Clutter-Free Classroom: Sports Themed Classrooms

My school is doing a sports theme next year and to my surprise it's been a little more difficult than I'd anticipated to find cute ides for this theme. Well, our awesome friends at Clutter-Free Classroom have been doing a series on classroom themes and recently had this post on sports theme ideas! I love this!

Clutter-Free Classroom: Sports Themed Classrooms: "Throughout the month of June, I am going to run a Classroom Theme Series and feature a different popular classroom theme each day. Themes a..."

Guilty Pleasures

We all have them... Those things that we do or indulge in just for ourselves? Summer is my time to enjoy my favorite guilty pleasures. I feel like during the school year I have very little time (or energy) for some of these thigns. I've added a few new ones to the list recently as well. I wanted to share mine and would love to hear about what yours are...

1. Sleeping! It doesn't take me very long to throw out a good sleep schedule and adjust to my "summer schedule." Last night I started watching a 4 hour movie I'd DVR'd last week and didn't go to sleep until almost 4 a.m. Sleep 'til 11:45 a.m.? No problem! Take a nap in the afternoon? Why not!?!



2. Awesome 80's video block on VH1 Classic. I'm a HUGE 80's music fan, so I've started recording the 2 hour video blocks and watching them when I'm cooking, blogging, or just piddling around. The best part is that if I don't like a song or video, I can just forward right through it. What's on my TV right now? You guessed it!



3. Full House reruns. I'm a child of the 80's and 90's and still to this day I can watch endless episodes of Full House. I've seen every episode at least 10 times (not even kidding) and I still love being able to watch it during the summer. I've been trying to get to the Y and watch it while I'm working out in the morning.



4. Blogs. This is a new one for me... I started this blog back in the spring and have started really getting into reading other teacher's blogs. I'm not near as cool or creative as a lot of you out there, but I've been inspired in so many new ways and have tons of great ideas for things I would like to do in my classroom. I've also been discovering non-education blogs on my two other favorite topics-- clothes and home decor! Two of my favorites are J's Everyday Fashion and Young House Love. Definetly worth checking out!



5. Reading. I will totally admit that I am a teacher that really doesn't enjoy reading all that much. I loved it as a kid, but it seems like around middle school or high school having to read all of those boring classics sucks out your desire to read for pleasure. I got into reading Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic books a few summers ago and then moved onto her other books as well. I don't really read during the school year, but over the course of the last three summers I've read almost all of her books. They're fun, light-hearted girlie books that are perfect for a summer day. I usually take mine out to the porch, get a little tan, and enjoy some quiet time with a good book.

Just for fun...

Here are a few awesome (or awesomely bad) 80's videos I've seen recently:

Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up

Deniece Williams - Let's Hear It for the Boy

Swing Out Sister - Breakout

Paula Abdul - Opposites Attract (my personal FAVORITE from my childhood)

Mike and the Mechanics - Silent Running

Excuses, Excuses

I told myself that over the summer I'd be more consistent with my blogging and minimum post at least once a week. Well, summer is two weeks in and I'm barely staying afloat with that promise. I have excuses, though, so I though I would share some of my non-school related summer projects with you. I mean, a teacher can't spend her WHOLE summer prepping for the next school year, right? Summer is our time to get caught up on all of those other projects we don't have time for during the school year.

The first of my summer "projects" was to try to get in better shape. Now, I workout all the time during the school year. In fact, going to the gym with a good magazine and my iPod is one of my favorite ways to unwind after a long day. The problem with my workouts is that I do the exact same things all the time and don't really challenge my body in new ways. So, a friend mentioned that she's doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred... I went to good 'ol Target and picked up the DVD. I've been doing it for about 6 days and I can actually tell a pretty decent difference. It's only about 25 minutes total, so time wise this is something that I can continue through the school year if I want to. (I've also been doing this in addition to my regular cardio at the Y. Typically a hour consisting of the elliptical and treadmill. Heck, I've got time to workout an hour and a half a day right now, so I might as well!) The numers on the scales haven't changed dramatically (I'm building muscle and burning fat so it's kinda evening out right now I think....) The biggest proof for me was my last trip to Banana Republic where I went a little crazy with their extra 25% off sale items deals. I found these two really nice silk shirts that I'd tried a few weeks earlier, but that hadn't quite fit the way I'd prefer. They were marked down to about $15 each (reg. $69.50!) so I thought I just give them another try. They fit just right this time and will still be okay if I just so happen to shrink a little bit more!

The next big summer project was to have a garage sale and get rid of some JUNK! I've lived in my house about a year and really tried to weed out a lot of crap before I moved here, but somehow in the process of moving from a 1 bedroom apartment to a 3 bedroom house my stuff seems to have exploded! I got to a point earlier this year when I decided I just needed to get rid of some things and I might as well try making some money off of it. I think my conscience won't be yelling at me quite so much when I go shopping if I get rid of some of the things that I don't use or wear anymore. This was also one of my end-of-the-year school projects. My car was full of junk that I had at school that was just collecting dust in my classroom that I am going to attempt to sell. What should I be working on right now? Oh yeah, buying stuff to label my sale items and make posters...

My final (ha ha ha) project of the summer is to actually make my downstairs bedroom an office / guest room that I'd actually want to use. Right now it's pretty much just a giant closet and collecting spot for my random junk that I don't want upstairs. I'm thinking about painting my desk furniture that I've had since high school and decorating that room with my random assortment of home items that don't currently have a place to live.

So, there you go... That's what's on my summer list! We'll see how it all goes! So far so good, but I'm also only into my summer vacation about two weeks.

What are YOUR personal projects for the summer???

My First Summer Project!

Let me begin my expressing my deep love for Hobby Lobby... I've pretty much lived within walking distance of that store since I was in 8th grade so that is my go-to craft store. I was in there the other day looking for a diploma frame (Yes, it's official, I have my Master's now!) and I happened upon these adorable little black buckets. I'd seen them before and actually have some small colorful ones from Target's dollar section, but I loved the look of the black ones. Even better... They marked for clearance 50% off! Then, I got inspired...

Cute Ribbon + Hot Glue = Instantly Cute Buckets!

I tested out the long one and it's just the perfect size to store pocket folders. I bought two medium and one small for Sharpies, pens, and other desk accessories.

But, WAIT! There's MORE!

If you've looked at my classroom photos you might have picked up on the fact that I'm a pretty big K-State fan and I'm NOT afraid to show that in my classroom. (I had a class full KU fans this past year. I kept telling them they were bullying me!) I realized that a few years ago I'd purchased some super cute K-State ribbon that was purple, black, and white and would look adorable on these buckets. Unfortunately, the K-State ribbon is in storage at school and the kind Hobby Lobby had in stock was not near as cute as what I already had. Rolls of ribbon were on sale for half price, though, so I decided to go on and pick up a few cute coordinating rolls so that I'm all prepared for my project when I get my other roll at school. I'm excited to share my final project once it's done.

Don't you love the polka dots?!? They coordinate with my curtains I made to cover up all the junk on my shelves. I'm also a huge fan of CTP's Poppin' Patterns collection so it ties into some of those items as well. I'm all about *trying* to make things in my classroom look cute and coordinated.

I'm tempted to get more of these buckets while they're still in stock and decorate them all cute to give as gifts. Remember my cute teacher appreciation gift? Yeah...

I Think I'm in Love...

Now now, don't get too excited. I'm not in love like THAT! (I wish...)

I'd been browsing other blogs and Teachers Pay Teachers and kept seeing really cute graphics and fonts . I'm already a big fan of the free fonts over on Kevin & Amanda's page and knew that what I was seeing wasn't from there. So, I did some creative investigating and found my way over to Lettering Delights! WOW!

If you haven't visited Lettering Delights yet, you need to. I'm big on free stuff, but I will drop some money when I think something is a good deal. I spent a grand total of $5, managed to get a bunch of freebies for joining, AND a great bundle of alphabets thanks to their $5 off discount right now.

I'm very excited to start making new things with my new fonts and alphabets. I know myself all too well and know that I'm going to go overboard and remake ALL of the sign and things for my classroom so that they're all cutesy and match! :)

Okay, it's a little late... Mother's Day Project

Things have been kind of crazy with school lately and so blogging was put on the back burner until summer.... Thankfully, SUMMER VACATION IS HERE!

Anyway, I'm getting caught up on a few posts I was meaning to share.

This was our Mother's Day project for the year. It's a picture tile. Total cost for me: 9 cents per student. (I had all supplies except the tiles on hand already!)

I can never settle on what to do for Mother's Day and I honestly forget about that holiday until usually a few days before. I've had years over being an over-achiever (Mother's Day cookbook = hours and hours of work on my part = very happy moms) to under-achiever (poems on construction paper made on Friday afternoon.)

I actually "borrowed" this idea from my aunt who is a first grade teacher in my building.

Here's what you need:

1. Plain white paper and a color printer


2. Plain 4x4 white tiles (I got mine at Menards on sale for 9 cents each.)


3. Mod Podge


4. Foam brush


5. Craft Bond stick glue


6. Digital camera


7. Paper cutter

I had the students select a place and a pose out on the playground. The kids got pretty creative with how they wanted their pictures and I *tried* to make them look somewhat artsy.

I printed the pictures on regular paper on my inkjet printer. I just printed them as regular 4x6 photos and then cropped them down to about 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 with my paper cutter. (Some pics I adjusted my cropping to make them look better.)

Now, here's where I messed up and learned a lesson the hard way. Wait to let the pictures REALLY dry before gluing and applying the Mod Podge. (Had I not been in such a hurry doing this project on Friday morning I may not have had problems with pictures bubbling and curling a bit.) I had the kids help me with gluing the pictures down and rubbing them flat.

With the foam brush, apply a thin layer of Mod Podge over the picture. It's best to use a wide brush so that you can apply a layer in just 2 or 3 strokes. I went over all of the tiles once, let them dry about 15 minutes and then applied another layer. I repeated this about 3 times until they all had a nice glossy finish.

Mod Podge dries pretty fast, so we worked on the project in the morning, let them dry during specials and lunch, and then were able to wrap them up right after lunch. I had the kids create a card and let them decorate a white sack. We wrapped the tiles in pretty Dollar Tree tissue paper.

Teacher Appreciation

I had to share this cute idea for for a teacher appreciation gift. I've been seeing a lot of other bloggers post ideas online this week and it's given me a lot of neat ideas for ANYtime gifts!

I received this the other day from one of my students. It's simply a small metal bucket (I have several from Hobby Lobby and the dollar section at Target), two flowers cut out of scrapbooking paper, a flower clip, and some candy! Clipped to the flower was a Target gift card, too! (They know me so well!) I think I'm going to steal this idea for some of my end of the year gifts that I will be giving to paras and a few other staff members that have helped me out this year.

Other than the gift card part of this, the whole thing would only cost about $3-4 max to assemble. Of course it's nothing super fancy, but it's a thoughtful and cute gift idea. There are a lot of ways that you could vary this idea for whatever, but this was different than other teacher appreciation gifts I've received in the past.