Glad that you were able to join us for the third annual Orange Ya' Glad it's a Blog Hop!
I am the
If you have hopped with us in the past, some things will be familiar, and some things will be new!
This year, all of our bloggers are focusing on free tips or ideas that they can share with you to get your school year off to a great start. Some ideas will have a freebie, others might just be a stand alone concept. The idea is to try and share things that will solve problems and create a happy and stress free first few weeks!
Let's get started!
This tip is an organizational and fun tip for your students! Today I'm going to share about my birthday cups that I make for my students every year!
As a teacher, I am all about organization and prepping ahead of time! I came up with these birthday cups a few years ago as a fun way to recognize student birthdays in the classroom. They are a hit! They end up looking like a milkshake. :-) They take a little time to prep, but I do it all right before school starts and then there are NO WORRIES!!!
To begin, I purchase the bubble cups off of Amazon. There are 50 cups in a set currently for $15.00. That usually lasts me 2 years. Here's a picture of the cups that I usually purchase:
Another suggestion is to see if your local Starbucks might donate the cups! I haven't had any luck with that, but every Starbucks is different. :-)
Next, I got the following materials together to make the cups:
I usually buy my paper shred from Michael's. It is $3.99 and I use a 40% off coupon, plus my teacher discount to buy it. You may want to try the Dollar Tree or similar places to see if you luck out there!
I always get a big bag of party candy at Walmart (approx $7.00). I try to get the ones with Tootsie Roll pops so I can yield some extra red or pink lollipops for the top of my birthday cups. I also buy an extra bag of Tootsie Roll pops so I have enough for the "cherry" of each birthday cup! Now I have had some people tell me that they are not able to give candy in their district. However, you don't have to use candy. You can use any items you want, such as stickers, temp tattoos, and any other little trinkets that you can get at the Dollar Tree. Then maybe you can find a red bouncy ball for the cherry!
I usually have lucked out and found my birthday pencils at the Target Dollar Spot every year! I also purchase address labels that are 2"x 4" in size to stick a happy birthday label on the outside of the birthday cups (see the label freebie below!!)
To make the cups is really simple! Fill the cup between 1/3 and 1/2 of the way up with candy. Then fill the rest of the cup up with the paper shred. I usually put the bubble lid on and stuff it with more paper shred so when I top it off with the lollipop, it is stable and doesn't fall over.
Then finally, I place a birthday pencil down into the cup and VOILA!!
Now one question I have had about this project is about storage. This type of candy is fine to be stored for the school year. The shelf life is well over a year, so I usually make them all before school starts. I keep them in a deep storage tub that I place on top of my metal storage cabinet which is sealed tight. I haven't ever had any problems. :-)
Here is the template for the labels that I have for the birthday cups:
If you'd like to have this freebie file for your own class,
We will be having an Instagram giveaway again! At the bottom of each post, there will be a letter.
The letters all work together to give you the name of a type of orange! This year is a bit tricky...it's a two word name! **Hint: Starting at
Mrs. Russell's Room and going through will give you the right answer!**
Once you've solved the puzzle...take a picture of the answer.
Post it on instagram and hashtag it with #orangehop2015. We love original ideas...so, do something fun with your image!
We will go through the pictures and select a winner!
Next up, a blogger I absolutely ADORE! :)
