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 :)

Ribbon - my new favorite!

I have a new favorite decorating staple in my classroom....RIBBON!  I love it for so many reasons, but mostly because you can find some really cute styles for pretty cheap.  Here are a few ways I am using it this year:

To spruce up some posters-

To add a little flair to some boring baskets-

To hang letters in my reading nook-

To add a little life to my supply caddies (I found these for $1 a roll at Michaels)-

Do you have any cheap decorating tips that make a big impact?  I would love to hear them!

-Andrea :)

Turn It In!

Teaching Math to three different classes along with a Social Studies and a Science class, makes having an organized turn in station, pretty important.  I decided this year I needed one central location for all the baskets and trays I have for collecting homework, as well as the fact that it needed to be on a table that sat lower to the ground, in order for the shelf I have to be an appropriate height.  So what better table to use then a coffee table!  I actually had this old drab wooden table in my basement, but it was orginially purchased from a resale shop for $10.

I sanded the table, added a couple coats of black paint, and finished it off with what else but my Cricut and some colorful vinyl. 

Now I have the perfect turn in station where my kids can hand in their homework and daily math folders, as well as see if they might be "Missing Something"!

-Amy

Sign Me Up

There are two things you will learn about me very quickly:
1. If I see a super cute idea, I will try my hardest to figure out how to make it myself (OK usually with the help of my sister).  Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fail miserably!!
2. I love, love, love my Cricut and self adhesive vinyl!
This post will prove both of these things!!!


I'm sure most of you have seen those adorable name signs floating around Pinterest.  I fell in love with a polka-dot (which I also love A LOT) one .  I decided with my trusty Cricut and some bright colored vinyl I could make something very similar.  I made a trip to Michaels for the rest of my supplies: some canvases and some cute ribbon (which has become a staple in decorating my room this year, I have a future post planned about it actually). Then my good friend Jenny, who also happens to teach next door to me, and I got together to make a few and my sister and I got together and made a few more!!  




Here are 2 of the 11 I have made so far:

Sorry for the not so good pic! Can you tell which one I took with my old phone? ;)

-Andrea :)

Filing Cabinets

I had a stroke....a stroke of genius!
OK, so that's probably not the best way to start a text message to your sister,  especially when we have been in a heat advisory for God only knows how long, but it totally seemed appropriate at the time!
Andrea and I have been in our classrooms pretty much all summer, trying to make them as cute as possible, and every time I walked into mine, the fact that my two filing cabinets did not match really seemed to bother me.  Somehow I have lived 4 years in my classroom with these same tan and black filing cabinets, but this year they just weren't good enough for what I had in mind.   I discussed the turmoil I was going through with my sister, and we threw around several options:  1- I could mod podge scrap book paper to the front ( but that wouldn't hide the fact that they were still two different colors). 2  - I could paint them (that seemed expensive and time consuming) or 3 - I could just get over it and deal with it (not an option with my obsessive compulsive brain).  So while working in my room and moving things around, I came across some fun fabric I had recently purchased to cover a table, and had the idea  that I could use it to cover a filing cabinet, and even tried it out a couple times. It didn't seem to be long enough one way or wide enough the other, and either way I was going to have to buy another piece in order to cover the other one.  Then, from out of no where, it hit me - my "stroke"- I pushed the two cabinets together with their drawers facing outward. I then put my fabric over the top. I was so excited about this new idea, but there was one minor flaw.  The fabric wasn't quite wide enough to cover each side, even with a single border and I didn't have a another border that really matched.  So I took an ugly valentines border that I never use and turned it around to use its backside.  I got out my handy dandy glue gun and started assembling my masterpiece.  When it was finished I did the only natural thing; texted my sister, put it on Facebook and then of course I "pinned" it.  Later that evening, my sister and I were both shocked to see how many "repins" my filing cabinet had received, and how many times it showed up in a search. Several times friends and family have commented on our crafts, and with all that encouragement and the popularity of the filing cabinet, we decided it was time to start taking note and sharing our ideas. 

We are really excited about this blog, and have been making a list of all the things we want to share.  We hope you enjoy it, find some use out of it, or at least a little entertainment.  We look forward to all of our future "blogs" and hope you do too!

-Amy

Getting Crafty

Let's try this picture thing!

Andrea and I have been feeling rather creative lately, and we got together with our Cricut, some vinyl, a hot glue gun and some paint - basically all the crafting necessities!

Something you should know about us is that we are both fairly addicted to Pinterest (what teacher isn't!), and while doing my daily, OK hourly, scroll through the education section, I stumbled upon a "No Name" board, which I can totally put to use in a Math classroom.  So I called up my sister and our craft day had begun!  We first decided to make some modifications to the board I "pinned" - First, came the title, I am known for my always hilarious sarcasm, and "Missing Something", just seemed more appropriate- Second, I teach three different classes of Math and have become somewhat of a color coding fool - I have a "green" class, a "blue" class and a "yellow" class - so we added buttons across the tops of my clothespins to insure that myself and my students would know which class these papers had come from.  We then broke out the Cricut and cut some fun letters and stars, and finished it up by hot gluing a fun ribbon on the back for it to hang from.

-Amy

We did it!

We have talked about it before, but we've finally done it- we started a blog. It should be lots of fun and pretty interesting. The entries will come from myself- a Kindergarten teacher, and my younger sister- a fifth grade math teacher. We have big plans for some great posts about getting things ready for a new year. We've both already been hard at work in our rooms! Hopefully we can figure out how to get some pics up soon!

-Andrea