I have been elected the room mom of my son's 5th grade class. I usually volunteer, but have never actually had the room mom title. It is a wonderful class with great involved parents and his teacher is one of my very best friends. It is his last year at the school and I want it to be very special.
Does anyone have any neat ideas of fun things as far as holidays and other special events? parent involvement? creative ideas? or just what to do and how to start?
By angie from Cleveland, TN
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Hello, Angie! I've been very involved in my daughter's classes. I don't know what kind of budget you're working with, but this is what I did with her class last year before Mother's Day.
The teacher had received a donation of many trays of plastic beads that were colored like cinnebar, and a few more packages of silver colored plastic beads. She didn't know what to do with them. I make jewelry, so I purchased a few packages of memory wire, and we made bracelets. Memory wire is rigid, like a spring, so there is no need to use a needle, and it's easy to slide beads on the wire. This is a commonly available memory wire:
Normally I'd suggest cutting a piece about 3 1/2 loops big. But these were first graders with short attention spans, so I cut about 1 1/2 loops. Use cutters from your toolbox that you don't care too much about, memory wire is hard, and will probably damage nice jewelry making cutters. Using round-nose pliers, I made a tiny loop on one of the ends, and let the kids put on whatever beads they chose. While they were creating their bracelets, I made some simple dangles with base metal headpins and some smaller beads. If you have no experience with jewelry making, the bracelets would be fine without the dangles. Once they were finished adding beads (some filled their bracelets completely, others pull less than half, it's okay!), I put a loop on the other end of the wire, and (If the child wanted it) I added a dangle to one of the loops.
I had prepared gift tags ahead of time. I happen to have a gift tag die for my die cutter machine, but a simple rectangular tag would work, too. I cut the tags from some nice heavy embellished purple card stock I felt I'd never use. I stamped "To:/From:" on the reverse of the cards. Punched holes, and cut lengths of coordinating inexpensive purple satin ribbon. As each child finished their bracelet, I gave them a gift tag and ribbon to tie it on. They filled in the tags themselves, which I think is pretty special for a mommy to receive.
The kids enjoyed the craft, the teacher got instructions from me so she can do it again in the future, and the gifts actually looked nice. I received an e-mail from one of the other moms, she said she loved the bracelet, and her son was so proud to give it to her. :-)
And, if you've never worked with memory wire, the reason I suggest at least 1 1/2 loops is because of different sized wrists. Even if someone has a large wrist, it'll still look closed, or the ends will overlap a bit. If you cut exactly one loop, and someone has a large wrist, there will be a gap when they put it on.
I'll be checking back to see what other people suggest, I can always use more good ideas!
Don't try to outdo what other class moms have done. You each donate your skills and time alike. Some may have better ideas, some help better.
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