School Supplies Cake for "Ladybug Girl"!

Submitted by Linda

I have been so blessed by my student teacher this past 9 weeks. Nellie came when things were just amping up for our big open house, and she has worked tirelessly. She is a natural teacher, who is uber-creative and has tons of initiative (she can read my mind about tasks I want her to do!) Sometimes it's difficult to hand your class off to someone else, especially someone who is just learning how to manage a class. No worries with Nellie. She did such a seamless job, that I don't think the kids even missed having me up front!

I wanted to do something cute for her 'end of year thank you' gift, because Nellie is someone who appreciates all things cute. She creates cute stuff on her computer and her Cricut, both of which are not my strong points.

Nellie joined our class right when we were learning about insects, and you should hear her read "Ladybug Girl"! She is so animated and engaging. I found this cute "school supplies cake" on Pinterest, and I copied this tutorial to make it. Super cute, right? I decided to use ladybug ribbon and add ladybug 'puffies' to the big gerbera daisies.

Here is Nellie after we presented her with the cake. The cake was preceded with our kindergartners singing "I Think You're Wonderful" to her, and presenting her with a large scrapbook type page with our class picture on it, for her fridge (I didn't post it here, because I don't want to put student pics on the web).
I also knew that Nellie would need some cute hand-stamped teacher thank you cards, so I made sure she got 6 each of the following cards:

For all of the cards I made use of the good old "Tart and Tangy" set, with the cute apple stamp. In keeping with the theme of our party, I asked my amazing room parent, Pam, if she would provide cupcakes. Here's what she brought. (See why she's amazing?)
As we were celebrating, my students spontaneously started chanting, "best day ever! best day ever!" And then one of them randomly wished Nellie a happy birthday. Oy vey! Hopefully that student will beef up their listening skills in first grade!