Monday Made It #2

I'm so excited to be participating in another Monday Made it!!  I'm going to try to be a little less wordy and keep my random thoughts inside my head.  I can't make any promises that it will happen, but I'll try!  If you want to link up, head over to Tara's blog at 4th Grade Frolics.

Monday Made It Item #1: Dr. Seuss Quote Poster (and you can have it, too!)

This is a poster I made for my reading area.  I just printed it out like normal and used the poster-maker at school to enlarge it.  It turned out great!  One of the first grade teachers asked if she could have one, too!  If you would like a copy, I've uploaded it to google docs.  Just click here.  Enjoy! :)

Monday Made It Item #2: Binder Covers!

I just realized... I know my OCD is a bit extreme, but I did a really good job of eye-balling those labels... I didn't even compare them as I was gluing them on.  Huh, I'm impressed. :)

I'm in love with these.  I got the frame from Michelle at The 3AM Teacher.  They were not fun to cut out but I think it was worth the effort!  For the spine, I just played with the length and width making sure not to distort it too much.  I used my paper slicer to cut 1" off the top of the scrapbook paper (so it will not hang out) and then I cut 2" off the side to use for the spine.  I slapped on a little rubber cement on both labels, and voilà!  I think the colors are bright and fun!  What do you think?
P.S. If you have a Sam's Membership or know anyone who does, go there for your binders.  I got an 4-pack of 2-inch binders for $11!

Monday Made It Item #3: Hall Pass Sign and Tags!

I'm sure I've said this before, but I have a big need for instant gratification when it comes to some things.  Pinterest and blogs feed that need.  I've had Tara's (at 4th Grade Frolics) hall pass sign pinned for months knowing that I would eventually get around to it.  Then, last Monday, I saw THE CUTEST hall passes on Rie's blog (Hip, Hop, Hooray!).  They are genius!  It absolutely grosses me out that students have to carry hall passes to the bathroom.  And when they come back wet.... BARF!!!  With these, the kids can clip the hall pass to their shirts no matter where they're going!!  Again, genius!  So, I got up from my couch, found my keys and wallet, and headed to Walmart for a wood sign ($6?), paint (bottles and paint pens - $6), ribbon ($3), badge clips and holders ($1.88 for a 12 pack of each - so a little less than $4).  Aww, man, I wish I hadn't put those prices down... I didn't realize how much I'd spent! Poo!  I'm not going to go into detail about how I painted the board... You can figure it out, but I will mention that the green and gold paint are metallic! It looks pretty neat!  And I did put a coat of varnish on top.  I, also, got this frame for the hall passes from The 3AM Teacher.  I'm not sure if you can read the hall passes, but they include: Boy's Pass, Girl's Pass, Office Pass, Nurse Pass, Counselor Pass, Library Pass, and 2 Hall Passes.  These Hall Passes are available at my TpT Store.

Monday Made It Item #4: Hallway Clip Board

Why:   To keep kids accountable for meeting hallway expectations, a student (different student every day) monitors behavior and gives classmates either a check (meets expectations) or dot (does not meet expectations).  The number of dots will determine how much time is spent walking laps at recess (no worries, they still have time to play).  At the end of the day, the number of checks will determine if a student gets to clip-up (behavior chart).  It's amazing how well this seems to work.  I saw the quote on Pinterest (from Technology Rocks. Seriously.  Also, if you have trouble downloading her posters, she is very nice about emailing them to you.) and I just thought it was perfect!

How:  I'm going to go into a little more detail on this one.  The first picture shows my first TWO attempts...  Complete Failure.  What I did was use a spray adhesive to adhere the scrapbook paper to the back of the clipboard. Then, I printed this "poster" on translucent scrapbook paper.  The first time, I used more of the adhesive to stick the translucent paper to the other and then used Mod Podge on top... It bubbled.  The second time, I used Mod Podge to stick the two together... It bubbled. AHHHH!!!  So, I went and bought another clipboard and had the BRIGHT idea to just forget the translucent paper and print directly on the scrapbook paper.  SUCCESS!!  I still used the spray adhesive to stick the scrapbook paper to the clipboard.  I made sure to get all the bubbles out (using my drivers license), and put two coats of Mod Podge on top.  I'm in love with it, personally.

Monday Made It Item #5: Pencil Cans

I found these cans in the Target dollar bins.  They aren't spectacular.  My handwriting and paint pens were not at their best!  It will work, though!

That's all for this week!

Monday Made It: Sorting Papers

This is my first time participating in Monday Made It!  Let me tell you, I have been bursting at the seams since Friday wanting to share my creation, but I made myself wait! :)  So, anyone connected to the educational pinning world has probably seen the plastic drawer system for sorting papers.  Let me find the picture...  Can I just go off topic for a second and mention that it drives me NuTs!! when only a blog is pinned and not the actual blog post.  It's so frustrating having to search through entries to find the picture that I saw on Pinterest!  Ok, back to my Monday Made It... So I'm sure you've seen this on Pinterest.  It's a SUPER great idea, but I must say, it's not very pretty.  I was reading The Help, on Friday and all of a sudden it hit me!  SCRAPBOOK PAPER AND MOD PODGE!!!  Now let me say, I had never, ever used Mod Podge before (unless you consider the Mod Podge for puzzles as a kid).  It was a new, wonderful experience!  :)  I tried to take pictures as I went along, but I was sort of [messy] with the Mod Podge and really didn't want to ruin the iPhone, so there are only a few.  BUT I'm excited to share.

I should also mention that I got my idea from a pin I saw about two years ago.  Let me go find that one... I want everyone getting credit!!  So, Jen's blog was really helpful.  Like I said, I'd never used Mod Podge before and I had no idea what to do with it!  You gotta love clear, step by step directions!  I'm going to go off topic again...  Blogger sometimes really annoys me with where it wants to put pictures and where it doesn't want to put them.  Thankfully, I have a bit of knowledge with HTML.  Ugh!!  Back on topic... I'm so glad Mod Podge dries clear.  I applied the initial coat of Mod Podge haphazardly!  I could see pockets where there was too much.  I'll just caption the pictures from on out...

I used my "paper slicer" to cut the scrapbook paper down to the right size, and I printed the labels on regular computer paper.  Then I used my spiffy, decorative scissors to put out the labels.  Finally, I used rubber cement (LOVE) to glue the labels to the pieces of scrapbook paper.

You can see where I had too much Mod Podge.

Next, I tried to smooth out the air bubbles and wrinkles and applied 3 coats of Mod Podge to the back side letting it dry between coats.

Final product!  The first drawer I did was the top one.  You can see that I went to the left with the paper on that and to the right with the paper on the other two.  That's the only flaw that stands out to me, but I'm pretty proud!  I think it turned out really cute! :)

I hope you all like it!  Let me know what you think!  Also head over to Fourth Grade Frolics and view other Monday Made It ideas!  :)

Curtains in the Classroom

Tonight is my last night at home in South Carolina.  A couple months ago, I saw some super cute curtains on Pinterest that I thought would look great in a classroom.  (Picture to the right... the original site doesn't work anymore.)  They were colorful and sheer.  I had to have them...  One of my missions while I was home, was to find material to dye and turn into curtains.  Mission: accomplished; however, I can't take credit for this creation...  All I did was dye the fabric.  My mom did all of the work with this one!  Thanks, Ma!! :-)  Just so you know, there will be plenty of pictures to follow.  Half-way through the process, I thought to start taking pictures to share with the blog world.  Unfortunately, I won't have a picture of them hanging until I'm able to get back to school in August.  Womp womp womp....

First two pictures:

These two pictures show the type of fabric and the color.  I knew I wanted to find a sheer fabric in an orange color, but the only thing I could find was tulle.  There was no way in Hades that I was going to make curtains out of tulle, so I moved on to the next best idea...  Dying a sheer fabric orange.  After doing a little research on the RIT website, I decided on the color "Sunshine Orange" and learned that the fabric can be pretty much anything except polyester.  Would you like to guess what material most sheers are made out of??  Yes, polyester.  I did luck up and I found this fabric at Hobby Lobby for, I think, $4.99/yd.  The reason I really wanted to do all this while I was at home was because my parents haven't upgraded their washer/dryer to one of the HE models yet, so I figured it would be much easier to dye the fabric (since my washer puts water in according to the weight of the fabric).  Dying the fabric was super easy and I'm pretty much hooked on RIT dye.  I'm trying to think of other projects that would involve dying fabric! :)  Once the fabric was dyed, we were my mom was ready to make the curtains (after a few days of it sitting on the dining room table)!  It's pretty cool, don't you think?  I love the sparkly look!

More Pictures:

This stuff is great...  It's called Stitch Witchery.  We bought this stuff because we figured the fabric was too thin to put stitches through it.  (Actually that's a lie... I have lazy tendencies and I couldn't imagine doing that much sewing.)  The Stitch Witchery Is great!

So, basically, what you do, is lay this stuff wherever you want to make a seam.  This stuff is super thin and tears easily.  Once you have put it where you want it, you hold your steam iron over the Stitch Witchery until it becomes tacky. 

It's easiest if you pin the stuff in place before you put the iron over it.  Sometimes, it can move around with the steam.

Once it's tacky, you will want to fold the fabric over and pin it down again.

 Next, you take a damp cloth and press the fabric with the iron for 10 seconds.

After 10 seconds, this is what you have... A really nice seam!  It's pretty amazing! :-)

Now, for the loop to hang on a wire or curtain rod, we measured down 4 inches from the top seam...all the way across.  Yes, I am OCD.  At one point my mom said, "Just back up and keep your OCD away from me."  :-)  It's pretty bad...

Apply more Stitch Witchery, make tacky with the iron, and then fold/pin the fabric down like before (making sure the fabric is 2 inches all the way across).

Now let me begin by saying, I appreciate everything my mom does for me, but after working on a project with her all day, I needed the glass of wine you see off to the right.  In this picture, my mom is sewing a straight stitch (I guess you call it that) in the top seam just for a bit of insurance.  It would be my luck that the top seam would come out and I wouldn't be able to hang the curtains!  I'm not worried about the side and bottom seams.  (PS I don't know why it looks like there are black marks all over my mom's hands... they're definitely not there in person!)

Last picture:  This is a picture of my mom's great work!  Woot Woot! :-)

I am so proud of these curtains!!  We only have one set of windows in the rooms, and we have a blind, but I love natural light!  I love how curtains make a room feel really homey, so I cannot wait to get these up!  They're going to look so good!!  Again, I couldn't have done it without my mom!!  :-)

UPDATE: If you want to see the curtains in action, please click here!

Behavior Clip Chart

Today has been a day of crafting!  First, I finished up the bottle caps, and now I've just completed my behavior clip chart!  I've included a picture of the clip chart to the right.  I can't take complete credit for how cute it is.  One of the 5th grade teachers had a really cute chart this year, so I've kind of taken her idea.  You can see hers here.  As far as I know, every classroom at my school uses this behavior management system.  For the most part, it works.  There will always be those "once in a blue moon" situations where the clip chart will be useless, but I like it!  I know it's a bit fuzzy (I was standing on a stole with my phone above my head trying to get the whole thing in the picture!), so click on the picture if you need help reading the labels!  :)  I wish I knew who originally came up with this idea, so I could credit them.  ...  I forgot what I was about to say.  Oh well, I still need to get this laminated, so I'm trying to keep it as flat as possible until then.  Monday will be the last day our media assistant will be laminating until we come back in the fall.  One of the first grade teachers came up with the idea of getting things done for next year before we leave for the summer.  How genius is that?  Unfortunately, the idea has spread like a wild fire, and our poor media assistant has been super busy!  I'm sure she won't mind too much in the fall, though.  ...  Oh yeah!  I remember what I was going to say.  Every classroom at my school uses this behavior management system, so if we have any trouble with students who don't belong to us, we just tell the student to clip down or ask the teacher to have the student clip down.  It's great!  The last picture I'm going to include is a close-up of what looks like solid colors.  They're actually polka dots!  I thought that would be a cute idea. :)  BTW, I was really OCD about this (as with most things).  I used a ruler to measure 6 inches down on all of the "smaller" pieces of scrapbook paper.  I wouldn't have been able to handle it not being uniform.  I eye-balled the labels...  I think they're pretty darn close to center!  :) Enjoy!  (PS if you're wondering, I've been using instagram to take my pictures.)

Bottle Cap Numbers

About 1.5 ago, I found a great idea on a blog by Jill called Controlling My Chaos.   Jill uses flat glass marbles with student numbers on them for her students to make their lunch choices.  It's also an easy way to see which students are not present.  She has everything drawn out on a nice-sized white board.  While I absolutely love Jill's idea, I couldn't find opaque flat glass marbles anywhere!  And, because of my need for instant gratification, there was no way I was going to order them.

Instead, while helping one of my fellow 5th grade teachers clean up her room (she was so kind to give me a corner of her room all year), I saw that she had Cheerwine glass bottle caps with magnets glued to the back.  Brilliant!  I would have loved to drink 30 glass Cheerwines, but I can't afford it ($ or weight gain), so, yesterday, I went to Hobby Lobby to see if they had anything similar.  Guess what?  If you go to their scrapbooking area, you can probably find anything under the sun that you might need.  I found a pack of 30 colored bottle caps (and they were 50% off)!!  While I was at Hobby Lobby, I also bought a pack of 50 round magnets (#6 on a strength scale of 1-10) and I bought some Loctite craft glue.  I couldn't wait to get home and try all this stuff out!!

A word of advice: be frugal with the glue!!  Since the glue directions said to let it become tacky before putting two pieces together, I decided to lay out all of the caps and magnets and put glue on them.  Another word of advice: give yourself plenty of space!!!  I put way too much glue on the caps and magnets (complete mess!!!!) and had the pieces too close together.  Once I put the caps and magnets together, they became super magnets. You wouldn't believe how many sets I had to pull apart!  Aggravating!!  With that said, I was so happy with the outcome that I would do it all over again.  Take a look:

Today, I needed to go back to Hobby Lobby for scrapbook paper (another project to come), and decided that I couldn't wait until Monday to go to school and find my silver Sharpie, so I decided to buy a Sharpie Paint Marker (oil based) instead.  I didn't get the pack that you see in the picture.  They had singles which were $3.49 each (!!!), but thankfully I had a 40% off coupon.  I bought the marker so I could write the student numbers on the bottle caps.  I was really hesitant to get the Sharpie Paint Marker because it was oil based.  I wasn't sure how it would do on the metal caps, and I didn't want to completely ruin my bottle caps, BUT the display said the markers were great on metal.  I must say, I am super excited with how they turned out!  Check out the picture below:

You may notice that I did not put numbers on the pink bottle caps.  I knew if a boy got a pink cap, he'd probably have a cow.  I'm not sure what I'll use the pink caps for.  Next year, I shouldn't have more than 25 students, but I may save them just incase something crazy happens and I need them.  I haven't quite decided where I am going to have my lunch count/attendance set up.  I don't have unlimited white board space.  Our back doors are black metal doors, so I'm thinking I could find some way to write the lunch choices on the door?  Maybe the neon expo markers?  I'll have to do some research.

What do y'all think??

*Update* Has anyone every used the Expo Bright Sticks?  They're apparently like chalk markers...

Here We Go Again

Now that I've wasted about 4 hours getting this blog set up how I like it, I thought I might as well make a post.  Hopefully, I'll update this blog regularly unlike my past blogs.  This blog will primarily revolve around the education world (specifically, elementary); however, I cannot guarantee that I won't throw in a random post... probably about food. :)  I'm going to end this post now, because I just realized that I'm starving.  It's 3:10 pm and I have only had a cup of coffee today.  I suppose it's needless to say I can get caught up in things pretty easily and forget to eat.  Until next time...

*Update*

Now that I have been fed, I can now, properly, continue my first blog post.  Let me tell you a little bit about me.  I have just completed my first year of teaching in a small town in North Carolina.  The area where I teach has a very low socioeconomic status.  This past year, we had 1 student in 5th grade who paid for his/her lunch.  I work at a challenging school, but I do know that I would have it any other way.  I love these kids.  Enough about the kids and more about me! :)  My first year consisted of me teaching reading to 5th graders...  ALL DAY!  It wasn't a glamorous first year, but I learned a TON!!  I'm thankful for the learning experience.

This past week, I signed my contract for the 2012-2013 school year.  I don't know what I will be teaching, but I was told that my principal is 99% sure I will be a classroom teacher.  There is a 5th grade position that I am, crossing my fingers and toes, hoping to get.   5th grade is where I'm most comfortable and happy.  I have an amazing team that I don't want to leave.  Who knows.... maybe I'll get lucky!

I have so many great ideas and I've started making tons of cool things!  I will begin sharing some of those things in the following entries.  Again, I hope I stay with 5th grade; otherwise, I'll have to rethink some of my great ideas!

Stay tuned!