Here's a Montessori themed Word Cloud

Did you know that the first full week in May is Teacher Appreciation week? I’m not sure when it became an official “thing”, but it’s been fun brainstorming and getting things together for both MaM and the Fox’s classroom teachers.

While I was mulling over what to do, I had a burst of inspiration. And since it doesn’t happen often, I thought I’d share.

One thing I think most teachers enjoy (I know I did) is receiving sentiments from their students. One of my most favorite momentos ever is from a little girl who drew a picture of the two of us, and her dad wrote the story about it on the back. I wanted to coordinate sentiments from the Fox’s entire class- and all of a sudden it came to me. WORDLE.

The school administrator took the time to have each child say what they liked best about each teacher.

1) I created a word doc that included all of the quotes from all of the children, including their names.

2) I pasted that document into the text box on the wordle.net website.

3) I played around with the Wordle text by pressing “randomize” and tweaking the color and the font until I hit upon what I wanted.

4) I saved the file by selecting print, and then instead of printing, I saved it as a PDF.

5)I I printed the PDF on photo paper, and popped it in a 8 x 10 frame.

Viola!

What was really amazing about this project was that the words that “popped” on each teacher’s Wordle were dead-on. The teacher who spends time outside and teaches art had outside, monkey-bars, art, and paint in large type. The teacher who practices sight words with the children, sings songs and prepares snack had words like read, sings, and snack were the largest words on her word cloud. I can’t wait to give them to the teachers next week!

Wondering what you can do if you can’t get the whole class to contribute quotes?

a) Include the teacher’s name, and the class roster

b) Include the subject, along with special projects or unit themes that have been covered

c) Include reading lists, people studied, or lists of other topics covered

The possibilities are endless- have fun thinking of groups of words that might work for the special teacher in your life. He or she will appreciate it.

When we upacked the POD, one of the many things that shocked me was the sheer amount of baby clothes we shoved in there. I know that I’ve passed on most of the kids’ things as they’ve worn them, but apparently this wasn’t the case for the first year of MaM’s life. We came across FIVE totes of infant girl things. FIVE. Five totes full of things for one little girl who was in 24month clothing on her first birthday. So those five totes?

Were all worn within the first twelve months of her walking this earth.

But let’s face it- baby clothes are FUN. They are cute, they are soft, and with a baby, you don’t ever have to worry about whether or not the baby will think the shirt/romper/bloomers makes her butt look big or thighs chubby or faced washed out. Babies just wear what you give them and smile. 

So when the Tea Collection, purveyor of Designer Children’s Clothing, asked me if I wanted to shop their new fall collection, I emailed back YES! YES! YES! You see, our extended family is being blessed with baby girls this year. By the end of 2011, we will have three brand-new, beautiful nieces. And guess what? All of these baby girls will need new clothes! All of them! (they are all getting a bag of MaM’s greatest hits as well, btw)

Looking around Tea Collection’s site, their Amate Aves Raglan Dress and leggings to go with it. She’s enamored with the bird on the skirt.

We also picked a romper for a little niece about to be born in Milwaukee– don’t you think the Pava Real Romper will keep her warm on those cold winter days next to Lake Michigan??

MaM eagerly awaited the arrival of her picks, and she tried her outfit on right away. It fit perfectly, the sizing chart was right on the money. The romper is soft and darling, and I can’t wait to gift it to my soon-to-arrive niece. The biggest hit though, was the coloring book that came with the order. This fall’s collection is from Mexico, so the coloring book features traditional Mexican art.

Dislcosure: In exchange for this blog post, Tea Collection provided me with a gift certificate for some online shopping. The opinions expressed above are uniquely my own.