What are some key teacher tips to celebrating Valentine’s Day in the classroom?

So, you need some fun Valentine gift ideas for your classroom this year?  The kids love this season.  The holidays have been over for a while and all kids love passing out Valentines.  Here are some tips to making Valentine’s Day fun for everyone, including you this school year.

Have the kids help make February’s Classroom Calendar.  It doesn’t matter how old the kids are a Calendar, done well, can include everyone.  It can be huge, artistic; all of the kids can color the placement markers for each day that comes.  You could even give individual calendars to the kids to color and create.  This can be a Valentine gift idea as well.

One thing you don’t want is someone to get left out when it is time to exchange their Valentine cards. So here is a Valentine gift idea that allows all the kids to pass out their own Valentine’s and can save the parents money too.  Each year after Valentine’s Day I sneak into Target or a local department store only to find their Valentines up to 75% off. I pick them up and have them for next year.  If you haven’t thought of that remember that they are pretty cheap any ways.  Or you could have the kids design their own. What a fantastic art lesson. You can even have a guest artist come in showing how to make Valentine gift cards.

It is always good to teach kids to give.  Why not have the kids take on this Valentine gift idea.  Have your students send a Valentine to a student that has special needs.  Or you could have your students give Valentine’s to your local veterans.  One year my students made Valentines for a nearby nursing home and I bought bakery fresh Valentine cookies to go with their sweet cards.  Let the kids enjoy blessing others and seeking to put others first.

When the big day comes, have a party but remind the kids that if they pass out one Valentine they must give one to each child in the class.  All words must be kind.  I encourage the kids to not add candy to their card, but instead ask them to bring a store bought treat that we can all enjoy. This helps with clean up and making sure everyone feels special.

Let Valentine’s Day cross the curriculum.  Play heart math games, spell out love words, and research the meaning and history of this special day. No matter what make these Valentine gift ideas for your classroom ones to remember for always.

Homemade Doggie Treat Recipe

Marilyn was never able to have children.  They tried for several years, but it was not meant to be. Life was good though and they adjusted to the idea that there was always going to be just the two of them.  In some ways it brought them closer.

Three of the six women in our office were expecting babies in the next four months. Because we are a close group, it is fun to experience this with them.  We talk about everything.  Mostly everything that has to do with babies . I have four children of my own, so I have lots of stories to share too.

It doesn’t matter if someone has three children or it is their first, we give them a shower. You know. The whole nine yards.  Silly shower games, a pink or blue cake and lots and lots of presents.

Last year Marilyn got a puppy.  She was so thrilled.  She brought pictures and told us every little bark he made.  It was cute.  One day, he even ate her husband’s favorite slippers . He could do no wrong.  He was their baby and they loved him.

It was Christmas time and I was putting together my holiday gift list and when it dawned on me.  After all those baby showers and all the pregnancy talk, Mar never complains and always acts interested.  But when she got her puppy, we only smiled and said “cute”.

Maybe I could do something to acknowledge Mar and her dog at this holiday time.  Since it was my custom to bake all my holiday gifts, I thought I should try making something for Jock.

And so I put my creation in a cute little red tin and brought it to work one morning and sat it on her desk. The card just said JOCK.  As she walked towards her desk, you could see a puzzled look on her face.  As she picked it up and then opened it, her eyes lit up.  Someone at her work had made something for her pride and joy.  Her smile was worth a thousand words.  Mar still works in our office and people continue to have babies and she is always a good sport.  And every once in awhile when I get in the mood to bake, I put together a treat for Jock.

Homemade Dog Treat Recipe Jocks favorite 3 1/2 cup flour 2 cup oats 1 cup milk 1/2 cup hot water 2 beef bouillon cubes 1/2 cup meat drippings Dissolve bouillon cubes in hot water. Add milk and drippings and beat. In a separate bowl, mix flour and oatmeal. Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients and mix well. Press onto a cookie sheet and cut into shapes desired. Bake at 300 for 1 hour.

How to Organize Anything

We recently updated our blogs to allow you to email us personally any questions you have on organizing. If you have a trouble spot, send us a picture or question and we will do our best to help you organize your space. With a variety of moms, sisters and friends working together one of us is bound to understand your predicament.

Email us here and we will let you know when we have posted an answer.

Keep your Kits Fresh

From the WebMD site here are a list of goods that should be changed out or used with in a certain time frame. Always keep rotating your items so you don't waste, and keep yourself healthy should the need arise.

A good method of keeping track of times is to check your list at the same time as you change your smoke alarm batteries. It's good practice to change the batteries in your smoke alarm when you change your clocks.

Keep Kits Fresh

Make sure you store your kits in airtight, easy-to-carry containers, and in places that are accessible and that will not likely be affected by disasters. For instance, if you live in a tornado zone, it would be inconvenient for your emergency kit to be on the second floor of your home while you and your family are in the basement.
To keep the items in the kits in good condition, store them in cool, dry places that are not exposed to varied conditions. Also, update your kit every six months. The needs of your family change, and items such as food, water, and batteries can become stale. It's a good idea to write the date of storage on each item.
"The reason to keep your kit fresh is it enables your family to survive longer," explains Hudgins. "Foods that you just refreshed six months ago have a longer shelf life."
The Red Cross offers the following guidelines for food storage:
Use within six months:

• Water
• Powdered milk (boxed)
• Dried fruit (in metal container)
• Dry, crisp crackers (in metal container)
• Potatoes

Use within one year:

• Canned, condensed meat and vegetable soups
• Canned fruits, fruit juices and vegetables
• Ready-to-eat cereals and uncooked instant cereals (in metal containers)
• Peanut butter
• Jelly
• Hard candy and canned nuts
• Vitamin C

May be stored indefinitely (in proper containers and conditions):

• Wheat
• Vegetable oils
• Dried corn
• Baking powder
• Soybeans
• Instant coffee, tea, and cocoa
• Salt
• Noncarbonated soft drinks
• White rice
• Bouillon products
• Dry pasta
• Powdered milk (in nitrogen-packed cans).

Car Survival Kit

It almost doesn't matter where you live, you always want to go somewhere else. If you live at the beach,  you want to travel to the mountains. If you live in a sunny warm climate, you want to go where you can ski and ice fish. While in most cases you would not travel with your home emergency kit, you should always travel with a modified one.

This week we will be putting together a car survival kit. Having a couple of plastic shoe boxes filled with some of these useful tool will help you if you get stranded. Some items will not fit into a shoe box, these should be stored under seats or secured in the back of you vehicle or trunk.

The number one rule : Always maintain at least a 1/2 tank of gas. With the cost of gas sometimes we allow ourselves to ride around town close to empty. However, if there was a local disaster, you may need more gas then the fumes your use to getting by on. Keeping  your tank always above 1/2 allows you more freedom at a moments notice.

Car Fire Extinguisher
Bag of Sand (if it's winter)
Small Shovel
Sleeping Bag, or blankets (good for car accident victims or moving people)

Shoe Box #1
First Aid kit and manual
Small Radio and pack of batteries
Paper, Pencil, Tissues, Plastic Bags, essential medications.
Pre Moistened Towels
Diapers if your child needs them
Flashlight and batteries
Granola Bars
Nuts and raisins
Water purification tablets
some bottled water

Shoe Box #2
Simple tool kit, screwdrivers, wrenches, hammer
Pocket knife
Reflectors and or Flares
Waterproof matches, candles and a newspaper
Jumper Cables
Short Rubber hose for Siphoning

These are simply basics and many times you will have snacks and water packed with you. However it is always good to keep a couple just in case.

Establish Emergency Contacts and Meeting Places

  Two of the most important steps you can take now to prepare your family if a disaster were to occur is to establish a set of safe meeting places and an emergency family contact number outside of your city or state.
  First, it's important that if there is a fire or earthquake at night that you have a safe place to meet outside of your home. This will immediately make you aware of missing family members. If everyone is just told to exit the home, you may not know if your son went to the neighbors house, or is standing in the back yard behind the shed. This can cause panic in an already tense and stressful situation. Before you take another step make sure everyone in your family knows where to meet if a disaster were to hit.
  Next, it is important to have a meeting place outside of your neighborhood, should you not be able to meet at your house. Remember if an earthquake, tornado or severe storm were to hit, cell phone communication may not be available. If your neighborhood is inaccessible, your family should have a second meeting place. This is usually a store or mall parking lot. Remember if you can not be reached by phone, and are not allowed near your home, you will need to assume everyone in your family will be headed to your second meeting place.
  Lastly, it is important to remember that while family members outside of your town may be concerned and unable to get calls in due to overload, calls going out will be more reliable. In the event of a disaster, your family should have a contact member outside of your area. Parents can call the contact family member and let them know where they are. Kids can call the contact family member to check in and hear where their mom and dad are waiting. While communication may be difficult, having one family member outside of the disaster zone to direct family members to will be helpful in keeping all the lines open.

• Make sure all family members know your meeting location outside of your house. Practice!
• Have a secondary meeting place outside of your neighborhood. Local store parking lot. Show everyone the exact location to meet.
• Have a family contact member outside of your town, preferably your state that everyone will check in with no matter what the circumstances in case of a local disaster.

Preparing a First Aid Kit

One of the greatest things we can have in our home, car and survival kit is a good first aid box. Filled with a few simple supplies you can treat minor injuries, or secure major injuries until help arrives. Having a well stocked first aid kit will save you time and money as you can spilt up large packages of band aids, medicines and other necessities into the three kits.
I love having my first aid kits at the park when the kids get a little scrape, or the fact that I can offer help right away to another mother whose child is hurt. Being organized is being prepared.

Here is our list of necessary first aid kit items. Of course if you have family that deal with sever allergies it doesn't hurt to have an epipen handy in each kit as well as your purse. They do expire as do many other first aid items. Once a year it's wise to clean out and replenish your kits to keep them full and safe.

Gauze
Band-aids
Large Triangular Bandage
Elastic bandage - for sprains or securing thick gauze
Sport tape
Cotton Balls/swabs
Safety pins ( 3 or 4 is fine)
Scissors (small fold up kind)
Thermometer
Sanitary napkins - good for many uses including pressure dressings
Disposable diaper - good for large wounds and splints
Matches
Needles
Tweezers
Popsicle sticks - use for small stints
Heavy string
Diarrhea Medicine
Benadryl
Tylenol/ Ibuprofen
Hand sanitizer/ wipes
Small bar of soap - like hotels have
Tea Bags - when wet they are good to stop bleeding in the mouth
Syrup of Ipecac - only give when instructed to by poison control
Any medication needed on a daily basis - at least 1 to 2 weeks worth
Baking soda - can help burns, or mixed with salt and water can help shock
Neosporin - other triple antibiotic
Tea tree oil - antiseptic
Burn pads - these are the gel filled pads that can sooth burns quickly

Preparing for Disaster - Part 3

This week we will take it easy on our budget since last week could have cost you a bit. Sometimes its the little things that you can't do at a moments notice that hurts you in the long run. These things could take some time to track down in an emergency or leave your mind altogether. Here is a simple list of things to do this week and store in your emergency box. My suggestion is to make two copies of everything, store one in your emergency box, one in a large manila envelope in your filing cabinet, and the originals in a fire safe portable safe. In an emergency your bound to take at least one copy if not the originals.

Make Copies of all Legal Papers

• Marriage License
• House Mortgage/Insurance
• Automotive Ownership/ Insurance
• Wills
• Jewelry Appraisals
• Drivers Licenses
• Kids social security cards
• All immunization records
• Insurance policies/ life/medical
• Bank Account numbers and phone contact numbers
• List of out of town family phone numbers
• Picture Identification for each family member
• Pet medical/immunization records
• Any other legal document showing ownership

While you may not want to write down actual account numbers for your banks or credit cards, you should keep a list of phone numbers for those banks. Your bank should be able to look up your account without anything more then picture identification and positive answers to your address and phone numbers. If you have serious medical conditions you should keep extra copies of that paperwork, as well as pharmacy phone numbers, prescription numbers and any other medical information you may need.

Preparing for Disaster - Part 2

This week we will work on filling our container with essential needs.

Now that you have your large empty container, you need to find a clutter free place to store it. Remember you will want to be able to get to this container easily at a moments notice.

Here is our list of necessities.

Battery Powered Radio (crank style is perfect if you can find it)
Basic First Aid kit and Manual
Wool Blanket or two
Manual Can opener
Waterproof Matches
Non-Perishable Foods (canned meats, canned potatoes, peanut butter, crackers and chili) If you have an infant, keep a bottle and formula just in case. Powered milk is also considered a good idea.
Flashlight (batteries or crank)
Water Storage (at least 1 gallon per person per day) I would try to get 1 gallon per person in storage to start
Water purification tablets (this will help you restore your water supply)
Utility Knife
Emergency candles
Extra eye glasses if you need them
Extra supply of medications you need
Extra clothing ( My suggestion is you make sure you have a pack of wool socks that can fit anyone in your family, extra fleece sweatshirts, cotton shirts, and sweat pants)


Now this is a lot to be looking for this week. Check at your local second hand store for extra clothing, but one or two sizes bigger for kids. It does not have to make a fashion statement. This will be survival. We are also not trying to buy enough for everyone to have a clean outfit each day for a week. You can always rinse and dry one while wearing the other.

Be Prepared

We are never as organized as we would like. However, when a major disaster hits, we begin to see how far away from being organized we would really like to be. I have great dreams of storing and rotating food and water so that we will be well prepared should the need arise. Yet, it takes time, energy and a little bit of money.

Over the next few weeks we are going to build a 72 hour Family Emergency Kit. Most of us are not able to run to the store and purchase everything we need in one swell swoop. By breaking it down into manageable pieces, we can begin to see our goal take light.

This week: Lets keep it simple and cheap. It won't cost you much and yet you will begin to set out on a journey to be organized and prepared.

Storage :

One 32 gallon new trash can with lid, or a large plastic tote. This needs to be accessible and portable if an evacuation is ordered. Find a corner in your garage, or shed to store it. Keep it in plain sight, and make it your goal to keep clutter away from it.
While your at the store picking out your storage container, purchase a notepad, pencils and a sharpener. If your budget will allow, grab one or two pairs of work gloves to throw in as well. While you may wonder why these are necessary, and certainly they are not as important as food, water and shelter, having paper and pencils will allow you to leave notes for neighbors, family or to pass along your number and name to emergency workers.

Total Cost This week $10-20 (depending on your storage container.)