Teacher Tip

Hello Again!

A teacher friend of mine asked me a question that I thought everyone already knew, but apparently not. :) So, just in case you didn't know... I'm going to give you a tip on tennis balls today.

What?! Tennis Balls on a teacher blog? No tennis instructors around here, but I do use tennis balls in my classroom! You know those annoying scrapes and marks left by metal kid chairs? Well, hear and see them no more! All you need is tennis balls. Get them donated by a tennis school, a gym coach, a park, or even parents. Cut a little slit in the side, and slide over the bottom legs of the chairs.  Viola! No more noise or yucky marks on freshly waxed floors.

See the chairs? Easy peasy!

But wait! Those things have got to get disgusting sliding back and forth on the floor all day long. Why yes, yes they do. That, my friends, is what the question of the day was. How in the world can you clean tennis balls? Do I have to get new ones every year?!

Nope, it's as easy as your laundry! In fact, a washing machine and dryer are all you need.

First, have the kids take off the tennis balls at the end of the year. They LOVE this gross job. Then make sure they wash their hands. :) Stick them in a garbage bag and bring those babies home with you over the summer.

Then promptly forget about them until the night before school starts. Or not. ;)

Throw them in an old pillowcase.

Then tie them up good and tight. Throw them in the washer like you would your towels with soap. I also use a little downy, so maybe they will repel dirt by being less static-y as long as possible. :) Throw them in the dryer when they are done. You now have super clean balls. They may be a little fuzzy, but they work great. 

By the way, if they accidentally come out of the pillowcase and spill all over your washer, it's ok. Just a little bit louder. Close the laundry room door and you're all set. 

Now you have a bag of clean tennis balls ready to take back to your classroom in the morning. You won't even mind sticking them on the chairs yourself because they are now all nice and clean. 

I'm the mentor teacher to a new teacher coming to first grade this year. We all have cute letter signs for our doors at school. Here's mine. 

Well, my new friend doesn't have a letter, so I made her one! Her classroom is all jungly, so I thought this would fit her. Hope she likes it!

School starts for me in the morning! Then kids on Wednesday. Fun, fun!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Busy, Busy

Oops! I keep thinking about blogging. Does that count? I guess not. I have been insanely busy the last few weeks.

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I'M GOING TO HAWAII! Next week! I have a singing competition and it happens to be in Honolulu. It also happens to be during school. Why couldn't it be during Fall Break?! Sooo, I have been working my little tail off trying to get everything done and ready. I've got to do sub plans for an entire week, plan for the week after since I won't be any good to anyone, and a million other things. So it has been insane around here. I've also left my camera at school 2 weekends in a row, so I haven't had any fun pictures to upload. i do have some though. Maybe on my super long plane ride, I will be able to do some blogging. We'll see. I did want to post one cute thing though!

This week is Red Ribbon Week. We are having a door decorating contest. I so did not want to add another thing to my to do list, but now that it's done, I LOVE it. It is so cute and I wish I could keep it up all year. Look, look, look! It fits my classroom perfectly. :)

Here it is closed with the palm tree on top.

here it is open into my classroom. I like it both ways. 

I hope we win, but even if we don't, I like it, the kids like it, and that's all that matters, right? Sort of. :) Have I mentioned I'm competitive?! :) 

Anyway, I am off to bed, but I wanted to share some cuteness. Hopefully, after Hawaii, things will settle down for me and I will be back here like normal.

Be fun and Fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

I Heart Classroom Stuff!

Crazy Boy and I spent some time in my classroom today. He was not excited, but he did it without hardly any complaining. Woohoo! I got to organize a bit and get my class list! So far, I've got 18 kiddos and they are exactly split in half, 9 boys and 9 girls! That's a miracle. I've got a good idea who most of the kids are, and I'm sure I will recognize more once I see them. So exciting!

I also got to finish my crazy idea. Wanna see?

This is my reading area and YES, that is a crib. Last year, we were going to have a yard sale so I had plans to put the crib in there, too. After looking at it, I got the idea to turn it into a "couch". So I kept it. Then I started putting my classroom together and sort of forgot about my plan. I finally got the last load out of my hoarder  teacher room and saw the crib again. I kept going back and forth, trying to decide if it was a good idea. Finally, I just decided to go try it out, so I hauled it over to the school. I made my husband put it back together and decided I hated it. Hahaha! I thought it looked a little weird. My husband kept insisting it didn't, but what do husbands know. :) I looked at it from all angles, still didn't like it. Then I turned away and did some other work. When I looked back later, it had grown on me. Plus, I knew the kids would LOVE it.  So I decided to keep it up and see if I still hated it in a couple days. Well, I came back today and added the fabric. It's a shower curtain. The back is from what used to be a bench crate seat. I just took off the crates and kept the bench seat. Added it to the back, covered it in fabric, and guess what?! I Love it! I think it looks great, fits right in, and the kids will definitely like it. I got 2 cute, fluffy pillows tonight to cover the sides, and that's it. Free classroom "couch".  I still thought I might be a little weird, but one of the K teachers walked in my room today and was amazed by it. She loved it and thought it looked great. So whew! An idea that actually worked. Yippee!

I went to Big Lots tonight, looking for those fabulous baskets I keep seeing posted all over blogs, but no such luck. I left there and went next door to Dollar Tree. I heart Dollar Tree. They had TONS of teacher stuff, and it was cute, and even better, it was CHEAP! Cheap is good, especially when it will be laminated anyway! :) Look what I got. 

I've been having trouble with my calendar area. So I am in the middle of making my own calendar stuff. Now I don't really have to, but I'll finish it anyway. Just for you. :) That is a package of 2 calendars, in my classroom colors, and it's smaller, which I wanted. They had TONS of colors and patterns and they were cute. Really! Then there are 2 sets in the package of calendar days and they even come with the special day icons, which I wanted. The clock, again, is in my colors and it's interactive. Those blue things in the left corner are magnetic organizer holders! This was my favorite item. I did not want to spend $15-20 on the counting pockets that holds the straws. Plus, I really didn't like the yellow that all the ones I can find are, so these will be perfect! I got coffee stirrers to go along with them, and voila, it's perfect for keeping track of how many days we've been in school with hundreds, tens, and ones. The middle item are tactile letters. They are glittery and feelable. :) Yes, I made that up. Remember, I told you I made up words all the time. Love them! Then of course, I had to get monkey items. The cute broom and dustpan will be perfect for little hands, the monkey gift bags will be just the thing for my back to school goodies. 

So, I've had a great day and found great stuff. What could be better. Oh, even better is that I got the stirrers, clothespins, and safety pins all for free today because I found an old gift card. Fabulous! How was your day fabulous? :)

Be fun and fabulous! 

~Mrs. Sweeney

Crafty Classroom

I've been a busy bee this week beautifying my classroom. Yippee! :) Let's take a peek.

The first thing I did was make curtains! This was my big challenge and worry because I don't sew. At all. But I did it, all by myself and in my own way. Plus they are cute and turned out great!

So I started with cute polkadot fabric.

I picked a ribbon border to go with it. I chose brown,wide ribbon because my classroom colors are sky blue, lime green, and brown. My walls are the blue so I wanted to accent with the green. I then took good scissors, my rods, and fabric glue with me to school. 

My idea was to let the fabric do most of the work so I didn't have to.:) I did not want to mess anything up and the more I worked with it the greater the chance of mess up! I also couldn't find my tape measure, so there was even more risk for mistakes! Yikes!

So I started by making sure I liked the length of the already done fabric in the window. I thought it was great, so yea for no more cutting! I then checked my fabric against the curtain rod. Since I didn't have a way to easily measure, I just rolled out the tension rod to the right length and then "measured" with it.I had exactly enough fabric to do my 2 windows! What a miracle! 

I kept the fold that was already in the fabric. It was the perfect length. So all I had to do was "sew" the bottom. I folded my ribbon in half. I glued one half of the ribbon to one side with the fabric glue. I then turned it over and folded the other side of the ribbon on to the fabric and glued that.

What do you know?! A curtain!Without any sewing and only fabric glue. You could use iron on webbing as well, but I sometimes have bad luck with that. It eventually comes undone. Fabric glue never has, plus I didn't want to lug my iron and stuff to school with me. 

I just thread the fabric onto the rod and hung it up. A window with an actual curtain!

Not only one, but two! It only took like 15 minutes max, too!

 I also found the greatest stuff! Glitter tape! I got mine at Michael's but I saw that Wal-Mart had somein their scrapbook section. My Wal-Mart was out though. :( I thought it would be perfect for my hanging work wall to show off their awesome work. So I bought some glitter tape and clothespins and  I was ready to go. 

Easy peasy! It did take longer than I thought it would. The darn back wouldn't come off very easily. I finally figured out that if you bend the corner back and forth a couple times then it comes off much easier. All you do is peel and stick! How great is that?! Boring to bling in a flash! It took less than a 3 yard roll to do 22 clothespins. :) 

And now for my fabulous work wall! I love it!

Woohoo for fast and easy fabulousness!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney