Thanksgiving Crafts & Centerpieces

Studio 5 had a guest, Kristine McKay, on the show the other day who featured several great Thanksgiving ideas.
The ideas are mainly craft and centerpiece ideas. I love the idea of using the same table cloth every year and having your guests sign their names each year. After each year, embroider over the signatures to preserve the names and watch the family and guest names grow over the years.

The other idea I really like was the crayon turkey the kids can make and use at the kids' table. Such fun and easy ideas for entertaining! Check out more of Kristine's ideas and FREE downloads on her site.

Cornucopia Treats

Tonight my kids and I made cornucopia treats for dessert. I had bought sugar cones back in October thinking that I would make witch hat treats with them, but life got hectic and that never happened. Since I had the cones on hand, we made cornucopias instead. I tried heating a cone in the microwave first, thinking that maybe I could soften and bend the cone. Unfortunately it didn't work the way I had hoped so we had to leave the cones as they were. We melted some chocolate chips over the stove and then rolled the cones in the melted chocolate. Then we put some sprinkles on the chocolate and set them in the fridge to set up quicker. Once the chocolate was set, we filled each cone with some Runts candy. My kids all thought it was a fun idea and they didn't taste too bad either. Really though...can you go wrong with chocolate ANYTHING?!?

What Is A Room Mom???

With this site, I have realized that one thing I have failed to do, is to mention what exactly a room mom/parent is and what their responsibilities are. Oops. I guess I have just assumed everyone knew so I never broke it down, but here is goes. For everyone it might be different, but here is my definition...
A room parent is a parent of a student in the class who helps out the teacher. Each teacher might have a different idea of what they want done or what they need help with, but generally I have found that the room parents' main task is to help with holiday parties.
Generally, teachers have helpers for other areas of help. (ie: reading helpers, field trips, take home projects, etc.) This could be the room mom's responsibility to find those helpers, but at the schools I have been at it has been up to the PTA to help out with this assignment.
When I was the room mom for my son's class, I planned a Halloween and a Valentine's party because that is what the teacher wanted. She had other thoughts for Christmas, so I didn't have to worry about it but other teachers may want to hold a Christmas party/activity.
When I was a teacher, the PTA held a room parent luncheon at the first of the school year. This is where the teachers and room parents could get together and talk about ideas, parties, etc. for the year. It was very helpful!! I asked my room moms plan a Halloween and Valentine's party only. I told them that I had ideas in case they wanted to use any, otherwise they could come up with their own. For Christmas I always did The 12 Days of Christmas (idea to come) so I used several parents at that time and not just for one party.

Has anyone ever been a room parent before and have anything to add? How has your school handled room parents? Feel free to share any thought or ideas that could benefit others! Thanks!

Backpack Made From Uno Cards

Ok so this may be more a purse or messenger bag, but my (10 year old) daughter is SUPER EXCITED to use this for school tomorrow. I saw this idea a while back on Studio 5 and FINALLY got around to making one. It took about an hour to complete and my daughter is THRILLED! Now my son wants to know if I can make him a backpack out of baseball cards.

What does it take to make this bag? Get your pen and paper ready for this long list...
A pack of Uno cards
Clear Packing Tape
Magnets (optional)

You can probably make 2-3 bags from a pack of cards. In fact, I bought my Uno cards from the DI (a local thrift store) for $1. Some of the cards could have been missing from the pack but for this project, it didn't matter! All in all, I spent less than$2.00 on this bag and the best part is...it's an original! After the first picture (above), I decided it needed a flap. Here is the newer version of the bag:
(Magnetic closure)




Oh and if some of you are wondering if this bag can really hold anything..the answer is yes! All of my daughter's (5th grade) books, papers, etc. are already loaded and have been tested!

Thanksgiving Ideas

Crafts and Deals left a comment so I decided to check out her site. I love blog hopping and seeing all of the creative people and ideas out there! She has some really fun and great Thanksgiving ideas (along with other non-Thanksgiving ideas!). I love the Thanksgiving memory game,

Paper Bag Turkey,

and Fall Fingerprint Tree.

I know I will be trying out some of these ideas with my kids. Thanks for sharing!!

Coloring Pages for Thanksgiving

Need a way to entertain kids at the table this year while waiting for Thanksgiving dinner to be served? Here are some links to free, printable coloring pages and activities...

KABOOSE

FAMILY FUN

TONS of pages to chose from HERE

Hope this helps keep the little ones busy and happy!

Thanks and Giving Tree

Chocolate on My Cranium has this fun idea for making two trees during the month of December. One tree to list items we are thankful for and the other tree for acts of service (giving) that we can perform. What a great idea. Hop over to her site to download the templates for the trees and leaves.

Pine Cone Turkeys

Live near pine trees? Looks easy enough. Check out how to make these darling turkeys using pine cones HERE.

Memory Game From Recycled Lids

I just found the best idea for recycling those Gatorade bottle lids. Check out what My Little Gems decided to make as a fun and cheap Halloween game. I know Halloween is over, but I thought I would share anyway so that you can keep the idea in mind for next year. Besides, the concept could work for any occasion or holiday. Just change up the stickers! You could even place letter stickers underneath and have the kids match upper case letters to lower case letters. The possibilities are almost endless.

Turkey Treats

How funny is this? Last year for Thanksgiving, I had the kids in the family make these yummy turkey treats. I had gotten the idea from a friend. As I was looking at Family Fun today, I came across a link with the directions on how to make these. My turkeys are a little different, but the idea is the same. The kids all had a fun time making these turkeys! The hardest part was not eating all the ingredients before the turkeys were made!!


**If you like the way my turkeys turned out, here's what I used:

*Oreo Cookies (1/turkey, unless you want them to stand upright. In that case use 1 1/2-2 cookies)
*Candy Corn (6/turkey: stick 5 between the Oreo cookies, into the white frosting of the cookie. Bite down a candy corn to make a tip for the beak)
*Miniature Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (For the body. Attach with frosting.)
*Whoppers (For the head. Attach with frosting.)
*Chocolate Frosting (Use as the "glue")

Thanksgiving Treats

Here are some fun food ideas found over at Family Fun. Check them out!
The Fruit Gobbler

Tepee Treats

Turkey Cupcakes

Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats