Category Archives: dollar store

Dollar Store Family Gift: Testimony Time Capsule

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Need a quick (and cheap) gift idea for neighbors, family members, or friends? Want to help those you love reflect on their testimonies of the Savior? If so this gift is for you! 

It is super cheap- everything (but the printables) are available at the Dollar Tree (my favorite store!).  

I did have to go to the grocery store for the mini sparkling ciders since our dollar store was out of stock, but you might be lucky enough to snag some. 🙂

New Years Eve falls on a Monday night. The Testimony Time Capsule book serves as a FHE kit! So you can give the gift of celebrating the New Years AND have a family home evening all prepped. LOVE!!!

There is an idea list that you can pop into the box with some additional activities.

The purpose of the Testimony Time Capsule is simple. Have fun while reflecting on your testimonies. At the end of 2019 you can open up the time capsule and see how your learning has grown.

Check out our post on New Year, New Testament to print off the labels for the Testimony Time Capsule boxes. 

Happy TEACHing! 

DIY Seasonal Table Board

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This was a fun family project that- while it isn’t necessarily teacher related- I just had to share!

I saw this beautiful wood plank dining table runner on Pinterest. I would love to give credit to the person who came up with this idea but unfortunately the link takes you to one of those sites that takes pictures from other bloggers without giving credit. :/

fall

My husband ran to Lowes, found a board (I told him to get the most distressed looking one he could find!) and had it cut to the length of our dining table. He also found a beautiful mahogany stain that we used on the board. I saw various sites online that showed how to distress a board with nails and other tools- I wasn’t brave enough to try their methods in fear of splitting the board or something else disastrous. We found burlap at Hobby Lobby, candles at various stores (including the Dollar Tree!), pinecones and various items from decorations we already owned, and put it all together. I love the way it looks!

I took the idea and decided that this was something that I could modify for all seasons. Here is what we came up!

Fall/Thanksgiving (October and November): Imagine how cool it would look with black and orange candles for Halloween! 

IMG_1529

 

Christmas (December):

red and green

Winter (January): My personal favorite 🙂

white

Valentines Day (February):

redandwhite2

St. Patricks Day (March):

green and white

You might be wondering what are my plans for Spring and Summer- at this point I have no clue but I will share them with you when I think of something!

Happy Creating!

DIY Days of the Week Clothing Organizers

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First, I have to admit something:

I am obsessed with the dollar store. To the point where I may need some intervention.  My biggest weakness is for all the cheap organizational stuff. I find myself buying plastic bins with no idea what I will use it for… and they just collect in a happy, one-day-I-will-use-them heap in my basement. And it certainly doesn’t help that one is VERY close to my house, either. 🙂

I also have wanted to create something that will help my daughter get ready faster in the morning (my gal is just not a morning person). I have seen adorable hanger cards but they just weren’t what I was looking for (lacking durability). When I was meandering down the craft aisle at the local Dollar Tree and saw these foam door hangers at 3 for $1 I knew I had an easy, budget friendly solution! (side note: I really enjoy meandering down the aisles at the dollar store)

Here is my final product! Using 7 foam hangers and a sharpie! I know the dollar store has different shapes- the heart ones fit nicely on our hangers, so that would be my recommendation for anyone interested in making these. I also color coordinated the hearts on top by using red for the weekend, pink for school days, and yellow for weekdays with no school.

We pick the outfits once a week. If my daughter changes her mind about her outfit for the day she has every right to pick something else! This just gives her something to fall back on, for those late mornings. Which we have a lot of around here… 🙂

A closet door knob is a great place to store these organizational gems once the outfit has been worn.
We are not perfect at using this system. There are weeks that slip by where we haven’t used our clothing organizers. But when we do use them its been a wonderful way to shave off some time deciding what to wear in those chaotic mornings. 🙂
Happy Teaching!

DIY Embroidery Floss Easter Eggs

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Easter is soon approaching (can you believe it? i am not even ready for st patricks day!) I thought it would be fun to post a quick (and messy) tutorial on how to make some embroidery floss eggs. This would be a fun craft for kiddos (this particular set was completely mommy made however- Boo was not in a crafting mood!)

Materials:
Embroidery Floss (one small skein per egg)
Vaseline
Mod Podge
Balloons (picked these up at the good old Dollar Tree)
Blow up a small balloon until its about the size of an egg. Then coat that balloon with Vaseline. This prevents the Mod Podge from sticking directly to the balloon. 
Cut the embroidery floss into several long strands. Do this before you begin gluing, since your hands will be super sticky. Then dip the floss into your Mod Podge and wrap it around your balloon.

Helpful hint: I covered my table with old sheet protectors. They not only kept my table clean, but the Mod Podge didn’t stick to it. And then, of course, the clean up was fast!

Hang balloons to dry. I just tied a simple knot at the ends of the balloons with white string and hung them in the bathroom on the shower curtain rod.

After a day or so, take the balloons down. The balloons should be shrinking- but the embroidery floss should have kept its original shape. Pop the balloons and take them carefully out of the egg.

And voila! You are finished! And not only would these be fun for Easter, but they make a great addition to Christmas lights (how fun to hang on the deck in the Summer!) and I love the color they add to my home decor!

Have fun crafting with your kiddos- and as always, Happy Teaching!

M&M Patterns

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My daughter and I made some simple patterns today with our Valentine M&Ms. I was worried about them rolling all over the place when the idea came to me to put them in our corn on the cob dishes (from the Dollar Tree- I am addicted to that store and might need some intervention!) It’s a simple solution that I thought I would share!

And when the pattern is finished, the candy is already in a dish that holds just the right amount of chocolate that my little ball of energy should be eating.
Happy Teaching!

Dollar Store Valentine Handprint Plate

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I am really excited for Valentines Day! My daughter and I recently made a handprint heart plate. It is super easy, cheap, and I think it looks pretty darn cute!

Materials:

  • red paint
  • white paper
  • pink tissue paper squares
  • glass plate from the dollar store
  • modpodge/ foam brush

Using red paint, have your child stamp their handprints in a heart shape. Then cut out the paper in the shape of a heart.

Turn the plate over (so the back is facing you). Put the heart facedown on the back of the plate. Then modpodge it on until the heart sticks to the plate.

Modpodge the tissue paper squares on to the back of the plate to fill in the gaps. Be careful not to rip or tear the tissue paper during this process.

After the plate was covered in tissue paper squares, I modpodged a paper on the back of the heart that has my daughter’s name and age.

Follow my handprint art board on Pinterest for more ideas:
It is always so fun to craft with my Boo and make something that will always remind me of her. 🙂
Happy Teaching!

Valentine Apothecary Jars

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I had to do a quick post on our Valentine Apothecary jars. You can read more about them here. Despite the fact that it is still the middle of January, I was antsy to decorate with hearts! And all the items I used to fill the jars was purchased at the dollar store. 🙂 I bought conversation hearts, cherry gummy hearts (YUM), and little plastic heart boxes. Oh and the ribbon was from the dollar store, too! Yay for a good deal!

I just love how they look all snuggled in my mantle nook.

Do you see those red mailboxes on the right? They are our next family craft project- I will have to post more about that when we are done!

For more ideas on how to decorate apothecary jars, click on the pic below to go to my Pinterest board dedicated to this subject.

Happy Teaching!

Dollar Store Turkey Handprint Plate

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I LOVE the dollar store. Sadly, it is probably my favorite place to shop. I am a sucker for a good deal! I wanted to make a Thanksgiving craft with my daughter, and this is what we came up with:

This was so easy and inexpensive to make!
Materials:

  • Dollar store glass plate
  • Colored paper (I used construction paper without thinking about the fade factor- if I were to do this over, I would definitely use scrapbook paper!)
  • Tissue paper cut into small squares (I happened to use an old sewing paper, but any tissue paper will work!)
  • Mod Podge 
  • Foam Brush
  • Scissors 
1. First, trace your child’s hand on 5 different papers. These will be the turkey’s feathers.

 2. Cut out a brown oval, orange triangle, and white and black circles for the turkey’s body. And cut a red squigly shape for the wattle (is this the right word?) Wattle not shown in picture- I forgot about it until a later step :). Glue the face together.

 3. Your turkey parts are complete! Glue the little guy together. Wattle shown.

4. Now for the fun Mod Podge part. I am seriously impaired when it comes to this gluey stuff! Turn the plate over so you are working on the back. Flip the turkey over and place on the plate. Mod Podge like crazy to get the turkey to stick to the plate. 
Once the turkey is on, add your tissue paper squares to fill in the gaps. I would add a layer of Mod Podge, then stick on the tissue paper.
My mind is spinning with the possibilities of plate projects- you could make one for every holiday using different handprint art. These would be fabulous christmas presents for the grandparents! Heck, I even like them for myself!
Happy crafting with your kiddos!

Glow in the Dark Bone Recognition Game

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My little family and I spent an evening at the dollar store (fun times- those dollar stores!) I bought a glow in the dark skeleton thinking it would be so cool to hang in my daughter’s room- like a Halloween night light!
Well, you get what you pay for. The dollar store skeleton didn’t GLOW very well. But that’s OK. Because we were able to come up with this fun and very educational activity!

Glow in the Dark Bone Recognition Game

Boo highlighting the femur during our Bone Recognition Game

Supplies:
dollar store glow in the dark skeleton
flashlight
knowledge of bone names

Pregame stuff:
Hang up the skeleton (so your kids can reach the skull- for a non-example look at the pic above!) Tell your kiddo that you are going to play a glow in the dark game with the skeleton! How fun, right! Show ’em how you highlight an area of the skeleton by shining the flashlight directly on top it.  It’s like you are painting the bones with light.

If your skeleton is a cheap one like mine, only the bone that was highlighted with direct light will glow… and not for a very long time, either.

Game:
Have one child step out of the room. Give another child a flashlight, and tell her to highlight the femur (or any other bone) on the skeleton with the flashlight (remember direct light for a few minutes). Bring the first child back into the room and tell her to quickly point to the femur (She shouldn’t be able to tell which one was highlighted). After she guesses, turn the lights out to see if she guessed correctly! Remember to play fast!

There are also game adaptions- 

  • For those just learning the bone names, you can have them highlight a bone and then talk about it. 
  • You can use the everyday names (shoulder, foot, backbone) instead of the scientific names for those young learners.
  • YOU can highlight a bone, turn the lights off, and have a young child state the everyday name(shoulder, foot, backbone) and an older child state the scientific name.
Happy Teaching!



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