DIY Family Disney Road Trip Kits

This Disney Road Trip Kit project was sponsored by Oriental Trading Company.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Last month, our family of 5 took a family road trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida for the very first time!  Not knowing when we'd have the chance to make this trip again, I knew I wanted to make it as fun and memorable as possible for my children.  The ride was two days in the car each way, so a Disney Road Trip Kit for each child seemed like just the thing to make the ride more enjoyable.  Before I got started, I checked out some Mickey Mouse party supplies for inspiration.

Are you planning on hitting the road to Disney?  Here's what you'll need to make some Disney Road Trip Kits of your very own . . .

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

Large Red Gift Bags

Black & White Reversible Chevron & Polka Dotted Table Runner

Red Chevron Cake Bags

Red Dotted Cupcake Boxes with Handles

Round Hang Tags

Round Monogrammed Stickers (One per child)

Thin Permanent Marker

Scissors

Glue Stick

Step 1. Get your hang tags ready.  With the hole at the top, place one monogrammed sticker centered on the front of a round hang tag. Then repeat with another sticker (same monogram) on the back.

Step 2.  Find a free printable mouse head template online. Print out the template and cut out the mouse head shape with scissors.  Then, with the desired pattern facing down, trace the mouse head shape using the template and a thin marker right on the table runner.

Step 3.  Cut out the mouse head shape on the patterned paper with scissors.  Affix the mouse head with the preferred pattern facing up onto the front of a large red gift bag using a glue stick.  Press firmly and allow to to try completely.

Step 4.  Tie on a monogrammed tag to each child's bag to help them know whose bag is whose. (Either remove the paper tag that comes on the gift bag or write something fun on it with a thin black permanent marker.)

Step 5.  Use the remaining monogrammed stickers to label goodies and water bottles for each each child.

We filled these cake bags with mini homemade chocolate chip cookies, using one monogram sticker to keep each bag closed, and another to identify whose bag it is on the front.

We also labeled one box of savory treats and one box of sweet treats for each child with the monogrammed labels.

TIP #1:  If you expect the treats will not be consumed within a day, it would be best to place the treats inside a sandwich bag prior to placing inside the box to maintain freshness.

Now our basic Disney Road Trip Kits are ready to go.  What fun items would you add to personalize these kits for your children?

Here are some things we added to our children's Disney Road Trip Kits . . . 

1. Mickey Mouse ears & Minnie Mouse ears
2. Disney Pin Trading Pouches
3. Road Trip Bingo Cards
4. Custom Made Disney-inspired T-shirts
5. Write-on Safety ID Bracelets
6. A book from each of their favorite book series

I think it's safe to say that my daughter's favorite parts of the road trip kit were the mini chocolate chip cookies and the pin trading pouches.  Her two brothers ended up sleeping for quite a bit of the car ride to and from Disney.

Enjoying a snack after a long #roadtrip nap! #orientaltrading #ad

A post shared by Karen Coutu (@karen3g2s) on Feb 17, 2018 at 9:52am PST

TIP #2:  It would be extremely helpful to put together a list of free offline (no Wi-Fi required) games together for your children.  They can download all the games on their devices prior to leaving on the trip.  Then they'll have new games to keep themselves busy while their siblings are napping in the car. (Don't forget to pack fully charged external batteries and cords!)

Like this Disney Road Trip Kit idea? Pin it for later . . . 

What kinds of surprises would you include in your children's Disney Road Trip Kits? Tell us in a comment here.

Chinese New Year Classroom Goodie Bag Ideas plus Printable Chopstick Race Game

Thank you to Oriental Trading Company for providing Chinese New Year goodie bag items for this project.  All opinions expressed are our own.

Chinese New Year comes early this year!  Since our twins' birthdays fall in late January, I thought it would be fun to make Chinese New Year-themed goodie bags to send in for their classrooms.  I had a few ideas, but thought that I might have trouble finding enough items to fill our goodie bags.  I had no idea that Oriental Trading Company's Chinese New Year party supplies & decorations section would have so many classroom-friendly goodie bag options.

One of the ideas I had was to create a fun game the students could play during indoor recess.  Looking through the items on Oriental Trading sparked an idea to make a game using chopsticks.  It's super-easy to make.  Here's what you'll need . . .

Chopstick Race Game

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

Mini Lucky Money Goody Bags

Decorated Wood Chopsticks

Mini Insect Erasers

Chopstick Race Printable (Below)

The object of the game is to pick up the various insects up with the chopsticks and move them one at a time to the jar.  These cute little insect erasers from Oriental Trading Company were the perfect size to use for this game.  The students can race against each other or try to beat their own best time.  It's a fun way to master the art of using chopsticks.

TO PRINT: Make sure your printer is on and ready to go.  Click on the image below to enlarge.  Then right-click on the image and select print.  Use your browser's back arrow to return to this page.

Clipart from 1001FreeDownloads.com

I found lots of fun things to include in these Chinese New Year goodie bags, but it occurred to me that some of them may seem random to the children.  This led to my making a basic label to attach to the outside of each bag.  If you're making a goodie bag like ours, then you can print these labels below.  Now the children will understand which items were included in the bag because they're considered symbols of good luck.

What's in our Chinese New Year goodie bags?

• (1) Chopstick Race Game
• (1) Laminated Jumbo Chinese Zodiac Bookmark
• (2) Chinese Zodiac Pencils
• (1) Fortune Cookie Eraser
• (3) Colorful Goldfish
• (3) Chinese New Year Goldtone Coins
• (1) Chinese New Year Sticker

To complete the presentation, I pasted a printable label to the outside of each bag.  I opted for brown paper lunch bags because they were the perfect size to hold the larger items, and they fit our label perfectly.  After filling each bag, I just folded the top of the bag down twice, holding it in place with a Chinese New Year sticker.  The stickers came in a roll of 100, so I had enough to include one inside and one on the outside of each goodie bag.

Like this idea?  Pin It for later . . . 

What other ideas do you have for celebrating Chinese New Year in the classroom?  Share them with us in a comment here.


Check out our other ideas for classroom-friendly goodie bags . . .

How to Make Newspaper Reporter Activity Goodie Bags { plus Free Printable Press Passes & Word Search }

Thank you to Oriental Trading Company for providing the goodie bag essentials for our classroom-friendly newspaper reporter activity kits.  All opinions expressed are our own.

Although our oldest has moved onto middle school this past fall, our twins are still in grade school.  Their school has a strict policy against sending in sweets for birthdays, so I always send in non-food goodie bags.  Since their birthdays are in January, one of the coldest months of the year, I try to send in themed activity kits the children can do (if they choose to) during indoor recess.  This year, I decided to make Newspaper Reporter Activity Kits for the twins' goodie bags because they are in the middle of studying non-fiction in both their classrooms.  They were so easy to make and the possibilities are endless for what types of inspiration you would like to include in the kits.

What you'll need to make Newspaper Reporter Activity Kits . . .

12"x18" Newsprint Paper (3 sheets per kit)

5" Spiral Notepads

Calendar Pens

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens Stickers

Monster High Stickers

Big Hero 6 Stickers

Team Sports Sticker Scenes

Movie Theater Sticker Scenes

8.5"x12" Colorful Plastic Bags

News Reporter Word Search (Free printable below)

DIY Personalized Press Passes (Free printable below)

Clear Gaming Card Protective Sleeves

Arrow-Shaped Paper Clips

After you have everything you need, there is some assembly required for the actual newspaper and the press passes.  I created the word search puzzle shared below with the help of Discovery Education's Puzzlemaker.

For the newspaper:  I folded 3 sheets of newsprint paper together in half once and then in half a second time so that they resembled a newspaper folded into quadrants.

For the press passes:  I saved the digital image of the sheet of press passes onto my computer and used a graphics program to add the first and last names of each child.  You could also simply write the name of each child on the paper with a thin marker.  Then I cut out the press passes and slid each one into a clear gaming card sleeve protector.

After I put all the contents into each bag, I used a paperclip to secure each child's press pass on the outside of the bag.  Please note that the 8.5"x12" bags fit a standard piece of paper perfectly, so it may take some patience to get the paper to sit flat, but it can be done.

With the stickers provided, the children can be inspired to write news stories about who won the big game, who their favorite Star Wars or Big Hero 6 characters rescued this week, or even fashion editorials using Monster High stickers for the photos.  Our son, who is a huge Star Wars fan, decided to dedicate his newspaper to Star Wars and what he would imagine a newspaper would be like during those times.

Print the DIY Press Passes and News Reporter Word Search Puzzle below . . .

TO PRINT:  Click on the desired image to enlarge.  Then right click and select print.  Use your browser's back arrow to return to this page, if needed.

Like this goodie bag activity idea?  Pin it for later . . .

Check out last year's DIY Comic Book activity goodie bags . . . 

Have some ideas about other things that could go in a Newspaper Activity Kit for kids? Share them with us in a comment here.

Fun Non-Candy Activity Goodie Bag Party Favor Ideas (Plus a Free Printable Zombie Word Search)

Thank you to Oriental Trading Company for providing the party favors used in creating the activity goodie bags featured below.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Earlier this week, my oldest turned 11.  He'll be moving onto middle school next year and I'm still having a little trouble accepting it.  Since this is his last year of grade school, I wanted to make sure we sent some fun goodie bags to school for his birthday.  We always send non-food goodie bags due to there being so many students suffering from a variety of allergies, plus the school does not allow sweets to be sent in for birthday celebrations.  We do this for all 3 of our children, who all happen to have birthdays in January.  Sometimes it's difficult to come up with a fun new idea.  Thank goodness I found some inspiration from Oriental Trading Company!

Our twins will be turning 8 later this month.  Their goodie bags were easy to put together.  Since our family went to the local Super MegaFest comic convention, our children have been obsessed with drawing their own comics.  So, when I saw these superhero-themed party favors, I just knew I had to create something fun with them.  That's when I had the idea to make DIY comic book kits for the twins' 2nd grade classmates!

What you'll need for DIY Superhero Comic Book Goodie Bags . . . 

Publish Your Own Book Journals

Superhero Super Stickers

Superhero Roll of Stickers

I Love To Write Pencils

Silver Size Comic Book Bags

There are 100 stickers on the roll, so I had enough to put one sticker inside each of the goodie bags and to place one outside of each bag to seal it.  These books have a framed space for drawing on each page, as well as lines below for writing.  I think one frame per page is perfect for 2nd graders.  The twins can't wait to hand these out to their classmates!

Like this idea? Pin it for later . . .

For my oldest son, the theme of his goodie bags changed several times.  One thing that stayed the same was the nose pencil sharpeners.  After he saw them on Oriental Trading, he just had to have them.  After playing with a few different body part themes, we settled on the ever-popular zombie theme.

What you'll need for Zombie Activity Goodie Bags . . .

Nose Pencil Sharpeners

Eyeball-shaped Erasers

Brain-shaped Erasers

3D Skull Key chains

Zombie Roll of Stickers

Zombie Pencils

Printable Zombie Word Search (at bottom)

Silver Size Comic Book Bags

Apparently zombies are extremely popular with 10 and 11 year olds.  The goodie bags were a big hit and our son was thrilled to finally have a nose pencil sharpener.

Pin this idea for later . . . 

TO PRINT:  Check to make sure your computer's printer is on and ready to go.  Click on the desired image to enlarge.  Then right-click on the image and select print.  Use your browser's back button to return to this page.

Zombie Word Search (plus Answer Key)

I made the above free printable word search puzzle with the help of Discovery Education's Puzzlemaker.  This particular puzzle is difficult and would be perfect for adults and older children.  Enjoy!

3 Ways to Have Fun Food-Free Classroom Celebrations for Birthdays and Other Occasions

Thank you to Winning Moves for providing an educational board game to facilitate this post.  All opinions expressed are my own.

We're well into the month of December now, a time when most people are focused on their Holiday plans and finishing up their gift shopping.  For me, however, it is a time to think about how we will be celebrating our 3 children's January birthdays, the first of which is coming up in just a few weeks.  When the children were in preschool, we used to send in cupcakes and other treats to celebrate their birthdays, but now things are different.  In our health conscious grade school, cake and cookies and other sweets are not allowed in the classrooms, even for special occasions.  I am all for not giving our children sugar highs while they are supposed to be well-behaved and focused on learning.

Throughout the years, the school has slowly moved away from asking for healthy treats towards encouraging non-food celebrations for birthdays, the Holidays, and Valentine's Day.  This is actually a relief to me.  There were so many allergies to consider when providing treats for the class, including no eggs, no nuts, no dairy, and more.  I am in no way disappointed with this new trend.  If your school is encouraging non-food celebrations too, then here are three of my favorite ideas for celebrating food-free in the classrooms . . .

1.  Donate an educational game to the classroom.  This January in honor of their birthdays, all 3 of my children will be donating a fun game to each of their classrooms in addition to handing out multi-colored pens to each of their classmates.  I'm particularly excited about donating the game PayDay Classic Edition to our 4th grader's class.  Throughout the year, the class learns all about money, including earning classroom cash and paying fines for doing (or not doing) their homework, keeping a bankbook to track their balances, building and running a business, and more.  This board game is all about making and spending money and is just the perfect game to gift to my son's classroom.  There are many educational games out there that teach reading, counting, strategic thinking, problem solving, and more.  You just need to find the right one for your child's classroom.

2.  Send in a themed goodie bag for each student.  If you decide to go the goodie bag route, then why not put some thought into including items that really work together?  Random little items are fun, but items that can be used together for a particular activity can be even more fun.  For example, last year we sent goodie bags in for all the students in each twin's kindergarten class that contained a detective's pad, a pencil, and funny glasses (with attached nose and mustache) so the junior detectives could have disguises to wear when they were working undercover.  Those goodie bags were a huge hit!

3.  Do a fun craft with the whole class.  I think this is a fantastic idea, but I honestly have never done it.  If the thought of having to direct a group of 20 grade school children does not phase you (I don't know how teachers do it), then it would be a very cool celebration to have each student make something, which they can then keep.  Some easy ideas would be to make pencil cups for their desks, decorate notebooks, make magnets, or make bookmarks.  The possibilities are really endless and I'm certain that you will find some great ideas for low-mess kids crafts on Pinterest and at your local craft store.

What ideas do you have for non-food classroom celebrations?  Please do share your ideas because I have 3 children and many more birthday celebrations to plan in the coming years!

"The Trash Pack" Toys and 9 More Ideas for Non-Candy #Halloween Treats

Our children's school has a strict policy against sweet treats, such as cupcakes, candy, and cookies for school celebrations.  Some people think that the policy ruins the fun, but I have to disagree.  Our children do not seem to mind having alternative treats, both food and non-food items.  Last year, we handed out The Trash Pack toys to trick-or-treaters and the children just loved it.  Our own children enjoy collecting these little Trashies, as do many of their friends at school.  So this year, Moose Toys sent us enough single-pack Trash Pack toys for my children's teachers to hand out to all their students on Halloween.  I will be sending each of these jack-o-lantern buckets filled with Trash Packs to school as a surprise for the classes.  I have even managed to keep it a secret from my own children.

Ideas for Non-Candy Halloween Treats:

1.  The Trash Pack Toys
2.  Fun Pencils
3.  Mini Boxes of Raisins
4.  Pencil Toppers or Erasers
5.  Temporary Tattoos
6.  Granola or Fruit Cereal Bars (But, be aware of any nut allergies)
7.  Bookmarks (To promote literacy)
8.  Superballs
9.  Whistle Keychains (Handy as emergency whistles for kids)
10.  Mini Magnifying Glasses (To encourage exploration and discovery)

What items would you add to this list?

To learn more about The Trash Pack, including where to buy them, visit www.TrashPack.com, where you will also find fun free games and downloads.  You can also find The Trash Pack on Facebook.


Thank you to Moose Toys for providing complimentary product samples for us to donate to our school.

The Trash Pack Goodie Bags

This year on Halloween, we had the pleasure of handing out The Trash Pack  toys to trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood.  Although our 3 children were going crazy over them, I was not sure how well a non-candy item would go over with some of the children.  I have to admit, I did have a small basket filled with candy for those who wanted their treats to be sugary.  I also wanted to have candy on hand for the children who were under 5 years old.

After our children went trick-or-treating, they came home and sat on the steps outside to help hand out the The Trash Packs.  I was so surprised at how well they were received by young children all the way up to kids who looked like they might be a little too old to be trick-or-treating.  For the children, both boys and girls, who already knew about The Trash Packs, their faces just lit up when they saw what was in our basket.  For those who were not familiar with this new toy, they were just delighted to have received something to play with.  The parents, too, were thrilled for their children to receive something other than candy.

Since The Trash Packs were so well-received, I have decided to use the remaining ones to make The Trash Pack goodie bags to send into school for our oldest son's 8th birthday.  The school puts a strong emphasis on not sending in sweets, such as cupcakes and cookies.  Our goodie bags will contain one of each of the following items . . .

The Trash Pack Goodie Bags

Trash Pack toy

All-natural fruit snacks

Pencil

Eraser

Bookmark

Our son will be so excited to hand out these goodie bags to all his classmates just as he was handing out The Trash Packs on Halloween.  I am also planning on sending in one or two games (another great alternative to sweets) for the classroom to keep that the children can play during indoor recess since it will be too cold to go outside in January.  I am slowly getting into the mindset of always looking for alternatives to sweet treats.


Thank you to The Trash Pack for providing complimentary product samples for us to distribute.