FREE GRADUATION CRAFT + GRAD SONG

I was trying to work on common core stuff this morning, but somehow got myself WAY off track and slid into a whole kinder graduation mindset.  I don't even teach K this year!!??!!  I think my mind subconsciously wandered off to be in a much more happy place . . . creatin' kiddy crafts :)

This is what I came up with today.  It's a spin off of this amazing craft I found on I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar (see link below).  It's kinda corny, but it makes my heart happy.  I turned it into a Kinder graduation invite (FREE template below), but I also made up an alternate writing activity so you can still use it if you aren't doing the whole grad thing.

Invite - Front

Invite - Back

I will confess that I made THREE different handprint crafts until I found this one and I had to make a sample of the owl twice.  I am super tired today and I quickly found that my big old hand is just WAY too large to create samples.  By the time I finished my "creating," I ended up getting paint all over the place (yes, even in my hair) and my desk looks like a bomb went off.  Ahhhhhhhhhhh . . . I am such a dork.  Ya gotta love the life of a teacher.

If this craft/activity is up your alley, here are the steps and the pit falls :)

1. Trim and mount the front of the invite on the cardstock BEFORE you put your handprints down or it will wrinkle something awful.  Whoops!
2. Have your kids put their handprints down prior to gluing the owl down.  It looks much cleaner this way.  Just have your kids overlap their palms a little in the center. (Also see I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar for an alternate wing idea.)
3. You can use the template at I Am Momma or you can provide the elements (construction/scrapbook paper) and model each step.  The owl body is easy . . . just round the bottom corners off of a rectangle and cut a swoop between the top two corners.  
4. Write the invite prior to mounting just in case your little ones mess up. This big one (A.K.A. me) boogered it up and had to peel it off because of a misspelled word. . . told you I was out of it.

That's about it.  It's pretty easy once you know the steps :). The alternate template (for us non-kinder teachers) is showcased below.  If I find the time that last week, I am going to send this home as an end of the year parent gift.  

CLICK HERE to download all of the templates.  
Thanks to PeachPops Clip Art and Fonts for Peas - you guys rock!

On another crafty note, do you have an awesome graduation craft that you would like to share?  Any input is WELCOME! 

Finally tonight, I have to share Ron Brown's Intelli-Tunes graduation song.  I worked this into our Kinder grad last year (the kids sang it) and the parents were eating out of our hands.  Check out the sample by clicking the live link below! It's available for single song download on the Intelli-Tunes web site now.

That's it my friends.  I am off to the salon to get my scary roots covered up. Now that I am back to my beloved blonde, I am hopelessly addicted to that "bottle."  See you tomorrow.