HHE Staff Valentine's Day Gift

I gave the HHE staff a Sharpie for their Valentine's Day gift today. I attached a label that said "The PTA thinks you're 'Sharp'" on one side and the other side said "Happy Valentine's Day". They were a big hit!

Cracker Candy

Here is a delicious idea for Valentine's Day! Made this easy cracker candy for all the kids teachers this year. Placed them into zip lock sandwich bags and then topped them off with these cute bag toppers I found at Hobby Lobby. Jack passed his out of Friday and got rave reviews!

Here is the recipe for the Cracker Candy
15 sheets graham crackers
¾ cup chopped Pecans
1 ¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter
½ cup semi sweet chips
½ cup white choc chips
Grease a jelly roll pan. Divide graham crackers into small sections and place in single layer in the bottom of the greased jelly roll pan. Sprinkle nuts over crackers. In a sauce pan, bring brown sugar and butter to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes. Pour over graham crackers. Bake 10 minutes at 350o. Immediately remove sections from pan and place onto waxed paper. Melt dark chocolate & white chocolate in micro wave and drizzle over cracker sections.

ENJOY!

Staff Appreciation Valentine

This Valentine's Day, I'm giving each of the staff at HHE a highlighter. This was super easy teacher gift. Hope they like them.

Rose Stamps

Roses are red, violets are blue,

sugar is sweet and so are you. We made these rose prints using celery in my preschool class. I wish I could take credit for coming up with the creative idea. I got it from the Methodist conference I went to last month. One of the classes I took was all about food and this was one of the ideas they gave us. It was so easy my 2 year old class was able to do it.
Just love how these turned out. Would made a great Mother's Day Bouquet!

Valentine's Day Cake, Gifts and Games

It just isn't Valentine's Day without chocolate. Here is the dark chocolate cake Bailey and I made for Christian. This recipe is as easy as a box cake and taste even better!
Dark Chocolate Cake
1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup Hershey's cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup boiling water
Combine dry ingredients in large mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients except boiling water. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Remove from mixer and stir in boiling water (mix by hand). Pour into greased & floured pan. Bake at 350o for 35 to 40 minutes.

Christian gave me a mushy card, a box of good chocolates and a new frig for the garage. Our second frig stopped working two days before Valentine's Day and that is was I wanted.

Both kids had Valentine's Day party's at school. They exchanged cards and played games. One of the games I had never seen before and I thought it would be fun to do next year was stacking large conversation hearts into a tower of 20. This was a test of fine motor skills and Bailey was the first in her class to complete the task. I was there to see it and didn't think to snap a picture if you can believe that ;~)
I had Bailey stack them up again at home.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Hand Print

One of my favorite things to do with my class is hand print crafts. I feel like these crafts are the keepsakes that parents treasure for years. This year, for Valentine's Day, we may cards for the parents with a cute poem and a hand print.

To make the hand print more special, we placed a heart sticker in the palm to create this unique hand print. For more Valentine's Day ideas click here.

Bird Seed Hearts

Bailey's Daisy troop is planning on making these cute bird seed hearts for their February 3rd meeting. Birds are scrounging for food at this time of the year, so we thought we would help them out by creating a heart just for them.

Supplies Needed:
Bird Seed
Peanut Butter
String
Cardboard
Cut a heart shape from a 4" square of paper to use as a template. Use the cardboard and heart template to cut out one heart for each child.

Use a hole punch to create a hole at the top of the heart, insert the string to create a hoop for hanging.
Children spread the peanut butter onto the heart and then sprinkle the bird seed onto the peanut butter. They can place the larger seeds around the edge or just sprinkle randomly.

These bird seed hearts are a great alternative to the pine cone bird feeders we have seen in the past. Great project for early February!

Holiday Party Mix

A friend asked me to make some of my snack mix for Valentine's Day. This is a great recipe and you can include candy to match any holiday or event. It is very similar to Cracker Jack's.

9 cups oven-toasted corn cereal squares
4 cups popped popcorn
1 ½ cups dry-roasted peanuts
1 cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup butter or margarine
½ cup light corn syrup
1 tsp, vanilla extract
½ tsp. baking soda
1 ¾ cups M&M or chocolate chips
1 ½ cups of white chocolate covered pretzels

Preheat oven to 250o. Grease large roasting pan.
Mix cereal, popped popcorn and peanuts in a large bowl. Pour into prepared pan. Combine brown sugar, butter and corn syrup in a medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, without stirring for 5 minutes. Removed from heat; stir in vanilla extract and baking soda. Pour evenly over cereal mixture: stir to coat evenly. Bake for 45 minutes, stirring ever 15 minutes. Cool completely in pan, stirring frequently to break apart mixture. Stir in M&M and Choc. Pretzels. Store in airtight container. Makes about 5 quarts.

SWEET Valentine

Jack brought home this SWEET Valentine from school. It is a cup cake paper, white tissue paper, red glitter glue and pom pom. What a cute cup cake!

Valentine Chalk

This Valentine’s Day we’re giving out chalk! That’s right, CHALK! Jack’s class has some kids on restricted diets, so, candy is out. We put six pieces of sidewalk chalk into a bag with the label attached that says “Hope this “chalks” up to be a great Valentine’s Day!” Turned out so sweet and very low cal ;~)

Teacher Valentine

This year for Valentine’s Day, I made the kids’ teacher’s Scrabble Tile Pendants with a really cute poem from http://www.poemsource.com/. We passed them out early so they could wear them in the early part of the month.

Cute Conversation Hearts Magnets

I made these Valentine’s Day Magnets for my preschool class and, of course, I had to do some for my own kids. They turned out so sweet. I just took the Necco ® Sweetheart individual boxes, cut the cover off, taped a picture behind the open heart window, wrote the date on the back and added a magnet. I can’t wait to give them out to all my mom’s!