Teacher T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U Gift

The school year is coming to a close which means it is time to tell our teachers how much we appreciate them!  I like to involve my boys whenever possible so I decided to modify a cute Christmas card we received last year.  The card said "PEACE" but it was spelled out with 5 pictures of the kids holding the individual letters P-E-A-C-E.  Simple but so cute.

To make our Thank You cards, I started with construction paper and sketched the letters in a bold black marker.  I set the boys up at the table with markers and stickers and told them to decorate the letters however they wanted...  (this was a school morning...they were ready...but I was not...so this was a great "busy" activity while I got my act together!)



Once the letters were done...we went outside to our front porch and I took pictures of the boys holding their letters in front of a neutral background. I loaded them into Picasa (a FREE photo editing software) and did some cropping/straightening/lighting adjustments. The final step was to pick my favorite of each letter and create a collage (also using Picasa). I ordered some 5X7 cards from Walgreens (using a great coupon) and picked them up the next morning.

 

I think they were a big hit...and we just might use them again for my boys' joint birthday party later this summer!

We also gave our teachers new books for their classroom. I thought this would be something that gets used often and I wrote a note inside each book cover so the teachers would remember our kids when they read these books to their classes over the next years...



(in case you are wondering...the books from left to right are We Are in a Book (piggie and elephant...we LOVE these!), Yummy Yucky, Color Book, Put Me in a Zoo (Dr. Suess, of course!)).

The last "thank you" I did was for our preschool Director. She had given me some blank white capes several months ago and mentioned that she "heard" I could sew. Does that happen to any of you??? People find out about your little hobby and you get volunteered? I am not complaining...I was happy to do it...and my boys absolutely loved that I was able to do these for their classrooms. Just a part of the job I guess! :)

Anyhow...I decided to keep them somewhat gender neutral and simple by using our new Lightning Bolt and Star on Circle patches using different color felt. They were quick to sew but turned out really cute...and I hear the classrooms have lots of new superheros these days!



Do you have any teacher thank yous/crafts to share? If so, please link up in our comment section below and share your wonderful work!