Teaching With Terhune: Mother's Day Gift Idea - Student Made Keychains for Mom!

If you are looking for an easy, practical, and cheap Mother's Day gift for your students to make, then these heart keychains fit the bill!

Your students can add any design and colors to their heart keychain.

They can also write sweet messages on their heart keychains as well.

This year I did something different and added each student's name on their heart keychains as well.

Here is what they look like when I made them last year without the names. Both ways turn out great!

Here's how we made the heart keychains:

Step 1:

For this craft you will need Shrinky Dinks plastic sheets, scissors, colored pencils, a hole punch, small jewelry rings, keychain rings, and the printable heart template (found HERE).

I like to use the frosted Shrinky Dinks plastic sheets because colored pencils work well on them.

However, they do make clear plastic sheets as well. These would be great to use permanent markers on.

Step 2:

Using the heart template, trace as many hearts as you can on the rough side of the Shrinky Dinks plastic sheet. You should be able to get about 4 hearts on one page. You can also just print the hearts directly onto the plastic paper using your computer printer.

Step 3:

Cut out each heart. Make sure to keep any extra scraps of the Shrinky Dinks plastic as you cut. You can use these scraps for your student crafts as well (more about that on step 7).

Step 4:

Add a hole punch at the top center of each heart. It is important not to forget or skip this step. The hearts must have a hole punched before baking!

Step 5:

Give each of your students a heart to decorate. Have them add their own designs, message, colors, etc. to the rough side of the heart. I have found that colored pencils work really well on the Shrinky Dinks plastic.

Step 6:

Instead of a heart, another great design idea would be to have your students trace their hand on the Shrinky Dinks plastic! They can then decorate their own handprint!

Step 7:

Using the extra scraps of the Shrinky Dinks plastic that you have, cut out small rectangles using wavy scissors. These are great to use for students to write their name on and add to their heart keychain. Don’t forget to add a hole punch at the top of these as well.

Step 8:

Follow the steps on the Shrinky Dinks packaging to shrink and harden each student’s designs.

I take them home for this step. I cut and place a brown paper sack on a cookie sheet. Then, I add all the pieces to the cookie sheet (rough side facing up).

Step 9:

Cook at 325 degrees for approximately 1 to 3 minutes. Watch them carefully while in the oven. You will see them first curl up then lay flat. Once I see them lay flat I let them cook about 30 seconds longer and then take them out of the oven.

Step 10:

Once you take them out of the oven let them cool. If there are any that are still slightly curled take something (like a pad of paper) to push it flat before it cools.

Step 11;