Classroom Decor

Are you there, Michaels? It’s me, Sarah.

July 6, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 7 Comments

The other day my husband and I took a trip to Michaels to browse around now that we’ve both got our placements and are starting the process of preparing for the upcoming school year. Now, ordinarily I don’t spend much time in Michaels because my brain goes on “crafty overload” and somehow I lose all sense of “do I really need to spend an hour in the scrapbook paper aisle?” So imagine my sheer glee when there’s an approved trip to literally spend an hour slowly walking around the store (and taking pictures of anything and everything)!

Without further commentary about how much-anticipated this outing was, the photographic evidence (that will almost certainly compel you to print a coupon and run to your nearest Michaels!):

These great stamps were only a $1! I’m planning on using both of these as peer-feedback mechanisms, with me stealing the “great idea” stamp once and a while as I’m looking through their interactive notebooks!

I thought of several of my favorite bloggers when I passed by this display! While I’m not a football fan (I know, I know), there are so many of you that have utilized football as your theme and these — especially once clearanced — could be put to use in a variety of ways in your classrooms!

Let’s have a moment of silence. Printed craft sticks, y’all! Forget Mod Podge-ing your own and spending your time and money on that (the paper you’d use alone would be more!) — these suckers are $4.99/100 pack!!!

Oh, the bargain bins. The bins on the left are filled with National Geographic merchandise; pens, sticker books, notepads, mousepads, etc. These were all very reasonably priced (most about $2), and would be great for animal-themed units or classrooms. The bins on the right were filled with environmental-print alphabet items. I tried to convince Mr. Plum that we needed matching “P” mugs for the teacher’s lounge, but it was a no-go.

Raise your hand if you’ve pinned the salt & pepper shakers as glitter-distribution devices. Only me? Well, imagine my excitement when I stumbled on these! I didn’t end up purchasing any this trip (priorities!), but now that I know where to find them, I’m good to go! Just you wait, I will earn the title of glitter queen.

I loved both of these setups, and it didn’t hurt that they were clearanced-priced either (though none of it made it into the basket this time). I can see the watering cans being used for a great discussion on how we grow as individuals, as authors, as a class, etc. and I can certainly see the stones as being used to anchor some character education.

Origami paper. There is an origami aisle, y’all. There is an origami aisle and I purchased nothing from it. Personal triumph, ahoy!

Chevrons! Bright colors! I started to walk past this display and then I did a double-take. I didn’t end up purchasing either of these, but I definitely wanted to snap a picture to post for y’all. There are 25 sheets in each of these stacks and they were heavy-weight cardstock — for only $3!

This one I did purchase. I can’t wait to create some activities for the first week of school surrounding this book to refresh on sequencing skills, etc. I’m toying with the idea of writing my own parody to surprise the kiddos with, featuring me. Does anyone know where I could get some custom clipart made?

I picked up a few other (small) things I’m going to feature in other posts, and then headed next door to Home Goods to check it out for the first time. I was a little underwhelmed — I’m not sure what I was expecting. Certainly not this randomness! Behold:

What in the world? Also — $500?!

Thank you for accompanying me on my trip to a little slice of crafty-heaven! I’ll be back tomorrow with (hopefully) some ‘before’ pictures of my very first classroom! I took a sneak-peek yesterday and oh my word. That’s all I’ve got to describe the feeling!

No nap-time, y’all!

July 4, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 4 Comments

Insert long, exasperated sigh here.

It looks like nap-time may be saying goodbye for good. My almost-three year old has taken a handful of naps in the last two weeks, and those have been hard fought. It’s a sad day in our household, as those two and a half to three glorious hours of work are now gone. Finished. Bye-bye.

Despite the mania of no-nap, I’ve been productive. Somewhat. I need to buckle down and do some curriculum-related items on my “to-do” list and leave my Oz and classroom creations on the “in-progress” list for a while… but not before I finish this:

Too much?

So once those are printed, laminated, and cut, Oz is in a time-out so I can get my “teacher tools” setup with some bare-bones planning materials and get started on planning out the first week. That’s not to say the car won’t magically drive itself to Goodwill in search of picnic baskets, because the car will do what the car wants to do — if you know what I mean.

Before I get to printing (oh, the ink), I wanted to call your attention to some fabulous new clipart from none other than the 3am Teacher herself! Michelle released her much-anticipated school supply art today over on TPT, and it is ah-mazing. Bananas, even. I’m definitely going to be creating lots of goodies with it — thanks Michelle!

Monday (Almost Didn’t) Made It!

July 3, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 14 Comments

During my student-teaching internship this spring I made a lot of resources. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. I don’t know why I thought it’d be a good idea to literally re-invent the wheel during internship, especially during an internship that my husband was also completing, while having a 2.5 year old, and commuting 90 minutes each way (totally serious — it happened). But I did!

This meant a lack of sleep for the months between December and May, but it has yielded great satisfaction since — especially in preparing for my own classroom and curriculum! One of my more lackluster projects was posters for the basic science process skills. Yes, folks, they were sad.

Check out all that white space and Microsoft clipart!

In searching for something else on Google Drive (P.S. thank you Google for that, it is a lifesaver!) I came across the original files and decided they needed a makeover immediately. And most importantly? This needed to be like Skittles (taste the rainbow) exploded all over them. What’s better than science? Bright, colorful science that makes you smile.

Thanks to some clipart from some of my favorite people on the internet (check them out on the sidebar), I made over my process skills posters in a very Oz-like fashion.

Oh yes… much, much better.

But that wasn’t enough for me on what is now my first Monday (oh my word, it’s 10:20pm!) Made It. I decided to print them (thank you, Canon) and laminate them (thank you, Scotch) and hang them (thank you Staples). And in doing so, I discovered a little shortcut to hole-punching accurately that I’m sure all of you pros already know!

Reinforcers. Yep.

All I did was measure where I wanted to make my initial punches, put the sticky reinforcers down, and then guide the hole punch right over it. It made it so easy to create a template to do all of the other posters with, and in literally ten minutes I had this:

Bam! Instant science-happiness.
(Excuse the poor camera work. There’s not enough light!)

So, it’s Monday. And I made it.

Would you like these posters for your classroom? Head on over to my TPT store and snag yourself a copy! (Sidenote: I’m totally doing a happy dance in my office chair because, yes, after three years of admiring everyone else’s work, I listed something of my own!)

Thrifty and Full of Rainbows!

July 2, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 23 Comments

One of the most daunting things for me in preparing for my first year is that, as a family, we’re also preparing for my husband’s first year! Finding things for our classroom — books, manipulatives, materials, furniture — on the cheap isn’t just a sport (it totally is for me!) it’s a necessity. Luckily, we have a good track record with the Goodwill (and love their 20%-off coupons) and our Target Dollar Spot is well-stocked!

Earlier in the week we stopped by the Goodwill to peruse their bookshelves for some more books for our classroom libraries, and spied something in the middle of all of the furniture they were selling. It looked like an easel, but wasn’t unfolded and had crayon and tape all over it. I saw the price tag of $9.99 and decided that for $10, I could put some elbow grease into it and fix it up!

We got it home (thanks to some creative placement in the car), cleaned it up, and there she is, in all her glory:

I looked her up and she retails for around $100, so not bad at all. This will go in my classroom to anchor our meeting area, so I’m debating about whether to leave her as-is, or paint her. I spied some ruby-slipper spray paint in Hobby Lobby the other day, so I’m tempted. Very, very tempted.

Today on our grocery run to Target I spotted a cart in front of us with bins that looked suspiciously sturdy and rainbow-y. I asked the very nice woman where she saw them, and I must have asked a little too excitedly because she smiles and says, “Teacher, huh?” Yes. Where, oh where did you find them?

The Dollar Spot (though only the buckets were $1; the bins and caddies were $2.50 each). Usually that’s our first stop, but it was too close to the Lego aisle to brave today before naptime. I high-tailed it over there and scored these:

During our last trip to Target I noticed they were taking down the seasonal section and prepping it for what looked like Back-to-School and I was totally right. Of course I couldn’t help but check there too, and sure enough, there were some goodies to behold! My favorite?

I got five packs — all that they had.

And then… there was this (my heart may or may not have stopped).

My husband brought it to my attention, which I’m sure he now regrets as I’m plotting a way to justify buying a pack or two of each. These are 8-packs of “themed” crayons… perfect, right? I was standing in front of it and literally felt a TPT unit incorporating these flash before my eyes. Pirate crayon pack? Check. Dinosaur crayon pack? Double check. Cupcake crayon pack? Triple check.

I somehow managed to only leave with the “Glitterati” crayons, despite Crayola trying to trick me into buying an 8-pack of primary colors with their Oz-marketing. Like I said, school supplies = kryptonite.

Everything, all-told, was under $50. Phew. I’m slowly but surely putting everything together to create Oz on a budget I can live with. There are some other things I’ll need, but I need to get into my classroom and assess it before I make any bigger purchases. (Please let there be a rug. Please let there be a rug. Please let there be a rug. Oh, and a kidney table.)

I’ll leave you with my “currently” — my first linky party! Ahhhhhh, finally I get to join in instead of just scrolling through and reading everyone else’s!