Twelve Crafts Till Christmas: magnetic handprint wreath

My blogbirthversaryday giveaway bash has begun. Check out the first giveaway: a set of rosette ribbon bookmarks from Belle Rose Designs.

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Well, I dropped the ball with my classroom holiday party craft auditions. I had planned to show you two more crafts that we practiced at home, but as you may have guessed, the pre-Christmas to-do list got in the way of posting. And it's silly to post tutorials of Christmas crafts now, so I'll have to put those into the vault until next year . . . or change them into Valentine party crafts some how . . . hmmmm . . . that's got me thinking.

But I wanted to show you the winning craft that we used for the party . . . drum roll please . . .

Jingle Bells

The party was the last day of school before winter break, so the kids were CRAZY! It was an hour and twenty minutes of fun chaos that included:
~making reindeer food
~a gift exchange musical-chairs style
~making jingle bells
~making a super secret wreath for the teacher
~decorating cupcakes
~eating cupcakes
~cleaning up

The kids had a blast making their ornaments. We divided them into two groups. Mrs. S. took eleven of the kids and did the gift exchange musical-chairs style. While I worked with the other eleven on the jingle bells . . . and the wreath. Then we switched groups. We were super top-secret about the wreath, and I was soooo proud of the kids for not telling. While they were decorating their bells, I went from kid to kid and did the handprints.

Here's the final product:

This wreath would make a great gift any time of year. And if you can't get the handprints of all the kids, you could just use your child's handprint all the way around the wreath.

Here's what you need:
~a round pizza pan
~a length of ribbon for hanging
~a felt circle cut to fit the back of the pizza pan
~magnetic letters
~craft foam cut into smallish rectangles big enough for a child's handprint
~paint
~paint brush
~sharpie
~hot glue gun

Here's what you do:
1) Use hot glue gun to affix ribbon to back of pizza pan. Cover with felt circle using hot glue. (I did this step at home.)

2) Paint child's hand and press onto precut craft foam rectangles. Let dry. Write child's name on front side of handprint. Cut out. (I also wrote each child's name on the back of the foam before we did their handprints. This helped me keep track of the little rectangles in the midst of the chaos.)

3) Use hot glue to place the hands around the rim of the pizza pan like a wreath.