill! Here she is wearing it with her stuffed kitty (named "Kitty":) and our 12 year old kitten, Lexi.

Since she wants to wear dresses every single day, I decided I wanted to make her another fabric scrappy tutu (I made her Valentine one here) using kitten fabric. They are very easy no sew projects and all you have to do is cut strips and tie knots!

These are the fabrics I used:

The pink with black kittens and the one below it, with the stripes, are very sparkly! even though you can't tell in the pics. These I bought a half yard of each, for $5.44 total.

The other two were fat quarter singles for $.97 each.

 

I also used 2 colors of tulle, both sparkly! These were $5.99 at Hobby Lobby but I bought them at 50% off.

I cut about 50 strips, 22 inches each. Then I sort of laid them out in the pattern I wanted.

 

Then tied them around a 1" ribbon. I tie the ribbon around my leg and work my way around. Nothin' to it!
In process:

Here is my princess twirling around enjoying her new skirt!

I had plenty of fabric left to make a little rosette for her hair:

Girl Scouts April Meeting

My Best Self



That was the theme and the name of the badge that we earned this month.

First we colored and described ourselves, using the elf picture provided in the My Best Self Brownie Guide.

Then I asked them each to draw a picture or write about something that makes them happy. Then told them that whenever they feel upset, sad, or discouraged, they should remember what makes them happy and to do it. Whether it is a pet, a favorite TV show, or a sport, doing that activity will help their mood.

Next we talked about bandaids. I brought different sizes and kinds of bandaids and talked about which kinds are for which purpose. Oh I did have several volunteer stories of all their past injuries and scars. LOL :) Since I had brought a box of different colored bright neon bandaids, I let everyone choose 2 colors to take home.

Finally, I told them why it is important to drink water and I challenged each of them to drink water (no soda or juice) for 1 week. To start them off, I sent them home with a small bottle of water as a reminder!

The final requirement for the badge was to meet a "health helper", which we did at our February meeting when our friend, Laura, came to our meeting to talk about her work at a hospital helping mothers and babies in the maternity ward.

This is our badge we earned:

Extra activities this month:

First we went on our first overnight trip as a troop! We went to the St Louis Magic House! We had 3 hours of free time including a scavenger hunt, then stayed in one of the exhibits. We were assigned to the Congress exhibit! We slept in a replica of the Legislative Branch, where most of the girls sprawled out across the stage and along the edge on the side. Adults stayed on the carpeted area at the back of the room. :) Not sure it was much softer, but it was only 1 night. :)

 

 

 

We also have a trip to the Treehouse Wildlife Center at the end of the month.
Looking forward to it!