DIY Diva

Stupid Pinterest gives me too many ideas!  I swear I'm going to need rehab one of these days.  You'll find me in a Pinterest coma surrounded by stickers and hot glue guns or something.

I thought I'd share a couple Pinterest-inspired projects I've recently completed.  Nothing huge or spectacular, but it's nice to have a couple things made and ready for next year.

I'm also one of those people that believes that if I want things done my way, I have to do them myself.  Making classroom posters is one thing I like doing because I can make the content and terminology work for what I need as opposed to store bought posters that aren't always what I'm looking for.

Hence these creations...

I'm actually going to crop these SOMEBODY, WANTED, BUT, SO, THEN posters down and add magnet tape to the back so I can slap them up on the white board and we can write the answers by them.  I do this already with CHARACTERS, SETTING, PROBLEM, SOLUTION posters and it's a super easy way to do some comprehension as a whole group.

I also made posters for RETELLING, MAIN INFERENCES, and MAIN IDEA CLUES.  If you haven't caught on to this by reading my blog yet, I'm a big fan of fun fonts, bright colors, and making these coordinate.  I'm actually running low on my bright paper supply and need to get some more before I embark on any additional projects.  I also really like the small size white poster board packs that are available at Hobby Lobby.  They come 5 to a pack and I think it costs about $2.  They're the perfect size for small posters and you don't have to mess with cutting poster board .  (I'm way too OCD to try to cut a huge board and make it perfect.!)  I'm also obsessed with my Poppin' Patterns stuff, so I added some cute little star stickers to make them coordinate and look a little more fun!

Like I said earlier, a lot of times I prefer to make my own posters so that I can customize them to meet my needs and so that they use the terms I want my students to be familiar with.  This RETELLING poster is a prime example of that.  Retell is almost always our lowest indicator on state assessments, so I really try to focus on it a lot and emphasize the same main points to my students each time.

My other big DIY project was to make homemade laundry detergent.  I'd seen a lot of pins on Pinterest and then had several coworkers suggest it as well.  I decided that once my current supply of All ran out I'd give it a try, so I made some the other night.  I already had the Borax, but between the Super Washing Soda and the Fels-Naptha soap I only dropped about $4.  The recipe I ended up using was a printout from a coworker and with it I made 2 gallons of detergent!  I also have enough ingredients to make about 4 more gallons.  (Each batch uses 1/3 bar of soap, so that's the only thing I'll need to rebuy for a very very long time!)  I've already washed a few loads with it and it has a nice, fresh almost lemon-y scent.  It was super easy to make and for the amount of detergent that it made, I have a feeling I'll continue to find it worth the little bit of effort to continue making it.  Here's a Pinterest search of "laundry detergent" pins to help you find your own recipes to try!