Month of JOY: Christmas Card Giveaway!

Whether the site of Christmas cards brings you instant panic or JOY we have a deal for you!

Simply sprout is partnering with Magic by Marcy and MPIX for a fabulous giveaway.

Magic by Marcy is offering a 10% discount on all orders for Simply Sprout Fans 

Magic by Marcy offers a variety of custom Christmas cards that are uniquely designed to compliment MPIX printing services. Your custom creation will be sure to be a favorite amongst your family & friends. Designs are being created within 48 hours, combine that with MPIX's fast shipping (Via FEDEX) and you could be addressing and mailing those cards early next week, still in plenty of time for a Christmas delivery.

Use coupon code: SIMPLYSPROUT10

coupon code valid till Friday, December 14th at midnight 

MPIX will be giving away a FREE set of 25 cards with envelopes

They offer doublesided printing onto cardstock

their cardstock comes in a variety of different types:  

Signature, 100% Recycled, Stock, Linen paper and my personal favorite Pearl paper

MPIX is also offering FedEx shipping (for only $5 more than USPS) you will receive your card/holiday orders  the day after they ship rather than waiting 3-5 days for USPS to deliver.

To enter our giveaway please enter below, remember you can enter again each day till Friday!

Winners will be announced Saturday on Facebook!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 So enter today to win and send a little JOY to your family & friends this Christmas!

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Month of Joy: Reindeer Wanted

 

Joy comes in a lot of forms, especially during this time of year.  As a teacher there is nothing that brings me more joy than being able to combine teaching standards and concepts with creativity.  Teaching children to write with detail and explanation is sometimes difficult, and it doesn't help that they have Sugar Plum Fairies dancing through their heads right now!  Recently I have seen some great teachers make a fun lesson from having students fill out a reindeer application.  Right click on this one and paste into a Word document.  Tomorrow we will be featuring some reindeer crafts to go along with this application to make a cute bulletin board!

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Month of Joy: Christmas Card Geography

Who doesn't love receiving Christmas cards in the mail at this time of year?  In an age of email, blogs, and Facebook it is refreshing to have a small little glimpse (on paper) into the life of a family or friend that lives miles away.  Use your Christmas cards as a teachable moment.  I like to have my students bring in a Christmas Card of their choosing and research where that person or family is from.  Students have made brochures about the city, written a letter to the family to compare and contrast our cities, given a short presentation about the chosen location (it's always fun to have them dress like they're visiting there too!), or simply marked the location on a classroom map. 

After the holidays I ask for families to send in any unwanted cards and we cut them up to use as mosaic tiles to frame our work.  Makes for a fun and festive board well into the new year! 

To make this snowman Christmas card holder I just tied three grapevine wreaths together (one in the garage happened to be a little bit smaller so I used it as the head) with grosgrain ribbon.  I added a remnant of black and white gingham fabric as the snowman's scarf.  Finally, I cut a nose and hat out of construction paper and added them onto the wreath with a dot of hot glue.  A cute space to hang our class collection of cards!

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Month of JOY: Snowman Print Glasses

Tis the season for gift giving. It is sometime hard to come up with one more thing for the Grandparents or family member seems to have everything. So give these a try, these simple snowman print glasses are the perfect conversation piece for holiday get togethers. Personalize them by adding some vinyl letters to the back.

Grab some inexpensive bar glasses at Dollar tree or TJ Max. Using white acrylic paint dip your child's hand in, blot to remove excess paint before applying to the glass. align fingers along the bottom of the glass and press firmly. Allow to dry and then use some black, orange and red paint and a fine paintbrush to add some embellishments.

These precious keepsakes will bring lots of JOY for years to come!
You could even start the tradition of making one glass each year, watching how those snowmen grow year after year!

Thanks Amy and little Miss Katie for the creative idea and beautiful glasses!

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Month of Joy: Handprint Wreath

How simple, how sweet, how memorable!  This hand print wreath is a treasured Christmas decoration of mine.  My son made it last year for me at the ripe old age of one, and I hope to display it every year until he is old and gray.  His teacher used a thin canvas, green and red paint, and a pre-made red velvet bow.  This is a perfect gift to send home to families with students young and old.  This year I think we might make one with the all the grand children's hand prints for gifts to my parents as well.

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Month of JOY: Advent Calendars

December is Finally here and the Christmas season is in full swing. Nothing brings more JOY to a child's heart than the arrival of Santa. But if you are like me and a mama of little ones it can be hard to explain that Santa is not coming today...and no he is not coming tomorrow either. So help your little one curb their enthusiasm with a simple advent calendar. These Christmas Countdowns come in all shapes and sizes and can be as simple or as complex as you would like to make them. 

You can find a few of our favorites on our Pinterest site.

Here are a few ideas:

Make a countdown jar of Christmas activities, do one each day

On a small piece of colorful paper inside write one thing you appreciate or love about Christmas and put inside a small envelope with a few pieces of candy. Clip onto a hanging ribbon.

Use green scrapbook paper to make 24 paper cones, On a piece of paper write down the name of a Christmas song, put underneath each cone. Each day lift the cone (Christmas tree) and sing the song with your family.

Create an activity box filled with 24 craft ideas and supplies (they can be contained in large ziploc bags) and do one Christmas craft a day with your little ones.

From our friends at Wikipedia: An Advent calendar is a special calendar used to count or celebrate the days in anticipation of Christmas. The days often overlap with the Christian season of Advent. Despite the name, most commercially available Advent calendars begin on December 1, regardless of when Advent begins, which can be as early as November 27 and as late as December 3. Many take the form of a large rectangular card with "windows" of which there are usually 24: one for each day of December leading up to Christmas Day. One is opened every day leading up to Christmas. The calendar windows open to reveal an image, poem, a portion of a story (such as the story of the Nativity of Jesus) or a small gift, such as a toy or a chocolate item. Some calendars are strictly religious, whereas others are secular in content.

Ideas pictured above:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/62600989/christmas-pennant-advent-calendar

http://www.rcwilley.com/blog/34/3522/06_package-advent-36498.jpeg

http://www.twigandthistle.com/blog/2010/11/magnetic-holiday-advent-calendar-diy/

http://spoonful.com/crafts/cone-iferous-advent

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Month of Joy: Santa Spotting

Oh Santa baby you are so cute!  I spotted this bulletin board just down the hall from my own classroom in Mrs. Selfe's first grade.  I couldn't get over the students' adorable Santa Claus cutouts.  They used patterns to cut out the shapes, and each one has its own unique seasonal spirit!  After completing their Santa, students can write a letter to the man with a bowl full of jelly, write a story about the his nighttime journey, or write a poem describing him.  This creativity and Christmas fun brings me much joy!  

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