Christmas Crafts

Each year, I guide my students in some sort of Christmas craft.  In years past, I've done elaborate and time-consuming crafts that required more effort from me than my students.  Forget that!  This year, I wanted to do something that was less work for me but still enjoyable for the kids.  I found this ornament decorating activity from Pinterest and it was a hit in my classroom.

First, I started with clear glass ornaments:

I removed the tops:

We squeezed drops of acrylic paint inside the bulb.  Be sure to cover the inside completely:

After some gentle swirling, we ended up with a marble effect:

I turned the ornaments upside down and placed them in Dixie cups so they could drain overnight:

I replaced the tops and we tied a piece of ribbon (not shown) on them:

Voila! 

My 5th graders loved the fact that this craft was customizable.  They selected their own colors and could choose as many colors as they wanted.  And I'm one happy teacher--this year I didn't have to pull out the glue gun or tie a million bows or twist a million paper clips.  Ahh!  I love student friendly crafts that are actually cute.