Drugs are Wicked Bad!
Their witch hats are too cute!
Happy teaching!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Red Ribbon Week Door Decorations
It is so hard to come up with something original, but I came up with this idea all by my little self! I knew I wanted to do something related to Halloween, but what? I finally decided on something witchy. Then it came to me "Drugs are wicked bad". I loved it! I let the kiddos make their own witch hat (no template here) so it would be more personal. They decorated their hat. Then they traced their hat onto lined paper, cut it out, and wrote about why they are too busy to do drugs. I put the words on using black letters except for "wicked" I used purple letters with little gold stars (sorry it is so hard to see in the pic). I added the cutest little witch's broom covered in purple glitter and a black bow and two witch decorations from the dollar store with lots of purple streamers. The students enjoyed the project and we won the contest!
Friday, October 5, 2012
Top 10 Fav's in My Room
How much do we love decorating our rooms? You will be able to tell really quickly that my room theme is Safari. I am constantly looking for things that are not only decorative but that function well. I can't even imagine what my room would look like without Pintrest. So many of the things I do are inspired by all of you teacher bloggers and all the ingenious ideas posted on Pintrest. So, here are my top 10 favorites!
1. C.R.A.F.T. Bulletin Board
1. C.R.A.F.T. Bulletin Board
These were from
I love her stuff!
2. Daily 5 Choice Board
I got these from
Actually, I got them from her TPT store, but she has sooo much great stuff on the Daily 5 that I had to share her blog link. I wrote the students numbers on flower petals and then put self-adhesive Velcro on the back. It is a really easy way for the students to move them through the choices. And yes, this is more of the $2.50 vinyl I bought at Wal-Mart that you will see in the project below. I can't believe I got two projects out of this one piece of vinyl!
3. Milk Crate Bench
The dual purpose of seating and storage is awesome! My students love this and the best part is the vinyl I used for the cushion was on clearance for $2.50 at Walmart!!! Here is the one that gave me the inspiration to give it a try.
4. Door Decorations
I love my door decorations this year. I had the Toucan and knew I needed to come up with a clever saying. I thought this was kind of cute. What do you think?
5. Top Banana Board
Every week I choose a student to be our "Top Banana". I use this board to display pictures they bring from home and some of their favorites. I put contact paper over the paper so I can use sticky tack on the back of the pictures. That way it doesn't damage the pictures that I send back home and the contact paper keeps the grease from the sticky tack from staining my paper. (Side note - the contact paper doesn't normally look this shiny - read yucky - this is just a reflection of the flash.)
6. Class Library
I spent so much time making book bin labels and book stickers for my whole library this summer. I put a sticker on every single book I own (with some help from my sister). It wasn't until I was done that I saw that TPT had some great sets. Oh well! I still love my library and how much easier it is for the students to put the books back in the right place. I love my little tiki hut! I also made a book hospital which has worked out great. Now they know not to interrupt me to tell me there is a little tear on page 54. They just put it in the book hospital and I get to it when I have time.
Don't you love the giraffe with the nurses hat I glued on?
My inspiration:
7. Writing Process Bulletin Board
8. Writing Process Clip Board
My inspiration
9. Clock
I was so excited when I found these numbers to go around the clock. I just printed them on dark green paper. Loving it and so handy!
My inspiration
How great is Amy Lemons! Ah-maz-ing!
10. My Safari Theme
I am really enjoying this theme. It is kid friendly, yet kind of glam too!
Well that's my top ten! What's yours?
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Constitution Week Ideas
As we all know, we never really take a break from teaching. We are always thinking about our kiddos and new exciting ways to impart knowledge. While on vacation in Boston this summer, I got very excited about all the history that makes this city so special. I knew I had to buy something to take back to my class. I decided to buy a "Make Your Own Constitution" kit. It was the cutest thing. It had parchment paper, a quill, an ink well, and "ink". I also bought a copy of the our country's constitution. I introduced the topic by presenting my copy of the constitution. In an attempt to encourage some higher level thinking, I told my second graders that this was indeed the real constitution. The conversation that ensued was comical, enlightening, and fun. We finally determined that it could not be the real constitution, but they still thought it was a very cool copy. Then I broke out the kit. They were so excited you would have sworn I just told them I was giving them a million dollars...each. We studied the constitution. We took a day and just talked about the preamble. We listened to and sang the School House Rock version too. We took another day to study the articles and the signatures. I used the folllowing websites to help us: http://www.usconstitution.net/constkidsK.html and http://www.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=391 .
By the third day we were ready to talk about how the constitution is a living document and always changing. Finally, we were ready to write our class constitution and (hopefully) understand what it means. They were so exited to sign their document using the quill and ink well. It seemed so authentic to them. We now have a meaningful document to live and work by!
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