Cheap and Easy Project

I have a project that is so easy a five year old can do it.

Even a five year old that has only been five for less than two weeks.

Of course, I helped make everything straight.

And if I didn't have the help of a five year old it would have literally have taken under ten minutes.

And best of all it was under $3.00.

Not bad for something that is cute and custom and functional.

We decided to make it into a job chart.  But if you don't do job charts this project is still for you.  I'll tell you why at the end.

A trip to the Dollar Store got us a sturdy piece of black foam board, a 2-sided sheet of wall clings and a package of 25 colorful library pockets.  We had leftovers of the clings and pockets which is why this project comes in at under $3.00.
We simply arranged the pockets and clings onto the board in a way that we liked.  See that bottle of water on the floor?  There are downfalls to having a 5 year old do your school work.  It was promptly knocked over within 2 minutes.  Luckily the project was spared.  My pants were not so lucky.  

The clings totally rocked!  You can peel them off and stick them back down easily.  Dollar Tree has lots to choose from.  If you click on the picture to make it bigger you will see how super cute these little animals are too.
It helps to have moral support when you are doing any type of project.  

And yes, all three of my kids were still in their pajamas at 2:45 p.m.  Don't judge.

The final product was a job chart for my classroom.  I printed the title on the computer and added more of the wall clings to it.  I will label the pockets with the classroom jobs and then go with one of two options to identify who is responsible for the tasks.  The first and easiest option is to just write their names on the top of an index card (turned sideways) and slide them in and out of the pockets to change them around.  The second option is to take a picture of each of my friends wearing safari hats and cut out their little hat-wearing noggins and attach them to a popsicle stick.  I don't switch jobs often so I'm leaning towards that route.

Want another great project idea using the same supplies?

A trivia game board!  Arrange the pockets into a 5 x 5 array and label them with points or dollar values (think Jeopardy). You can them make each column be a category and write out your questions on index cards and slide them in. It makes a great review for any subject.

Letters Gone Wild

Today's post is titled, "Letters Gone Wild."

But, yours don't have to have a wild theme.  In fact, that's the beauty of today's idea.  It's all about making something customized to your classroom.

You can buy manufactured letters in just about any color/theme, but you're stuck with standard sizes and fonts.

You could use a Cricut to make custom letters.  It's a good option if you have access to one.  But, if you don't (heck, I own a Cricut and still use this method) and you want to make letters that will make your room stand out as an original give this a shot.

I pinky promise it is super-easy.

Decide: where the letters will go, what they will say and how big you want them to be.

Select a font on your computer and print out your letters.  For what it's worth, my heart belongs to the fonts Marker Felt and Chalkboard.  To save ink, you can print them as outlines.

Pick some amazingly cool, funky or otherwise suitable paper and a solid color paper that coordinates well.  I'm a simple girl.  I always pick black.  I hear black is slimming.

Stack the two pages on top of each other and place your printed letters on top of those.  Carefully cut out along the outline of the letters.

Hang them up and then stand back ad marvel at your frugal craftiness.

YEEHAW! A WESTERN / COWBOY THEME

My 40 Page Western-Cowboy Themed Classroom Kit is now available in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. It includes all of the following items shown in the sample pictures below, plus more! Click here to view the kit.

Howdy Y'all! The pictures below are of my classroom when I used a western/cowboy theme. I pulled them directly from my website (www.ClutterFreeClassroom.com). If you visit there, you can read full, detailed descriptions of each of the pictures and about my room.

I've gathered some ideas and links for you to get your classroom all "countrified."

BULLETIN BOARD IDEAS

BULLETIN BOARD BACKGROUNDS

• bandana fabric
• denim
• red/white checkered fabric
• cow print
• burlap
• flannel

3D BORDERS

• rope
• raffia twisted to look like hay
• cactus or boot lights (available at party stores or online)

3D ELEMENTS TO ADD

• cowboy hats
• boots
• metal tins/buckets (great for pencils/supplies)
• horseshoes
• Sheriff badges (often sold at a dollar store)

BULLETIN BOARD TITLE IDEAS

• Lasso a Good Book
  
• Rounding Up _______
  
• Rootin’ Tootin’ ______
  
• Roping Up _______
  
• Write ‘Em Cowboy
  
• Work Worth Hootin’ and Hollerin’ About
  
• Wanted: ______
  
• Best in the West
  
• Howdy Partners (I used this for the board that I assign partners with)
  
• The Word Herd (word wall)
  
• Have You “Herd” About _____
  
• Kick Up Your Heels for _____ (with boots)
  
• Blue Ribbon Work (cow print fabric with blue ribbons as name tags)
  
• Reading Rodeo
  
• The Posse (class pics)
  
• Birthday Buckeroos
  
• Galloping Into ___ Grade (pics of kids on stick horses)
  
• Happy Trails (Dismissal/How Do We Get Home Chart)
  

JOB CHART IDEAS

• Ranch Hands
  
• These Boots Are Made for Working
  
• Wanted: Hard Workers

TITLES FOR CLASSROOM JOBS

• Teacher: Sheriff
  
• Helper of the Day/Week: Deputy
  
• Supplies: Wranglers
  
• Lunch Helper: Chuck Wagon Workers
  
• Messenger: Pony Express
  
• Library Helpers: Pony Express
  

NEWSLETTER TITLES

• The Tumbleweed Times
  
• The Pony Express
  
• Cowboy Chronicles
  

MISC IDEAS

Use fence posts to section off part of the classroom for group meetings and call it “The Class Corral”

Bring in actual logs for the kids to sit on for group or reading time.

Bring in bales of hay to sit on.

Have rolled up sleeping bags available for reading time.

Create a campfire (I used orange lights with colored gift packaging)

Take pictures of the kids wearing cowboy hats and bandanas.

Make a blank Wanted poster for each child that is larger than 8.5 x 11. Hang them up and let the kids display their work on it throughout the year. Title it, “Wanted: Good Work”

I do retired words each year. The year I did the western theme it was called “Words that Have Been Put Out to Pasture.”

If you do a classroom store as an incentive it can be called “The General Store.”

If you have any stables nearby, ask for empty grain bags. Wash them with a hose and dish soap. Stuff them and seal the tops. These make great decorative “pillows” for your reading area.

classroom photos cowboy themed classroom ideas for western classroom pictures

western themed classroom photos country theme classroom photos wild west theme classroom photos cowboy theme classroom photos western theme classroom pictures

Open House Photos - Charlotte's Web Theme

I always like to do a theme for Open House.  I've recently blogged a bit about some of my former themes (Wizard of Oz, Mystery/Detective).  This year, we are very absorbed with the novel, Charlotte's Web so it seemed like the perfect choice.

A few of you had mentioned that June seemed like an odd time to have an Open House.  It kind of is.  In the past, we have always hosted the event in April.  Lately, we (the grades 3-5 teachers) have found it to be very challenging to balance prep for the event and prep for the state testing so we decided to make it later.  Testing didn't end until mid/late May and so Open House was scheduled for June 3rd.  I really liked the timing of it in some ways.  We had worked so hard cramming in the last two units of math for the test, that it was nice to just be creative and work on project-based activities.  The downside was that we were coming off of a gloriously sunny Memorial Day weekend and our mindset is NOT on hanging up new work.

Still, everything turned out fantastic.  I really enjoyed watching my friends create their masterpieces.  Watched is the key word because at this point in 3rd grade they amaze me with their ability to work independently.  

Below is our (to quote Charlotte's Web) Magnum Opus...Our Great Work.

Venn Diagrams comparing Wilbur and Charlotte along with a spider and pig made from Model Magic
The Diary of a Pig Books - This SO needs it's own post.  They are amazing!!!  I'll write about them in a few weeks.
Character Trait paragraphs: We brainstormed a list of character traits for the characters in the book.  Each child wrote a paragraph about the character and used details from the text to support the trait choice.  The illustrations were done in KidPix.

Watercolor barns accompanied by Acrostic Poems about the setting of the story.  I heart water colors.  I always have the kids draw in pencil and then outline in black Sharpie before painting.  They look amazing when they are done!

Another view of the watercolored barns.  On the counter is a bio poem written by each student with a photo of him/her attached.

Below are some random views from around the room.  One thing I did this year as a first was 8.5x11 inch black and white photos.  I LOVED this.  I simply printed a shot of each child on the computer and mounted it onto black construction paper.  They were beautiful and so easy to do.  I think they captured their personalities too which was cool.

Do Lions Live in the Jungle?

So I missed my Whatever Wednesday post, so I'm going to double up today.

While I love to shower you with my tales of wisdom (doesn't that sound nicer than "bombard you with my anal retentive obsession with organization?"), today I come to you with a question.

It's pressing.

Do lions live in the jungle.

Wait.

Don't answer until you really think about it.

And Google is cheating.

I'll tell you my thoughts and tomorrow I will tell you why I want to know.

My automatic answer would be no.  They live in a habit that consists of semi-arid plants and savannah grasslands. 

So why are they called, "The King of the Jungle?"  And furthermore, why is it well known that, "in the jungle, the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight?"

As you all join me in a chorus of, "A weemy wet, a weemy wet, a weemy wet" please share your thoughts.  Do lions live in the jungle?