Summer Send-Off Gifts

It's the end of another school year (my twenty-first as a kindergarten teacher), and goodness, what a difference twelve months can make.  Different students, different stressors, new goals and new paths.  Unanticipated problems, incredible solutions, mucho appreciation, and copious amounts of laughter left indelible marks on each month, August through May.

While my Stars bloomed in all the right ways, I'll admit that I do love a good double entendre, so "blooming" seemed like the right inspiration for this year's summer send-off gifts for my colleagues.  Our students bloomed all right, but ~some~ parts of the job were blooming ?!@*#! awful. 

Cue the sunshine-loving plants, simple pots, a quick printable, glittery cardstock and some colorful party straws:

I added three or four flowering plants to each white pot, and then created a quick printable (I love PowerPoint) for the stakes.

I glued the printable onto a punched glitter flower, and then used an x-acto knife to cut slits on either side of one end of each straw, creating a pick:

The cardstock flowers were still a little wobbly, so I secured them by adding some hot glue to the backsides where the flowers were tucked into the slits of the straws.  Then I slid each straw pick into a pot.

I hope these pretty little pots bring a happy splash of color to porches and picnic tables this summer!