Classroom Facelift

Hello!! Happy August! I am Melanie from Momma with a Teaching Mission . I am a first grade teacher and am going into my 3rd year. I inherited my classroom and MANY items in my classroom. And I will be FOREVER grateful to the lady who retired who I replaced. She left me books, baskets, games, centers, and so much more. But after two years of kind of still living in 'her' classroom, I decided to make some changes. Maybe you are in the same boat as me, so keep reading!!

So many things I left the same for the past two years. Which nothing is wrong with, however, I felt like it was time to put my spin on the classroom! So I decided to write a little post about dressing up or giving your windows a face lift with some do-it-yourself made curtains.

So when I got hired 2 years ago, the bulletin boards were empty. So that was one area I went ahead and purchased the chevron fabric to cover the bulletin boards. HOWEVER, I know nothing about buying fabric, so when I purchased the fabric for the bulletin boards, I had lots left over! These leftovers have been sitting folded in one of my cabinet drawers to almost 2 years!

So the other day, during my lunch (I'm teaching summer school), I thought, 'hey, let's dress up these windows!' So I got all my fabric out and laid it on the desks! And my it was ALOT!!

This is a before picture of the window. As you can see, I put little stuffed animals on the shower curtain rod. But it's just awful!!

So I cut the curtain strips about 3 inches wide, and they were about 2 feet long. I had 4 different kinds of fabric (which I had originally bought at Hobby Lobby). I had Black and white chevron, white and pink chevron, blue and white chevron, and then another pattern with the black/white/blue/pink with flowers. My room colors are blue, pink, white, and black.

So this is the after! I am nowhere near a seamstress and I definitely won't quit my day job! But I think it looks cute and it adds a pop of color to the windows! I just tied the fabric strips to the shower curtain rod and I was done in about 45 or so minutes!!

Make sure to check out my blog, as I will be doing a classroom revel at the beginning of September!! Momma with a Teaching Mission Wishing everyone a fantastic new school year!

Melanie

Burlap Bulletin Board

Hi there! I'm Neetu from Cinnamon's Synonyms and I'm thrilled to be blogging here on Who's Who today!

I have a quick little bulletin board tip to share with you ...I actually came up with this idea by pure accident!

Here's the real deal: I am not very talented when it comes to making bulletin boards look pretty. No, really... I'm not. I usually find myself fiddling with my boards ... constantly... because I NEVER like the way things look.  After several failed attempts I usually give up and accept my attempt for what it is (because honestly, who has time to fuss with this stuff when there are a gazillion things to do in the day).

This year, I haven't fiddled with my board once!! Annnd, get this... I continue to receive compliment after compliment on the way my board looks! Yay! Success!!!

In the fall, when school started, I knew I wanted to have a neutral background for my boards. Something that would make my students' work just pop!  In our district there's a huge push for Reggio inspired kindergarten classrooms and although I don't teach kindergarten I thought it'd be neat to incorporate some natural elements into my decor just as the Reggio philosophy encourages.

My initial plan was to just cover the board in this burlap material I had laying around in my basement. I figured it'd be perfect because if the material is resilient enough for the outdoors, then it'd be an ideal way to create a fade-proof bulletin board for my classroom.

I had one problem though...

It barely stretched out far enough to reach the top and bottom of my boards.  Take a look:

I had two rolls of burlap, so I used one to cover the center part of the board.

Then, I cut the other roll in half (lengthwise) and used it to cover the empty parts at the top and bottom. I knew it would look sloppy if I just stapled it flat -  it would look like three ugly rows of burlap. This is when the idea to do this poofy thing came about:

Burlap is extremely easy to work with... the little poofs just happen naturally. Yep, burlap is your reliable friend and will do all the pretty poofing for you. NO SKILL REQUIRED... but people will think you're super talented with mega decorating abilities.  I love Burlap! It took the stress right out of beautifying my board.

It's February now, and I haven't had a single urge to change it out! 6 months is the longest relationship I've had with a bulletin board. I think this is true love!

Neetu teaches in a school with a high population of English Language Learners. With the awareness that students learn best through visuals (whether they speak English as a second language or not), she strives to create engaging language based resources filled with illustrations that kids just dig! There is a strong language component in everything she creates (including her math and science activities). This is inspired by her need to help her students build the vocabulary required to succeed in every subject, not just language arts.  Visit her store by clicking HERE.

Ahoy Thar, Me Hearties!

Yo, ho, ho and a classroom of fun!

Pirates are a great theme for any time of the school year but did you know that September 19th is “International Talk Like a Pirate Day?  Once upon a time in June, 1995, 2 guys were playing racquetball and...for reasons still unknown, began to give each other encouragement on their racquetball techniques in "pirate slang"!  Because this made their game more fun, they decided then and there that the world needed a new national holiday and "Talk Like a Pirate Day"  was born!  After eliciting the help of syndicated humor columnist, Dave Barry, in 2002, the "cannon" ball got rolling and the rest is history!  

Have some fun and use the resource shown here to get a reference to some of the more common phrases to get you started "talking like a pirate" in your classroom!  Refer to the children as "mateys" or "scurvy dogs" (if they're being naughty) and call out "AVAST, me hearties" when you want them to pay attention to something!  Say "Arrrrr" a lot and grunt a few times as you get in touch with your inner pirate. Click {HERE} for additional information to perfect your pirate talk! 

Click {HERE} to download the FREE "Talk Like a Pirate" printable file

There are a lot of pirate "props" out there in the stores, especially with Halloween coming soon, but you can easily make some of your own to use with your students now. The pirate hat shown here has "at" word family words glued on the two sides (cat, sat, hat, mat, fat, bat, etc.) with picture prompts and words.  Provide a hook for a hand by painting a party cup (or you can leave it red) and rolling up a small piece of aluminum foil.  Make a hole in the top of the cup (BEFORE you paint it!!) and push the aluminum foil into the hole.  The child holds onto the foil inside the cup with the cup covering his hand.  Curve the foil to look like a hook.  The children LOVE these! 

Click {HERE} to download the FREE Pirate Hat template

Some wonderful pirate books are available to read to your class.  

Here are some of our favorites.  

"Tough Boris" by Mem Fox is a great one and lends itself beautifully to student writing extentions. The book has a patterned text that reads "Once upon a time there lived a pirate named Boris von der Borch.      He was tough.   All pirates are tough.        He was massive.  All pirates are massive.        He was scruffy.  All pirates are scruffy.....etc.  
(Despite the limited text the illustrations are rich with detail that tell the story.  This is a great one to show on a big screen if you have one available!) So much discussion will take place!  After reading the book a few times,  post the sentence frames 

 "Once upon a time there lived __________

                                                 He-She-It _________________.

                                                 All ____________    ________________________

Here is an example:

Once upon a time there lived a dog named Beau.

He chewed bones.

All dogs chew bones.

He barked at the cat.

All dogs bark at cats.

He ran around in the park.

All dogs run around in the park.

But of all the dogs in the world, I like my dog, Beau, the best.

Try composing one together as a class before asking the students to do one on their own. a good class topic might be to have them write about their teacher!  
Here is an example:

Once upon a time there lived a teacher named Mrs. Johnson.

She wrote on the board.

All teachers write on the board.

She gave us homework.

All teachers give homework.

She read us books.

All teachers read books.

Our teacher, Mrs. Johnson, is the best teacher in the world! 

Have the students write 2-3 things that are fairly common behaviors to their chosen topic. Be sure to have them make some kind of closing sentence.  Have them illustrate their pages and make small booklets.  It is amazing the things students will write about!  

It is always motivating to the students to have new pointers that fit a classroom "theme" or unit of study. These are easily made with some dowels, ribbon, fun foam and sequins!  

Use these fun pointers for Shared Reading in a pocket chart or "Read the Room".
Click {HERE} for more details 

As a culminating activity we always show the movie Peter Pan (the OLD NBC 1955 one with Mary Martin as Peter Pan!) and eat Pirate Booty popcorn!  We also pass out snack baggies with cannonball malt balls, gummy sharks, goldfish crackers, and gold foil-covered chocolate coins.  The children are fascinated by all the "flying" in the movie even though they can clearly see the wires!  Cyril Ritchard was the ULTIMATE Captain Hook...sorry, Dustin Hoffman from the movie Hook!  Disney also has an animated version children enjoy!

Click {HERE} to download a FREE PIRATE ARRRRR! Game

For more Pirate inspiration, check out our Pinterest board about Pirates! It is loaded with fun ideas and resources. Click {PIRATES on PINTEREST} to find it!