End of the Year Gifts!!

Hi guys!
I hope you are reading this while you are officially on summer vacation...but if you aren't, I hope that you make it there soon!! My daughter still has a few more weeks in school. They don't end until June 12th! 

I wanted to share with you today what I gave my kiddos for a present when I left. (As you know, I left the school year early due to moving to England!) While I gave them these gifts early, they obviously could have been end of the year gifts as well. When I teach again, I think I will do them as end of the year gifts since they were such a hit this year!

I decided that since I was moving far away, I wanted my kiddos to still be able to contact me if they wanted to. I pondered over the perfect gift for weeks until a friend suggested that if you want them to be able to contact you, why not give them the tools to do so?!?  PERFECT!!!

So I decided to make stationary kits for my students.  They were such a hit with the kids! They loved getting such an interactive gift that they could make their own! They were relatively cheap to make for all of them and I had so much fun putting them together!  

Here's how I did it:::

First, I collected everything I would need. 
I bought tons of different blank decorative notecards. I bought them by the pack, which had 8-10 in each pack, and they were on clearance. 
 I then bought some cute writing pens on a string from the party section and they were on clearance as well.  I got character pens for the boys and Hello Kitty ones for the girls!
Lastly, I bought some clear cellophane party bags that came with ties.
Next, I picked out a card for each student and wrote them a personal note inside. Yes, this took some time but I had such a loving class this year, which made it easy to find the right words for them all. They mostly all said something to the effect of they were an awesome student, who I loved dearly and will miss so much. Keep working hard to achieve your dreams.  I had a few parents write to me and let me know how touched they were by the letters and that they would hold them out for the kids to read later in life.  That made my day!!

My next step was to assemble all of the bags.  I gathered coordinating cards together and put them in a bag.  Each kid ended up with about 5-6 cards in their bag. And I also added the pen inside. 
I then enlisted my mother to help me hold and tie each bag.  I used the twisty that came with the bags then put cute curling ribbon over it to make sure it was nice and sturdy. Before I tied them all the way, I had punched a hold in my personal note to them, slipped it on the ribbon and did the final tie.  That way the personal notes wouldn't get lost from their stationary pack.
Here's a bag for a girl.
 And a bag for a boy!
Here is the bowl with the entire class set of bags!!

Overall, for 20 kids in my class I spent about $15.00 dollars making these. Not bad to pay less than $1.00 per kid!

I have gotten word that I have a few letters on the way and I can't wait to read them!!

I hope you can use this gift idea with your own class. 

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