Welome Signs from the Wood Connection

I love to decorate my house with super cute things for the holiday, and over the years I don't really decorate my classroom for the holidays.  So my sister in law and I decided to buy these super cute dangly welcome signs to use in our classroom from the FABULOUS WOOD CONNECTION in Las Vegas.  It will be a long process since there are 12 months, but here some of them are!  I will take better pictures when I actually hang them up.  The great thing is if I don't want this in my classroom anymore, hello front door sign at my house! (;

September

October

November

December

January

February

March

April

May

June 

July

And we didn't purchase August since it wasn't cute enough, but mostly since we are school shopping and so excited about the school year we can to celebrate the school theme two times as long!

Daily 5 Word Study Fun!

At our school we use Journey's for our reading program.  I really love Daily 5 after doing it three years now.  I used to always print out the words every Monday and tape it to the word study area, but then when I moved to 2nd grade I became very lazy and just told the kids to look up on the 2nd grade website.  So, they would take a long time to find it, and we were all getting frustrated with each other...

So, this summer I created a small poster that can sit at the word study table and they can get right to work.  While I was searching pintrest I found the best little stand on Frogs In First Blog, and it will work perfectly with this poster!

Now I am pretty excited to see what else I can come up with using this stand.  I might make another one for my teacher table! 

Taking on Crayon Rolls Another Summer!

A few years ago I had a few students that were autistic. One of them liked to have things in order especially his crayons.  It was taking him a long time to get things done since he would take out all of his crayons put them on order and then began his work. So, I set out on pintrest to make something for him.  I found how to make a crayon roll on The Pleated Poppy.  I figured I would make him one, but then I decided to be awesome and make the entire class each one.  I had never used a sewing machine, so I bought one on Costco.com and thought how hard can this be?  Only 2 weekends and I had this project done.  They lasted two years and I decided to make some more this year. If you want awesome directions please follow The Pleated Poppy above.  But I am going to attempt how to make them below for a classroom set.  

I have 20 students, so I bought...

-2.5 yards of my owl theme fabric

-1.5 yards of green fabric

-1 yard of flannel or felt

-2 spools of the color thread that matches

-butons (20)

-elastics hair ties (20)

First, I cut out all the material.  I cut 40 5''x16 1/2'' of the owl themed fabric.  Next, I cut 20 5''x16 1/2'' of the felt.  After reading over the pleated poppy again, she used felt which would of been a lot easier. Finally, I cut 20 6''x16 1/2'' of the green fabric. 

Next, I put the owl themed fabric on top of the white felt and then I folded the green fabric and pinned it together.

Next, I drew on the lines.  I measured 8 1/4'' and started with my first line.  Then I measured 1 inch and marked a small line at the top.

Then I started to sew.  When I sew I start at the top and go down about 1/2'' an then reverse the stitching to where I began, and then sew all the way to the bottom.  I noticed when using these in the classroom the kids are really hard on these and that makes them last so much longer.  I also sew a hair band on the middle right side. I sew that and over and over again since the students will be using that a lot to open.

Next, I sew a button onto the other owl fabric about 4'' inward.  Most machine will sew buttons and it is super easy.  My first batch I hand sewed them and boy was that a lot of work and it sure did't hold up with my first graders.

Next, I put the owl fabric with the button facing down towards the pockets and other owl fabric.

I stitched all the way around the crayon roll except about 1.5'' on the opposite side of the hair tie and button.  Then I pull the crayon roll through and stitch the 1.5'' up.  And finally look at these adorable crayon rolls for my kiddos next year!

I even made some more for another teacher and her Western themed classroom next door.