Monday Made It!

Monday Made It

Hi all!  It is still Monday for a few more minutes here so I am going to take part in Monday Made It!!!  This is a first for me.  Every week I carefully read all the amazing posts about what you all have made.  Now, FINALLY, I get to add one.  Don't get too excited ... but here are my Monday Made Its ...

Exhibit #1: Cute decorations for the classroom
My last name starts with a J and I just moved to room 8 so these two items will hang somewhere in my new classroom.  I especially love the 8 because I used a paint pen (FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER) to make those dots.  I may make them on the J also, but I don't want to go overboard.

Exhibit #2: Birthday Bags

Actually a former class mom and dear friend decorated these for me. (Thank you Melynda!!!!)  I set out lots of stickers and she got to be creative.  Then I stuffed them with goodies that will be loved by five and six year olds.  Usually I put their names on the bags but this year I am doing it differently.  (Do you notice the beautiful blue bulletin board in the background?  Read more about it in Exhibit #3!!!)

Exhibit #3:  My BEAUTIFUL Bulletin Boards

This may not technically be a "Made It", but I am going to count it.  Since I moved to a new classroom, I decided to paint my bulletin boards.  This is the third time I have painted bulletin boards and the other two times it was super easy; NO problems.  This time was a nightmare.  The paint started running, it was all streaky.  I ended up putting on three coats of paint and used up two gallons of paint.  YIKES!!!  That is a lot of paint!!! (...and remember, I only painted my bulletin boards, not my walls).  All I can think of was that I started on a hot day and that caused all of the initial problems.  BUT now (three coats later), I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how my boards look.  I have had many compliments already (and I don't even have a single thing on my boards yet ... except one birthday bag).  Now I can smile and say it was worth it ... but if you had talked to me last week, there were moments when I thought I would have to cover the paint with butcher paper.  BUT now I am happy and it is so, so, so lovely!

Exhibit #4:  My New Curtains

I saved my favorite for last.  I made a curtain for the window in my back door.  (My new classroom has TWO doors.)  The sun was shining in so this is not a great photo.  But I am in love with this curtain.  (Oh, have you figured out that I am having a blue and green classroom? Blue and green are my favorite colors.  I love nature and love the blue sky and all the green found in plants.  So having lots of blue and green in my classroom makes me feel like I have brought nature inside.)

So ... I got the idea for this curtain from Mrs. Anderson at Welcome to First Grade.  Here is the link.  That brilliant teacher found two plastic tablecloths at Target and cut them in half to make a valance for her blinds.  I loved the idea, but couldn't find any plastic tablecloths that I loved.  I found this one at Party City, but it was paper.  I knew it wouldn't last long.  But I really, really loved it.  So I laminated it.  Perfect!!!  It is being held in place by magnets right now because this is a metal door.  I will probably end up using velcro dots to hold it in place.  I am also going to laminate more of the tablecloth to create a valance for my blinds, just like Mrs. Anderson.

Now, be sure to go on over to see all the other Monday Made It projects at 4th Grade Frolics.  Thanks Tara for creating this great linky party!

Love to all,
Camille

First Things First

When you move into a new classroom, what is the first thing you do?  Did I hear someone shout, "Paint the bulletin boards!"  Oh, whoops, that was me shouting, wasn't it?!?  Well, the truth is that I am very visual and am so much happier unpacking boxes when the walls look good.  So now that my new classroom is a clean slate ... 

...and before I start moving in boxes, I will tackle the bulletin boards.  Don't get me wrong.  I am not a crazy lady who completely finishes her bulletin boards before she unpacks.  I am just a crazy lady who gets the background color onto her bulletin boards before she even moves her boxes in.

My favorite way to get color onto bulletin boads?  Paint.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!  Now that I have experienced painted boards, I just can't go back to paper.  Think of all the beautiful colors that are available at paint stores - any of those colors could be on your bulletin board!  Yes, it takes time to paint the boards the first year, but unlike paper, paint doesn't fade and unlike fabric you don't have to wash it.  I use regular old latex paint - any type of finish will work, I used eggshell, but you can use flat paint or get a shinier finish if you want.  How shiny you go is a matter of taste.  My previous boards were all a beautiful shade of blue.  I loved the blue because it can be a backdrop for so many different things - a garden, a forest, an ocean, the list goes on and on.  Paint your boards once and you never have to paint them again (unless you move rooms!!!!!)  If you get bored with the color, you can always cover the paint with paper or repaint, I guess. (I have never been bored with the blue.) The amazing thing about the paint is that it lasts and lasts.  I have not had any chipping at all.  Lots of pinholes, but you have to get really close to notice those (and I am super picky and the pinholes have never bothered me). So ... guess where I am off to now?  Yep, the paint store. What color will I pick?  Blue, of course.  But deciding which shade of blue will keep me occupied for awhile.

Love to all,

Camille

P.S.  You can check out the beauty of my blue boards by looking at these photos.  All that pretty blue is painted on.  : )

(Okay, I am a little embarrassed about this board ... I wanted to leave the handprints up for a later project, but had nowhere else to post these leprechauns so I just stapled the leprechauns on top of the hands.  LAZY!!!!)

My Secret ...

Many teachers are beginning to post about creating bulletin boards for the new school year.  (Sigh ... didn't summer just start?????)  So I decided to post my beautiful, wonderful, amazing secret.  Here it is:  I paint my bulletin boards.  That's it!  Simple, but oh so amazing!  Think of all the beautiful colors that are available at paint stores - any of those colors could be on your bulletin board!  Yes, it takes time to paint the boards the first year, but unlike paper, paint it doesn't fade and unlike fabric you don't have to wash it.  I use regular old latex paint - any type of finish will work, I used eggshell, but you can use flat paint or get a shinier finish if you want.  My boards are all a beautiful shade of blue.  I love the blue because it can be a backdrop for so many different things - a garden, a forest, an ocean, the list goes on and one.  Paint your boards once and you never have to paint them again (unless you get bored with the color, so choose wisely!!!)

P.S.  You can check out the beauty of my blue boards by looking at my photos in previous posts.  All that pretty blue is painted on.  : )

Day One: The Kissing Hand

Here is one of my favorite activities for the first day of school.  (It even leads to a cute bulletin board!):

First I read aloud The Kissing Hand.  Then we discuss the book and how each of us felt about coming to school today.  I take quick notes as to what each child says.  (I use the prompt "I felt ______" to get them started if they need help.)  Then during station time, I have each child create two handprints.  (I use those great large round ink pads from Lakeshore.  So easy!!!)  One handprint is used for a bulletin board display and the other becomes a puzzle.

Bulletin board:  I make the bulletin board display after school by typing up each each child's response to how they felt on the first day of school.  (Example: Diana felt excited because she was coming to school!)  Then I post each child's handprint and typed response on a bulletin board.  I post the handprints in the shape on a heart.  (Hard to tell in the photo because I used a font that was too big last year.)  If I remember, I even place a heart sticker on each handprint or on the typed response.  Sometimes I like this board so much that I leave it up all year!  (It is so fun for the children to look back on later in the year and laugh about how scared they felt on the first day.)

Hand Puzzle:  During lunch, I quickly cut each handprint into about six pieces.  It goes home on the first day in an envelope with a poem on front that tells parents to sit with their favorite first grade child and put together the puzzle inside the envelope.  I love that it becomes a handprint that parents get to keep as a reminder of their first day of first grade!  To make this easier for me, I have the envelopes prepped ahead of time labeled with the child's name and with the poem already glued on.  That way I only have to cut out the handprints and put them in the correct envelopes at lunch.  I cannot post the poem because I didn't write it myself, but found it on someone else's site (and I can't remember whose site it was.  Sorry!)

Mathematicians at Work?!?

Yesterday I blogged about my writing bulletin board on which a monthly writing sample is displayed for each student.  It is actually like a portfolio, but on a bulletin board.  I would like to do the same thing for math.  Here is what I am thinking:  I could focus on problem solving.  Each month I would collect a sample from a student and display it on the board.  Last  year I started to work with my students on explaining their thinking during math talks.  Then we progressed to having them write their explanations down.  Hmmm .... I am thinking that this would make for a great way for my students to see their progress in problem solving.  Then at the end of the year, each child could put their samples together in a booklet and take it home as a math portfolio.  Hmmmm .... more thinking on this needs to be done!

Writers at Work

"Writers at Work" is the title of a bulletin board in my room.  Every student has a designated space on the board.  Each month a new writing sample is placed on the board on top of the previous samples.  That way students and parents can look through the child's posted samples to see the amazing progress that has been made in writing.  Then at the end of the year, all of the writing for each child is bound together in a writing sampler.  This is given to the families as a reminder of growth in kindergarten / first grade.  (Special thanks to Marlene for this GREAT idea!)

The writing samplers begin with a note to the child and then a poem introducing the book to parents.  I have created links for my cover, poem and a sample note.  Unfortunately, I could not get my adorable graphics to copy into Google Docs so you'll just have to take my word for it:  the graphics were totally adorable!!!

Writing Sampler Cover

Poem for Writing Sampler

Sample Note to One Student

In the photo of the bulletin board some of the students were kinders and some were first graders.  This writing was done in April when we were studying fish.  The artwork is a directed drawing that we did together and then I gave each student a fish sticker to add to the picture.  Then the first graders had to write a descriptive paragraph about "their" fish.  The kinders had to write two sentences.

Classroom Door

Here is the welcome door that I did last year for my K / 1 classroom.

The title is:
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!
Look who's in this room!

Each child's name is written on a rectangle.  I put the kinders' names up in the tree (those monkeys!!) and the first graders were climbing the trunk.  I used blue, orange, green and black butcher paper.  The other colors are all construction paper.  I liked it so much that I may do it again, unless I have some of the same students.   Camille