Tomorrow is Remembrance Day.  With young children it’s hard to know how much information to give them about November 11.  Most will have a ceremony or assembly at their school, but it’s our responsibility as parents to open that dialogue as well.  When I put on my red poppy pin the other day, my son asked me why I was wearing it.  For some reason I hesitated at first, carefully trying to decide my words.  And then I realized I was protecting him from nothing by not using words like veterans, war, remembering.  So we started talking.

I wanted to keep it simple, so mostly stuck with poppy discussions and war planes (because we are huge Aviation Museum fans).  We went online to find some resources to talk about that were age appropriate for him (he’s four) and then today went to the Aviation Museum to spot airplanes that were used in the wars.

 It was a fruitful discussion, kept as light as we could for his age, but started a conversation that is important to have.  He needs to know why on November 11 we remember.

Here are a few websites with some Remembrance day activities to do with the kids! Grab your Crayola Paints, Elmer’s Glue and Fiskars scissors and get ready.

Veteran Affairs Canada – resources for parents and teachers.  Read the story about Animals and War and play the board game (print out).  It was well received by my son.

Word Scramble/Word Search

Coffee Filter Poppy

Do you have glue sticks around the house? In the craft drawer or the office basket? Likely you have one somewhere because they are really useful. If you are a do scrapbooking or crafts with the kids they are a must.

 Best Tools for Schools uses top quality glue sticks like UHU in our school kits – and most teachers request multiple sticks.

Looking for a way to use yours at home with the kids? Try this easy craft, especially on days like today when you are stuck inside due to the heat.

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First, choose your picture.  My son wanted a T-Rex colouring page. 

Then, let them colour away! If they prefer or are older, start with a blank piece of paper and let them design their own picture. 

Glue the coloured picture to a sturdy piece of construction paper or thick coloured cardboard. 

Cut out puzzle pieces.  A typical 8 x 11 piece of paper will make 6 nice sized pieces.  Be as creative with the cutting as you like! 

Voila! A puzzle to be assembled over and over again. 

Originally posted on www.bitofmomsense.com

Before the summer officially begins for all of you well-deserving teachers, check out the Elmer’s Glue website and sign up for their Teacher’s Club.                     

                                                                                                                                                                   
It’s a great way to stay informed throughout the year on contests, project ideas and new Elmer’s products.  The Elmer’s website has a special section for teachers with ideas on projects for the classroom and fun resources.        

            
Best Tools for Schools only uses Elmer’s white school glue because of its quality.  It’s non-toxic and washable making it perfect for our classroom kits.    

                                                                                                                                                                       
To sign up for the Elmer’s Teacher’s Club, click here.                      

                                                                                                                  
For more information about products in our kits, visit our FAQ page. 

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welcome to our latest blog entitled ‘The Supply Shelf’.  This blog will feature our suppliers, project and craft ideas and useful resources for parents and teachers.  It will highlight our partnerships and products found in our kits.  We are very proud of the items and quality we select for our kits and look forward to sharing more with you in this blog.

Buffalo and Hilroy are two of the great brands offered at Best Tools for Schools. In addition to having great school supply products, did you know both Buffalo and Hilroy also offer excellent greener choices?

Buffalo

Buffalo manufactures a line called Buffalo Natur. The Buffalo Natur line is made with mostly recycled and natural materials. Buffalo’s goal with this line is to bring greener products into our schools and offices and to increase awareness of the need for more environmentally friendly options. The Buffalo Natur line also offers bamboo products (did you know that bamboo is the fastest growing plant on earth? This makes it a super sustainable material to work with!) The Buffalo Natur line also uses soy-based inks on the products and on their packaging, which is gentler to the Earth. For more info about this amazing green line, please visit their site.

Note that Buffalo Natur is not a standard part of the Best Tools for Schools kits, but if your school would like to offer a completely green kit, it can most definitely be done. Just contact us for the details!

Hilroy

Not only does Hilroy offer some awesome eco-friendly products, they are also running an amazing program called Spread the Word in School. The program aim is to teach students to be gentler to the earth by educating them on environmental issues. In 2009, 500 schools, 180,000 students participated in the program. Pretty impressive! The 2010 program starts soon, so keep your eye on their site to see how your school can get involved.

In addition to running the Spread the Word in School program, Hilroy is currently working towards making all of their products PVC free. Stay tuned for this announcement very soon!

For more information on Hilroy’s eco-friendly products and the Spread the Word in School program, please see their fun, interactive and informative Spread the Word in School website.

Gwen is a mom of 2 and the owner of Nayla Natural Care (www.naylanaturalcare.com) an online store which carries an assortment of organic, natural and eco-friendly items for you and your family. Join the Nayla Natural Care page on Facebook and follow the store on Twitter @naylanatural

Whenever possible, Candace and Laurie like to source products that are better for the environment and safer for our children. Take the recent addition of MAJESTA tissues to the lineup. Last year, a different tissue brand was offered, but this year after learning all about MAJESTA’s amazing green philosophy, the old tissues were quickly replaced.

MAJESTA’s Tree Planting Promise is: “We plant three trees for every one we use to produce MAJESTA products.” This means that three trees will be planted in the spring and summer for every one used to produce MAJESTA products the previous year. How great is that?

So aside from the Tree Planting Promise, what are the other reasons that make MAJESTA such an impressive green company?

1. MAJESTA products are made from virgin-wood fibers of trees from J.D. Irving, Limited’s forests (J.D. Irving Limited is MAJESTA’s manufacturer; a Canadian Company with over 50 years of award winning responsible forest management).
2. In the past 50 years, J.D. Irving has planted over 770 million trees and since 2001 and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (“SFI”) has certified J.D. Irving, Limited’s forests.
3. Specialists at J.D. Irving, Limited manage MAJESTA forests. As part of their efforts to reforest the woodlands it harvests, J.D. Irving, Limited’s specialists have planted over 800 million trees – a national record.
4. From their commitment to meeting the sourcing requirements of the SFI program, to their sponsorships of Tree Canada’s Trees by the Shore and Focus on Forests programs – they are committed to being Canada’s Treesponsible™ choice.
5. MAJESTA has partnered with Tree Canada, Focus on Forests and Sustainable Forestry Limited.

MAJESTA has also provided a FAQ section on their website that answers any questions you may have regarding their tree planting promise. To see the FAQ, please click here.

Best Tools for Schools is getting ‘greener’ by the minute.  Hilroy, one of our major suppliers, has announced all of their vinyl binders are PVC-free as of January 2010! (clapclapclapclapclapclapclapclap)

Students all across the country have been writing in Hilroy products for half a century.  We can only guess that Roy Hill, the founder of the original Hilroy Envelopes and Stationery company, could never have imagined the array of recycled papers, report covers and notebooks it now has to offer.  Many items from their Enviro Plus line are still made here in Canada.

We salute Hilroy, as well as our other suppliers like Fiskars, Buffalo and Staedtler, for their commitment to minimize their environmental impact without compromising on quality.  We at Best Tools are constantly looking for ways to lessen our ecological footprint, and partnering with suppliers who subscribe to the same philosophy makes sense to us.  Check in with us during the upcoming months for more ‘down-to-earth’ news from the world of school supplies.

When we were seeking out a supplier for our facial tissue, Irving Tissue, makers of Royale facial tissue were the easy choice. First, they’re Canadian and we’re partial to Canadians.  Second, they have a great product and provided us with exceptional customer service.  Finally, they have a strong commitment to the environment and we LOVE that.  With children of our own we take comfort in knowing that Irving Tissue has :

1. planted over 770 million trees throughout 50 years of award-winning responsible forest management
2. Irving is partnering with Tree Canada to sponsor a community support and education program.  The new TREES BY THE SHORE program is a coast-to-coast initiative to plant over 35,000 trees in 2009 to help preserve shoreline habitat.

For more information you can click here and here. We hope you’ll throw your support behind this great company not just at back to school with our kits but all year round.  We do!