I'm on A Roll

If you've read my last few posts, you know I've been busy reading, but I've also been busy crossing off a few to do items off my summer to do list. Yay!

Here's what I've been up to...

I cleaned out and organized the file cabinet in my office, but I still felt it needed a little something, so I covered the drawers in some contact paper that I had left over from covering my desk top last year.  I think it came out well.

I even finally got around to labeling the drawers.  It only took me a year. LOL

Next, I worked on creating a memo board for my office.  My husband brought home some foam board he found in his new classroom and gave it to me.

So I went to Walmart and found some inexpensive fabric, ribbon, and some white pushpins to cover the board with.

I simply stapled the fabric to the back of the board, then cut and attached the ribbon in a criss-cross fashion.

I used 3M picture frame mounts to hang the finished board in my office.

And now I have a nice place to hang all the stuff that keeps me organized... instead of just taping everything to the wall, and it also hides that lovely yellow internet cord.  Below you can see the before picture.

My next project involved covering a dirty purple chair that I've had since like my third year of teaching.  Uh, yeah. I'm going into my fifteenth year, so I think it was time for a make over.  I don't have a great before picture of the entire chair, but here are the parts that needed the make over.

So I grabbed some fabric and a staple gun...

Took the back off both the top and bottom and covered it in the new fabric.

The top was more difficult to cover than the bottom because I had to staple gun into plastic. The bottom was wood.  So I bent and wasted a few staples.

But it was worth it.  

I think it's going to be my new favorite chair.  Love it!

And I also made a few more poster/signs to go along with the "rock star" theme. These are for bulletin boards and labels for bins.

You can get a copy of the CAFE sign above for FREE by clicking on the picture above or by clicking here.

I also have a version without the Rock Star kids on them. You can get that set here for FREE.

I still have to clean out/catalog the AV room as well as the Media Storage room.  And I'd like to get my office closet, bookcase, and desk organized.  Not to mention I have about 5 more sets of signs to make for different sections of the MC as well as cataloging some magazines that were cataloged incorrectly, so I still have a long way to go, but I feel like I've accomplished a lot this summer, and I got to enjoy my family, too. So all in all, it's been a good summer.  Hopefully I will feel ready to start in a few weeks because, ready or not, teachers come back officially August 1st.

More Summer Projects

Can't believe the summer is half over!  Oh my, have I still got a lot to accomplish, but I have crossed a few things off my to do list, one of them being to create and upload more files to Teachers Pay Teachers (and now on Teacher's Dojo, too!)

After receiving a few request via email, here's what's I came up with:

I made "Rock Star" passes for classrooms. They include

Boys' Bathroom Pass

Girls Bathroom Pass

2 Hall Passes

2 Office Passes

Nurse Pass

Library Pass

You can get them here on TpT for $1.00.

Also available with a "zebra print" border.  Get those here for $1.00 on TpT.

I also made the "Read Like a Rock Star" bunting available for purchase by itself.  It comes in both an orange and white version.

It's $2.00 on TpT.  You can get it here.

I've also updated my Genre bookmarks pack:

This pack now includes 28 genres (previously 19).

This Genre Bookmark pack can be found HERE on Teacher's Dojo.

I have also created a set of 28 Genre Posters. Here are are a few examples:

And here are a few other examples:

You can get the entire pack of 28 genres, HERE on Teacher's Dojo.

And finally, I put all the genre goodies together in one big Genre Mega Pack:

This pack includes posters, secret symbols and bookmarks for 28 genres.  You can purchase this pack HERE on Teacher's Dojo.

Use the posters and bookmarks in this pack for a Genre of the Month program.  (You can read about my Genre of the Month program on this post.)  Hide the secret symbols in books for the genre you are highlighting to encourage students to check out and read those types of books and they can earn a prize.  The genres included in the pack are 

Adventure
Animal Fiction
Biography
Autobiography
Blog
Comedy
Drama
Essay
Fables
Fairy Tales
Folk Tale
Legend
Myth
Tall Tales
Fantasy
Graphic Novels
Historical Fiction
Mystery
Non-fiction
Informational Text
Fiction
Poetry
Realistic Fiction
Reference
Science Fiction
Speech
Traditional Literature
Travel

I've also made some new shelf markers to go with the "Rock Star" theme of the Media Center.

I used some free paint sticks from Wal-Mart, silver spray paint, some glitter paint, sealer and some glitter stars to create these babies.  Love how they turned out.

Then I broke out my embroidery machine and made a few improvements on some simple t-shirts so that I would have more school spirit shirts to wear.

Our mascot is a Wildcat so I made a paw print applique and added MES for Moreland Elementary School. Kinda cute.

I also made a shirt for my nine year old son who has been bugging me to make him one, complete with his name.

He wants to create an "arcade" in our garage and this would be his "work" shirt.  LOL

He came up with the name on his own and we designed the logo together. It was a nice mother/son project.

Now I just have to start cleaning and organizing again.  My house is in desperate need of cleaning and organizing, too.  Maybe I will get it all done before the summer is over.  I can hope, right?