Bon Voyage Sale!

Hi Friends! We are headed out on our very first cruise & I am so excited that I just wanted to throw a sale while I am gone! No sense in me being the only having a great time. Just head on over to my TPT store & load your cart up!

 

 

FYI- If you are one of my ActivBoard/Promethean Board Calendar users you may want to consider stocking up now. Due to the continued updating & much larger flipcharts, I will be increasing the price to $10 each beginning in July.   

Got Art?

Want to incorporate an art center into your classroom but don't have enough space for an art easel? No problem! My husband built this compact art center for me for less than $10 several years ago.  I love being able to not only use that empty wall by the sink but have the art center so close to the sink.

 

 

We purchased shower board from Home Depot for about $5 and they were kind enough to cut it to size for me. My husband built a small "frame" around the back of it and attached it to the wall with small cabinet hinges. He also added a small block of wood underneath near the bottom with another hinge. That way I can just pull the block of wood down so the board will hang at an angle if needed so the paint will not run down the paper as quickly.  (Sorry to all of the visual learners such as myself...the close up pictures I took of the back & underneath did not turn out well!)

 

I had some old clipboards that I took the clip off of using a small screwdriver and screwed them into the easel to hold the children's artwork in place. The clipboards are only 98¢ at Walmart if you do not have any old clipboards lying around. There is actually enough space for 3 kids to work at a time but I only added 2 clips for papers because that is all that I had on hand at the time.

 

The paint tray came off of an old broken easel that I just happened to find in storage. My original plan was to use a $3 plastic tray from Home Depot that is used for drywall mud or spackle.

 

So there you have it!

A compact art center!

 

On a side note, I change out the art mediums and/or activities in my art center quite frequently so I am not always cleaning up paint. Here are some suggestions that I can come up with right off the top of my head....

 

• Dry erase markers- Write directly on the board so no paper is needed.
• Artist oil pastels (that's what is in tray in the picture above)
• Dot Art Painters (Bingo dabbers)
• Water colors
• Finger paints
• Gel pens/markers & black construction paper
• Stencils & Colored Pencils
• Glitter glue (trace name and/or sight words)
• Wikki Sticks are great to stick directly to the board on outline/trace name or sight words on a paper that has been clipped to the easel.
• Rubber Stamps & ink pads

Back to School Freebie and To Do List...

Summer is a wonderful opportunity to take a break from school and get over the burnout that settles in around the end of the school year. The sad part of summer (other than it's short life span) is that my mind begins to think about the new school year all too soon! Here are some thoughts going through my head today..

• how do I want to rearrange my classroom this year?
• the file cabinets need to be organized...and painted.
• the old reading curriculum needs to be moved out.
• the new reading curriculum moved in...how am I going to organize it?!?
• My classroom library center...ugh...I really intended to order CDs to replace all of the cassette tapes so they store flatter and need to find a better way to organize all of my books & tapes.
• I have too many TPT projects started and each one needs just a little time spent on them to get them finished up and posted.
• the math common core training I attended this week has me ready to approach my math lessons differently and ready to plan new activities this summer while they are fresh on my mind...

...until the pool caught my eye...and I smelled sunscreen on a little body running through my kitchen while I type...and the sun coming through the window is making the computer screen hard to see...and it may rain later this week...

Enough of the procrastination! I think I may do a better job of thinking about school from the pool! As I go put on my swimsuit, I leave you with a new beginning of the year freebie that my kiddos love doing! Click on the pictures below to grab this up!