O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Remember the pine cone craft I mentioned earlier in the month? Well last Monday we started this craft and it exceeded any expectations I had.


After employing Mark to help finish cutting those Mardi Gras necklaces, we finally had everything ready to start. First on our list..we had to paint the pine cones green. I made sure to have newspaper on hand to cover every inch of the students' desks and floors. When I announced that we would be using paint, the children's eyes enlarged. "But Ms. V you HATE paint," they all exclaimed. I don't loathe paint.... well only if it gets on my carpet and stains my desks, but who's watching for all that?


They swore up and down that they would keep the paint on the newspaper and pine cones and they did a great job doing so.


This is what the pine cones looked like during the painting process...

So after painting them, we let them dry. Of course my kiddos were restless during this step. They were DYING to put the "ornaments" on the tree. So after a snack break, we hit the ground running. Each group got 5 bowls containing the different colored beads and a bowl of Tacky Glue (A STAPLE FOR ANY CLASSROOM). It comes in a gold bottle and it's awesome!


Naturally my students suffer from "Too Much Glue" syndrome, which shows in the pictures below but after a night of drying, the glue turned clear.

After 40 minutes, the trees looked BEAUTIFUL. I was so thrilled!

Please excuse the orange mini Post Its. They are not part of the Christmas decor, they simply have the students' names on them to prevent confusion.


Aren't these trees charming? I really fell in love with this craft.


Here is a video too because I felt as though the pictures were not doing justice for these amazing Christmas trees....

Lastly, we took blank CD's and hot glued them to the bottom of the trees to make a tree skirt and glued mini present ornaments on the skirt.

Finished products:

I will for sure do this craft next year. It was relatively inexpensive and a lot of fun. :)


Well I'm off to get some cleaning done. Take care.

Pine Cones, Beads, and Carpal Tunnel

Of course like any teacher I have thought and thought about what to do for my parents for Christmas. In the past I have done wooden ornaments where the students paint them but I wanted to try something new this year. I have a great group of parents and they have gone above and beyond this year for me so I wanted to do the same for them.


I found this cool idea online where you paint pine cones and make them into mini Christmas trees. My first mission was to find pine cones...OK...no problem I thought. I went on ebay (my portal for all things teaching) and found pine cones instantly; however most sellers wanted $30.00+ dollars plus $10 shipping and handling. For pine cones? Something that fell off a tree and you picked up? OK...option B....employ my students and parents. I teach in DeSoto county, which is a very rural area. I don't live there but I knew several of my children lived on acres and acres of land. The first day one of my girls brought in a GIANT bag of pine cones (SCORE! YES!). Unfortunately, they were all closed. OK...no problem..I turned to google....my second portal for all things teaching. I found several websites that said you can put the pine cones in the oven at 200 degrees for 30 minutes and they would open. So that night I took the bag home (which of course opened up and fell all over the trunk of my car on the ride home) and followed the directions of the website. Did they open? NO..nothing happened. Well actually, something did happen...instead they BURNED and produced this interesting smell of pine cone and burnt pizza (dinner we had the night before). Thankfully, two days later that same fabulous student brought in a bag of OPENED pine cones for our entire class.


List of Needed Materials:
Pine Cones
Beads
Paint
Glitter
Glue


Beads...I did find a good price for these on eBay. I ordered 5 dozen of the Mardi Gras necklaces for $11.00 (including shipping). So today I decided to tackle the cutting of these dozens of necklaces. For the craft you use the beads as ornaments for your pine cone tree. I have 5 different colors of necklaces and I have only made it through 2 colors. My wrist feels as though it is about to fall off. Below are some pictures...

Of course Penny had to make an appearance. Every time you sit on the floor she thinks you want to throw her charming rope toy..it's all about her, you know. :)


I think I'm done cutting for today. I still have another week before we start this craft..thank goodness. :)