School Bus Rice Krispy Treats

Try this cute back to school treat with your kids. They will love helping you make miniature school buses!

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I wanted to make a cute back to school treat, but couldn't find anything I liked. I thought the school bus idea was cute, but had only seen it with a twinkie, and that just seemed gross to me. So, I decided to try it with Rice Krispies treats.

I started by making a double batch of the recipe found on the side of the Rice Krispies box and pressing it into a 9x13 glass pan. I wanted it to be thick, and it didn't look like it would fit at first, but it did. After I let the treats cool, I cut them into 16 rectangles, took a few out at a time, put them on their sides, and cut a little out of each one to make the bus. I bought the Betty Crocker dark chocolate brownie topper frosting to help with decorating. I also bought the plastic serew on decorating tips so I could have a think pine. That frosting dries pretty hard, which I was not aware of, but it worked well because it was thick and I didn't have to make my own frosting.

After trial and error and fingers in frosting, I discovered the following order works best in order to avoid messing up the windows:

1 - put on the wheels. I used the mini fudge stripe cookies and used toothpicks and the frosting to try and get them to stay on. Once the icing had dried I could take out the toothpicks and the wheels stayed in place just fine. Mini Oreos might also work for wheels.

2 - put on the lights. I cut a red jelly belly and a yellow jelly belly in half to make the lights and secured them with frosting.

3 - draw the front window and put in the bear driver. We cut the legs off of some mini Teddy Grahams for the driver and attached with frosting.

4 - draw all the other windows and black lines on the sides.

Voila! School buses for sharing. At first we tried putting bears in all the windows as well, but my daughter got tired of cutting off the legs of the bears and we decided it was easier to just have an empty school bus. We found that we could do about 8 at a time assembly line style.

When we were done, I let the kids create their own masterpieces with the cut out leftovers of rice krispie treats and frosting and candy. They had so much fun with this!

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Back to School YW survival kit

When I was in the Young Women's organization of our church many years ago, I created a back to school survival kit to give the girls before they started school. We put all the items in a pencil case and with the candy included a picture of Christ, about the size of a pass along card, with a magnet on the back to hang in their school lockers. We also attached a note. Here's the note (and then you can also see what was in the kit):

Back To School Survival Kit

Included in this kit are some things to help remind you how to make this a successful year:

M&M’s - Be a Member Missionary!

Pencil - You are writing the story of your life daily

Now & Laters - the decisions you make will effect you now and later

Eraser - Sometimes you will make mistakes

Purell - just remember the cleansing principle of repentance

Smarties - Study hard!

Life Savers - prayer can be a life saver when you need help!

Gum - Stick to your principles even when things get hard

Lollipop - Rely on the Holy Ghost to help you lick the opposition

100 grand-remember your great worth

Hershey Kisses - you are greatly loved!

Snickers - It’s important to laugh at yourself sometimes

The picture of our Savior is to hang in your locker so that you always remember who you are and why you are here. You can be a great influence for good in the lives of others through your example of righteous living. We hope all of you have a great school year! We love you!

Love,

Your YW Leaders

It did end up being a lot of candy I guess, but you can simplify and just choose a few things you think will mean most to your girls.

Back to School Primary singing time

I lead the music for the children at church, and this year I did a back to school music time. I started by asking the kids to raise their hands if they were starting school soon, and if they wanted to play pretend with me. I told them I was going to pretend to be the teacher and they could be my students. I pulled out my teacher glasses, pointer, and bell. I told them that whenever I rang my bell, they were supposed to sit up straight and fold their arms. We practiced that several times, and I asked them to really slouch before I rang the bell, and they thought that was fun. Next I pulled out a backpack that I had filled with school supplies. I invited up a child to pull something out of the bag, and then we would sing a song with an activity that went along with the school supply. Here's what I had:

erasers - we "erased" a word in the song. We sang "follow the prophet" and were silent whenever we were supposed to sing "prophet"

glue sticks - we glued first our legs together, and then our arms to our sides, so that we had to hold really still while we sang "come follow me"

crayons - the children only sang when I held up the color they were wearing. I put three different colors on each card and held up the cards as we sang "He sent his son"

ruler - we measured how well the children sang. They were given a grade for their reverence while singing, how beautifully they sang, and how well they said the words while we sang "Beautiful Savior"

calculator - we counted how many times we said the word "faith" while singing the song "Faith"

magnifying glass - they watched me closely and copied me perfectly while we sang "I belong to the church of Jesus Christ", so if I put my hand on my head or lifted my leg, they followed

pencil - we "wrote" our own songs, singing "fun to do", or "if you're happy and you know it"

scissors - I "cut out" the kids who were too wiggly while singing "The Holy Ghost". I tapped them on the head if I saw them move and then they would sit down

sharpener - we "sharpened" our song by clearly enunciating each word for "I know my Savior loves me"

Between each song the kids slouched in their chairs and I rang the bell and called up another child to pick an item. The kids had a lot of fun with it the first week, and we only got through 3 items, so I can still use it for 1 or 2 more weeks.

(added - Today I threw some tape into the backpack also and told the kids that I had taped their mouth shut and they had to just hum the song. Fortunately, they weren't too silly with it.)