Bulletin Boards Galore!

I finished the three main bulletin boards that are in my classroom over the weekend! I am so happy with the way they turned out.

My first one is the Scientific Method bulletin board. I wanted to put something up that would remain permanent throughout at least the first half of the school year. This is something that the kids will use daily in my science classroom. I took some cardboard and cut out the shapes (well, my buddy Deanna did...) and then we painted them with just acrylic paint. I used t-pins to stick them up to the board to give them a 3D effect.

 

Next is my Let's Talk Science (Word Wall). Incidentally, I'm teaching The Scientific Method the first 2 weeks of school - so I've placed the unit title in the middle. I will change that page out as we go through our different units of study. I am going to pin up the words by just writing them on oversized index cards and using regular push pins. This way, I won't have to change out the background (unless I get tired of it halfway through the year.)

 

Finally, my Wizard Challenge Wall. It's missing the Challenge Rules there on the left where that black page is - but they will be posted soon. Then I will stick the challenges in those blue folders. I will be writing a whole post that will be devoted to explaining {and sharing the contents} of this challenge wall. I mentioned it in an earlier post, but it's similar to Heather Renz's "Mastery Club". 

 

Hope you find some inspiration in these!

 

 

Daily Discovery

Still getting geared up for my very first classroom! I'm so excited because this weekend - it's going D.O.W.N. I finally get to get in there and start putting up some of the stuff that I've made. I cannot wait to see how it all looks once it's up!! Here's sneak peek:

These are the contents of two bulletin boards, actually. And it's only a small fraction of them. I really can't wait to see what they are going to end up looking like. {Probably like NOTHING I had in mind, but the effort is the thing that really counts...}

Moving on! I have been working on the first day of school stuff. You know, the getting the kiddos acclimated to my obsessive-compulsive requirements, showing them around the room, and scaring the bee-gee-zees out of them with all of my rules and warnings.  I'm trying to thing of cute activities to do with them {or have them do together as groups}. I've found a few things, but I really love the Saving Fred activity. Have you seen this? Too cute! AND they get a candy snack on the first day. Who's their new favorite teacher? That's right. I am. I stumbled upon this blog and found the activity, though I have NO IDEA how the heck I found it. I do that a lot. I actually had to dig into the search history of my computer to find something just tonight that I could not re-find if my life had depended upon it. It took about 45 minutes, but I found it. And now I've forgotten what it was all over again. Good thing I Pinned it. Sheesh.

Speaking of StumbleUpon - have you been there yet? DON'T DO IT. It's like Pinterest, but worse. Once you're sucked into the abyss of that mess, you'll never make it out. The other night I was on my iPad and it had a full 100% charge when I started. By the time I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer (some 5 hours later) - my poor iPad had 11% battery left. And let me just say that I only charge my iPad about once every week and a half, normally. Steer clear of it, friends. It's like a drug.

I'll leave you with this spectacular idea that I thought was my own creation. Incidentally, lots of teachers out there like to start their day with already having something for the kiddos to do when they barge into their quiet haven at 7:45 in the morning. Who'd a thunk it?! It's like "morning work"...only not. It's for "grown up" kids. Introducing my take on morning work...Daily Discovery! Kiddos will answer trivia questions that will require more thought than trying to solve a simple math or science problem. These will just be brain busters, and sometimes they will be related to science, but mostly it will be a "brain break" for them that won't have anything to do with anything. I'll put it on the projector every morning {and throughout the day, since I'm departmentalized} and there will be something different each day. I have the first five days set up already! Woo!! Here they are, in case you want to see the format. I got the trivia questions here. EXCELLENT resource!! I've also found SO MANY new and extremely useful resources over the past few weeks. Go to my Pinterest board called "Science Wizards." You'll be so glad you did!!

Project Get Room Ready Part 2

Here I am on a Thursday afternoon. I feel like I have gotten NOTHING done and I've been in this office of mine ALL DAY. I never realized how involved getting a classroom together REALLY IS!!! I guess that's because I've never had my own classroom......

I have a long, long list of things to do/make/buy. This is what it looks like:

It seems like I have all of these great ideas and then when I start to create what I have in mind, it ends up being very stupid and not at all what I had envisioned in my brain. And unfortunately, because I am still a Graphic Designer at heart, I REFUSE to buy pre-made bulletin board letters and accents. I just have to make them myself. Silly me.

I DID manage to layout/design my first bulletin board. I can't get in my room until next week because they are waxing the floors. So, I'm improvising. I measured out the dimensions of one of my smaller boards and taped off an area on my floor in my home office to use as a guide so that I could set up all of my stuff. Here's a pic of it in the early, early stages: {VERY early. It will be much cuter once it's done.}

The idea came from Mrs. Heather Renz's Mastery Club. It's to curb the "I'm done" epidemic with something other than "Read a book!" I will post LOTS of details about it, including pictures of the completed wall once I get it up and running. Should be later next week.

I also created a set of posters that I am having printed at Vista Print for my cabinets:

Found this idea on Pinterest. Love.

And what lab is complete without Lab Rules? For my fifth graders, I had to make them less juvenile and more sarcastic. Maybe they will actually follow them!!

 So, okay. Maybe I actually have done a lot today. It just seems like I can't get out of this "I don't know where to start" rut. So much to do and definitely so little time!! August 20th will be here before I even know it!! Stay tuned. Lots more fun stuff to come!