Helping Garden

Where, oh, where to start? Well, here's something cute I made last week for our ward's primary. I get asked to sub alot and can never say no. But, I also have hard time trying to pick kids to be helpers. So, I put a new spin on an old classic (jar with name on popsicle sticks). Here's what I came up with: I went out and got a cute (already painted, but you could also paint one yourself)flower pot. I cut some vinyl words to say "Helping Garden" and put them on the side. I have a big vinyl cutter, but you could also use your Cricut or other die cutter. Also, at Walmart, I picked up a pack of 25 candy making sticks for suckers (8 inch) for 1.88 in he candy making aisle.Then I painted 15 of them with shiny green acrylic paint. While waiting for these to dry, I cut out 15 flowers and middles to put on the sticks (around 1 1/2-2 inches) with my Cricut. On the back of each, I wrote a description of clothing or hair or other things that could help me pick helpers. Than I laminated the flowers and glued them onto the sticks. I used E6000 glue because I didn't want to use hot-glue and have it melt the lamination (it may not....but why take the risk?). After covering the hole in the bottom of the pot with a sticker, I filled it with beans to look like dirt. Then, I "planted" the flowers and....Voila! My very own helping garden :) When you need a helper, just pick a flower and tell the children "all the kids that are wearing red, raise your hands" or "kids that have brown hair" or even both. I found that I will probably need to make more flowers to keep things "fresh" (get it?). You can also make a bunch of them and rotate then every few weeks. Our kids seemed to like it alot and they really got into it the 1st week I was subbing for music leader. Have fun!