Character Carnations

What's blooming in your character building? When Kaitlyn was in elementary school, she made me this bouquet and it's still one of my FaVoRiTe gifts! She made hers for me on Mothers' Day, but it would also be a perfect fit for Valentine's Day.

Click here for the template. Brainstorm and list character or value words that describe your students' role models or heroes. Let students select and write their words inside the flowers, color the flowers, cut around them, and tie them up with tissue paper and ribbon. Attach a nice note and, voila - a bouquet of Character Carnations. How would you use these flowers to celebrate with your little buds?

Another way you could use them is Career Carnations. Ask your students to pick a career. Say your student wants to be an architect. What will she need to reach that goal? Have her do a little research, then fill in the flowers with the qualities and traits (and maybe even the steps?) that'll help get her to that career destination.

Here's a bonus bulletin board idea to get you ready for your Career Day. I loved this one because I used Joshua's first fishing pole to give it a 3-D look. That, and he actually asked me to take the first career I put on the hook (accountant) off and put a more-desirable career (musician) on. He said, "mom, really, an accountant?" Such a subjective thing, careers.