For those of you who might still have a few more days of school and need an idea for a Christmas gift, here is what we did . . . .
Choose a few drawings that you would like to have your students trace and make enough copies for your students (my largest group in centers is 9 students so I made 9 copies). Tape them down to the table so they don't move. Cut up transparencies in fourths and tape each quarter sheet of transparency on top of the drawing each students wants to trace.
Instruct students to trace along the black lines with a black sharpie first. (I didn't think they could, but they did very well). Then they can color the rest of the drawing using a sharpie. I really underestimated my students but they did really well by themselves! I wrote each student's number so it could be identified later (since this took a few days total) and placed them in ziploc baggies with their names.
At a different center each student modge podged 4 fat popsicle sticks in the color scheme of their choice. I just cut up holiday tissue paper (about $3.00 total) into sort of squares and let them at it. Since I'm a bit of a control freak and didn't have that much modge podge I painted all of the sticks myself and them painted them again the next day to reduce the risk of ripping. Students saved these in their baggies as well once dry.
Then I simply stapled each drawing onto a piece of cardstock that matched the color scheme of each student's popsicle sticks. Make sure that you place the yarn/string in place BEFORE gluing the packing onto the sticks. I learned this the hard way. Regular elmers glue, just make sure students really hold it in place for a loooooong time.
And voila . . . glue each child's photo on a desired spot, have them write their names somewhere with a marker, and done.
I had them write a very quick little note, to . . . from. . . . and a drawing inside.
Did I mention I had all of these supplies already, just had to buy the tissue paper? That's why we did it. My partner found these perfect envelopes. We just slipped the frames inside, punched holes in the top of the envelopes and notes, tied with a string, and done (sorry didn't take a final picture).
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