Volunteer Gifts & My Little Ninjas

For the last few weeks I've been deliberating about what to do for my classroom volunteers.  I thought about mini first aid kits from the dollar store, and sure, they're practical, but where's the fun?

 

So I did some Pinterest perusing and was inspired to create these:  voila!  (PS - it's hard to see, but the baggie is full of smores goldfish, but I'm also using the regular cheddar ones and swedish fish too. The water bottle (dollar store find) has lemonade candies and lemonade flavor packets).  I think they turned out pretty cute.  :) You can click any of the images above to download the tag template for free. Also, after I had decided to do these I saw some great ideas on The Teacher Wife's blog - check them out.

  Now... the picture below is not for the faint-hearted I will tell you that much. I saw an idea like this on Pinterest months ago (I'm sure you've seen it - adorable!)... and I'm a little over-ambitious at times and couldn't shake the idea out of my brain.  So of course I had to try it and here it is!

    I just ordered prints and cards with this photo on the front from Walmart.  The occasional volunteers will get a print.  The regulars will get a card with a written message inside.

 Now who could these little ninjas be?  Surely not escaped from Flat Stanley's Japanese Ninja Surprise!?

 Oh look, there's more!  Aren't they cute? 

Oh boy, put on a mask and a whole different side comes out.  Check out some of their cute Ninja stories below.  (This page and mask are both in my Flat Stanley unit - see previous post to win it for free!)  You can click here to download the Ninja Adventure Writing Page for free.

 

 Also, I've seen this cute idea all over all of those fantastic teacher blogs out there, (sorry I don't know who to credit for the original idea) but I didn't jump on the bandwagon until there were just 8 days of school remaining for us.  The idea is each day you pop a balloon and inside there is a surprise note telling the class something fun they get to do that day. 

Mr. Smiley is now nose-less and my students were ecstatic to discover that their surprise fate for day #8 was..... (drum roll please.... ) An EXTRA recess!  They can't wait to see what tomorrow's balloon brings.  Thanks for whoever started this fantastic wildfire idea. :)  Obviously, I love it.

What fun things are you doing for your last few days of school?

PS - I just joined my first Linky party (I know, where have I been, right?) on Courtney's blog over at Swimming into Second. You should come join too!