Tall Tales Unit Bulletin Board

We are wrapping up our unit on Tall Tales.  The kids read them in small groups, as a whole class, did graphic organizers, reading responses, and now they are writing their own!

Here are the pictures of my bulletin board:


                                          

                                   


                                     

Tray Re-Do

Here's a craft that has nothing to do with school.  Happy Memorial Day!

Before:

After:

You'll need a paint scraper, the acrylic paint colors of your choosing, and Mod Podge.  I also needed a little sanding block.

I'm not super pleased with how the design turned out.  I wasn't able to make the C more round and fancy doing it free-hand and I didn't have a stencil for it.  I also wish the gray color was lighter.  However, it was fun taking something gross and making it pretty!

I found the tray in my bathroom when I moved in my apartment.  I think it was originally plain wood and someone painted white and put down ugly contact paper.  It had then collected all the lovely residue that accumulates in bathrooms.

First, I found a good Lifetime movie to have on in the background:

Then, I scrubbed the tray like crazy with Clorox wipes and spent quite a bit of time scraping off the contact paper.

Once I got all the contact paper off and sanded it a bit, it looked like this:

I painted the bottom of the tray first so I could see if the color I chose was the right one and how many coats I'd need.

I let it dry and then used a technique I learned on Pinterest.  Put thumbtacks on the bottom of the tray so you can easily paint the sides!

Fully painted:

Then, I picked my paint colors for the decoration!

Again, I wish I'd used a much lighter gray, like the one from my frame makeover.  Maybe a lighter yellow, too.

I knew I wanted to do stripes with a C (for my first initial) on top.  I have seen gray and yellow and coral on a lot of decorator and craft blogs, so I decided to experiment.

I put painter's tape around the inside of the tray and started with yellow, since the gray stripes would go on top.  It would be easier than painting yellow on dark gray.  I put down painter's tape for the stripes and tried my best to make them evenly spaced.  

I gave up on using a ruler and just eyeballed it and started painting.

It looks like a bumblebee.  But I persevered.

I wish I had better directions for how I did my C, but I sketched it lightly in pencil freehand, and then took my Pink Melon paint and went for it.  I used a really skinny brush at first, but then switched to a stiff, angled one.

Close-up: You can see it's not perfect!

After I was done painting and it all dried, I added two coats of Mod Podge.

Here it is with a fruit bowl on it!

I decided to put it on my microwave.  I have 4 roommates and I'm slowly making my room as close to what a studio apartment is like as I can so I can feel like a grown-up lady with her own apartment.  Here's my little "kitchen area".  It's sad and wants a pretty tray.

Here you go, kitchen area!

Learning Tree

I have seen many different Learning Trees on teaching blogs.  Some are hand-made with butcher paper and posted floor to ceiling.  Some are on bulletin boards, and some are 3-D!  I started small with a tree from Lakeshore and put it on my wall, overlapping the bulletin board and my "Reader's Treehouse".

I added an owl I made myself with scrapbook paper just for funsies and because I love owls.  I didn't use a pattern, just my mad skillz.

I also have some multi-colored twinkle lights going on.  The tree came with leaves, so I laminated them and made little pockets using cardstock:

I found a leafy font on dafont.com and cut out the words and glued them onto the cardstock.  I stapled the cardstock to the bulletin board on the edges.  I put blank leaves in the top pocket and the kids take whiteboard markers and write one thing they've learned on a leaf.  Then they put it in the "What I Learned" pocket and I put it on the tree when I feel like it.  After a few weeks, I take them down, erase them, and start all over again.

wtf

Job Chart

Job charts provide an easy way to have a classroom full of child laborers for 5 minutes a few times a week.

After some trial and error, I found that it's necessary to have a job and a slot for every kid.  You will also need to leave room for those friendly new students that show up at your door in March.  I find 4 subs to be sufficient, as I have 2 students that are usually out of the room and after accounting for possible absences.

I bought one of those calendar pocket charts and put all the calendar stuff aside.  I used pop-out letters for "Jobs" and just stuck them in the top pocket.  You can use any little nametags as job cards with a border you like.  I had to trim mine down a bit.  You'll also need to measure how big the name cards are and cut some of those.  I used cardstock.  As you can see, the name card needs to be taller than the job cards.

The jobs in my room are:

Attendance- This person takes down the attendance sheet, I actually check attendance)

Time Keeper- The Time Keeper is supposed to kindly let me know if we're running late or give me 5-minutes warnings during read-alouds.  Ultimately, this is a pointless job because my group this year basically can't tell time.  Last year, they were allllllll about it.

Paper Passers- I do 2.  Sometimes I wish I had 3.

Reading Corner- These students have the privilege of sitting in the reading corner on a cushion during free reading or any quiet seat work.  However, they also have to make sure books are put back where they belong during job time.  I have 3 of these.  It all depends on how big your reading corner and class library are!

Lunch Bin- It takes 3 kids to carry down the lunch bin and pick up the extras that fall out of the bin.

Supplies organizers- During job time, 2 kids check the supply bins and math materials to make sure nothing is in the wrong box.  More supplies organizers would be nice.  They get really into it, check that the markers aren't running out and that the unifix cubes are clean!

Trash collector- 3 kids check the floor for trash during job time.

Recycler- Take down the recycling during job time.  Only 1 kid is necessary!

Pencil Sharpener- The cherubs love sharpening pencils while I'm in the middle of lesson, so now ONLY the pencil sharpener person is allowed to sharpen pencils on my awesome mega-super-intense pencil sharpener during job time.  The system works wonders.

Table Cleaners- 2 chickadees get a Clorox wipe and wipe down our tables.  More or fewer kids could work.

Board Eraser- Erase the schedule, morning message, and whatever is left of what I've written on the board that day.

Job Changer- This person shifts the name cards down one space to the left, moving up to the next row at each end.  I always make sure the job changer waits until the kids know their jobs before changing them.  My kids needed a step stool to reach the chart at the beginning of the year and now they don't!  Tall chickadees!

Subs- I started with 3, then got a new student in March, so I just added another sub.  As of now, I have 5 subs.  Yep!  2 new chickadees in March.  26 little darlings in all.

"What do I do during job time??? I DON'T HAVE A JOBAAAAHHH!!!!!???!!!!" is something I used to hear a lot.  Job subs often have nothing to do, and kids like Attendance and Paper Passers are left milling about, distracting my Table Cleaners.  SO, kids with nothing to do can:

-Clean out their bins/desks

-Help someone else

-Wipe down the board with a damp paper towel and dry it afterward

-Wipe down shelves and bins with a Clorox wipe or damp paper towel

-Stuff mailboxes with homework

My job chart is on my "Info" bulletin board.

It teaches them to clean up after themselves.  It makes your life easier.  It takes 5 minutes every other day.  People always comment on the cleanliness of my classroom!

The Best Thing Ever

It was my sister that directed my attention, and I think maybe bought me, Post-It dispensers.  You buy the pop-up notes, not the pads, and load up the dispenser.  Scholastic had an APPLE dispenser and I HAD to use my points to buy it.  I had to.

Post-It dispensers rule over just the regular pads because:

-They're quicker.  You can just rip one out instead of having to hold the pad down with one hand and mine has sand in it or something so it's super heavy.
-They're cuter
-The available colors for pop-up Post-Its are just as plentiful.

I still keep a pad of Post-Its because I like the teeny ones, too.

You can buy this apple on the Scholastic Book Clubs teacher thingy, or here:

There's no price listed, so that means it's free.

Other dispensers:

They have boring-color, boring-shaped ones, too.  For LOSERS!

Stop and T.H.I.N.K.

Is it

Thoughtful?

Helpful?

Important?

Necessary?

Kind?

Totally stolen and adapted from other teaching blogs.  I don't take credit for the original idea at all.  I decided to put the T.H.I.N.K. part in a thought bubble because of the thought bubble we use in all of the classrooms at our school.  Students learn some thoughts should stay in the thought bubble.  I combined the T.H.I.N.K. part I found online and made it part of the thought bubble.  I did the design myself.

The white circles are the little parts of the thought bubble/cloud leading up to the big one :)

Print on white paper, glue and layer on colored card stock, glue on poster board, and laminate!  Fonts from dafont.com, a free fonts website.  Visit it when you have time.  Lots and lots of time.