Have you ever heard the expression: Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies?  Truer words were never spoken.  While I don’t dislike glitter as much as some of my cohorts (I have a teacher friend who is literally AFRAID of glitter), I do like to avoid it for most of my kids’ crafts.

This craft, however, was unavoidable.  Our school was having our annual fundraising carnival and this year’s theme was, “Somewhere over the Rainbow.”  Each class was given the task of creating a game booth.  One of my wonderful parent helpers suggested we do a ruby red slipper theme.  I thought it was a GREAT idea and she thankfully took charge of planning the booth and informing all the parents of items we needed. 

In the weeks that followed, students began bringing the items their parents signed up for.  Among the items were: red paint, previously worn women’s dress shoes, and red glitter… lots and lots of red glitter.  Oh boy.  Right away I started preparing myself for Decoration Day (or as I will now refer to it as D-Day). 

D-Day arrived.  I had already planned in my head that my classroom could be considered a disaster area by the end of the day.  Had I not prepared myself, I think I would have literally gone insane.

In the end, the kids ended up doing a great job and were mindful of their cleanliness.  They were so excited with the finished products and had a blast with this activity.

Here are some photographs of the children and their ruby red slippers.

Every year I make these adorable Sock Snowmen with my students.  They have now become a holiday decoration tradition amongst households; children excited to bring out their Sock Snowman they created from the year(s) prior. 

Since it’s been such a big hit with my kiddos, I thought I’d share with you all how to make them!

Here’s what you’ll need for the whole class (Mine has 25 students):
Glue Gun (I have a small one and use up about 35 sticks)
Button Assortment
Christmas Ribbon Assortment
Yarn Assortment
About 70 lbs of rice
Measuring Cup

Here’s what you’ll need per Student:
1  Men’s Tube Sock  
3 Buttons
Yarn or Christmas Ribbon
Pipe Cleaner / Small Red or Orange Pom-Poms
Googly Eyes
4½  Cups of Rice
3 Rubberbands
1 Toothpick

Step 1:
Fill the bottom of the sock with 2 cups of rice. Tie off the top using a rubber band.  Make sure the rubber band is shoved all the way to the bottom so that the bottom of the snowman is nice and tight.

Step 2:
Fill the middle portion of the sock with 1½ cups of rice.  Tie off the top using a rubber band, making sure it is shoved all the way to the bottom of the section.

Step 3:
Fill the top portion of the sock with 1 cup of rice.  Again, tie off the top using a rubber band.  Make sure the top portion is tight, just like the bottom 2.

Step 4:
Using the hot glue gun, glue the bottom and middle portions so that the snowman can stand upright on its own without holding it. 

Step 5:
Glue the top portion of the sock so it looks like the snowman is wearing a hat or beanie.

Step 6:
DECORATE!!!  You can use whatever you want to decorate your snowman, but we used googly eyes for the eyes, ribbon for the scarf, pipe cleaner for the mouth, draw the mouth using fabric markers, use small pom-poms for the mouth, toothpick for the nose, etc.  Here are some examples of how we made ours!!!

Here’s another holiday activity that was a big hit with my students.  The kids made their very own stamps, and it was extremely simple to do.

Here’s what you’ll need:
About 8 bottle caps for each student
Large assortment of Holiday foam stickers
6-8 Red & Green Stamp Pads (I got mine at the Dollar Store).

Since I do my own recycling in the class, I begin saving bottle caps from water, Gatorade, and juices for this activity.  I realized I was going to be a bit short this year, so I asked parents to donate and I received a whole lot!

The students find their favorite foam stickers and stick them to their bottle cap.  

Then I had each student write a winter/holiday story using their Sticker Stampers.  Here’s some examples.

We are getting ready for our school’s International Week at our house, and I have volunteered to set-up tables for Ethiopia and Mexico, and also will contribute to the China table. This weekend we began to make some materials for our “touch tables.” You might have seen 3D Salt Dough Maps before- they are made by mounting self-hardening dough onto cardboard, forming the mountains and other physical landforms, and then allowing it to dry so you can paint it. Kids (and adults!) learn just as much in the process- or more- than from the final product, and you end up with a beautiful, handmade display item that is just perfect for an International Week at school.