A Little Less Teacher and a Little More Crafty!

This summer, I was so fortunate to be able to throw a baby shower for my younger sister who was expecting her first little bundle of joy!

For those of you who know me, and my crazy sisters, we immediately jumped in feet first with themes, ideas, and cuteness to adorn our soon to be neice or nephew!!

Being that I am a lover of all things crafty, I was tasked with the decor for the party.  So to Pinterest I went landing upon our inspiration and guiding piece from Kara's Part Ideas..

Kara had the perfect idea and theme with thinking about a gender neutral baby shower! We loved everything about this photo and used it as a guide for our party decor.

To begin the process, my wonderfully talented husband cut the pieces for me. He was able to cut the boards and stake for my creative idea. I can take no credit to the design  as I showed him the above picture and he was able to help with the measurements and cuts!

After the pieces were cut to my liking, I began painting and preparing for the distressed look. Using Folk Art Acrylic Paint  I painted each board with white paint, brown paint, and then the specific color of coral, light blue, semi light blue, and navy.

Once the paint had dried I used a tradition sand paper to distress the board.

Hopefully you can see the different layers of paint!! This is definitely one of my favorite stages of the process.

After the paint had dried, it was time for the letters.  Using sharpie paint pens, I was able to recreate the saying from our good friend Kara's picture!

Once the words were places and the sign was complete I was able to add a little flair...

Every scrapbook-er loves the extra flair, ribbon, flowers, and buttons!

Once the sign had enough time to settle, I was able to glue it to it's post and it was ready to rock!!

And... there you have it! A great theme and jumping point for what was a fabulous shower!!

Stay tuned to more teacher and 'not so teacher' crafty ideas!

Our Home Away from Home

In my opinion (take it or leave it! ) a classroom environment, how it looks, feels, and smells, is essential to a solid year with learning and fun.  That is why it have always placed  a lot of emphasis on creating a classroom that students enjoy being a part of.

This year, the challenge, was a little trickier than I thought.  I left my friends and family of PHES to travel to Cure' of Ars, in Leawood, KS!

 So with some tears, laughs, and a month long journey of loading boxes in and out of my car.  Seriously.. not joking,  I made it to my new home away from home.

 Check out my new pad....

 After I got everything loaded into the room, I really enjoyed the full wall of cabinets and storage.  But you know what they say...it has to get worse, before it gets better.. so a mess was made.

 I probably should mention that I am totally one of those people that starts one project, destroys that section of the room, and then destroys another.  But, with that in mind, there was always a vision, it just may have taken me some time to get there!

So without further suspense... here comes the final product, full with polka dots, love, and soon 25 wonderful third graders!   I can't wait for them to enjoy some learning and fun, in this colorful space.

"When we learn, we grow" - a Welcome bulletin board to begin our year together.

Made the paper flower wreath last year to adorn the classroom door.

Our hallway entrance, needed to add a little color, and of course a Office Max poster! 

I am fortunate to have tables again this year! I also have enough room for my end of the table crates that I have always wanted!

View from the front of the room! 

Reading nook for my cozy readers.

Calendar and birthday chart.

My desk and carts for students extra workbooks and journals.

Flowers and stripes, a must have on my teacher desk. 

Another reading nook coupled with a great test taking strategies bulletin board. 

A part of the library and prayer center for our Religion class.

The rest of our classroom library! 

A new addition to my room, Our favorite Picks (get it?)... My vision for this piece of the room is for students to eventually pick the books that will be featured here based on their recommendations as readers.

Our Word Wall ready to be filled with new and important words throughout the year. 

Another new and exciting addition to my classroom, my Maker Space!  

The bins and containers are full with items, supplies and tools for students to create, learn and develop new ideas! I can't wait to see what they create! 

Plan to use this space as my 'class meeting' space to have team meetings, complete anchor charts, and participate in many learning opportunities. 

Our Tech Cafe is equipped with two ThinkPads, and 5 tablets.  We can't wait to put these to good use.  

The 7 Keys to Comprehension, these will be essential for our Guided Reading Groups.

Our reading center table for small groups, with our independent reading chart behind. 

Cubbies for our student books, and our school wide PEACE program. 

Reading Center rotation boards and of course more polka dots!

Writing Center

 Whew!  The room is amazing and everything I could have hoped for in a classroom. I hope that my third grade students will enjoy and feel safe and comfortable in their 'Home away from Home."

The Dreaded, 'Teacher's Chair'

I first must say, the reason I am calling this post, the dreaded 'Teacher's Chair" is because this project was less than simple, mostly due to my crafting errors, but at any rate, I completed the project and am, well, satisfied with the finished product.

The task itself was to redo a chair that I scrounged from my parents house in 2006 when I was desperate for some classroom decor.  At this point in my teaching career, I was fresh out of college and wanted to redo everything in the room.  So, I decided it would be fun to spray paint this old bar stool in different stripes of colors, completing the project with the different stool legs being different colors.

So here is the beauty...

As you can see, she was quite the gem... well measured stripes... and the legs, well they were fabulous. I think at one point I ran out of paint and just gave up.  This beautiful chair has been a loving part of my classroom for the last nine years and felt that it was time to give it a makeover. 

In this decision, I wasted approximately three days of my productive classroom time, redoing this chair.  To start, I spray painted the entire chair purple.  Then, took the leather and padding off.  

Some of you may not know this about me, but I am a big picture girl.  My vision with this project included a beautiful purple chair, with a green fabric cover to sit perfectly in my new third grade classroom.  What you also may not know about me, is that I dive head first into everything, many times without thinking about the process, having a plan, or determining the steps that I must take to accomplish the project.  Well, friends, this was one of those time. 

While my vision included a beautiful new fabric with a nice cushion underneath, I ran into some slight problems.  God Bless my husband, as he problem solved through this project with me, the fabric didn't make the cut, and we landed on a solid purple chair.  

The chair itself, while still not perfect, looks much better than it did before, and through this project I learned many new techniques, tools, and what not to do when it comes to redoing furniture! :) 

Home Depot to the Rescue!

I was very thankful today to the helpful and kind employees at Home Depot who helped me stock up my Maker Space with supplies for my future inventors.  Teachers, I highly recommended their staff and products for your spaces too!