End of the Year or Back to School Activity

1-2-3 Come Make A Butterfly Keepsake Frame With Me

back to school ideas, keepsake crafts for kids, butterfly activities, butterfly frame, butterfly crafts, end of the year activities, end of the year crafts, As I stated yesterday, despite the fact that summer has yet to be officially launched, I am enjoying designing back-to-school stuff. As long as I was putzing, I thought why not blog about these new items. I figure even if some sane teachers are truly on vacation, they can catch up later and scroll to their heart's content, hopefully getting some new ideas that will get them excited to go back.

My grandsons' last day of school isn't 'til this Friday the 20th, so if you too, are still in school because of those dreaded snow day make ups, perhaps you can even use this activity now.

As a good educator, one should not have the proverbial "teacher's pet" but realistically, every year there are always a few adorable students who become favorites. Even though you treat all of your kiddos equally, those children leave heartprints that become fond memories forever.

Sweet little Jenna is one of mine. Thoughts of her, as I type, make me smile. She was so quiet and shy, and bravely tried to fight those first-day of school tears. I confided to her mom that she came to me a tiny caterpillar, and by the end of Y5's she had blossomed into a lovely butterfly. Her mother agreed that Jenna had truly come out of her "crysalis" shell and wasn't afraid to fly!

back to school ideas, keepsake crafts for kids, butterfly activities, butterfly frame, butterfly crafts, end of the year activities, end of the year crafts, She was my inspiration for this keepsake frame. I hope you enjoy making them with your students and that they tug on a few heartstrings as mommies tuck them away.

The reason this is a back-to-school item, even tho' you'll be doing it at the end of the year, is because you need to make copies of your students' first day of school photographs.

It's something that most early elementary teachers do, especially if they make an end of the year memory book. Simply make double prints to save for later, and do a photo shoot of some sort for a last week of school picture as well.

When I designed my sample, I didn't have any photographs to put in it, so I surfed the web and found "Ho ho" on Crystal's Little Bit Funky site. She was kind enough to give me permission to use her son's pictures in my butterfly frame. Click on the link to check out her helpful blog.

back to school ideas, keepsake crafts for kids, butterfly activities, butterfly frame, butterfly crafts, end of the year activities, end of the year crafts, To make a butterfly frame, run off my templates on a variety of colors of construction paper. There are two on a page for easy printing. Trim and fold them in half. Students cut out the X-d sections and then glue their pictures behind the wings. Mount on a complementary color of construction paper.

If you think that this type of cutting is too difficult for your kiddos, have a room helper cut the butterfly frames ahead of time. Even young children should be OK to cut the leaf, caterpillar and flower out. They glue these to their frame. Students or a teacher can print the "First day of ________ ... last day!" portion on the wing sections.

For that finishing touch, I added a paper punch butterfly. To make it 3D, I used two butterflies, gluing the thorax of the top one to the thorax of the bottom one, and then bent the wings up, so that the butterfly looks like it's flying.

Click on the link to view/download the Keepsake Butterfly Frame. Thanks for visiting today. Feel free to PIN away. That's how I found adorable little Ho Ho! Until next time, rest, relax, repeat!