Back to School Project- Chalkboard Signs

Good morning! I have a fun project to share with yall today, and it's another one of those cute, back to school things that you can do from the comfort of your living room. :)

Every year we make scrapbooks for our kids. These turn into a HUGE project and end up taking a lot of time and a lot of money, but that's where the inspiration for this project came from. I always love having a first day of school and end of school (NOT last day, because we send the scrapbooks home a couple days early!) and these signs help commemorate that.

This project can be as simple or as difficult as you want it to be. The best part is that it's a chalk board... so if you mess up, you can do it again!

Here's what you'll need:

• chalkboard signs- I got mine at Walmart for about $5 each, and I have seen them there in the craft department very recently, but couldn't find them on Walmart's website! These are from Amazon and look really similar.
• Chalkboard markers- These are the ones I have, and they have really bad reviews on Michael's! I love them so I don't know why those people are so angry. They've lasted a while, too, since I use them on my kitchen chalkboard every week to write out our calendar.
• Mr. Clean Magic Eraser- This one is super important! This is the only thing I know of that will truly clean chalkboard marker (which is really more of a paint if we're being honest) off without leaving some kind of shadows or smudgies behind. Teacher Tip: These things are great for cleaning EVERYTHING! I like to buy the off brand ones at Rite Aid for a dollar and they work just as well. :) 

That's it! I made two signs: one that says "1st Day of Kindergarten" and one that says "End of Kindergarten".  Here's how they turned out! I promise to add more pictures when I get into my classroom next week and pull these out of the closet:

(Don't you just love that kinder outfit???) 

These were so popular this year that they got passed around the grade level for my friends to borrow! A few people were wondering how I learned to make lettering like that, and honestly, it's just lots of years of doodling and practice. And believe me, I used that Magic Eraser to re-do these signs about 5 times each! You could do block letters or bubble letters or letters with little dots on the corners, which are some of my favorites. :)

Even if you don't take pictures that need these signs, these are a really cheap way to decorate and I'm sure all the creative teachers out there could find tons more ways to use these. Let me know if you do!

It's O Fish ial!

Remember the other day when I shared this picture with you, and told you I had a plan for them??

I got started on my project today and had to share it! This is a project my team found on Pinterest last year, and it is honestly one of the cheapest and cutest things for meet the teacher, if you ask me. I put these goldfish packs out at Meet the Teacher night, along with a folder of information for the parents to take home and some forms for parents to fill out. Here's a peek at how the project turned out last year:

All you need for this is:

• Individual packs of goldfish crackers. I highly recommend buying these at Sams or Costco for about $8. Here are the ones that I bought.
• hole punch
• scissors
• cardstock or regular printer paper
• cheapo gift ribbon from Dollar Tree or the grocery store

If you spend any time on Pinterest, you'll come across tons of different labels for this project. Personally, I thought this one from First Grade Blue Skies was the cutest, and it's completely free! She has other grades available on there, too!

You just print out the labels onto your favorite cardstock or printer paper. I wanted these to be sturdy, so I highly recommend using cardstock rather than regular paper. If you do use regular paper, I would glue these onto construction paper, but that will be way more work!

After printing the labels, cut out the circles to the size that you want. I didn't feel like cutting out each little bumpy, so I left a small amount of white around each one. If you have a large circle punch, this would really cut down on the time for this project!

When you're done, punch a hole in the top of each circle and the very top corner of each snack bag. You don't want to make a hole where the actual crackers is, or they will get stale! I intend for mine to look just like the ones above from last year, but I'm using lime green ribbon to tie them all together this year. I thought the green would compliment the orange bag and border, while matching some things in my classroom as well!
The best part of this project (besides being cost effective, hello!) is that you can make these way ahead of time, put them back in the box, and stow away until the day your kids come to meet you. These would be really cute for the first day of school as well!

What do you do when your kids come to Meet the Teacher?!

Back to School Shopping

Hello and happy Thursday!
I know it's summer vacation, but I spent the entire day at my school for a training, and I am officially in BTS mode. My guest room is begging for school to start:

When I was first starting out in kindergarten, I had no idea what to do to get ready for the upcoming school year. Now that I have a few years under my belt, I wanted to share some of my purchases from this summer! I typically will buy things slowly so as not to break the bank, but this year I went all out in about a week. Here's what I found:

The School Box

Every summer, I spent about $30 at The School Box. It's the best teacher store in the metro Atlanta area, and the only place I know of around here where you can buy individual packs of construction paper! Be still my heart. Anyway, here's a peak at some of my finds

Name plates, birthday crowns, special stationary for my "About Me" letter to parents, and person die-cuts for our special beginning of the year project!

Walmart/Target

This is where I pick up the folders I use for my take-home folders in my classroom. You MUST get the vinyl folders, people! Most of these make it through the year, and I always have a few extra on hand for new students and the occasional broken/torn folder. I buy the non-name brand versions of these, because I don't want logos and a lot of stuff on the cover. I actually bought out all the ones they had at my Target, then went to Walmart for the rest! They're typically 50 cents each.

Staples

This was a new spot for me, and I went specifically for these folders. Every year, I try to find these at the cheapest place possible, and I knew 15 cents each was a great deal! Just a note- there is a 30 count max on the fifteen cent price, so bring someone along to buy the others you're definitely going to need. I use these for meet the teacher night and curriculum night, and I send them home for the families to keep both times. That's why cheap is essential.
Teacher Tip: I purposely use colors for these folders that I don't use in my classroom. For instance, we have purple take home folders, and red art folders. I wanted to make sure these stood out as being just for meet the teacher and curriculum night.

Target Dollar Spot

Like so many other teachers on summer vacation, I went a little crazy at the Target Dollar Spot... I may or may not have gone four times in one week. It was mayhem! And every day I found different things.
Teacher Tip: If you don't see something out in the dollar spot that you have seen other teacher buying recently, ask someone from the store to look in the back! We found a whole slew of Dr. Seuss stuff back there.

I bought out all they had in these bins! I wish I had gotten there sooner!

EVERY SUMMER my teammates and I clear out the dollar section's Dr. Seuss supplies. They always come out first thing in July. We use them as presents for Dr. Seuss's birthday in March!

My kids LOVE these pointers, and they're much cheaper from the dollar section than from teacher supply stores!

Okay, this cost more than a dollar, but I love it! I can't wait to hang it by my desk.

Sam's Club

Random spot, but there are some great finds here! I am lucky enough that most of my students bring in the requested school supplies, so my go-to here is individual packs of Goldfish crackers. I'll share my favorite meet the teacher project that uses these ASAP! It was about $8 for the box of 24 packs.
Teacher Tip: Pick up a box if you want to have extra snacks on hand for kids who forget.

Scholastic

This one is extra special. My sweet boyfriend bought me 24 of these books when they were a dollar each. Sadly, I don't think they are available anymore, but keep them in mind next May/June when you have lots of bonus points built up! I am giving them as another meet the teacher gift in August.
Teacher Tip: If you don't have a scholastic club account, you must make one this August! I'll do a post about setting up your account when the club reopens in August.