Welcome Message in a Bottle

Every year, before school starts, I send each of my new students a postcard welcoming them to first grade. While I was searching Pinterest for pirate classroom ideas, I came across a post that mentioned sending messages in a bottle. I jumped on the idea and found out that you can actually mail a plastic bottle by just slapping a label on it. That was enough for me! I immediately began searching the web for plastic bottles and found these beauties at www.coloredsand.com. They were only 89 cents a piece (and that includes the cork)! That seemed fairly reasonable to me so I ordered 20 and got to work!

I typed my welcome letter (3 to a landscape style page due to the bottles being small) and rolled the individual pages tightly around a pencil. My wonderful husband helped me with this tedious task :). After rolling them up we applied a small piece of tape to secure them and tied around a piece of jute to give them a nautical touch.

Finally, I slid them in to their individual bottles and popped in a cork. I decided not to add any additional elements such as sand, etc. to save on shipping costs (I am a teacher on a budget after all). I'm in love with them just as they are! I can't wait to get my class list so that I can put these puppies in the mail!!! I hope the kids like them as much as I do! :)