Crayon Vase Teacher Gifts!

So…it’s officially Teacher Appreciation Week at school (another sign of the great wind-down!), and we’re doing alllllll we can to show our amazing educators how thankful we are.

Including (but certainly not limited to!) making these adorable little crayon vases!

Our crazies have had an amazing school year, chock full of learning and encouragement. And we owe so much of that to their amazing teachers, who continuously go above and beyond.

My kiddos are bright, unique, happy little learners with a wide range of educational needs, demands and motivating factors. And our school never fails to rise to the challenge of each new phase we encounter.

Truly, my motto in these golden elementary years is simple but powerful:

Put Good In; Get Good Out

The MORE we support, volunteer, encourage, and show our appreciation for the teachers who put so much in to the education of our family, the MORE we get out. 

Seriously, I could go on and on and on about all the ways we love our teachers—past and present—but I’ll save you the eyeball exhaustion and just show you cute pics of this thank-you craft instead. And then I’ll wax poetic in a later post, ma’kay?? ;) M’kay.

Now.

I got the inspiration for this project from something similar online. Then we had the great luck of today’s Teacher Appreciation Theme being “school supplies.” 

Done and done.

In the future, I might shave some expense from the project by going generic with the supplies, but for this inaugural round, we went with pretty, name-brand versions.

The task was simple, though it required just a touch of time and patience.

Luckily, I always have mason jars on hand for various projects (these were leftover from our Flash Craft Christmas party, ha), and I discovered it takes 30 crayons to properly wrap each jar.

I found it to be easiest to hot glue the crayons to a ribbon first, and then simply glue the ribbon to the vase. But I’m sure there are oodles of ways to tackle this particular step.



We tied some basic twine around for extra support in case the glue gave way. But I’ve also seen an adorable version online that utilized a fabric tape measure for the ribbon. 



Since I try not to have the kiddos messing with the hot glue gun too much (I still singe myself all the time, even with the cool temp one!), I gave them the task of making tons of flowers, and they did a great job of drawing and cutting so many, in all shapes and sizes, from whatever craft paper we had on hand.





We used a single hole punch for the center of each flower, and then pushed it through the end of some colorful pencils I bought. So simple and cute.



Then I loaded the kiddos up with erasers and paper clips and let them go nuts filling the jars and stabilizing the pencil flowers within.



There are truly an endless number of combinations and possibilities for this basic project. And no two vases will ever look the same, thanks to the hand-made flowers. :)







This shot was taken about two seconds before Little Man got annoyed with Chicklet for crashing his posed pic, ha. Gotta love siblings, ha. 





I really do think these turned out so stinking adorable, and I hope it was a bit of a creative way to show our love and gratitude on this “school supply” day of Teacher Appreciation Week.



The kiddos already passed along hand-written notes of thanks for another themed day this week, and we’ll end Friday with some Tarjay gift cards.

It’s definitely another milestone crossed off the list with this round of gifting!

As of today, Little Man and Chicklet have completed their benchmark testing for the year, and Chica’s big standardized tests will happen next week. Throw in a Field Day, Chica’s final musical performance (along with some volunteering for both), and it will be smooooooth sailing to the end of the year!

17 school days and counting!

HAPPY HUMP DAY, peeps!

Over and out.