Teacher Gifts

This week is the kids' last week in their current rooms at daycare.  Kate will be moving from the Preschool room up to the Junior Kindergarten room, and Jack will be moving from the Infant room to the Toddler room.  So I wanted to show their teachers our appreciation for all they have done over the last year.  As usual, I resorted to gift cards because they are easy and I know they will use them.  But rather than just tuck them inside a thank you card, I decided to do something a little more creative.


I'm really into pinwheels right now.  I have no idea why.  I think I'm just longing for the summer that doesn't seem to be coming to Seattle.  So I thought it would be fun to make some colorful wheels to accompany the gift cards.


I started with some really colorful double-sided patterned paper:

Fun paper makes me happy.


Then I cut them down into 6X6 inch squares and made cuts from each corner towards the center.  And then I poked holes in every other corner and the center.  

I purchased a pack of foil-covered pencils to use as the sticks (since they are for teachers and all).  For the centers I used straight-pins (map pins work best because they are shorter) which I stuck into the erasers of the pencils.  I put a couple of beads in between the pinwheels and the erasers so they would spin better.

I wanted to display the pinwheels like a flower arrangement, so I purchased these small vases from the garden aisle at Fred Meyer for just a few dollars each.

I then filled them halfway with glass rocks to hold the sticks in place.

For the gift cards, I created cards with holders out of the same paper I used for the pinwheels.  I printed out little pictures of the kids and wrote each teacher a little thank you note (Kate wrote her own).  

I then taped the cards onto the outside of the vases and voila!  I think they turned out nice and are much more fun than just a thank you note.

I had so much fun with my pinwheel project, I made these beauties for the upcoming 4th of July holiday!  I think I'll put them out in the flower bed in front of our house.  Hopefully these will bring out the sunshine!