Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Class Directory Display

Confession: I recently went into my classroom.


In the summer.


I swore I wasn’t going to and to be honest I didn’t need to.  But, I did.


I grabbed an iced coffee and made my usual commute.


Which for the record is less than a mile.


LOVE that!


It was a bit surreal going into the building.  Not enough time has passed from the school year ending.  It felt like the building would be buzzing with the usual morning chaos and that my students would soon walk in to start the day.  It made me a bit sad to see everything so dark and empty.  Anyhow, I wiped away the imaginary tears and got cracking on the cheap, easy and soon-to-be adorable display that I am going to share with you today.

I made a permanent display that will serve as a “class directory.”  I have some open shelves that I like to keep covered and look for displays that can be left up all year.  I number my students and find that the children often need to know who has a certain number.  They also write about each other a lot and find it helpful to know how to properly spell the names of their classmates.

I selected ribbon that added to my jungle theme, but you could easily adapt this to match any color scheme or theme by buying some cheap ribbon that makes you happy.

Cut cardstock into 5x7 inch pieces so that there is one for each student.  Next, cut ribbon into 6-7" strips.  Lay the ribbon over the cardstock about an inch from the edge.  Hold it in place with your thumb and flip it over.

 

Put a drop of hot glue onto each of the two ends sticking out.  Fold them over and secure them into place.


As a side note, I have sustained enough glue gun injuries over the years to make it possible for the best CSI agent to not trace me to any crime due to a lack of fingerprints at this point.



Attach the cards to the area in which you plan to display those cute, little smiling faces when your class arrives for the new school year.  When they do arrive, take their pictures standing in front of a solid color background.  If you are doing a theme, I suggest thinking of a way to incorporate that (i.e. Jungle: safari hats, beach: straw hats/sunglasses, pirate: eyepatch).


Slide the photos under the ribbon and attach.  If you read yesterday's post, you may want to use photocorners and then you can reuse your display or move the pics around if new students arrive.


Print each student's name and number and attach it to the picture.




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Too cute! I'm starting at a new school in the fall, and haven't yet seen my classroom. I can't wait for August so that I can get in there and utilize some of these creative ideas!

Anonymous said...

Too cute! I'm starting at a new school in the fall, and haven't yet seen my classroom. I can't wait for August so that I can get in there and utilize some of these creative ideas!

Sneaker Teacher said...

Just found your blog and I love you already! I can relate to so many of your "likes" in your profile...teaching, scrapbooking, Starbucks, and I too am a lover of organization! Nice to 'meet' you!

KT
www.sneakerteacher.blogspot.com

Finding Normal said...

I love this idea! I'm doing a sports theme this year (when do I transition from saying next year to this year...so tricky!)

Question...how do you keep the picture from flapping in the wind? I'm thinking glue it one, but that may defeat the purpose of the ribbon.

Totally thinking about having my kids pose with their choice of sports gear! LOVE IT!

And for the record...I've been back to my room multiple times. I wish the custodians would hurry up and clean mine so I could start re-arranging! I just bought black paint, and am going to paint all of my green bulletin boards some time next week. I love changing things!!!

Anonymous said...

You have really great ideas and I'm so glad I found this blog. I love a creative classroom and I'm looking for was to make jungle/safari theme fun and creative.