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!
love this idea! They’d make great alternatives to a party bag too 🙂
We’ve made loads of these jars over the years. They’re a really good way of raising money at school events. We had a bumper crop once when my daughter decided she was too old for all of her plastic jewellery!
What a great idea and it looks like he had such fun making them too.
These look such fun! My daughter made something like this recently 🙂
What a lovely idea – and great name, a “jolly jar”!! This is the sort of thing my children would LOVE to make…and to get!
I have no idea why they’re called Jolly Jars but it’s a good name!
What a fantastic idea, wish I was still on the PTA, these would be great xx
I make these kind of things for our parties and for presents for teachers and so on; they are so much fun! You can make little survival kits too! I made some for Easter last year that the boys loved! They’re a great idea!
Thanks for the ideas, a survival kit sounds fun!
Oh what a great idea. The possibilities are endless. Even for adults it would be a great way to keep together lots of little smaller pressies x
What a great idea and so versatile as well, you could make them for any occasion x
What a wonderful idea and the fact that your son put it all together is even better.
I love watching him achieve something, however small 🙂
Never thought of this, what a good idea .x
so he should be proud, they do look fantastic!
What a fantastic idea for a school fete – I think I’ll suggest it to ours next time!
I love how much I have learned since Seren started school- but jolly jars are a new one to me! Yours look like a fantastic idea, especially for school fetes.
I think I am enjoying school much more ‘second’ time around!
Oh never heard of jolly jars before. They look fab though!
This is such a great fundraising idea. I haven’t heard of jolly jars but it is a lovely way to personalise your contribution to the May fair and to get the kids involved in fundraising.
This is such a lovely idea. Am pinning it for future use, as J starts nursery soon.
Never heard of Jolly Jars either!!! What an amazing idea!
Love the idea of this, never heard of Jolly jars before x
Great idea! We always have loads of leftover sweeties too – might suggest this to our pre-school as a fundraising idea… 😉
I’ve not seen jolly jars before, they’re a great idea for school fairs 🙂
that’s so sweet that he was willing to give away some of his own toys instead of having to go out and buy new things to fill the jars with!
What a lovely idea. Thank you for sharing, Think I will make some with the kids
I am on our schools PTA and we do Jam JArs at the Christma Fair and with our Summer fair coming up had suggested these again. Love the name of the jars too!
I’ve always seen these at school fairs but I never knew they were called Jolly Jars! Kids do love them, they always sell really well. Love the sticker decorations too!
These look amazing, I think mine will really engage with this idea