Shelf makeover

Have a shelf that is past its prime?  Contact paper shelf liner can be your best friend.  This shelf needed some help a few years back, and I was pleased with the end result.  Note: That particular pattern of contact paper was great for this project because it hid imperfections including when I needed to cut some extra to fix minors errors.

Earth Craft

I saw this Earth craft done by a primary teacher, and I love the simplicity of it.  It can be used for Earth Day and/or a Space Unit.  Glue, squares of blue and green tissue paper, and a circle to glue them on, and you're pretty much done.  

Go Away Big Green Monster

So, I borrowed the idea from this website  in order to make adorable Big Green Monster faces with the kids in my class.  They ended up being one of my favorite art projects of the year!

I decided to make masks for our library center, and I used the same concept with the painting and the pre-cut shapes from construction paper.  After they were done, I laminated and cut out the faces.

The next trick was reinforcing them.  I used a combination of hot glue, large popsicle sticks, and packing tape.

I cut out some masks to give the kids a place to peek through.  Honestly, they kind of remind me of Wilson from Castaway.  Oh, well.

I got a little more creative with my stick placement on these.

No, we can reenact our own stories as the Green Monster!  Enjoy!

Fall Leaves poem

A quick and easy fall literacy resource for you!  I borrowed the Fall Leaves poem from this blog.  I used diecuts to make the leaves.  The combination of writing the numerals, having the color word written in the color that it is, and the number of leaves out to the side seemed to help the four-year-olds read it with me after we practiced a few times.  Once it was finished I laminated it and put in on the board (second picture).

Kitty Pumpkin

I saw this All You Magazine at the store the other day, and I thought this cover was too cute!  Love the small pumpkins transformed into kittens.  Looks like it wouldn't be too difficult to recreate either.

 

Spider embroidery

I got this long sleeved purple Halloween shirt from Goodwill the other day.  I just love the design, and I think it would be fun to try to embroider a web similar to this some day.  The picture doesn't show it very well, but the web is sparkly silver.  It's a bit wrinkled. Oops.

 

 

I'm not much into the ghouls, witches, and Jack O'Lantern shirts at Halloween, so I was glad to find something like this.  I also enjoy a good owl or bat Halloween shirt.

Icky Sticky Shelves Solution

Our classroom has some fairly old furniture, and because we continually are required to have our shelves labeled, there was quite a buildup of sticky tape residue all over them.  Ever use packing tape on your shelves?  You know the cleanup nightmare.

 

Here's what we did.  Items needed:  Goo Gone, Razor blade/scraper, sanding blocks.

 

 

I got this pack of two sanding blocks at the Dollar Tree.  They have rough on the front and back, and then the middle is foam.

 



 

I would use this method at your own discretion.  Our shelves are old, and the finish is worn off in many places, so damaging the finish really wasn't a concern.  Also, the sanding blocks we used were abrasive enough to get the yuck off, but at least in my case I didn't notice it taking off much finish.  It was kind of like using a really scrubby brush or sponge.

 

It is simple enough to do.  Just Goo Gone, scrub with the sanding blocks, and if there are any bits of anything left like tape remnants that's where the scraper comes in handy. 

 

Here is an example of a before.

 



 

And here is an after.

 



 

It may not look like that much, but the stuff on that shelf was so stubbornly stuck on I was impressed that it came off so easily with this method.  I hope it helps you too!