Summer updates/projects

When I'm not helping planting or harvesting out in the field  I spend practically all of my time at JoAnn Fabrics/the Dollar Store... it's on the verge of being unhealthy. But I'm finally getting things ready for whatever may come my way. Today's projects included re-painting my classroom door sign to my new colors, making "guess who" for number sense, and updating a thrift store find.

1. classroom signs:

Last year my 4th grade classroom was wedged between 2nd grade and kinder. With the other intermediate classrooms on the complete opposite side of the school  and when students started coming into my class thinking it was still the Spanish room I knew it was time for a sign  outside of my door.
I probably don't need one this year but it's so dang cute and a simple task to take on. I got the letters at JoAnn Fabrics and I learned from last year that you HAVE TO PAINT THE SIDES TOO! Otherwise you get unclean lines and ugly cheap wood showing. I hung them on the wall outside my door with 3M sticky strips cut in half and they shockingly lasted all year (even with little hands always touching them). 2 years and $6.00 later, not too shabby

2. Face Lift for Director's Chair:

This was a random impulse purchase from the thrift store yesterday. I've been on the hunt for a simple wooden stool but was baffled by how expensive they were. I even found a few at the thrift store but they were $20!! REALLY?! I was thinking more around $5 and a nice paint job to match my classroom. Anyways, I was early to a lunch date and wandered into a thrift store to find this gem for $20! I loved my cooperating teachers tall directors chair from student teaching but I just assumed that they were out of my price range. All I needed was $5.00 worth of fabric, patience, my sewing machine, and a lot more patience. I thought that duck cloth would be thick enough to be supportive but they had horrible colors. So I was drawn to the outdoor fabrics which are cute, incredibly strong and water proof (great for the classroom!). DON'T BE DRAWN INTO THE CUTE PATTERNS!!!! BUY DUCK CLOTH OR CANVAS!!!!!!! After completely sewing the two pieces using outdoor fabric I sat down in my lovely new chair and sunk down 6" : (   So I ended up using the old orange canvas fabric and I wrapped/sewed my cute fabric right on over it (I won't lie, some glue was involved too lol). But I think that it turned out pretty dang cute and durable! Now I just need to figure out what color I want to paint the wood; either black or light blue. Thoughts????

Before

After... still need to paint!

3. Guess Who:

I've seen this project on pintrest a few times but the links kept leading to a french website. It seemed pretty straight forward so I made it up as I went. I found the guess who game at a thrift store for ten cents, gave it a good scrubbing, then made the cards for it. I was lazy and couldn't find my ruler to make exact measurements but I got pretty dang close. *Once I learn how to attach a PDF/PPT I'll upload it so that you can use the template. Since my eyeballing was a tad smaller than the actual card I had to use double stick tape to keep each card actually in the slot. Print on CARDSTOCK and glue a COLORED SHEET OF PAPER behind to keep the cards from being see-through and to keep them organized if one were to slip out. In total you will need 4 copies of the cards (two for the actual game board and two for the cards you choose from). When I tested the game out with my boyfriend I realized the brilliance of the game, it made you use so much math vocabulary and you really had to think about your number sense! There was definitely a learning curve, "is your card an odd number?" narrows things down much more quickly than "does your card end in a 7?". Then as you narrowed down the numbers you had to get creative, "is your card a product of 3? Is your card a factor of 100?" etc. It became really fun and even when you got an answer from your partner you had to go over EACH number that was still up and determine if it was true for each one. I think it would be easy to use in any grade and kids can make it as simple (is your number between 1 and 10?) or difficult (is your number a product of 7?) as they they need. I'm super excited to use it in a classroom!

# sense Guess Who!

I think next week I'm going to tackle a teacher toolbox, a partner clock, and start practicing some interview questions for an incredibly important interview at my old school for 5th grade. So get ready and enjoy your weekend! 

My first attempt at the blog world! I absolutely love getting inspiration from all the bloggers out there so I thought it's about time I give back to the community.

I'm currently in the land of job hunting/interviews. I was incredibly bummed to have my 4th grade position taken by a tenured teacher who wanted to try teaching older kids. But I finally understand that this is the process that every teacher has to tough out. Until I obtain my professional licence instead of  provisional (which takes a whopping 3 years in my district, 2 more to go!) I now know that nothing is permanent.

The thing that's killing me this summer is that I would LOVE to get stuff done when I have so much free time on my hands!!!! Last year I was hired 2 weeks before school began so everything was a giant whirl wind and those first months became incredibly stressful when it didn't have to be. So to get the basics out of the way (no matter what teaching job I may obtain) I've decided on my color scheme for the year, drum roll please.... light blue, red, and black! Fun, gender neutral, modern, and clean looking. Last year I went with blue and green and it had the same effect. It's my hope that I can get everything I need for these two color schemes and then I can  flip flop every year so I don't get bored with my room. Keep posted for my classroom creations!