Monday Made It x2

Linking up again for Monday Made It. Today I'm sharing something I made for my classroom AND the things I (we... the hubby did help out as well) made for my son's 3rd birthday party.

FOR THE CLASSROOM:

There are SOOOO many things I need/want to do for my classroom, but I can't wrap my brain around it all just yet.  I will find out this week when I can get into my classroom, and until then, I'll just keep working on these cutesy projects!
I've been seeing Welcome Back gifts flying around Pinterest.  I usually give out pencils, which I have now deemed to be boring.  I was inspired by this pin to make this little Back to School gift. I created this 'O"fish"al Second Grader' label, mounted it on blue tag board, cut it out with funky scissors, and then stapled it on a snack-sized bag of Goldfish. Not super difficult, but still cute. I'm planning on giving them out at Open House.

FOR THE BIRTHDAY PARTY:

I can't believe my sweet baby boy will be THREE YEARS OLD on Wednesday!  We had a construction truck themed party, per the request of the Birthday Boy. About a month ago, we went to another birthday party where they used a store-bought piñata. The 3 and 4 year olds tried with all their might, but the parents had to intervene with a golf club to bust this thing apart. So I decided to make the piñata for our party. I used 3 cereal boxes and a fruit snacks box and taped it together with clear packing tape. Here it is:

Then I papier-mached it. I used a mixture of 2 parts flour to 3 parts water and dipped strips of newspaper in it. The papier-mache was meant to seal where the cardboard pieces were taped, so that it wouldn't open until we wanted it to. It took FOREVER to dry. I may have used a hair dryer to speed up the process. Here's how it looked after papier-mache... notice the lovely plan I drew on it in step one is now completely covered... not the smartest thing I've ever done:

Next I cut up tissue paper into squares. I wrapped each square around my finger, dipped the end in glue, and stuck it onto the piñata. Shout out to the hubby (who was shaking his head throughout the entire process) for helping me out during this step! Here's the final masterpiece:

I just LOVE it!  Here are some photos from the party:

First we tried the foam baseball bat...

 Then we used a hockey stick.

Ultimately, my dad stepped in to break it. If I were to do it again, I probably would skip the papier-mache step and just use more tape at the seams.  It took me many hours to make, and I was a little sad when I saw my hard work being demolished, but the kids' smiles made up for it!

My husband was in charge of these. He used sticker letters to put the kids' names on the hats. He also spray painted treasure chests we got at the party store to look like lunch pails. He also put their names on them. We had stickers and construction truck toys in the lunch pails, and the kids also put their candy from the piñata in there.

We had a great birthday party!
Thanks to Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for organizing Monday Made It!  Have a great week!! :)