Washington's Birthday

Whenever a fun craft is needed, Pinterest is our go to!  For George Washington's birthday, I searched the site and found a cute craft that required only a few materials...

 ... to turn into these!

First, I prepared the materials to make assembly easier for students.  I created a hat template (click here for free download) and copied it onto blue construction paper, cut the coffee filters in half, and pre-cut the yellow and blue construction paper for the shirt.

I didn't want them to turn out too "cookie cutterish" so I gave students a blank sheet of white paper and had them draw a circle for the head.  Then, a picture of George Washington was shown to the class so students would have a reference when drawing his facial features.  Don't forget the red rosey cheeks!

After students cut out the head, the rest of the pieces were passed out.  Students cut out the hat, folded their coffee filter in half, and created fringe on each end of the strip of yellow construction paper (I modeled how to do so).  Lastly, students glued all their pieces onto black construction paper.  They turned out so well I wish I could show you each and every one!!!

To extend the activity, the class read a one page biography on George Washington available from SuperTeacherWorksheets -if you are a member.  After reading it as a class, students were asked to create a bubble map of at least 10 facts from the text.  Then, students took their ideas from the bubble map and turned them into sentences to form a paragraph about George Washington.  Their papers were taped to the bottom of their portraits and we displayed them in the class.

College Ready Crayons

One day while pinning, I came across this fabulous idea titled From Crayons To College.  The teachers I work with also liked the idea, but wanted to tweak it so students could be more personal with their college readiness goals.  I created a crayon template (for free download at the end of this post) that allowed space for writing and gave students the sentence starter To be ready for college, I will...

They ended up turning out really cute!  Here are some of the final products:

We decided to display these within the room instead of on a bulletin board.  The crayons were hung traveling in curves across our wall starting "from crayons" and going "to college."  I wish I had a better picture to show, but since it spanned from one side of the room to the other it was hard to capture it all in one shot!

Click here for the free crayon template!

Fact Family Butterfly

To help students with their fact families, we made Fact Family Butterflies!  

 For this project we used addition and subtraction fact families, but multiplication and division fact families would work just as well! To begin, all you need is colored construction paper and the butterfly body template.  

 Click here for the body template!

First, write the numbers of the fact family on the lines provided on the butterfly's body.  Then cut out the body.

Next, trace your hand four times on the construction paper.  Then cut them out.

**Make sure that when students trace their hands, their fingers are NOT spread apart.  Keeping the fingers close together creates a better sized area for writing the fact family number sentences.**  

Dedicate each wing to a single fact family equation using the numbers on the body.  Once all four equations have been written on the wings, glue the butterfly together!

A Little Side Project

After the mural frenzy that occurred at my work, the assistant principal saw what I could do and asked if I would be interested in painting a mural in her daughter's room.  Her family would be going on vacation for two weeks and she wanted me to complete it during that time so it would be a surprise for her daughter when they returned.  She explained to me that her daughter wanted a beach themed mural and gave me a few ideas as to what she would like.  

 

When I first saw the wall where she wanted the mural, I was a bit intimated.  There were two windows taking up most of the wall space and blue paint was sponged along the bottom half of the wall.  But once I planned it out and began, it started to come along...

 For the background, I used paint with primer in it so it would completely cover the sponged blue paint.  Paint samples used for accents and everything else since they were a sufficient amount of paint.

Besides the pink sign still needing the words Surf's Up painted on it, the mural turned out better than expected and the girl loved it!

Murals, Murals, and More Murals

The principal at the school where I work decided the addition would benefit from more murals to help cover the bare white walls.  It became a community project where parents and staff came together over the weekend to paint murals that were drawn ahead of time.  Using a bunch of donated paint and a couple of Sharpie markers, here are a few of the murals I hand drew and helped the volunteers paint:

Our library is located in our technology lab so painting a computer reading a book was a perfect fit!

Our school abides by a RESPECT motto (Responsible, Engaged in Learning, Successful, Peaceful, Enthusiastic, Committed to Quality, Team Player) so I created the Chica Chica Boom Boom tree with the words from the motto falling from it.  It is probably my favorite piece out of the bunch!

My First Mural

We recently had an addition added to the school where I work.  The tech teacher asked if I would paint a mural in her classroom to help liven up the walls.  She shared her idea with me and I went to work.  The first step was to paint a castle across the entire back wall.  I decided to paint the windows of the castle using chalkboard paint so that different 'tech' images could be placed on them throughout the school year.

 The focal point of the mural is a dragon hanging over the middle of the castle.  The dragon is our school mascot and our school colors are teal and black so I used these colors to paint the creature.

 Once finished, it was a dramatic addition to the computer lab.  I could not be more proud of it!

My new endeavor...

I was stumped as to what to get my wine loving best friend for her birthday, so I thought Why not make her a fancy glass?

I went to the dollar store and found a wine glass of nice quality.  Then, went to the local craft store and bought some glass enamel paint and rhinestones to give it some bling.  I painted polka dots all over the glass, baked the paint to the glass in the oven as instructed, stuck on the rhinestones, and VOILA!  I had a fabulous present to give my friend for about $5.  

And that's where it began...

A co-worker of mine saw it and requested that I make her a set to give her bridesmaids for her upcoming wedding.  Using her wedding colors, this was the end result:

Another co-worker saw these, and asked if I'd make a set for HER wedding...

(Her fiance loves the Denver Broncos hence the wedding colors!)

Then a friend of mine asked me make a set for her wedding as well.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of all of them completed, but here's a picture of one:

This lead me to try and conquer my next big step- to have a booth this summer in our local street fair selling them!!!  I've sent in my application, so we'll see how it all turns out in a couple months!