Happy 2015!

Hey friends!

I hope you all had a very MERRY CHRISTMAS with your family and friends and enjoyed your time off of school! I know I greatly enjoyed mine, but was also so happy to see my kiddos on Monday! It didn't last long though... we had THREE snow days Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday... so much didn't get accomplished! On top of that I will be attending our local ACSI Spelling Bee as a judge on Friday and then MLK Day is Monday! So I now have 2 four days back-to-back after a two day week following Christmas break! this. is. NUTS!

I wanted to take a second to show you the results of my winter bulletin board. I showed you in my last post what it looked like without our writing craftivity after I changed the titled and borders, but never posted the after picture!

Here's the "before" for a reminder...

and here is the "after" with our snow globe fiction writing and snow globe craft!

The snow globes were SO much fun and a *tad* easier than I expected!

Here's how we made them!

First, I had to find those clear, plastic plates! Not as easy as one may expect! I finally checked a party supply store and found a 40 pack for $9. There were some cheaper ones but they weren't as clear or "globe"-like. I figured I could make a 40 pack last for at least 3 classes, so I was okay with that price.

I traced one onto cardstock to make a pattern and then kept drawing & erasing until I had something that resembled a snow globe and used that for a pattern. I then traced it onto several different colors of blue cardstock I had and cut them out. I wanted to do that for my students so the edges were nice and clean, but you could have them trace and cut a pattern on their own.

The students then made a background.with their markers and made a pattern on the bottom of the globe with pencil. We then mixed up some white glue and shaving cream to make "snow" and they added it where they wanted on to their globes. We let them dry over night and they loved seeing how puffy the "snow" stayed the next day!

I had them dress up in their winter gear (as much or as little as they wanted) and took their picture in the hall. I showed them the example I was using on Pinterest and let them '"pose" however they wanted. I cut out the pictures after I printed them, and *luckily* they were the exact right size!

We used glue and glitter to decorate the patterns on the bottom (I LOVE glitter!) and when all was ready and dry, I used a hot glue gun to affix the plates to the paper. 

It was several steps but still basically pretty easy, and SO much fun! They loved using their imagination and seeing everyone's completed snow globes! 

I hope you have a BLESSED beginning to your 2015!

SnOw Excited!

Hey there friends!
I am SNOW excited for SNOW many reasons!

First of all, we had our FIRST SNOW DAY already this year! It actually happened a couple of weeks ago in the middle of November...WHAAAT!?? I know, right?! It was crazy. I hope it's not a foreshadowing of our NE Ohio winter ahead! I told my Grandpa about it, who lives in Florida now but grew up here. He said, if it stays at this rate, I could be teaching well into July! oi! I sure hope not!

I am also excited because I got the NEW Skippyjon Jones book titled Snow What!

It is just SO CUTE! I got it about a week ago and had to share it imediately the next day morning with my kiddos because I just couldn't wait to show it to them and put it out in the library! They just LOVE Skippy [as we affectionately call him :)] and look forward to every Friday afternoon when they get to find out who goes home with him for the weekend! It bought the Literacy Bag they sell on the official Skippyjon Jones website, plus a Skippyjon Jones stuffed animal from Kohl's Cares (who can beat $5!?)

I'm also excited to show you my new door decor and bulletin board for winter! I just LOVE them both!

Here's my door:

 

I used teal chevron wrapping paper I bought at Target as the background. I just love using wrapping paper! Do you?? I also used Poppy Red Chevron Border from Creative Teaching Press and broke up the pattern with a plain black border to make the edges really pop. I then used those amazing KG fonts from Kimberly Geswein to make the lettering. I printed the J in white with a black outline in Blank Space Solid and make the Jesus in KG Blank Space Sketch in red. I printed them onto cardstock, cut the out and laminated them. I covered the J in silver glitter to make it stand out. (I love glitter!) The is for is the font KG Always a Good Time. I also made the Legend of the Candy Cane poster with a poem I found online. I used some candy cane clip art from Krista over at Creative Clips to add some extra flair to match the poster I made. My colleague in 4th grade saw the garland at Dollar Tree so I added that on there. Finally, after reading the book The Legend of the Candy Cane to my students, we made our own candy canes and 'Js for Jesus.' They were super simple and yes, I broke out the glitter for them! I know a lot of teachers don't like glitter.. but I just love it! :)

Finally, here is our new bulletin board for winter. It isn't quite done because we have to still do the craftivity and writing, but it's at least up and looks good for now!

I really love this board because I was able to utilize the wrapping paper and red polka dots border I put up at the beginning of the school year. I only had to take down our original board and change the top layer of border to transform it for winter. I have a HUGE bulletin board that takes at least a roll and half of wrapping paper. Plus, I love that blue and white stripe pattern and Target is all out of it, so I wanted to make it last all year! I try to do that often over the course of the school year. I'll be blogging about that soon to share with and show you how I keep that background and borders up year round!

So here's how I made it... again, I used chevron border from Creative Teaching Press, this time in gray. (It had previously been yellow for our Superhero Kids theme). I then just added some foam snowflake cutouts I had randomly around the edges. I printed some snow globe clip art from Krista again at Creative Clips and used KG fonts for my title. The 'If I lived in a" if KG Blank Spaces Sketch again, and "snow globe" is KG Wake Me Up. Again, I printed on card stock and laminated them so I can reuse them! Next week we will work on this craftivity and writing piece since we had some other things to work on this week. I can't wait to show you what they write and come up with! I am still thinking through exactly what I want the craft to look like. Here's some examples I found on Pinterest...

Aren't they adorable?! I'm not sure which one, or combination of them I will come up with. But I'm excited :) I do know I will take their pictures to put in them. They are just too cute :) I pinned a bunch of ideas on my Pinterest board Teaching [crafts] if you want to check out all my pins and pin with me!

Well, that's all of my SNOW excitedness for the moment. What are you SNOW excited about??

Happy December, friends!