Fifteen minutes of crafting {polka dot clothespins}

Before I left school for the year I quickly decorated clothespins to use this fall. My first year I covered them in decorative duct tape. That was a pain. This year I just wrote had Niki write my kids' names on them in colored sharpie. That wasn't near enough fun. So for next year I decided I was going to paint them polka dotted! 

It was super simple! I used regular paint from school and an unused pencil.

 

I made sure to make some of my dots whole and some going off the edges so they looked like "real" polka dots. I let them dry for an hour or two then flipped them over to do the other side.

*Side note* I had them numbered with colored sharpies before I did the polka dots.  My plan is to reuse them, but we'll see how they hold up.

 

 

What DIY projects are you working for home or school?

 

Setting up my classroom { the move in}

Before I could actually start moving in I did some work at my apartment, specifically on the lawn. I bought a cheap rug from Menards- the indoor/outdoor type. And a few colors of spray paint. Because new teachers are b-r-o-k-e.

 

I used painters tape to mark the lines using a super scientific magazine as a measuring device. To vary the size of the lines I just used the magazine either horizontal or vertical. 

 

Since the ground is not perfectly flat I had to be sure to press down my tape lines to reduce the amount of overspray.

 

I thought that I could just throw some newspapers down on the sidewalk and spray paint my millions of tubs and then got real and realized that was going to be way more work and decided to grab some painter's plastic and go that way. (see below)

 

Two coats of spray paint and my rug was looking decent of a $19.99 friend. 

 

In between rounds of spray painting I was running things through the laminator as fast as I could. I ran full sheet things I wanted to be a little thicker myself, at home, and sent everything else to our AEA to be laminated on the big machine.

Here is what I ended up doing with my tubs, this was way easier and allowed me to just keep moving on to the next thing. I used dish tubs from Walmart and my stool was $4 at Goodwill.

When I was finally given the go ahead to move into my room we gathered a whole car-full of things and headed out! After everything was brought in, here's what we had:

 

This doesn't really seem all that much better than when it was a library, but we were hopefull :)

Next up: the classroom starts taking shape.

Setting up my classroom {the beginning}

We last left you with the news that I got a job...and then the blog came to a crashing halt because well, life got in the way. And so now like  a school year and a half later we're bring you the transformation of my TK classroom. From library to classroom in 3 days.
Here's what it looked like when I walked in the first day:

 

Holy Hot Mess, right? And top it all off I couldn't even start doing anything until after the library moved out! I was in complete panic mode. All I could do was print and laminate. everything.

Next up: 3 days of classroom madness.

How we put together my classroom in one weekend.

teacher tuesday

So while I am still searching for a "real"job for next year, I still want to keep working on creating things for the classroom. I have been reading the daily 5 book, and have been trying to create some things that I will be able to use in the future.  I found a few things on pinterest that I like and think I will re-create in my own way…
Here's a few things I want to work on:
{don't worry, I will share them when I get them made}

*some kind of dolch word list

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*some kind of guided reading assessment recording sheet

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* i have, who has for dolch words

* dolch words sticker books

*comprehension questioning tool

fans for each student? sticks?

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Any suggestions of other things I should be making??

tuesday teacher tip

The daily five. It's an awesome resource, courtesy of the sisters {Joan Moser and Gail Boushey}
I used the daily five in my first grade student teaching and I absolutely loved it. So of course, now I must make it cute as well as functional.
So I made these cards to organize the students' daily five choices- I think I will use them in a pocket chart. I haven't decided if I will use students' names or their numbers to organize them. Numbers can be reused each year, while names give them ownership.
Check out either of the sister's websites:
http://www.the2sisters.com/the_daily_5.html
http://www.thedailycafe.com/
There is even a link to purchase the books if you don't already own one.
If you can use these in your classroom, download your free copy here. We would love for you to leave a comment or become a follower if you download.
What other great daily five resources are out there? I've been doing some pinning, but I'm sure there are more!

tuesday teacher tip

 My teacher tip for the day isn't really a tip exactly, more of a resource. Classroom Freebies might just be one of my new favorite websites! There are so many amazing classroom resources being shared by different teachers, and they are all FREE! even better!

There is a new post with a new freebie each day. Yes, thats right, another great FREE resource each day.The freebies are even categorized by grade level. easy peasy.

I may have spent a few hours on this blog yesterday and it has inspired me to try to make my own classroom resource. 

I think I will start with something simple, maybe I have, who has? Who doesn't love that game? 

It's the simplest game that {usually} makes kids pay attention. And it's a quick and easy time filler.

I'll get started on that and maybe have it ready to go for next week's teacher tip.

What other great teaching resources are out there?? Share with us!

tuesday teacher tip

It was great to start the day with a made bed. Yeah I know, ridiculous. But my life doesn't really lend its  self to made beds and calm mornings. So here it is, made. Its not pretty, but its made, so I can't complain.

if you could just ignore the fact that it looks like I live in a dorm room, because well I sort of do

Now, on to the real post…

In my student teaching, I used "fair sticks" which my cooperating teacher, Melanie {who I think just might be the best coop teacher on the planet} already had in place. They were simply craft sticks with the kids' numbers on them and were kept in a jar and placed into another stack as the kids name's were called.

They worked great, and the kids knew how the system worked. I didn't use the fair sticks for everything but always for morning calendar, to decide who got to do things on the smart board and sometime even for picking groups or partners.

While her sticks worked just fine, I knew I could beautify them :)
I got the idea from the picture below. These are actually chore sticks, but I knew I could modify the to make amazing fair sticks.

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I downloaded her stick labels to use as a template for my own, and made them into numbers rather than chores. I labeled my sticks with the number  and the number word (3 three).

I printed, cut and laminated them. and mod podged them onto the craft sticks. I made the sticks a while ago, and I now know that the lamination step was unnecessary. Or I could have just used a spray adhesive to glue the laminated label down. If I were going to make them again, I would just use the mod podge on regular paper. 

Here's how mine turned out:

They will make a great addition to my future classroom :)

If there is any interest, we could offer these in our etsy shop. Send us an email if you would interested in having us make you your very own set of fair sticks.

Here are a few ways that other people made "fair sticks":

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I like that she has two different colors so the sticks can be flipped rather than having two different piles or jars. 

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Check out all these other great uses for craft sticks in the classroom:

count 'em up sticks for money practice

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use full size paint stir sticks to manage your classroom library. The fact that they use ribbon and glitter is just an added bonus to the functionality

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multiple choice sticks, great for older grades. also love the fun colors. 

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Activity sticks- great to keep your kids on the ball and break up those long lessons or tests.

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What other ways are you using craft sticks in your classroom? Share your comments, or leave us the link to your blog post.
Check back Friday for a freebie to go with your fair sticks.

Tuesday Teacher Tip

Sorry for being MIA yesterday. Shannon and I were both spent from long weekends. More on that a different day.
Today, I would like to share with you a Teacher Tip that worked awesome for me during student teaching and easily translated to my own children at home!
Often when I wanted my students to meet me in the library or at the carpet, it would take much longer than it should. I always had stragglers, people who needed to blow their nose, and some who just seemed to get lost on the way.
I started a count-down with my students. Depending on how much they had to do before meeting me, I would start at 5 or 10. I also varied how fast I counted depending on how squirrelly they were being. It made meeting me in the library more of a sport. :)

This helps my children too. Even my 2 year old knows he better hustle when mom starts the count-down.
Hopefully this tip will help in your classroom or in your own home!
How do you get your kids (students or children) where they are supposed to be? Share your tips with us in the comments!