Hallway Displays for BACK TO SCHOOL!

Woot!  Woot!  We survived the 2 weeks of getting our classroom all set-up AND our FIRST DAY of school with the kiddos!  And oh my word....I LOVE them already!  They totally stole my heart.  The mischievous ones right along with the little sweet ones.  We are going to have an entertaining year for sure!  Love them to pieces!
So each year, our whole hall goes ALL OUT to make some super cute hallway displays for back to school.  It's the first thing our new families see as they are coming down the hall to meet us at our Orientation afternoon.  Of course we want to make a great first impression, not to mention we are all a little bit competitive and like to make each other step up our game from year to year! ;)
So here's what we came up with for our display this year!

   So I do have to say I'm pretty darn proud of this.  First off, we came up with the idea COMPLETELY by ourselves.  I mean, that's a pretty big deal...right?  Since Pinterest hit the scene, I mostly just hopped over there and found something.  But this idea...it just came to us.  Well...we did have a little help!  Here goes....The adorable lady selling popsicles out of the back of our truck is my bestie and my teaching TA.  We take an annual girls trip with another longtime teaching friend, and we've just added said besties oldest daughter to the mix the last 2 years.  Maggie is 24 so she counts for an adult, plus she keeps us young (I mean...Christie and I are in our mid forties...sometimes naps sound better than late nights out if you know what I mean!)

Anyway, as we were soaking up the sun relaxing on the beach..."When what to our wondering eyes did appear, but an ice cream truck bringing lots of cheer!"  We heard the tunes playing and Maggie and I were both like "Hey, we could do a hall display!"  I mean seriously, do we teachers ever STOP doing the teacher thing...I mean ever...even while relaxing on the beach!!!

So the idea was hatched then and there.  Maggie said she could do her magic on the popsicle creating using her Cameo, Silhouette, or whatever her fancy machine is!  Popsicles...done!  I knew I could use some KG fonts to bust out a cute title.  So all that was left was an ice cream truck design.  That would be easy.  I headed over to TPT and found some cute clip art from Monster Wrangler Mike.  Normally Christie has me print it out, transfers it to a transparency, enlarges it onto the board using an overhead, traces it onto butcher paper, and 10 hours later...VOILA!  But seriously, she was working a part time summer job and wasn't able to help.  Maggie and I have NO PATIENCE for that.  So we did the super fast route of printing out his ice cream truck image, and drawing that sucker freehand on the paper!  I think we kinda rocked that part!

Then we put it all up.  I knew it needed something else...especially a way to show the kid's names.  So I added the "Fogle and Mappin's KINDERGARTEN Ice Cream Truck" sign and put the kiddo's names as "Flavors of the Year".  It was still missing something...in comes my amazing coworkers to save the day.  Meredith, the Pre-K teacher from across the hall, says "Why don't you put your pictures on there?  One of you driving and one of you selling popsicles?"  She's a genius I tell you.  So we took some photos, cut them out...and BAM!  It was finished.  (Unless you count the fact that I was driving a magical truck because I had no steering wheel!  In came another fabulous coworker, Janene, who printed me one and even added it to the display!) DONE! and DONE!

Here are just a few of the other super cute hall displays.  Some of these are original ideas, and some were inspired by Pinterest, but I think they all turned out fantastic!

Here's hoping you find your own inspiration to spruce up those hallways for Back to School.  We hope you each have an amazing year!  Teach on!

SitSpots GIVEAWAY! I'm in LOVE!

If you've been following us on Periscope...then you KNOW "I got 99 problems and my rug is one!!!"  We had to pack up EVERYTHING...and I mean EH-VUH-REE-THANG in our rooms at the end of the year.  Our entire school had all the carpet ripped up and shiny new white tile installed in its place. 

Great, right?  Everything's all sparkly and clean.  Except I had a major RUG drama going on.  Our old Lakeshore "spot for everybody" rug was on it's last leg.  I mean, a rug can only be barfed on, peed on, drawn on, and tooted on so many times before it dies a slow and ugly death!!!! ;) It was past the point of no return.  And alas, the drama didn't end there.  Those bad boys cost upwards of $400 and the funds are just NOT THERE for everyone in our school to get a new rug.  So our sweet admin team found a way to allot each of us a smaller sum to purchase a rug or a class set of carpet tiles that can be carted all over the place and used for a ton of purposes. I ended up choosing the carpet squares, but that still left me with my RUG DRAMA.  Don't even think those carpet squares can be carted to the front of the room and placed in ANY sort of order that wouldn't tear my nerves slap to pieces.  I mean...the thought of that just makes my stomach twist into knots.  I'm far too OCD in that regard.  I agree with Kristin at The Teeny Tiny Teacher when she said,   "I never did anything except say to my kids over and over and over again . . . Where's your spot?  Which row are you on?  Wait.  I am supposed to have five rows.  It looks like we have six and a half and a couple of islands and possibly a peninsula.  What's going on here?  Last row -- scoot up and join us, I can hardly see you back there!  First row -- scoot back, you're practically on top of me and I cannot breathe For The Love Of Pete Can Everyone Just Sit Where I Assigned Them?!"  

That woman cracks me up y'all!  I totally envision the carpet squares ending up this way when I tell the kids to bring them in.  SOOOO... to solve the rug dilemma...I bought my OWN 8x12 rug from Lowe's for $72 bucks.  Now the tag said it was "charcoal", but once I got it in my room it said "black".  To be honest, I am feeling some serious love for it, but I already know that my teaching partner is going to beat me.  Beat me, I tell you.  My brand new rug is not so good at hiding stuff, what with it being "black - supposed to be charcoal" and all.  I bought a Shark vacuum cleaner to solve that.  Now that woman can vacuum to her heart's content and fall in love with the rug too. But...I digress!!!

So how did I solve the whole "island, peninsula, what kinda order is this"seating dilemma?  I bought SitSpots.   I did y'all!  I really did.  And I swear I believe in my heart that it may just be the best $55 dollars I have ever spent.

They look SO bright and happy on my rug.  EVERYBODY has a spot and this OCD teacher is happy for some order!  AND the best part is the rug and spots came in at just $135 total!  Way better than $400+.  And to be honest, I think it's WAAAAY cuter.  No offense to my old rug, this one just matches my class decor perfectly.  And did I mention I can wash those SitSpots and keep that rug looking beautiful! And did I also mention that this suckers stay put.  You can vacuum right over them with no worries, and you KNOW that will make my teaching partner very happy.  And did I also also mention that they come in all sorts of bright colors and even other shapes like stars and hearts and fish, oh my!  People...it's my JAM!  I am one happy girl!  Now...let's just hope none of my sweet new babies even CONSIDER pulling up 1 of my SPOTS!

And do you remember when I said it was the best $55 I have ever spent?  Well...here's YOUR CHANCE for it to be the BEST $50 you DON'T have to spend!  That's right!  You get a chance to win $50 in SitSpots for FREE!  I know, right!!!!

I emailed Joyce over at SitSpots to see if they had any coupon codes going on right now that I could offer to you all.  And that sweet woman, well she did even better.  She said "How about you give a $50 SitSpots gift card code away to a reader!"  And I was all like "Woman, I love you!  Sit Spots are my new JAM and now I get to share them with a bloggy friend". (Or something along those lines...I was so excited who knows what I emailed her!)  It was a happy moment I tell you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway  The giveaway will end Wednesday!  Come Thursday morning...you might just be the new proud owner of some glorious SitSpots!!!  Good luck!

Classroom Reveal!!!

Finally...a night with a few spare minutes since school started! Holy smokes! We are a week in and we are exhausted! We have such a stinkin' precious group this year, so it makes all these crazy long prep hours TOTALLY worth it!

So...let's get on with it! The BIG classroom reveal! We sure hope you like it and snag a few ideas that might work for you too!

1.  My desk covered in polka dot fabric and purple border.  LOVE me some spray adhesive!

2.  So in LOVE with these FREE inspirational posters from Traci Bender.  They are mounted in $4 Wal-mart frames and then we added the ribbon for cuteness sake!

3.  Paper lanterns are from Party City.  The printed banner is from Hope King's Decor pack.  You'll see we used it all over the room!

4.  SWOON!  Our new class library!  Rug from Target, pillows from Wal-mart and Target, book bins from Big Lots, white storage piece from Target, and awesome black library labels from Maria Manore! 

1.  Calendar board including days of the week, weather, straws, box tops, character key...

2.  Weather chart.  This was originally pinned with no link...picture only.  And Rowdy in Room 300 remade it and shared it FREE with others. Score!

3.  These are desk name plates we created in brights, stripes, chevron, polka dots, and more.  They print 4 1/2 by 14 and we have to say we think they look pretty darn great on the tables.  

4.  Up close calendar view.  

1.  Our library check out system.  Kiddos move their clip to the "Library" tag when they head out the door.  They know that 4 names may be moved at any given time!

2.  Our cute days of the week cards from Hope King's pack.

1.  Our CAFE board headers with a couple of strategies already posted!

2.  Daily 5 labels.  We just painted the clothespins red (we tried washi tape last year which was super cute, but it kept peeling off! So sad!) and clipped them to the chart.  This is how they choose which Daily 5 they will visit each round. These signs were free, but we've had them a couple of years and can't find where we lucked up on them!

3.  Our MATH POP! cards that hang on our calendar area.  The kiddos love these and it's an easy way to quickly add in some daily math practice and review that's fun!

4. Cute 1st day photos of our sweet new littles.  The sign is from our Back to School GALORE pack!

1.  More Daily 5 FREEBIES that we LOVE!  The Mr. Check-In's and 3 Ways to Read a Book sign are from A Year of Many Firsts!

2.  We call it "The Cool Stool".  The cushion is HOT pink...it looks a little weird colored in the picture??? We use it for Author's Chair sharing and any other "I'm Special and need a special chair" kinda moments!

3.  All my 3 ring binders in cray-cray anything goes colors were driving me crazy.  This year I splurged and bought matching ones in all my classroom colors.  It makes me happy!  The end!

4.  Our alphabet wall from The Printable Princess.  These look great and I love that whenever you may just happen to permanently loose, say...the letter Hh poster...for maybe, like weeks, or even months and have probably permanently scarred you kiddos, you can PRINT another one any old time you need too!

1.  Table signs that we hung from cute and vibrant polka dot ribbon that would not cooperate at the time of this photography session and kept spinning around backwards just to taunt me!

2. Containers for holding screens and green markers for Orton-Gillingham phonics.
3. My bright blue rocker...which is covered in that baby blanket fabric (minky...maybe???) that is so stinkin' soft.  FYI---Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT sit in this chair if you are at ALL drowsy, sleepy, or even considering becoming so.  Basically...sit at your own risk!

4.  Black boxes from Big Lots for $3. Perfect size for holding pencil pouches for each table group. Coordinating table labels from Hope!  

Another inspirational poster picture just because I am so in love with them!  And here are a few of our book boxes for Daily 5 from Dollar Tree!

And...did I mention this is my NEW favorite place in my room????  In serious LOVE!  It's hard to see, but we have some clothespins lying on top of the white bookshelf.  They have ribbons tied on them to look like either a bow tie (for my boys) and a hair bow with ribbon tails (for my girls) and the clothespins are covered in washi tape (because as noted earlier...it's so cute...and they won't be touching this so maybe it will stay put!).  We are going to hot glue those to the black, add their name labels, and hang student work.  I'll try to remember to add a picture when we finally have a finished product.

So that about does it!  Hope you enjoyed the tour!

"1st Day in K" sign!

Well---we have been underway for 16 days!  Oh---my---goodness!  Time is already flying by.

We've been kinda swamped these 1st few weeks so we are just getting around to posting some of our 1st day things.  I know most of you guys have started back, but we still wanted to share our version of the SUPER CUTE "1st Day in K" signs we have seen on Pinterest.

I found this AWESOME (already painted gem of a find) orange frame at a local vintage treasures store. Then I headed to the greatest place on earth for crafting...where else....HOOOOOBBBBYYY LOOOBBBBBBBY!  I LOVE that place!  Truly---LOVE!

I bought the wooden letters for something like $1.49 each for the smalls and $2.49 for the biggies.  I have to say I am usually much more of a penny pincher to spend that much on a dang wooden letter collection, but I knew I would use the frame for years AND I could share it with my K friends!

Then Christie (most awesome assistant in the world!) took the letters home for "homework" (as her hubs likes to say) and painted those puppies this awesome neon blue color.

Then a dab of hot glue here and there...and VOILA!!!  SO---STINKIN'---CUTE!

The kiddos looked so adorable!

This is the original pin we saw that caught our eye.  This super cute version is over at First Grade Schoolbox!

Well that's our quickie post for tonight!  Sleep well!

From BLAH to FABULOUS in 1 hour!

Who knew I could get a little crafty? Who knew?

You know we have talked about the crazy creative Natalie over in Page's room.  That woman is like the MacGyver of the crafting world!  (If you don't know who MacGyver is..then that makes me feel old!  Here's what Wikipedia says about him...Resourceful and possessed of an encyclopedic knowledge of the physical sciences, he solves complex problems with everyday materials he finds at hand, along with his ever-present duct tape and Swiss Army knife!)  I'm telling you...give that woman a craft stick, scissors, bubblegum, and some yarn---and she'll give you a prom dress!

So anyway, she decides to give Page an end of the year surprise gift---she recovered her plain old "roll-y chair".  Yes, the technical name would be "Rolling Desk Task Chair", but "roll-y chair" works just fine for us!

  She gave that baby a TOTAL makeover!  Shined it up, added some snazzy new trendy fabric, and VOILA---Page is rolling in style!

So I decide--- I can do that too, right!  So I of course call 911 immediately..better known as Natalie's cell! She gives me all the necessary tools I'll need...bubblegum, a craft stick, scissors and yarn.  JK---but I KNOOOOOW she COULD recover a chair using those...you know...MacGyver and all!

I AM NOT KNOWN for my CRAFTING ABILITIES---so this was foreign territory for me.  But I have been having a bit of a PINTEREST addiction this summer and I was all in to redecorating my entire room (post coming soon, I promise!)---when alas...I looked over at my wonderful BFF's work desk table, and well---it just looked sad.  It needed a MAKEOVER!

So off I go to Hobby Lobby for all of the goodies I would need.  Surprisingly I did not have said bubblegum, yarn, craft stick...on hand!

You will need:

*roll-y chair

*tools to disassemble the chair (all we needed was an Allen wrench)

*scissors

*fabric of your choosing

*hot glue gun

*spray adhesive

*chopstick (or other "pokey" device!)

These basic steps should take you NO MORE than 1 hour!

1.  Gather supplies and disassemble the chair.

2.  Lay your fabric over each cushion and cut it in a square/rectangular shape with several inches hanging over the sides. (This will be what you tuck/glue.)

3.  Spray the adhesive and lay your fabric over it.  Smooth it out with your hands and give it a few minutes to set before you keep working.

4.  On the chair back, the plastic backing was actually impossible to remove so after spraying the adhesive, I simply used my trusty chopstick to shove the fabric between the cushion and the plastic. Worked like a charm!

5.  Finished seat back!  Presh!

6.  For the seat bottom, follow the same step using the adhesive, then use a hot glue gun to glue down the excess fabric.  I didn't remove the old gray stuff---just glued right over it.  Be careful that you tuck the fabric and glue it about every couple of inches so you don't have tons of fabric all left over in one section...that causes lots of wrinkles at the corners.  Mine was not perfect, but little tucks here and there looked just fine to me!  (PS-Be sure you don't glue the fabric down over the screw holes...that would just be crazy, right!---You'd think, anyway!!...cause that's EXACTLY what I did!  Don't tell MacGyver Natalie!)

7.  Finished glued chair bottom!

8.  Completed seat back and seat bottom!

9.  Find a cute kid (in this case, my handy 9 year old!) to reassemble the chair!

10.  And VOILA!!!  You have a trendy, stylish, new "roll-y chair"!

And of course I had to add some super cute desk accessories to finish out the look!  Here's to the MOST AWESOME teaching partner ever!!!

We hope your year is off to a crafty start too!

Back To School Hall Display!

Woo-hoo!  Success!  We survived our "meet the teacher" day!  We are so stinkin' excited about our new group of littles.  We are gonna have some fun this year!

So since we are slap worn out from our last workday before we OFFICIALLY start tomorrow, this will be a quick little post!

We told you about our hallway theme a few weeks back, but here's the REAL DEAL display in the hallway. We think it turned out SO SUPER CUTE...granted...we are a little biased!

The kiddos loved their gum...and I ain't gonna lie...so did the parents.  I know they were sneaking a piece as soon as they hit the hallway! ;)

Here's hoping you get some good ideas and that YOUR "meet the teacher" is a HUGE SUCCESS!!!

Here's everything!  We printed out the adorable heads from Melonheadz.  We only put "gum" (balloons) in front of a few of the kiddos.  Didn't want it to be too busy!  We also enlarged the gumball machine onto the projector and then cut out the parts in different colors.  (The gumball graphic is from Krista Wallden!)  LOVE!!!

We first saw this SUPER cute idea for the gum bags over at Smitten With First!  We used pre-packaged gumballs and added some graphics and color to our tags!  So Cute!  You can snag these cute little tags here!

Don't forget to enter our GIVEAWAY to win our...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Desk Name Plates: Chevron, Stripes, Brights, and More!

Wahoo!  We FINALLY finished our desk name plates pack!  Over 25 backgrounds to choose from!  LOVE!  There are chevrons, brights, stripes, black and whites, and polka dots.  Hopefully we included something to match EVERY decor you can think of!

As always, we'll send these out FREE to 2 winners chosen from those who leave a comment! :)

Click any picture to grab these up over at TpT!

I don't know if you are like us, but we want our desk name plates to have some meat to them.  We needed them to be cute, but have lots of resources at our littles' fingertips.  We included an alphabet line with matching initial sound pictures, a number line, color words, a name grid, and 2D/3D shape words with "real world" objects to match.

We made these bigger too!  They are 4x14.  You'll need 8 1/2 x14 legal sized paper to print them and they come 2 per page.

We are planning on mixing chevrons, polka dots, AND brights for this year in our own classrooms.  We want our cake...and eat it too! ;)  We actually bought some AWESOME class decor packs, but the name plates just had a spot for their name...no extra resources. Boo!  So...we got busy and made our own!

Well, that's it for today.  The fam and I are headed to a Braves game tonight!  Ahhhh...the popcorn, the peanuts, the cracker jacks (are you singing yet?).  Oh...and baseball! ;)

Hope you might find these name plates useful too!