Easy and Cheap End of the Year Gift!

School ended for us last Thursday, which meant that last Wednesday, I stayed at school very late. Like, I went to bed at 5:30.

I always procrastinate on grade cards, but I was also working on my parent cards and gifts, student gifts, and everything that goes along with the last day! I also had a great last-minute idea (story of my life!), and I wanted to share it with you so you could work on it BEFORE that last day, if you are still in school.

Along with making prints of all of my photos of the year, I had taken a close-up headshot of each kid while they enjoyed someone's birthday snack outside, and I printed one of each.

If you are still looking to order photo prints for your class, be sure to check Retail Me Not before you place an order. I found a coupon code for 50% off of my photo order at Walgreens, which saved me $30!

I'd also gotten a list of adjectives from the class to describe each student. Basically, each kid wrote their name at the top of a piece of notebook paper and then we played "Scoot" around the room until they had described each of their classmates.

I typed in the adjectives at Tagul. You have to create a login, but I found that it was so quick and easy to save the files that it was worth it! It's also completely free.

I also typed in each student's name 7 or 8 times, so it would be the biggest. Tagul automatically made the adjectives bigger if they were suggested by a student more than once. You can choose the font(s), color(s), and style of your word cloud, if you want.

Then, I saved the files in a folder (all easy to find on my desktop!) and plugged them into a Word file with blue rectangles. To save ink, I put a while square over the part where the picture would go.

The blue shapes are just my "frames," and I pulled in the Tagul files individually before I hit print. (Hint: the file won't show up as an "image" when you tell Word to "insert picture" but if you have Word look at all files, you can still add it!)

You could also digitally print the student's picture, of course... I just liked the look of a photo print, and used a glue-stick to put it on.

I gave it to the students like this, but next year I may get a dollar store frame for each one. I was so happy with how these turned out! I had seen a Wordle or cloud for students' names and adjectives before, but I felt like combining it with a photo will make a really great keepsake for the kid and their family.

On that note... it's time to shower, eat, and head into school to finish my cumulative files.

Hoping to hear soon about the timeline for me moving classrooms. Something about switching grade levels is making me SO motivated to think about next year, and I'm sad that I have to work this summer instead of spending all of my time getting ready!

Are any of you working over the summer, too? Tell me I'm not the only one...