Tips and Tidbits

 Sorry for the lack of posts this last week, Andi and I went on a small vaction with our family to relax - because as crazy as it sounds, school starts THIS week!! So today I thought I would share a couple of little things that I have found helpful in my classroom, and hope you do as well!

Erasing Permanent Marker from Laminate:

As most teachers do I laminate all my posters and decorative accents before writing on them, however dry erase markers wipe off too easily and permanent markers are too hard to erase.  So I discovered this tip on the Internet a couple of years ago, and it has become a staple in my routine.  If you take a black dry erase marker and  scribble over the permanent marker, it easily erases and your cute classroom decorations are good to go for another year!

Attaching Non-Laminated Items With Hot Glue

Hot glue is God's gift to teachers and decorating, however, it's not so friendly to paper products that have not been laminated.  So thanks to my good friend and fellow hot glue aficionado, Jill - she taught me that if you put a strip of scotch tape on the back of your letters or borders and then put hot glue on that strip, your items come off easily and aren't ruined afterward!

Paper Trays

I had these two paper trays that hold my loose leaf and scrap paper, but the problem was, they were too big and took up too much room on my table. Once again my hot glue gun came to the rescue and I made my own stackable paper tray by turning one perpendicular to the other and gluing them together.

From Organizing Jewelry to Organizing Lunch

I found this jewelry organizer for about $5 at Dollar General and it worked perfectly for lunch count.  It originally had 12 small pockets so using some hot glue I was able to separate two of the larger pockets into 6 smaller ones giving me 20 individual student pockets that I numbered using some vinyl and a 1 inch circle punch.    I then punched circles in 3 different colors, 1 for school lunch, 1 for sack lunch, and 1 for salad.  I housed the circles in the bottom pocket, and will have my kids put the appropriate color circle in their pocket when they first enter in the morning.

Andrea's Classroom Tour

Here are few pics of my room!

This is the board where I keep track of book reports and discipline.  One half is titled Star Readers and the other half Star Students.  You can also see my oil drip magnet board for building words to the right.  The rules above the board can be found here

My calendar/ group area.  I have a polka dot rug for the kids to sit on.  It works out really well because each kid has their own "spot"!

This is where I meet with students and behind it you can see my reading corner as well as my word wall.  The popcorn boxes were another Pinterest find.

This is the door to the closet I share with the teacher next door.  I don't know what I would do without the closet or Jenny, the teacher next door!

A view of our cubbies and the shelves that house Literacy and Math centers. This is also where I  display the "masterpieces" my little dears make me.  The colored clocks (a Target dollar spot find) are set to the times the kiddos constantly ask about -specials, lunch, recess and home!

This is my desk area.  Behind it you can see my copy holder- I have one slot for  each day of the week.  It is a life saver!  The multi-colored drawers house my calendar stuff!

This is the door to bathroom ( I have a love/hate relationship with it- it's convenient, but it smells a little funky!!!)  I keep track of those that can count to 100 and those that can tie shoes on here.  I found those cute signs on Pinterest of course!  There are so many generous and creative people out there!

This is the board outside of my room.  It says "There's a Spot For You on Our Learning Safari."  I wanted to be able to have some polka dots and keep with our school-wide theme!

I love these Good Listener rules.  You can find them  here

I tried to give credit where credit was due by linking to the printables I have used in my room.  If  I missed something I apologize!  

Desk Make-over

I did a lot of things differently this year when it came to decorating and setting up my room, and I was really excited about it! But one thing continued to bug me- my desk! Oh my gosh it was so ugly, army green and straight out of the 1970s.  Something had to be done, it definitely did not match the rest of my room.  Everyone knows I love the cheapest (and cutest) solution to a problem; well I found a coupon for Duck Tape. I was amazed at how many patterns and colors there were to choose from!!  I found one that matched the decor of my room; I just needed to figure out what else I could use. So using a little inspiration from Amy's file cabinet re-do, I considered fabric to wrap the desk.  However our nearest fabric store is 45 minutes away- very frustrating!! Then I remembered we have rolls of vinyl in the storage room at school.  I use it for my bulletin boards, but most of the good colors are gone.  I really wanted black, but had to settle for white (it still turned out pretty cute).  So using some free vinyl and a $3 roll of Duck Tape , I came up with this:

-Andrea :)

Bulletin Boards

Bulletin boards have to be one of the most time consuming and frustrating things that I work on in my classroom, and yet, I LOVE them!  Changing bulletin boards is one of my least favorite things to do, but once I come up with an idea I like, I can't wait to put it up!  The majority of my bulletin boards don't change throughout the year, my Math and Social Studies boards will change to represent the unit we are on, but the backgrounds and borders stay the same - which is a huge time saver! 

We will start with my favorite - my social studies board

I wanted my bright colors and polka dots to continue onto my social studies board - so using my handy dandy punches I decided to make our country look a little more fun!

This is the only bulletin board that is a repeat from last year  - I worked pretty hard on this one and wanted to get more use out of it - plus it technically has polka dots!

I found this saying on Pinterest and decided to turn it into a bulletin board for next to my door.

Technically this isn't a bulletin board - but close enough!  I wanted to put something above my books, and being the math teacher, I couldn't help but incorporate a little arithmetic!

We also have a board in our hallway, and in the past I have changed it out every season, this year I wanted to come up with something that I wouldn't feel obligated to change all the time -  I am pretty happy with how it turned out!  I purchased the mirror from Goodwill for $3, I then took it out of its frame and attached it using some fun duck tape I found at Wal-Mart.


-Amy

AAAAHHHHH!

Whew I feel a little better now!  I'm getting to that point of summer vacation where I just don't think I will be ready.  I have lots of things still on my to do list.  My room is however slowly, but surely coming together.  I have changed some things around and added some great Pinterest finds ;).  One of my favorite Pinterest projects has to be my reading bench-

Well guess how excited I was to find these at Target for $3.  I am a labeling and organizing fool, so these are perfect for me.  They clip right on the handle of the fabric totes in my bench!

 I promise to post a tour very soon- we have Kindergarten Connection next week so you can expect some pics then!

I also wanted to use this post to give a shout out to some people that make my job so much easier! We all already know my sister is one of them, but besides her I also work with some other incredibly talented people.  I am so lucky to have an amazing Kindergarten team.  They are so good about sharing their hard work and creativity; I would be more than lost without them. Another person I am blessed to work with is Christie from First Grade Fever.  And yes she is as talented and sweet as it seems!  I am using several of her creations in my room this year.  I just love her Bright Dots Classroom Kit which you can read more about here.

-Andrea :)

Gushing Gifts

As back to school all too quickly approaches,  I have been thinking about Open House, and what gift or treat I am going to give my students this year.
 About a month ago, while at a teacher store I picked up some "5th Grade Rocks" pencils like I always do thinking I would just set one on each desk for the first day of school.  Then about 2 weeks ago I was in Target enjoying one of their amazing clearance sections, when I spotted some summer themed crazy straws. They had marked them down to 90% off, which meant I was going to get 3 straws for 10 cents! Every teacher enjoys a good bargain, and I just couldn't pass them up.  So then I got to thinking about what I could use them for.  I gave my students the "Crazy Kool" gifts that you so often see on Pinterest at the end of last year, and I am not one for repetitive gift giving!  So after much consideration and willing myself to come up with something clever, I chose the following!

This was so easy to do, I taped the straw and pencil to one end of the gusher packet, rolled it over a little bit at the top, taped it again and then wrapped it in some fun ribbon.  As far as the labels are concerned, I could not have done them with out one of my amazing punches.  If you do not have any of these, I suggest you get to your nearest craft store immediatly and purchase a couple - they are a life saver!  My mom was gracious enough to give Andrea and I each our own set made up of different shapes and sizes for Easter last year, and they have become one of my classroom essentials!  If you are intersted in the labels I am more then happy to share them with you!  Just email us at twosistersteach@gmail.com and I will send you the PDF!

-Amy

Smart Choices

I saw on Pinterest recently a super cute idea- Kiss Your Brain and Hug Your Heart.  I thought this was really clever-  Hershey Kisses for smart academic choices and Hershey Hugs for good social choices.  I however have decided to combine these two things and just have one container titled "Smart Choices."  I plan to fill the container with Smarties and hand out one individual candy when a student is making a smart choice- academically or socially.  I think this will work well for me because I already use this language in my classroom.  I try to consistently remind my students that things happen because of their choices:  Are you making a good choice? or I'm sorry you made a poor choice or Suzie has made a great choice by reading quietly. Also I am not a fan of Smarties so I won't want to eat the whole container like I would if it was chocolate ;)!!!

-Andrea :)