We’re linking up with Katie over at Teacher to the Core for a quick Monday Mommy idea…
But, before we do…BIG congratulations to
Amber Olson
for winning the June Mystery Box Giveaway.
Were you dying to know who the host was for June?
It was US!
BIG reveal post coming just as soon as the Snail Mail arrives at Amber’s house.
You know, she should be surprised and all…
But, don’t worry if you didn’t win because one of the other mysterious bloggers above will be hosting it again in July!
So don’t give up…If at first…or second…or third you don’t succeed, Try, Try Again!
Now, back to our linky…
We’ve been cleaning out our craft closets and cupboards in this first week of summer.
In
doing so, we’ve got little 3 and 4 foot “spies” (in the form of children) lurking about and lots
of “requests” to retrieve things after they’ve gone into the trash bag.
If you’re a Mom trying to purge your children’s junk treasures, you may share our pain.
And, yes…As much as we love and adore them, it can be painful.
Though
our urge to purge wants to trash it all, we really don’t want to stifle
our kids’ creativity and willingness to do something that does not
require a remote, game controller or WiFi on these long summer days.
So, we came up with something that makes us all happy.
Mystery Craft Bag
With all those trash items, we’ve turned them into treasures by giving them back to our kids.
The difference…instead of them going hog wild with 150 teeny, tiny, itty bitty pieces of craft materials that are super fun while we’re playing, but NO chance we want to clean them up when we’re done, we give them a few at a time via our
Mystery Craft Bag
Throw 4-5 items in the Mystery Craft Bag and there’s only 1 Rule…
Be Creative!
Given Mom’s trash
1 piece of yarn, 3 googly eyes, 2 cotton balls and a piece of scrapbook paper what could you make?
Amazing the creative things they come up with!
The sky’s the limit on what you can put in there too.
Anything from a clean, dry yogurt lid to a rock from the yard.
They don’t seem to mind.
It’s the mystery of it that they love!
And, on a side note…We have found that the more items you place in the Mystery Craft Bag the longer they stay out of your hair more creative they can be! Some days, we’ve given “rules” too such as,
Make something from the ocean.
or
Make 2 things that would go inside a house.
Again, the sky’s the limit.
Most times we don’t give any rules…Just be creative!
We’re never really sure if these things are enjoyed or tolerated when we suggest them to our kids as Moms.
But, confirmation came during a play date the other day, when we were begged for Mystery Craft Bags.
Our trash cans were happy to oblige and we may have imagined overheard our recycle bins saying thank you so much as we passed them by.
We
usually print the Mystery Craft Bags on sticky labels, 6 to a sheet, and keep several on hand,
but you can also print on regular paper, cut and glue them to the front
of a paper bag. Nothing really fancy, but the kids love to color the
label and decorate the bag too, so we kept it simple.
Seeing our own kids enthusiasm over the simple sacks makes us sure these would work in a classroom too. Again, it’s the mystery of it…But, we may keep a few on hand as a motivator or class reward…Can you imagine a whole class of Mystery Craft Bags? Our students would eat it up! Yours?
Click {here} for your own set of Mystery Craft Bag Labels and watch your kiddos keep busy creativity soar.
P.S.
Do you think you might help us out?
Our blog has been nominated for the
again this year.
Well, we’re teachers.
And, Moms.
So, we kind of fit the requirements…
Now, we just have to hustle for beg for get some votes.
That’s where you can help…
You knew this was coming…Right?
Just like the grocery store asking if you want to “Round up for Research” at the end of your transaction or how Target relentlessly offers a Red Card every single time you check out?
Well, good news. No sign up. No dotted line. No money down.
Just a little click and you’re good to go.
So, if you’d be so kind as to click on over to Circle of Moms and vote for Fluttering Through First Grade and any of the other amazing Teacher Mom blogs you love once a day until July 9th at 4pm that would be great.
Thank You!!
