Classroom Reveal–Monster Style

I’m a bit late sharing, but here goes…
Here’s my hallway bulletin board where I’m going to display student work.  I ADORE the glitter scrapbook paper! 



The blue dots on this monster displayed my students’ names for Meet the Teacher night.



I decided to hang my wreaths next to each other above the door.



Here’s my unfinished work pocket chart.  I love having a visual reminder of who has work to be finished!



Clip chart & rules



So far, the monster homework tray has been a big hit.  My fingers are crossed that it keeps working well for me!  Below the homework tray, is my AR bulletin board.  The kids got to decorate their own monsters and they turned out really cute!



Here are my couch monsters hanging out waiting for someone to come read to them.



I hope your school year has gotten off to a great start!

1 comment Classroom Decor, classroom theme, monster theme

Another Monsteriffic Monday

Welcome back for another monsteriffic Made It Monday!

One of my teaching buddies shared a cute dragon quote with me.  Of course, I had to change it to fit my monster theme.  Click on the picture below if you would like a FREE copy for yourself.  I can’t decide if I’m going to frame mine or make it into a poster.


I like having a special place just for homework.  In the past my homework tray has been b-o-r-i-n-g!  I used a plastic letter tray that was a different color than my other paper trays.  This year I’m doing something a little different and, of course, I had to make it to fit the monster theme. 

I added the speech bubble to give the monster a little personality.  I made extra speech bubbles that I plan to switch out from time to time. 


If you have any suggestions for what my homework monster could say, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know!

Here’s a plant that I monsterfied for the occasion. 



I give my new students a water bottle at the beginning of each school year as a way of letting them know they can drink water in my class.  I typically create labels for the bottles on the computer.  This year I did something a little different.



These water bottles were much more time consuming than the ones I’ve done in the past.  I think next year I’m going back to designing the labels on my computer.

If you haven’t entered my Mastercard giveaway, click here.  Time is running out!

Also, be sure to check out all the other Monday Made Its at Tara’s blog.


Have a great week!

14 comments classroom theme, freebies, Monday Made It, monster theme

Customize Your Own Tervis Tumbler

Happy Monday everyone!  I’m back with more monster ideas for Monday Made It!  Actually, I’m cheating.  I’m not actually making this one – I’m letting the professionals handle that.  I’m just designing.

Let me back up a little.  I recently discovered that I drink more water if I use my Tervis tumbler.  Not only does it keep my water cold all day but having a straw helps.  I don’t know why, but it does. 

I might be pushing this classroom theme a bit far, but I decided I needed a Tervis tumbler with monsters on it.  I know there are people who can add vinyl designs to the outside but then the tumbler needs to be hand washed.  That’s not my style.  I did some searching on the Tervis website and discovered I could create my own design.  The design is put between the two layers of the cup which is crucial for me.  I don’t hand wash anything.  I created several designs and now I can’t decide which one to order.  Please help!!  I have it narrowed down to these two:

   

Is choice 2 too busy?  Is choice 1 too plain?  Please help me decide!  BTW, the graphics for these cutie monsters comes from Prettygrafik Designs.

Which Tervis tumbler should I buy?

If you want to try your hand at customizing your own Tervis tumbler, go to http://www.tervis.com/customizer-ldg.  It’s super easy.  Here’s a glimpse at the customizer.



I missed my 1 year blogiversary but I’ve been thinking about having a late giveaway.  If I can work out the details, I think it would be fun to give someone the chance to customize their own Tervis tumbler.  Whatchya think?  Do you want to give it a try?  Would you customize a tumbler with your…

class theme?
class colors? 
school mascot?
dog’s picture? 
grandmother’s picture?
The possibilities are limitless.

4 comments Classroom Decor, classroom theme, fun, Monday Made It

Monday Made It–Monster Style

I’m back with another monster edition of Monday Made It.  It might take me all summer, but I’m determined to get my room monsterfied.  This week I worked on some of the basics – a clip chart and desktags.

I adore Krista Wallden’s graphics and when I saw her Put on a Happy Face clip art, I HAD to have it! 


In the past I’ve used a toddler pant hanger to hang my clip chart onto my closet door.  It wasn’t pretty but it worked well.  This year I turned my hanger into a fuzzy green monster.



Here are my desk tags:


I’ve really been wanting to buy a cute bottle of handsanitizer from Etsy.  You know the ones…cute vinyl stickers that say “Germ Juice”.  The only problem is that all the decorated hand sanitizers on Etsy are little 8 ounce bottles.  We go through waaay more germ juice than that in my room!  Here’s what I came up with instead:



I like how my little cyclop hand sanitizer turned out.  I'm off to work on some more monster projects.  Have a great week!

6 comments classroom theme, Monday Made It, monster theme

Monster Wreath

It’s been awhile but I’m back with another Monday Made It post.  I get a lot of ideas from Pinterest but the Monday Made It linky is what gets me motivated to get stuff done.  Thanks Tara! 
It seems like I just got out of school yesterday but I’m already working on my theme for the next school year.  After seeing all of Amanda’s (Teaching Maddeness) monster themed posts last summer I caught the monster bug. 
I saw this monster wreath on Pinterest and decided to make one myself.

I had so much fun making this one that I decided to make another.

I plan to hang these critters in the hall with students’ work but I need a really good slogan.  Anyone have ideas I can mooch??
These wreaths were super easy to make.  I cut about 75’ of tulle into 12” strips and tied the strips into knots around a foam wreath center. The teeth are made from craft foam that I attached using sewing pins.  The eyeballs are stuck on with toothpicks.
I’m off to plan next week’s Monday Made It!

3 comments classroom theme, Monday Made It, monster theme

Superhero Theme

I haven’t always had a theme for my classroom but I’ve decided I really like having one.  For me, having a theme makes putting the room together easier.  The last two years I’ve had a detective theme.  If you missed the post, you can see a little bit of what I did with it here.
I decided I needed something new, so this year I’m sporting a superhero theme and I’m enjoying it so far.  Taking a page from Beth Newingham’s book (figuratively speaking), I decided to dress my kids up as superheroes for a photo shoot.  Since school hasn’t started here yet, my lovely daughters helped me so you could get an idea of what I’m talking about.

I plan to add the pictures to one of my hallway displays. To start off with, I made two capes and several masks.  I used felt so that I wouldn’t have to fuss with hemming and I didn’t add any details.  I used the mask patterns from First Palette to create four masks.  The red mask seems to be missing from this picture.

The cape was a little more challenging because I couldn’t find a free, 3rd grade sized pattern that I liked.  I ended up drafting my own pattern which shocks me to no end.  It’s a good thing I also stalk sewing blogs or I never would have managed to pull this off!

My girlie girl really enjoyed modeling the superhero costume but she was pretending to be a super villain the whole time.  Whatever works.  She ended up wearing the costume for several hours and has decided what she wants to be for Halloween.  She looks vicious in her flowery dress.

I made my standard back to school water bottle labels.

My superhero super villain snuck up and stole one of my bottles.  She really got into character for my photo shoot.

This is the bulletin board that I plan to add the kids’ superhero pictures to.

Here’s where I’m displaying student work.  We just got these lovely display rails at the end of last year.  I’m counting on them to make everything much neater and more organized looking.


Here are some of the things I created for my classroom:
behavior clip chart


desk tags


lunch menu sign


graded papers sheet


class web site


chrome browser – These are so easy to make!


And…a class memory book.

Whew!  Now you know how I’ve been spending my summer.  I hope the kids are as excited about this as I am.
If you’re shopping for a new theme, you might want to check out these linky parties to get some great ideas:


**UPDATE: I purchased my super hero clip art off of etsy.com. The designer of clip art from the "Hero Headquarters" bulletin board no longer sells on Etsy but there are many other adorable clip art sets available.

9 comments Classroom Decor, classroom theme, linky

Classroom Theme Linky Party

Surfin' Through Second is hosting a Classroom Theme Linky Party.  Be sure to drop by and check it out.  Seeing all the great ideas is so inspiring!

Right now I'm working on a Superhero theme for next year and when I get it all pulled together I'll post about it.  The last 2 years I've had a detective theme that I have loved.  I didn't take nearly enough pictures but I'll share some of what I have.



A detective theme is wonderful because it connects to the curriculum so well.  You can have your students search for clues in reading, investigate science, and be on the lookout for clues in word problems. In addition to decorating the room with cute detective clip art, I decided to get my class involved with the theme.

On the first day of school, I took pictures of my little detectives.

To get their little brains jump-started after the long summer break, I presented a mystery for them to solve.  Our class mascot, Scooby Doo, had been stolen!!  I walked in one morning and found these footprints leading to the place where Scooby hung out.

I found this message on the board.

The message is hard to read in the picture, but it says:
"I have Scooby!  If you want him back, follow the clues."

The kids took turns investigating the crime scene.

As I received new clues throughout the day, I would hang them up on the board.

 I think #6 is kind of creepy but the culprit had lunch duty while the 3rd graders were in the cafeteria.

My kiddos recorded the clues in their handy-dandy notebooks, I mean case files. The case files were mini file folders with paper inside.  One page was a scrambled message with the thief's name.  We worked on this mystery off and on throughout the day but no one could solve the mystery.  Some of the kids were so intent on finding the culprit they took their case files home for homework.  With some parental help, one of my kids came back with the mystery solved the next day.

The "thief" was our math interventionist (you might recognize her from the rounding cheer I posted here). She came in and talked with the kids for awhile about piecing together clues.

Putting the mystery together was a lot of work but it was fun.  We got the school year off to a great start and the kids were excited about school.  I can't wait to do some blog stalking and get some awesome ideas for next year.


After you check out the theme linky party, visit Delighted in Second's cute blog and enter a chance to win a $20 TPT gift certificate.  If your wish list is as long as mine, you could really use that gift certificate!

6 comments classroom theme, motivation