Writer's Eyes

A while back I found this super cute idea about writer's eyes on Cara Carroll's website. She had a great freebie that I grabbed and mounted on poster board (since I'm out of bulletin board space). I used it at the beginning of the year to begin teaching writing and editing. After a while I needed more. Then Debbie Candau recently blogged about her version of the writer's eyes which incorporated her class mascot. Debbie's freebie included some extras that I wanted to add to mine, but it didn't fit my needs perfectly either. Duh, why don't I create my own to go with my bee theme?! (I've been a little slow lately, but please!) Scrappin Doodles has those adorable buggy-eyed characters that fit the writer's eyes theme perfectly and I had already purchased the bee set of course, so I went to work. According to Debbie's post, Mrs. Phippen is the one who started the writer's eyes craze. She has the cutest board with embroidery hoops made to look like glasses! Debbie is taking the idea up a notch by having her kiddos wear 3D glasses with the lenses punched out...bet the kids LOVE that. (Just what I need...any excuse to see a fun movie. Oh honey, guess what we must do this weekend...and can we write it off as a "business" expense?) If you haven't already, check out these three ladies' fabulous blogs for their incredible versions of writer's eyes (as well as other amazing ideas). I know you'll find one you can't live without or you can whip up your own themed version.

This item now available at my Teacher's Notebook store.

The Noun Quilt

All the alphabet noun pictures from my last post were combined to make a noun quilt on a class bulletin board. It is hard to see in the picture, but you get the idea.

The kids want to make a verb quilt, but I think something different would be more fun. Anyone have a great idea they'd like to share?

Home Away From Home

Finally I've got some pictures of my classroom. (New camera...love it!) Take a look and let me know what you think of my already "lived in" small home away from home!

I didn't realize how small and crowded my room was until I began taking pictures and looking at them. Wow!

The Bee Attitudes

I saw these cute bee sayings on MamaRocks a looonnnggg time ago and thought that some day I would use them in my room in some way. Well, finally that day has come. Many of you have seen the adorable way Mrs. Cooley displays her rules...the Five Bees Promise (if not, head over to her site and check them out!) So I've typed up the Bee Attitudes and am going to display them on bees like Mrs. Cooley's. Since I teach in a Christian school this display will be my religion board.

The Bee Attitudes

I will post a picture of the completed board later.

CAFE Board and More

Here are a few pictures of finished boards.   My CAFE board headers were found on ProTeacher.  You can't see them very well, but they have adorable stick kids on them!  My Daily Five is next to the CAFE.  As I introduce Daily Five I make I-charts with the class and post for reference.  Next to that is my behavior board with the levels of behavior, class rules, and clip chart.  The class rules are from Whole Brain Teaching.  All three of these boards are close to my gathering area for easy reference.

The I-charts you see are from last year.  I need them a bit smaller for this year because only 4 fit!

I love my new clip chart!  Used polka dot scrapbook paper.  Hopefully it won't fade too much as the year goes on.

Someone's blog (if only I could remember who) had a writing "show-off" display.  Neat idea...then it was gone.  Later while at Hobby Lobby I saw this scrapbook paper that looks like framed chalkboard so I added letters, mounted on tag, laminated, and set on a little easel-like holder.  Voila!  BEEutiful Work display.  (Thanks to my friend Jeannie for the wording.)

This is my new word wall.  Black fabric backing with evenly spaced yellow scrapbook paper.  The letter labels are from Teacher's Clubhouse.  I am thrilled with the look of this long, narrow board.

Birthdays at the Hive

This year I had to have a birthday hive.  (Surprised aren't you?)  I created this to be a banner (my first) that I cut and matched up before backing with fadeless paper and laminating.

The Birthday Hive Sign

Then I made these honeycomb shapes to arrange into a hive shape under the header.  On the shape for each month, I will type in the student's names who have a birthday in that month and the date of their birthday in the # spot.  I made a few extra shapes in case I needed more to make a visually pleasing hive.

Birthday Hive

I'm not sure if you can edit documents in Scribd.  If not I can send you the Word doc if you leave me an email address.