How to make a Jolly Jar

My son started nursery this academic year and we have been introduced to all kinds of new experiences. His nursery is attached to the local Primary School which means he is very much a part of school life. He wears the school uniform, takes a book bag to school and comes home with two books to read at home every week. He absolutely adores being part of the school community and I’m happy that he is happy.

It has been a learning curve for me too. I do the school run, chat with the other mums at drop off and pick up, attend PTA meetings and wash endless amounts of dirty uniform. The PTA holds some brilliant events to raise funds for the school and I seem to provide bags of books, wine and cakes for raffle prizes.

How to make a Jolly Jar

The May Fair is coming up soon and we were asked to contribute some Jolly Jars. The Jolly Jars are all laid out on a table and each cost £1. Children can then purchase a jar and the money goes to school funds. Both my children love choosing which jar to buy but this was the first time we tried making our own. My 4 year old had lots of fun so I thought I would share what we did.

The first step was to find some empty jars which we made sure were clean and dry and removed the labels from them.

We raided our sweetie stash which I’m ashamed to say included sweets from Christmas and Easter! I checked everything was still in date and let my 4 year pick a selection of wrapped sweets.

Then we had a good look for small toys to fit inside our jars. We found some Lego and Playmobil people, Kinder egg toys and unopened bottles of bubbles. You can include anything, small party bag-type toys are brilliant.

Then my 4 year put the toy and sweets in each jar making sure they were full up. He decorated each jar and lid to make it ‘jolly’ using his stash of stickers.

He was proud of his work and we’ll be taking them into school tomorrow. Have you made Jolly Jars before? If so please share any tips or ideas with us, I know we’ll be making many more!