On the first day of first grade in Germany, children receive a Schultüte filled with wonderful things.
One year when I started the year with 7th graders on their first year of German, we created Schultüten together with paper, stickers, drawings and treats. I was their teacher as a long term substitute.
This school year I have just one section of 9th graders and I'm their teacher for the whole year. I'm excited to be teaching German again and always enjoy a nice project.
I considered making a large Schultüte like the kids actually get in Germany and then sharing the contents, but when I was doing some research, I saw someone use party hats as the cone part and decided I was going to go ahead and make 10, one for each student.
Starting with the party hats, I added a 1/4 of a sheet of sparkly tissue paper. My first thought was to use a stapler, but ended up going with clear tape.
Then I created the hat which was tricky until I folded down part of the tab to make it easier to insert. It still wasn't quick and easy every time.
A German made pencil is part of the contents and rather tall. I started with the pencil and added the other items all around it.