Monthly School Idea: Ball Pump

As we experienced have recess equipment for the first time this year, it didn't take long for me to realize that a pump was needed to keep the balls properly inflated.  So to keep the equipment usable I finally remembered to purchased a ball pump.  The pump I found included a ball needle and cost less than $5.  I decided that even though it had a needle if it was in my home it may be misplaced (or hard to find when you need it most) so for less than $1 I purchased a two pack of needles to go with it.  I had my children help me create the tag.  The tags they used were a little more personalized (and I mean just a little), but I included a generic one for you.  My 10 year old came up with the first line.

Of course you can't read the first line on the picture, but it says You are an epic teacher!  He also helped pick out the fonts.  It was fun to have his help this time since the gift really is from him.

If you would like this tag, you can download it here. 

Once I get it all put together I will take a few pictures to add to the post, but I want to at least get this up.  

Here are the pictures I promised.  I finally downloaded all my pics and guess what?  They dated before Halloween.  Ooops.

 

The supplies you need: pump, needles, tag, ribbon, scissors, hole punch.

 

 The pump and needles I bought. I wanted to keep the pump small that it wouldn't take up lots of room in the classroom.  It only needs to be a hand pump.

I just punched a hole in the paper and tied it all together with coordinating curling ribbon.

 

Absent

Sorry I have been absent for so long.  I have so many things to share with you, but life has taken over at the moment.  I promise that I'll eventually get them all up here.  I'm no longer in cub scouts although I still have a few activities to post.  I wouldn't mind finishing some projects I've started either for all of my followers, but we'll see if I can find the time.  But for now I'll post when I can.  I normally post at night after the kids are in bed and I watch (more like listen to) TV.  I haven't even done that lately ~ no wonder I haven't posted anything.  One day soon, hopefully!

A New Kind of Wrapping (Part 1)

This is one of my posts that I can't remember where I first saw the idea.  I can't take credit for originating this idea, but here are some of the things I did with it and how I did it. 
The idea?  Using a pop bottle for the wrapping of a gift.  It is fun to watch them try to figure out how you put the stuff inside the bottle and how they retrieve the it.
The first time I did it was for a birthday party my oldest went to.  For this one we used a one liter bottle.  First drink the contents and wash out the bottle.  Make sure it is dry before you go to the next step.

Next gather your supplies.  You will need a label for the bottle (or at least scrapbook paper), an X-acto knife, and items to fill the bottle with, and of course your washed and dried bottle.

Using your X-acto knife cut an opening on the side of the bottle (I didn't have an X-acto knife so I used an utility knife to start it and then cut the rest out with scissors, but an X-acto knife would have been much easier).  Don't cut the opening bigger than you need to remembering that it has to be covered with your label.

The next step is to fill the bottle with your desired contents.  For this bottle we layered candy and stuck a gift card in the middle of the candy.  It turned out cute even without the label (but of course the paper is required to hide the hole):

The gift card is hidden between those Hershey kisses.  I placed double sided tape around the opening I cut in the bottle.  This helped keep the opening shut and harder to find, it also helped hold the label on.  I put double stick tape on both ends of the bottle and wrapped it around the opening.  One of the best things about using a 1 liter bottle is that a piece of paper will fit around the bottle (a two liter bottle requires two pieces).  You can customize your own label or use the one I made.

Download the Birthday labels here

They look like this (the dots continue all the way around): 

We also used this idea for another birthday gift.  This one we used a two liter bottle and filled it with items that might come in handy in a sleep-over: movie rental gift certificate well, we couldn't find one so we put in a $5 bill instead, microwave popcorn, gum, candy, fingernail polish, fingernail stickers, fingernail file, and a few misc. items.


For another idea on how to use this for a teacher gift check out Part 2.

Monthly School Idea: Baseball & Bat

Sorry for the delay in these.  I haven't been able to post, let alone create as many things as I have hoped to.  To top it off I haven't even sent in my kids' first monthly gift to their teachers.  Seeing as how this is the last week of the month I had better get on that.  My son wants to bring in the baseball and bat first so I figured I better get those tags created.  Thanks to all of you for submitting ideas it went much faster than I anticipated (if I had to think up the sayings I probably would still be thinking right now).  This is what I ended up with:

 

If you would like this tag, download it here!

If you come up with more sports/recess equipment sayings (even if I already posted for that item) please leave a comment and I will add it.

Here are how ours turned out:

Sorry for those ideas I can't credit

I want to apologize to all those ideas I've borrowed and not given credit to.  I have a bad habit of finding an idea and leaving the tab open to copy the idea and give credit to where I found it.  Unfortunately often time things happen to those open tabs (like a child or husband closes them or the computer gets shut down and everything lost).  If you see an idea and know where it came from leave me a comment and I'll link back to that blog.  I would like people to give me credit and would like to offer the same respect. 

Jeopardy Review Game (The last week of Jesus' life), Manual 7, Lesson 29-33

*
There are five lessons in the Primary New Testament manual that cover the last week of Jesus' life: The Last Supper; The Garden of Gethsemane; The Betrayal, Arrest, and Trial; The Crucifixion; and The Resurrection.  We covered all five lessons using the PowerPoint lessons made my Erika Covalt on Sugardoodle.net.  We also watched a movie from the library about the last week of his life (I can't remember the title, but I think it is something about the last week of Jesus' life).  I have been promising another review game and thought that this would be a perfect way to do it.  Jeopardy has five categories and we had five lessons plus next week is General Conference and the following week is our primary program practice.  

Download the PowerPoint Jeopardy Game HERE

Here is a little about the game.  When you start the slide show you need to click a couple times to bring in the Jeopardy sign, music, and the headers.  If you click after (not on a link) it will start going through the questions - you DON'T want to do that.  

Here is how we played:

• Started slide show off of first page
• Click twice (make sure sound is on your laptop).  This will bring up the background for the categories, the word Jeopardy, and play the opening music to the game
• Introduce the categories by clicking them in one at a time and reading them.
• We went down the row (I only had three kids show up, if it would've been the whole class I probably would have paired them up) and they were able to choose their category and amount.  If they got it right I awarded them the money (we kept track on the chalk board), if they were wrong someone else could steal it.  If more than one knew it I had them tell me at the same time and if they both were right they split the money.  When they choose a category and amount just click on the dollar amount under that category.
• To reveal the answer click again.
• To get back to the board click on the picture in the bottom corner (of Alex Trebek).
• The questions that have been chosen will change to yellow.  These shouldn't be chosen again.
• After all the questions were answered I had their money totaled.  They then were able to risk their "money" for the final question.  I gave them a piece of paper to write on.  First they wrote their amount.
• Then I revealed the question and read it to them.  Click once and the Jeopardy music will play. (I downloaded the music from here: http://www.sequinsbyeileen.com/kidsmidi.htm)  Just save it, click on the sound icon on the computer and it will ask if you want to find it.  Click on yes then click on the music you saved.
• After the music ended I made them stop writing (it wasn't enough time.  If I did it again I would wait a little longer before I started the music).
• Then I had them show what they wrote and read their answer.  We either added or subtracted from their remaining money.  I gave everyone a treat.

NOTE: the final question was hard.  I stressed it at the end of the previous lesson, but not one of the three were able to get it right.  If you didn't talk about it I would definitely change the question/answer.

Bear Scout Achievement 17b

Bear Scout Achievement 17 Requirement b:

Play a game of charades at your den meeting or with your family at home.

I made a game of charades for the scouts to play.  I started it awhile ago (had the backgrounds done, but nothing else), but never did have a chance to finish it.  I received a phone call about two hours before scouts tonight needing me to take on the Webelos as well.  So I decided to finish it for them to play.  I'm going to post what I had done.  Some are easy, some are harder.  They had lots of fun playing.

I color coded the cards

Purple: books

Blue: people

Pink: movies

Orange: Sports

Green: Action Words

If you want to use the cards Download them Here. I just used my paper cutter and cut them out (I was short on time).  I may use my punch and round the corners.