DIY Snowmen Ornaments!

I've been making the same fabulous ornaments as parent gifts for the past 3 years. As the time has gotten closer I kind of looked around at all the cutesy little ornaments students can make for their parents on Pinterest. There are so many!!

I always test things out on my own kids first *just in case* it's a fail. I had seen these cute little snowmen handprint ornaments so decided to give it a try. It was super simple- I just painted their hands up with white acrylic paint and then place the ornament in their hand and wrapped their fingers around it to make a print. Easy peasy. I thought "I HAVE GOT TO MAKE THESE IN CLASS!"

Then..I let the hand print dry and started painting the scarves. I used a teeny tiny paint brush for the scarves and a black paint bottle with the tip on it for the rest. It wasn't so bad. Not until I got cramps in my hands from squeezing the paint bottle so hard and then painting the tiny scarves on. They're adorable, don't get me wrong. But I do NOT want to do this for 23 students.I'm glad I have them for my own 2 kids, but it's back to the clay ornaments we go!

What special ornaments or gifts do you have your students make? Read THIS post about how I make the ornaments.

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Christmas behavior incentive!

Y'all... my kids are 50 shades of crazy this week! I know they're excited about the holidays and all the funtivities that lead up to them. We've had crazy cold weather (for us... highs in the teens and sleet/ snow/ cold stuff that I don't like) and we've missed {outside} recess!! 

I was thinking about how I could change up my incentives a little bit at least for this next week and I remembered my bestie's (I'm pretty sure that is an incorrect use of "'s" :D) blog post about her Halloween table points. I used her adorable jack-o-lanterns during Halloween and I'm so excited to introduce these adorable trees into the mix!

I bought felt in green, red, teal and white. You could get a lot more creative here, but I'm keepin' it pretty simple. I used a Christmas tree template to trace onto the green felt.

I cut 4 trees out- because I only have 4 tables but you could cut out as many as you need. I free-handed the circles and stars for ornaments and now I have a super easy table point system!

I *love* using table points for my kiddos. It is such a great visual and it really encourages team work rather than JUST individual behavior. I love how it brings out the kindness in my kids when they see a friend is struggling to get the right calendar page out or are not quite on task like they should be and they help them.When my students earn a table point they get to add an ornament onto their tree. Once the tree is decorated they earn an incentive!

I hang these up with tape and then keep a little baggie with the pieces tacked to my bulletin board. 

If you'd like the template I used for the tree, click on the picture below to snag it up!

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Cyber Monday {and Tuesday!}

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

And maybe you got a little shopping done?!

I went out yesterday with my mom and sister. We didn't go to any of the big name stores.. really, we went shopping for ourselves! ;) Today though the hubs and I are going out to look for home decor. We have this fabulous new house and not one single thing up on the wall! 

So, now that we are all in Christmas mode are you ready to do some school shopping?! TpT is throwing their Cyber Monday sale tomorrow and Tuesday, so start filling up your carts! I have mine all ready! Just use the code CYBER and TpT will throw in an extra 10% off the 20% that I will have my store on sale!

Here are a few of my new favorites!

{click on the preview to view it on TpT}

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