This week is Teacher Appreciation Week in our town. And surprise! I’m unprepared. Teacher Appreciation week is a big deal in these parts.
- Monday: Teacher breakfast and flower presentation. Moms make Teachers breakfast, kiddos give flowers to Teachers. (I will be up at some un-godly hour tomorrow morning making my secret weapon cinnamon chip scones. I will not be making a mad dash to the florist section of my local grocery store because the roses in my yard are amazing right now.)
- Wednesday: Teacher lunch. Moms will be preparing salads, casseroles & desserts. (I’m off the hook for this one.)
- Friday: Teacher lunch and Teacher dinners. More moms preparing more salads, casseroles and desserts for that day's lunch. AND still more moms preparing meals to stock the teachers’ freezers. (Because…well…I guess preschool teachers can’t cook…or maybe preschool teachers are so incapacitated by the end of the year that they can no longer take care of themselves.)
- Monday thru Friday: Early release for Teachers. Moms come into the classroom and substitute-teach for a couple of hours each day so the real teachers can go home early. (Because that's what I pay all this money for -- so moms,
not teachers, can teach my kid.)
Personally, I’m a fan of the handmade Teacher gift. Something that comes from the heart and the hand of the kiddo. There will be a handmade gift from us this year, just like there was last year. We made these awesome paper flowers last year and I think they turned out great. Here’s a little tutorial. It was tons of fun and the kiddos got to participate in just about every step. In other words, it really is a “kid craft” – suitable for a 2yo and a 4yo. Here’s the list of what we used. We had most of this stuff just hanging around the house:
- Paper. I used old packing paper, because I’m all about reusing.
- Squeeze bottles. I used old water bottles.
- Acrylic paint. The kiddo paint is too chalky for me, so we used the real deal.
- Kid scissors
- Hole punches. I used a double hole punch and a 2” punch.
- Wire cutters/needle nose pliers
- Thin wire cut into 2” lengths. I used floral wire because I had it lying around, but any thin wire would work.
- Buttons
- Thick paper-wrapped wire stems (available in the floral section of your craft store)
- Glue (any kind – I used Elmer’s school glue)
- Plastic “pony” beads (I used clear because I didn’t have beads that matched my papers.
- Floral tape (optional)
- Scenting oil. You can use essential oils, your own perfume, even a drop of vanilla from your spice cabinet will work.
First we taped down sheets of paper, filled squeeze bottles with a dollop of acrylic paint mixed with about a cup of water. We shook up the paint and squeezed, splatted and splooshed it onto the paper. OK, so some of it got squeezed other places too. Hey, messy = fun, right?
Once the paper dried, the kids cut out circles. What kid doesn't love to play with scissors?! And for this project, the more irregular the cutting and the less exact the size, the better. It's a win/win. While the kids were cutting their circles, I punched 2" circles out of used tissue paper in coordinating colors. I also used the double punch to punch holes 'near' the center of each circle. Again, lack of precision gives a better end result, so kiddos strong enough to operate the punch could participate in this step as well.
