Monday, September 13, 2010

First Day of School and Our Schultüte

Well, today was the day...Back To School!  Each year we kick off the first day of school with a schultüte.  Schultütes are a German tradition that date back to the 1810. 


On their first day of school German kids receive a schultüte, which is a large cardboard cornet filled with sweets and little presents.  When we decided to homeschool I wanted to find a tradition we could adopt to make our first day back exciting and special.  I started searching for back to school traditions and came across the schultüte.  I made them last year and they were a huge hit with the kids...T has been asking me for weeks when he was going to get his cone:)  They are very easy to make.  First I twisted a large sheet of poster board into a cone shape.  Then I hot glued it together and trimmed the top to make it level all the way around.  Next I tapped wrapping paper onto the outside, and placed tissue paper around the top.  Finally you stuff it full of goodies and affix a ribbon.  Our cones were filled with school supplies, snacks, stickers, one back to school outfit, and a small toy.  Here is a tutorial I found if you want more details and pictures.  

We had a very successful day without ANY complaining or foot dragging. So...... 1 day down, and 179 days to go:)

1 comments:

Phyllis said...

We do school cones as well!! Ours are not nearly as pretty as yours,however.