HELP! I NEED GIFT IDEAS FOR PRESCHOOL PROJECTS!!!

[sarahs1225]

Ok crafty ladies-- I need HELP! I teach preschhol and I would love to involve stamps into the gifts that the children will make for thier parents as gifts. What can I do? Would it be silly to just do 2 tile coasters? I need to be able to do the gifts for 25 children.

Thanks- Sarah

[crabbymommyof2]

Maybe just one larger trivet?
Another choice might be the calendar in the 4x6 acrylic frame...

[meggie7]

Sarah, I'm also a preschool teacher and like you, I've been trying to think up some ideas. So far, I haven't had any luck! It's so hard when the kids are so little. They either stamp like crazy (while you're in the background going, "no no, only stamp once!!") or they barely place the stamp down! I'm looking forward to some good ideas from the people on this site. They're all pretty awesome and aweinspiring! Meg

[meggie7]

Hey how about a magnet tile? You could use a 2x2 tile. I'm on a real tile craze this week! Meg

[crabbymommyof2]

Just a thought---if you are worried about the children's stamping abilities, why not do the stamping yourself and let them color in the images?

[amyboomboom]

I would go for the stamp yourself idea, and let them color it in! You could do a two bookmarks, or the frame idea!

[PaperRapt]

I have some pre-school teachers purchase my pocket photo albums.
They hold wallet size pictures. The 4-page is 80 cents, the 8 page is 85 cents. They cut the CS to size, either let the kids draw or stamp it.

You can see them at:

http://stamponthis.com/SOT-pocketalbum.htm

Annette
http://stamponthis.com

[dsh]

My idea doesn't really involve "stamping". You could put the child's hand in the embossing ink pad and "stamp" it on whatever you choose, then emboss the handprint with the color of your choice. I suggested this at a workshop for a preschool director and she really took to the idea. I even demoed it using her hand print!

It would be an everlasting handprint for the parents and the children would love to see their handprint "magically" appear as the embossing powder is heated.

Hope this helps.

Debbie

[barbaranne_stamps]

Something with a wheel. My 2 year old loves the wheel and is actually really good at it. Those calendars or post-it holders using the acrylic frames sound like a neat idea.

[Purrrsiancat]

My son just turned three and I recently traced his hand on polyshrink and then cut it out. I let him color it with my watercolor pencils and then I wrote his name on it and shrunk it down with the heat gun. You just have to be careful that the fingers don't get stuck together- I just used a pencil and held it down whiling heating it. It came out really cute. I am going to make it into a pin. It would be cute for the moms to have a pin of their childs hand that they colored themselves.

[crabbymommyof2]

I love the handprint idea! Does anyone know if the bookmark calendar will fit in a 4x6 acrylic frame?

[StampnCroplady]

Woo Hoo! This is my first post.

Have you thought about using cardstock to wrap a candy bar or individual bag of popcorn. You could probably also wrap a bag of hot chocolate but I haven't tried that yet. Either you or the kids could stamp a snowman - I like the one from Tags & More - then the kids could color it in. I made popcorn wraps at a stamp camp and everyone loved them as teacher gifts. I think they would make great kid to parent gifts too. If you wrap a candy bar, I've found that the Hershey's chocolate bar works very well.

By the way, you can also pre-stamp a message for the kids to add to the wrap.

[stampinguru]

I did this with my son for my husband for Father's Day this year just to play around. It turned out beautifully...you could see all the perfect little creases in a 2 year old's hand We used Versamark (no left over color on little one's hands!) and gold embossing powder. I mounted the cs onto mulberry paper and framed it...just beautiful. It's not exactly stamping, but maybe what you could do if you are feeling like going for the gusto is cutting out lots of their handprints to form a wreath and then they could each stamp holly berries (either with a small circle stamp or a pencil eraser) all around thus giving them the chance to stamp all over the place.
Have fun!
Laene

[sarahs1225]

oh no! now i have so many wonderful ideas, i can't decide!

thanks to everyone who has posted! keep the ideas coming and i will have lots of other gifts (valentines day, mother's day, father's day....)
taken care of!!!!!!!!!!!!



I LOVE THIS SITE!!!!

sarah[/img]

[GrammyDoolittle]

I am also a preschool teacher at my church's Mom's Day Out. You can take a card sized piece of cardstock and cut an oval out of the front. Let the children stamp their hearts out on it and then take a picture of each one in front of a Christmas tree and put it in the oval. I actually put each child in an angel or shephard's costume. They are adorable!!!

[jnine]

Hi I have two boys now in University and last year high school but still remember things that I did for their elementary school teachers. I really like the idea of candy or homemade choclate bark which can be made in huge batches, placed in clear bags and tags made your students. Tags are easy and a relatively quick project to attempt with little ones.

Janine

[sarahs1225]

any other ideas?