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!



Spring Break Countdown

In Pre-K we love to do countdowns to special days.  It is a good reminder for the kids and teachers. :) It helps with one-to-one correspondence, counting, and number recognition (We always write the number of days left on the board.).

 

This is one we have for Spring Break.  We display it on our dry erase board. 

 

  I printed the reproducibles from Twisty Noodle.

 

I made the basket the size of a paper plate, and I increased the size of the eggs as well (using a copier, and the maximize/minimize feature).  I colored them using both markers and colored pencils.

 

The basket used two paper plates.  The basket picture is cut in half so that the handle is on the back plate.  The front of the basket is on the front plate.  The front plate has been cut in half, glued together for additional strength, turned around so the front faces the front of the others, and then taped to the back so that it forms a pocket.  I hope that made sense.  I apologize for not taking pictures.

 

 

It can now hold the eggs.

 

 

For a finishing touch I made grass to "hide" the eggs.  It is laminated green construction paper cut in half, and then the tops are cut irregularly to make it look like grass.  I kept the length of the cut about the same, but I alternated the angle of the top of the grass to make it remotely more realistic.

There's a chocolate bunny at the end for that very special last day!