Quick and Easy Father's Day Gift

The Mother's Day gifts in my class went over so well, we had to do something amazing for Father's Day.  Those poor dads always get overlooked with the end of the year craziness in fifth grade.  When I taught first, I had time to invite them in for donuts with dads, but now we have moving up ceremony and field trips and picnics, oh my!  So my son came home with this adorable gift for Mother's Day (the finished product pic is actually his) that my team and I decided to recreate.  It was quick and inexpensive but it looks like so much more. I can't wait to hear how the dads loved their gifts on Monday morning!

What you need:

• Mod Podge, I used matte (I thought this was a great price for this size, it's going to last me forever.)
• Paint or sponge brushes
• 4x4 ceramic tiles, white is good, but any color is fine (Here's 10 of them for under $5 at the time of publishing)
• Little felt dots for the underside.  Alternatively, you can cut felt and hot glue it on.
• Each kid should bring in something special that reminds them of their dad (One of my awesome colleagues had this idea!  Kids brought in footballs, golf clubs, hats... one mom sent me a picture of her son in front of dad's Corvette!)
• Paper for wrapping.  I used kraft paper and twine, but you could certainly do something different!

So here's what I did.  I took each student's photo with their object.  I got in too close on some of mine, so make sure you take a step back.  When the prints were ready, (DON'T use your pharmacy's "ready in seconds" feature.  Make sure you use one hour photo AT LEAST, otherwise the ink on the photos will run.  I used the CVS app to order prints that would be ready the next day)  I cut a set of templates 3.75 x 3.75 out of card stock.  The students used these as a tracer to cut their photo to the appropriate size. 

Next, I called students in pairs to my desk so I could make sure they followed the directions, since I only made one print each.  Scratch that, I started by calling students to my desk in pairs, until I found a student who could make these in her sleep, and then I made her the expert in charge (yay for student leadership) and she ran the rest of the project.  Full disclosure here, lol.  (Hey, it's June, I have reading assessments to do!).

• Using the brush, paint the surface of the tile with a very, very thin layer of Mod Podge.
• Place the photo on the painted surface and smooth it out really well.
• Cover the photo with a second really thin layer.  Watch your brush strokes!  You want to make sure they kind of all go in the same direction.
• Place in a safe area to dry.

By the time I Gabby got through the whole class, the tiles from the beginning were dry enough to add the felt dots to the corners on the underside.

I then called each student up to wrap their tile with Kraft paper.  (Yes, me).  I was surprised at how many didn't know how to wrap a package, so it was a great experience for them.

I wrapped them in twine and into their lockers they went to make dad happy on Sunday!

See the reading assessment book under all those presents?

Oh, and I used this adorable little craftivity from Mae Hates Mondays, it's a Father's Day wallet card.  I'm so over the ties and tool boxes, not all dads have those things, but they all have wallets!  I hope you like it too!

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