Shoal Watercolor Paintings

WOW! It's been over a month since I last blogged. I guess that just goes to show teachers ARE super busy!

So...here we are in November and we are up to our ears in learning! We're finishing up DARE, our unit on nouns, physical science, etc.

In social studies we've been studying different European explorers. One of our most recent explorers was John Cabot. Since I'm also required to teach art, I combined the two (thanks to the idea in Evan-Moor's Explorers of North America Pocket Books) and got this lovely display shoals!

One of the things I was most proud about is we talked about how the deeper in the ocean you get, the darker the water gets...you can see several of them really took that into consideration in their painting!

Here's a picture of the sign, close up.

Classroom Photos

I'm going to take you on a tour of my classroom...so sit back and enjoy!

Messy room before cleaning....

Sorting Bulletin Board Borders

Student closet (BEFORE)

Student Closet (AFTER)

"Seaweed" Door

Math Manipulatives and Shelves which hold science, social studies, math, and spelling materials (BEFORE)

Math Manipulatives and Shelves which hold science, social studies, math, and spelling materials (AFTER)

Overhead Station, Boggle, White Boards, Clipboards, Recycle Bin, and Homework Trays

Computers

Daily Schedule/Assignment Board (Had to use last year's theme for this, as the ones I thought I could use were too ratty and old looking. Will be making new ones soon!)

Accelerated Reader Bulletin Board - my students earn a jewel for every 5 AR points. In addition I offer special jewels for special challenges. They get a gold coin when they read specific books I suggest (when we read something about Ruby Bridges, I gave the challenge of reading one of our biographies on her; on Patriot Day I issued the challenge of reading a couple of different books that fit the theme, etc.) They get a set of pearls when they recommend a book to a friend, and that friend reads the book and passes the AR test....and as we go along the year I'll issue more challenges!

View of AR Bulletin Board and Classroom Library

View of magazine rack I got for $10 when Hollywood Video went out of business...I painted the yellow sides (which had their logo on it, too) with black chalkboard paint and left the purple alone.

Supplies Bookshelves Front and Back

Morning Meeting Message Cart - This is where I write my morning messages, often times they are interactive. I love this cart! At the top are our lunch stones that children move after they've read the message (and responded when appropriate) to indicate whether they brought lunch from home or are eating school lunch.

Outside Bulletin Board - I really wanted to put up a title and the original idea was to put up the subjects we'd be studying with subtopics as well, but that just never happened! Then I thought maybe I'd do something with kids' faces in fishes, or I don't know what else...but alas it still looks exactly the same as it did on day one. I'm not one for decorative bulletin boards, I really prefer functional, so it look like it might be time to take this bulletin board down and replace it with something worthwhile!

Looking inside from the outside hallway.

Seat Crates

Ok...I've had several people ask how to make these crate seats...so here are the directions!

1. Pick crates you are going to use. You need the ones that hold hanging file folders because your seat will sit on these rails. I was able to get these for about $3.50 each from Walmart.

2. Bring crates to Home Depot, Lowe's etc. Ask the really nice wood cutter to select appropriate thickness of plywood and cut them to fit into the hole. I have to admit, I really lucked out with the gentleman I got at Lowe's; he was WONDERFUL! He worked really hard to get me as many seats as possible out of the plywood and cut them perfectly. AND he didn't charge me to cut it once he found out I was using them for a classroom, which sometimes they do! The sheet of plywood I purchased was a little less than $25 and I was able to get 9 pieces for seats (plus 3 smaller boards...I'm sure I'll think of something to do with them!)

3. Place wood on top of foam and trace around the wood. I found buying an eggcrate (for a mattress) from Walmart was much cheaper than buying foam by the yard. I bought a full size eggcrate and it did the 9 boards with enough extra to do at least 3 more (and still give a bunch of scraps to my 8 year old daughter who was ecstatic!). I think the full size was about $11. The downside to this is now-a-days they like to make their eggcrate all fancy so I had to be creative with my cutting to ensure that it was all the same for a single crate. So I have some crates that have foam with wavy lines, some with circles, etc., but it's all the same for that single crate.

4. Cut out foam.

5. Cut and Iron fabric. (Sorry about the fabric change, I took pictures at two different times and was working on different crates each time.)

6. Lay fabric on table wrong side up.

7. Lay foam on top of fabric, wavy side up. You can kind of see from this picture the very far side of the foam is different. Make sure this doesn't happen. I actually "staged" this picture as I forgot to get pictures of every step, so this is not a seat that I actually used. It was purely for documentation.

8. Lay wood on foam. If one side of the wood is nicer than the other, put the nice side up.

9. Start stapling. First, I like to pick one of the shorter sides, then pull the fabric up and staple right in the middle of the board.

10. Go to the corner, and pull fabric to the side (sort of like you are wrapping a present).

11. Pull fabric up, in two parts and staple.

12. Continue around the board until all sides are done. Tack down any fabric that needs to be pulled tighter.

13. Cut ribbon for handles.

14. Staple ribbon for handles.

15. Viola! Your crate seat is finished! You'll notice the back doesn't look grand.
Being a perfectionist, at first that bothered me and I was going to cover a thin piece of wood and attach it to the bottom so it looked pretty - and then I was like, you know...this is something you can just let go of...so I did. No one is going to see the bottom, and really WHO CARES?! Ok...I do a little...but I really am going to let it go!

Here are the 9 different crate seats I made. The fish are for my classroom. The rainbow wavy stripes are for my daughter's room (they complement her peace and love sheet set, the fabric was actually pillow cases I cut up!). The motorcycle one is for my son's room. He'll get curtains to match, and my classroom will get fish curtains to match!

That's What I Call Progress

Such a productive evening! Previously I had finished two of my six crates for my classroom and two crates for my daughter. Today I finished my last four crates for my classroom and made one for my son, too. I bought enough material to also make new curtains for my classroom and my son's room.

I also glued the magnets on my lunch count fish, I still need to make the headings, drill holes in the top of the cookie sheet, and add ribbon, but then this, too, is done! Things are starting to fall into place! Yippee!

Oh, and did I mention I got some great deals at Walmart today. I got tablecloths (that I'm going to use for bulletin boards (one is dots, the other is fish), cute fish bowls, medium sized dot plates, small fish plates, and cups. The tablecloths total make sense and the big bowls I'll use for class parties...but the cups and small fish plates are a little over the edge! I'm sure I'll find something cute to do with them, though!