Monday Made It - Back to School Style

Back to School Bus Key Ring!

Click Photo to Download Free Bus Template!

Materials Needed:

• Binder Ring
• Cardstock
• Lamination film
• Felt (permanent ink) Marker
• Hole punch

As summer draws to an end, students will be heading back to school. The Bus Key Ring is designed to put the important information for each student in one location in the event the student becomes lost, or forgets what bus they need to get on, or who their emergency contact is.

The Bus Key Ring was designed with safety of young children in mind. Most children carry backpacks or some sort of bag to carry their books and papers back and forth. The Bus Key Ring template does not put the child's name on the outside of the key ring. The purpose of the name being placed on the inside of the key ring is so that persons coming up along side the child will not be able to call their name. (The same principle applies to not putting the name of the child on the back of shirts/sweatshirts).

The 4 page template includes a yellow bus cover, blank bus covers with lines to write information on, and a blank bus template for you to add your own information.

Directions:

1. Print the bus templates onto cardstock.
2. Use a permanent ink felt marker (non-bleed) to write the specific information for each child.
3. Cut out the individual bus pieces.
4. Laminate using a heat seal laminator. (Hint: cutting out the pieces before lamination provides a better seal around the individual pieces.)
5. Use a hole punch to punch out the ring hole in each bus piece.
6. Add binder ring and secure on student's bag or backpack.

Back to School Bag

Materials Included:

• Blank Fabric, Canvas, or Denim Bag
• Iron on Applique
• Fabric Paint (optional)
• Grosgrain Ribbon
• Iron
• Scissors

Kids will be returning to school soon. What better way to get them started right with a colorful, unique school bag? This is a project that your children can work with you on to create a book bag that they are not only proud of, but they can use to carry their books to and from school. There are a lot of possibilities and variations to this project.

For my example, I used iron on appliques.

Directions:

1. Select a blank fabric, canvas or denim bag.
2. Iron the bag (if applying appliques) prior to placing the appliques. This not only preps the fabric for the appliques, it also warms the fabric so that they stick in place before you set them.
3. Iron appliques in place. Make sure you leave the iron on long enough to melt all of the glue. Let cool completely before attempting to test the edges of the appliques. If any of the edges lift up, you can re-iron them. Optional: Hand sew around the edges to ensure that the appliques don't come off with extended use.
4. Add ribbons for embellishment.

Variations: Fabric paint to add names or other designs, buttons, Bedazzle, ribbons/shoe laces, handprints.

Be sure to stop by 4th Grade Frolics Blog to see all of the wonderful "Monday Made It" projects.  I spent a few hours just looking through Blogs. :)  I love to see such creativity!

Have you entered "My Favorite Things" Giveaway?   The drawing for this awesome giveaway is on Thursday, August 8th.  Click HERE to learn details about how you can win!