End of Year Activity and Gift

I love to give my students a little something to remember their first grade year and our time together. This year I'm doing two things, one is free and involves the students, and the other is an inexpensive handmade memento from me.

• Wordles - I love to make wordles, as you've probably guessed by now. This year I had planned to create wordles for each of my students with their names and adjectives that describe them. As they were writing bucket notes last week (we do bucket filling), I got the idea to have them come up with the adjectives. I put a large sheet manila paper on each student's desk and had them write their names in the middle with marker. We brainstormed positive adjectives together and started off by writing an adjective on our own papers first. Several of the students said it was hard because they'd never complimented themselves before! So sad! I was really glad we started off with that because throughout the rest of the activity, everyone was smiling and feeling good about themselves, which makes it easier for them to say nice things about others. The students rotated around the room and wrote one word on each student's poster. I will use their posters to create a personalized wordle for each student.  
• Backpack Tags - These are a cheap and easy craft to make, and I know the kids love them because I see them on the backpacks of my former students all the time! You will need: a class set of wallet size class pictures (I've used Walgreens and Shutterfly), a class set of luggage tag and loop laminating pouches, double sided tape, paper (I used colored, but white will work) and a printer. You could also handwrite them, but I love the chance to spice things up with my fun fonts! There are two different kinds of laminating pouches you can get - some need to be run through a thermal laminator to seal and some are self stick. The self-stick come in smaller packs and are slightly more expensive, but I use them because I don't have that kind of laminator at my school and it gives me the freedom to work on them at home. I used Microsoft Word to make a table with boxes that are the same size as my wallet prints (2"h x 3"w) and typed each students name, my name and the school year. After printing them out, I cut them apart and used double sided tape to attach name cards to the back of the class pictures. From there I just sealed them in pouches and voila! Last year I made them all the same, but this year I used different fonts for the boys and girls. It could definitely be made cuter with a border or clip art, but I was pressed for time because I found out on Wednesday that 3 of my kids wouldn't be back next week. Here's a sample of the name side of a boy and girl tag:

Do you make gifts for your students? I'd love to hear some new ideas!