Creative Ideas Needed! - Aliso Viejo,CA

Fingerprint collage?

Especially if you know anyone who does digital imaging...you can take a thumbprint from every child, scan it, blow it up to about 2 inches, recolor it, lay it on a background color square. Then get Kinko's to print it out as a poster, and get it framed. This would work for any number (1-1000)...just changes the size of the poster you need.

I would talk with Kinkos (excuse me, FedExOffice). Not only are there education/teacher discounts...but you may be able to get it donated. It might not really matter though, because it wouldn't cost that much...I THINK the pricing on their big color printer (that prints off of a roll that's 4 or 5 feet wide) is $7 per square foot. Say a 2x3 poster. You could have 600 2inch squares with thumb prints. My guess is that you only have around 100 kids max (and maybe as few as 20) so you're looking at a cost of $2-10. Which would fit in a standard frame & matte.

http://www.dna11.com/gallery_finger_prints.asp

This website has something similar on a much grander scale

ha! No ideas here. Just want to say, you're likely not the least creative because my first thought was, "What a pain in the a**. Is that what I have to look forward to?"

Good luck! Maybe you can give me ideas someday!

When my kids were little, the teacher had the kids all draw pictures of vegetables (peas/pod, corn, tomato...) and then put them into one of those multi-picture frames. They then auctioned off the picture frame. It still hangs on the wall in my kitchen.

The effect of glitter on glue makes for a satisfying result, with black, orange and white paper you can use silver glitter on black, black glitter on orange or orange on white or however...have to kids trace the glue onto pretraced spiderwebs, then cover with the glitter ,let dry and shake off excess. Then you can make spiders with tiny googly eyes, medium size black, orange or white pom-poms and little legs with pipe cleaners wrapped around the middle of the pom-poms, (make these while the webs are drying) then you can either glue the spiders to the web or string them from a web silk with a bit of yarn.

Make potato ghosts , pumpkins and cats and stamp a sack for trick or treaating...

OH! I know!, I just remembered when I was a little girl we were given medium pumpkins and we drew our faces onto the pumpkin, but the coolest part was that the teacher had brought a toaster oven and after we dug out the "guts" of our pumpkin she washed the seeds and spread them on a pan with parchment paper...we got to snack on salted, oven roasted pumpkin seeds while we worked...it was cool.

This is the best I can think of but those papermache masks sound like a whole lot of fun...I can't beat that one.

Best luck to you!

The poster idea is a good one. I've seen parents go crazy bidding for those. Plus it has very little effort on your part other than taking it to a printing place and laying it out and making it. (One thing you might want to find out is how much of the thing will come out of your own pocket. Inevitably the person in charge usually pays for the project, and not only their time, but their money is donated. Or hopefully, you know someone who owns a printing shop and they can give you a deal.) Other things I've seen are going to a place where you can paint ceramics and having the kids decorate a piece. Another thing I've done is buy a garden planter, painted it, and then have the kids paint their thumbprint onto different sides of the box, and turned the thumbprints into ladybugs. On one side, you would put the year and the name of the class' teacher. Hope those ideas help.

self portraits of each of the kids made into either a poster or dishtowels.
Mosaic Flower pots that all the kids work on together

Ikia has some great wooden toy boxes for a good price and they are unfinished so it would be easy to paint.

I've seen where someone get's a small wooden table (kid's play table) and then have all the kids put painted handprints on it; or maybe find a small wooden toy box and same idea with the hand prints.

Good luck.

Paper mâché. Masks or holiday decorations. Like a collection to decorate a tree or a wreath, but paper mâché is always fun, since what child can resist ooey, gooey messy newspaper and paint!

What about decorating a plate? I've seen kits in catalogues like Hearth Song but I'm sure you could find one at a nearby craft store too. You could Have the kids put their fingerprints on it and turn them into flowers or something. Good luck!

How about a sponge painting? Give each child a different shaped sponge... maybe with a theme, like fall leaves. Have several colors to choose from (again, if there is a theme, this may affect color selection). Put the canvas or paper to be painted on a table or the wall. Have the children take turns if there is not enough room for all of them to be around it at once.

I can imagine they might come up with a very nice autumn montage!

Hi T.,

If money is not an issue, you can put together a quilt that the kids can put their handprint on. You'd need different colored paint from the craft store, fabric for the kids to put their prints on, and a backing for the quilt. If you are not a quilter, there are plenty of place that can put it all together for you, but the end price can be around $150.

If you are looking for something more economical, you ask parent to send in favorite family recipes, laminate the paper, and have them bound at Kinkos. I think this cost less, probably around $30 or so.

Good luck with all of it, and congratulations on your recent anniversary!

L.

When my son was in pre-K the class decorated a toy chest. In another class each kid decorated a piece of fabric and they made it into a quilt.

Hope this helps. I'm not creative either!

What I think would be an amazing auction item -
Friendship - handprints on a canvas - interlocking one big circle -- underneath each pair of prints child's name and two or three words on Friendship

Example: Friends are great - Friends are silly - I love my friends

I would auction off the original and have copies to sell to the other parents for $50.

S. T

There is a fundraising company that will take student's artwork and turn it into bags, tiles, shirts, and other fun items. So a parent can get a cute tote bag that has a piece of kindergarten art immortalized. The parents at our school loved it. http://www.silvergraphics.com/

Hi T.,
You can make a digital poster through Heritage Makers for just $21.95. You can scan artwork, handprints, etc. Check out my website: www.storybookfamily.com or give me a call and I will help you get started ###-###-####.

D.