Who's In The Room?!?!

The who's in the room boards are very popular right now and are a great way to quickly see where all your students are.  I've had one in my room for several years and as always it matches my theme.  The past two years I've just used a magnetic dry erase board, but this year I wanted something a little different.  Last summer I was introduced to Ikea during a shopping trip to Texas!!!! Wow, is all I can say!!!  I could spend a whole day in there and still not see everything!!! My teammates and I found a perfect metal magnetic board that would be great for our who's in the room boards and it was only $12.99!  
After getting my board I bought some ribbon to hot glue around the boarder of my board.  The next project was to make labels of where students would be in the school.  I used my Happy Honey Bee Collection from School Girl Style to make the ones I needed.  I then laminated, cut and hot glued them on to my board.  I then needed something to divide the sections on the board.  While at Office Depot I ran across this cute bee themed thin duct tape that would be perfect!  The last thing was to glue student numbers to magnets.  I found these Polka Dot Bottle Cap Numbers on Teachers Pay Teachers.  I printed, laminated, cut, and then I used E6000 glue to glue them to the magnets.  
After taking it to my room I used command hooks to hang my board.  I really thought it would hold because the board couldn't be more then 5 pounds, but every time I came back in it had fallen down. I was getting so frustrated!!  So my sweet husband came in and did some "rigging" and let's just say that thing will not be coming off the wall anytime soon!
My students have been using it for a week now and it's working perfectly!

Homework Club!

Do you have problems with motivating your students to turn in their homework?  I know that I've had this problem the last few years.  I have seen a lot of these homework club boards on Pinterest and so our looping team decided we would give it a try and see if it would help motivate our kiddos!

So, how does it work?  Well, students who turn in their homework every week  get to keep their assigned number on the homework board.  If a student does not turn in their homework, their number is removed.  At the end of the month there will be a special reward for students whose numbers are left on the homework club board!

Now I'm working on what kind of rewards I should give.  What are your thoughts???  Should I let them get things out of my treasure box? (which they get for behavior also)  My other option is maybe  pizza with the teacher or popsicles at the end of the day.  I open to ANY suggestions!!  

So, how did I make this adorable homework club board?!?!  You only need a few supplies.  You can find your numbers and signs on Teachers Pay Teachers, but I really wanted mine to match my theme!  So I made my Homework Club sign from my Happy Honeybee theme from School Girl Style.  I got the cute bottle cap numbers from Teachers Pay Teachers.  The only other things I needed was a pizza pan, cute ribbon, magnets (to glue the numbers to), and E6000 glue. 

This was such an  easy and fast project!  I'm excited to put this to use in my classroom this year!!

Student Teacher Desk: Junk Gypsy Style!!!!

This summer I have gotten hooked on the best show, Junk Gypsies!!  Have you seen it?  If not, you MUST watch it!!  You will be hooked.  So these girls go buy junk and transform it into something new and beautiful!  This show has inspired me!  So I started thinking about my student teacher that I will be getting my first day back.  I have had student teachers before, but I've never had a place in the classroom just for them. (Sorry ladies that I never had a spot for you. :( Come back and visit and you can try it out!!)  So, I wanted to find an old desk that I could fix up that would be just for my student teacher.  My husband took me to my first ever flea market at our state fair grounds!  I was so excited and felt like a true junk gypsy!!  As we were about to leave empty handed we found the most perfect desk!  We got a great price, so we bought it and brought it on home.

The first step was to sand all of the old paint off of the desk.  My husband taught me how to use the sander and we got it done quickly.  Next we painted the desk with just some white Kilz just to make sure that any left over paint would stay covered up.

Next I needed to decide on a color for the desk.  I am doing the Happy Honeybee Theme from Schoolgirl Style in my classroom this year.  The colors are a lot of yellow and black, so I thought that bringing in a very pretty light gray would be good.  I put two coats of the gray on the desk and let it sit over night.  Now remember I really wanted to give it that Junk Gypsy style!!!!  So, I took a sanding sponge and lightly went over the whole desk to give it that shabby chic look I wanted.  After I wiped it down I added a coat of fast-drying polyurethane.  That gave the desk a clear gloss coat and will also protect the desk from all the wear and tear it will get through out the year!  Now it's ready to be taken up to my classroom!!!  

Tracks Across The United States

At the beginning of first grade, I introduced my class to Roary.  Roary is a stuffed lion that became our class mascot.  Roary got to travel all around the United States.  He even went to Hawaii and Alaska!!  Roary would send postcards and pictures of all the places he had been.  My 1st graders got so excited to get a postcard from Roary.  They were always asking me where he was and when we would hear from him again.  When we would receive a postcard I would read it to my class.  After we read the postcard we would put a pin in our map of where Roary was.  The students then would get to write a letter back to Roary.  They would tell him what we were learning about, our new smartboard, and the school disco party!!  This is just a fun and creative way to get your students writing.  Roary will be continuing his travels throughout this next year!!  You just never know where he will be going next!

Roary went to Hawaii with my sister and brother-in-law!

One of my students grandparents live in Alaska.  So, Roary got to go with her mom for a visit!!

Smartboard Attendance

Taking roll takes me soooo long.  It takes so much time out of each morning.  So, I downloaded an attendance page for each season and holiday on the smartboard.  My first graders love anything that has to do with the smartboard!! Who wouldn't??? I love trying new things on it!!  This was so easy.  Just go to http://exchange.smarttech.com/#tab=0.  If you search for attendance you will find ones that other teachers have made.  All you have to do is download it and then go in and change the names.  There are so many ideas.  My students love coming in each morning and moving their name or tapping on their name.  The following picture is our attendance for Christmas.  The students drag the ornament with their name to the Christmas tree.  It's so much fun that the older students come in asking my students if they can move their name for them.  It's just a fun way to start out each morning!!