An Apple For Teacher

During his first year of preschool, The Kindergartner had 8 teachers assigned to his classroom; the main teacher, 3 aids, a speech pathologist, a social worker, an occupational therapist, and a special education teacher.  Due to the inclusive design of his preschool program, he worked with each one of these teacher regardless of the fact that he wasn't staffed into their specific programs, and at the end of the year I felt compelled to thank each of them with a little gift.  Wanting to save a little money, I hit the Internet in search of something I could make for each of them, and happened upon Claypot Apples.  Not only are they super easy to make, they are super cute, and can be filled with anything (I opted for candy, and this year will put in some homemade cakeballs.)  Ready?

Materials:

4-inch terra cotta pots and matching bottoms ('lids')
Red acrylic paint
Black acrylic paint
Small nylon paintbrush
White paint pen
Cinnamon sticks
Plastic leaves
Raffia
Painter's tape
Krylon Clear Finish Glossy Spray
Hot glue gun

(The pots, paint, brush, paint pen, leaves, raffia, and Krylon can be purchased at any craft store, the cinnamon sticks from the grocery store, and the painter's tape from Home Depot or Lowe's.)



1.  Paint the outside of the pots and the outside of the 'lids' with the red paint.  I like the look that two coats gives the pots - the paint dries very quickly, so you will be able to put both on within an hour.

2.  Use four strips of painter's tape to mark off a 'blackboard' on one side of the pot.

3.  Carefully paint the area inside the tape strips black.  Two coats of paint also seems to look best in this area, and it also dries very quickly and can be done within an hour.

4.  Allow the paint to dry completely (a couple hours is sufficient.)  Using the white paint pen, write the teacher's name or anything else that you would like to in the black area.  (I happened to have extra pots this year, so I opted for a generic personalization of 'AaBbCcDd' and '123'.)

5.  Once the writing has dried (which is almost instantly), spray both the 'lids' and the pots with a coat of the Krylon Gloss.  (I use a pretty heavy hand to make sure the paint is protected and won't crack.  I also suggest doing this outside and then putting the pots and 'lids' on cardboard to dry.)

6.  Cut the cinnamon sticks in half and snip a cluster of leaves from the branch.  Hot glue each to the bottom of the 'lid'.  (I am not particularly neat when I do this because the glue is going to be covered by the raffia bow.)

7.  Tie a length of raffia around the cinnamon stick 'stem'.  (You can add another drop of hot glue to the bow after doing this to ensure that it doesn't slide off.)

8.  Fill the pots with whatever you desire and top with the 'lid'.  And that's it!