14 Days of Freebies - Day 8

I love doing crafts in my classroom to motivate my students.  I typically do crafts that relate to our writing.  Writing can be a struggle for a lot of students.  When there is a craft involved, students love it.  See how I have used craft related writing {HERE} and {HERE}.

This craft comes with the patterns needed for one butterfly.  If you have older students, you can provide these patterns on cardstock and have them trace it onto construction paper (their choice of color), and glue the pieces together (layering the wings).

Grab this butterfly craft {HERE}.

Organization

Since I am starting over in a new classroom next year, I want to set myself and my students up to be organized.  I have been all over TPT and Pinterest looking for ideas.  I have some that I currently use and will continue to use, but I want it to look cute and be functional.  So many teachers have figured out how to do this and it totally inspires me to do the same!

I have completed my first major project for next year and that is my classroom rocking chair.  I just love frogs!  So, I had no choice but to paint my rocking chair green!  Here's how it went:

A good rocking chair that is not a glider is hard to find at a fair price.  So off to Craigslist I went.  I found this beauty for $15 and my awesome boyfriend went to pick it up for me.  Yes, he is a keeper!

Then, like I said before, I needed it to be green.  So I went to the store and bought two cans of spray paint (which they happen to have in the exact shade I wanted) and a tarp.  After about 45 minutes of painting and a few hours later for drying, I got this!  I think it looks way better than the original!



Then of course, I wanted my name on it, but how would I get those perfect looking letters?  Off to Pinterest I went and guess what?  There is a Pin for that too!  I printed my name in the font that I wanted in Word.  Then I took a pencil and traced the letters onto the chair.  The pencil left a mark so that I could take a paint brush and see where the lines were to paint my name.  Drum roll please...

I covered my name, but you can see the font.  I can't decide if I want to add anything to it, but this is where I am at with it.  How exciting! 

Next thing is organization.  I don't know how I want to organize my things and my student things.  I am off to blog hoppin' again.  

Bean Bag Mice

Make little bean bag mice with baby socks.  Have the kids fill the socks with beans or rice and tie the end off.  Tie some yarn around one end to make a nose and whiskers.  Glue on some eyes and a tail.

President's Day Craft

I am not the most crafty person I know when it come to art  projects in the classroom.  But, I did come across this fun craft for President's Day.  In no way do I take credit for this idea.  I am simply sharing my find.