Made It Back to the Classroom Monday 7/30

My Made It Mondays projects are sadly coming to an end since teachers must report back this Thursday.  So I thought I'd share all the great things I've been making to prepare for Meet the Teacher and setting up a cute classroom.

#1 "Sea" What to Expect in 4th Grade - Hallway Bulletin Board with Clothespin Tacks
I used black fabric and black&white polka dot trim to setup the board.  I just hate when flourescent lights fade butcher paper, so I did fabric in the hallway too this year!! Then I used my HobbyLobby pre-dyed black clothespins hot glued to thumbnail tacks from Michael's to hang student advice/artwork on the wall.  Hopefully this is an eyecatcher as students enter/leave my classroom on Meet the Teacher night.

#2 You're o-FISH-ally in the 4th grade {student gifts}
Well I invested a whopping dollar into my rectangular 3x4 plastic craft bags from the Dollar Tree to put my snack into.  Bought BabyGoldfish on sale at the grocery store.  Stuffed bags about 3/4 full with fish.  Printed labels and stuck onto folded digital scrapbook paper of choice - mine was chevron.  Staple & admire!

#3 Not Your Generic Corkboard:

Last year I seem to have loved posting important emails or calendars on the wall behind my desk up with pushpins.  This created WAAYY TOO many holes in my wall and it could have been much cuter.  I had some extra black fabric lying around but if I didn't cover a corkboard or an existing display board I would end up with scattered remnants of powdery white paint and drywall ALL OVER my beautiful black fabric.  Visited BigLots & bought a generic corkboard for $6.50, painted the frame white, stapled my fabric, and hot-glued fabric ribbon as trim to hide my mistakes.  Then, I used sandpaper to give the frame a distressed shabby chic look to make it pop against an already white wall.   Finally, I added some rhinestone-embellished clothespin tacks to hold notes/important papers (5 - for the five days of the school week?!?)  My goal is to go through this every Friday after the kids are gone so I still have room to post new & important info.

#4: Dry-Erase Countdown Until .... sign

This was definitely something I knew I wanted in my classroom as soon as I saw it on pinterest.  I changed the clipart color from green to blue to match my color scheme and just decided to countdown until students' first day back-to-school since it is now in the single digits!!  I love how versatile this sign is, we can countdown until important tests, assemblies, field trips, holidays, birthdays, etc.  The possibilities are really endless!  If you'd like the blue candystriped template for your project, I'm sharing it as a free download here.


Thanks for visiting and I hope you are able to leave me a comment below - I just love hearing what other creative minds have to say.

Also, I can't wait to visit other blogs through the Made It Monday linky hosted by Tara at 4th Grade Frolics and see what you've been creating lately.  :)

Celebrate Giveaways Sunday #3 & a mini classroom preview

 Here's the latest update on current giveaways around the teaching blogiverse:

1. Sassy in Second: Back in the Groove giveaway
2. Finally in First: Mega giveaway
3. Wild About Words: New Masterpiece giveaway
4.Dirty Hands and Lesson Plans: 500 follower giveaway
5. Lanier's Lions: 100 follower giveaway
6. Miss V's Busy Bees: 200 follower giveaway
7. The Elementary Adventure: 100 follower giveaway
8. Simply Sprout: 20,000 views giveaway 
9. Kindergarten in Heels: 50 follower giveaway
10. Bright Concepts 4 Teachers: 100 follower giveaway 
11. What the Teacher Wants: Erin Condren giveaway

Also, I spent the past couple of days setting up my bulletin boards and discovering new projects "to tackle" in my classroom.  One of those new projects I discovered was the lovely fact that district sent the tech department in to "reclaim" printers from classrooms while teachers were not around to ask questions or give any of their 2 cents.  All our teachers have been used to a district laser printer in their classroom FOREVER, but now since there's no money left in the budget to repair or send us toner - they've visited grade levels and left only one printer behind for the entire pod to share.  No note, no email, nothing - had to talk to the secretary to have her update me on the memo I never received.  Well, I thought, "fine, I guess I can live with sending a child down to fetch the papers I've printed."  But the printer they chose to leave behind was the oldest one that leaves huge gray streaks on every page so when you go down to the Xerox machine to run off classroom worksheets, each page is covered in massive gray streaks.  Given how OCD I am with the way things appear visually, this was a HUGE dealbreaker!  So thus began my search for a personally purchased printer.  Here's a mini preview of how things are looking:

"Sea" What to Expect in 4th Grade - hallway bulletin board

MY printer (ignore the cord jungle)

Had to showcase the printer on ZEBRA!!

new Skippy Bandito toy has found his home!

I love these tower fans - always have kept two in my classroom!

First Day Jitters & Only One Week Left!!

Fierce in Fourth is hosting a "First Day Jitters" blog hop.  Hop on over to link up your top 3 jitters.  Here's what is causing me the most anxiety for the upcoming school year:

1. New Principal: Our district did some major reassignments of district supervisors and principals this school year.  Many principals were shuffled around, and others altogether left the district, while many district personnel have assumed their very first principalships.  Our school is in the lucky position to receive the latter.  Let's just say it's going to be an interesting year of change with our new princ.

2. Oh Boy!: We are boy heavy with expanding class sizes in 4th grade this year.  At the end of May, before summer enrollment even started, I had 17 boys and 13 girls.  I dread to see how much larger my class has grown since then, we'll know for sure on August 7th - students' first day back!

3. Heat Advisory / No Lunch Recess Days:  Starting school at the beginning of August means returning to triple digit temperatures during above average humidity.  If a Heat Advisory has been called, then we have the privilege of entertaining our students during lunch recess inside the classroom.  We've been known to have 2 full weeks of no teacher lunches to ourselves with the assigned lunch recess monitors conveniently M.I.A. during this time - I mean they don't even have the common courtesy to offer us a bathroom break!  I guess I was spoiled at my previous school.

AAHHH!!! There's only one week left before teachers have to officially report back to work.  For me, it's only 6 days left before the meetings begin!! I am a mentor teacher, so that means I have to go back even earlier to meet up with the newbie teachers I'll be mentoring at their summer orientation.  The district is offering to open the schools Friday - Sunday with air conditioning, so I'm probably going to plow through setting up my classroom, that way I can focus on unit planning & preparing lesson materials for the first week of school.  Hopefully I can finish in 2 days, that way I can share my photos on my Sunday blog post and relax until Wednesday - fingers crossed :D