| Miss Vericker's Adventures

Back To School 2014: Bulletin Boards

Monday, July 21, 2014

Oh, hi there, remember me? Miss Vericker's Adventures? Yeah, it's been AWHILE! I have been splitting my time between New York (work, work, work on the new classroom and K activities!) and Rhode Island (beach, beach, beach) with a few weddings, family reunions, and bachelorette parties sprinkled in between.

Anyway, I am currently packing to ship off to Europe with my husband for two weeks, but before I go I wanted to do a blog post about a Back To School tip that is a lifesaver- felt or fabric bulletin boards! WOO HOO!

Below is a photo of my trusty Back To School bulletin board that was a cinch to just tack up the cut-outs and VOILA... bulletin board complete! No fussing with rolls of paper and staples and the inevitable rips or fading. {On this board, I used a wide grosgrain ribbon as a border}

If you are going to mess with fadeless paper over and over again, year after year- why bother?! It is just as easy to head to your local Michael's, Joann's or another favorite craft store and purchase a few yards of felt. For me, the felt was VERY cost-effective- approximately $4-$9 a yard, very comparable to rolls of fadeless paper. This is a one-time purchase that will last for years to come. Another slightly pricier option is to use neoprene fabric (think bathing suit or gymnastic leopard fabric), which looks super cool and has a little more "give".

I fell in love with the vibrant colors of the felt and how they did not fade over the three years I had them up in my classroom. I also got a little snazzy with glitter felt, that also surprisingly, did not lose its sparkle. What teacher doesn't love a little glitter in her life?! As you can see from the photo above, I have some oddly shaped bulletin boards which were a real gem to try to cover. Thank goodness I only had to do it once!

I found that a yard of felt was the perfect size for the width of most of the bulletin boards. Just like with any bulletin board creation, it definitely is a labor of love putting these up. I found what worked best was to first use push pins before I inserted any staples. This was you can keep pulling and stretching the fabric until it is taut. Below are some works in progress.

Once you have the fabric stretched, pulled and wrinkle-free, throw some staples and a border or two on there and TAH-DAH! Your forever bulletin boards are complete. Never again will you be spending hot August days sweating your behind off putting up bulletin boards. PS- I always found that regular old standard staples did the trick but some of my colleagues used a staple gun; either way you're fine.

And here are a few pics of my Word Wall which was not made with fabric, rather I laminated construction paper and used velcro dots as I added each word.

Below is what I did with my leveled library. Each bin was labeled using D-rings. To make the boring shelves POP I laminated the large sheets of construction paper and taped them to the back of the shelves. Alternately, I am sure my precious felt would work as well, it was just too hard for me to reach the back wall to staple so I decided on paper and tape.

Last, but not least, my meeting area was framed on one side by my classroom blocks. Now, I don't know about your firsties, but my could not keep their little paws off of the blocks during learning time! Simple solution- curtains! I bought some inexpensive, colorful curtains from Target and a tension rod and problem solved! PS- I had to carve a little 'C' shaped hole out of the shelves at the top of the block shelf so the tension rod would easily fit. I eventually hemmed these so they were nice and flat and did not drag along my carpet.

PPS- sorry for the horrible "aesthetic" of these photos! They were all taken three years ago in my old classroom before I became good at taking visually appealing pictures of classroom decor!

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Summer Stock Up! FREEBIE ALERT!

Friday, June 20, 2014

The Primary Gal sure was right when she said, "What teacher actually takes the summer off?". Totally true. I am linking up with the Facebook Free For All group and giving away some goodies in the Classroom Decorations category { with a freebie sneak peek at my Math Manipulative Bin Labels thrown in for good measure :) }. Here goes...

In honor of my birthday this week (June 16th- any other Geminis out there?!) I decided to put my birthday bulletin board PDF file on the link up. I use these files along with adorable little cupcake cut outs to create my decorative classroom birthday bulletin board. I find it helpful that these labels are smaller. They can fit nicely on a small cabinet rather than taking up a precious bulletin board that could be used for student work. This file contains the months of the year labels pictured below plus general classroom labels {finished/unfinished work, sharpened/unsharpened pencils, book bin labels, supplies etc} and a little freebie action with a few of my Math Manipulative Bin Labels.

Below is a picture of how I styled the Birthday Bulletin Board.

And here is a sneak peek of my math bin labels. There are 15 labels for you to choose from, each with a clear color photograph of each image.

Link up here with some other fabulous teachers for this terrific summer linky :)

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"A Brave Year of Firsts" EOY Writing Activity

Monday, June 2, 2014

FREEBIE ALERT!

Quickie blog post here for those of you still battling through the last few sweltering days of school... I was cleaning out my "teacher books" today (aka the books I store up on a very high, very out of reach shelf) and stumbled across this FABULOUS book written by Jamie Lee Curtis. I just love all of her social/emotional books; they have such a great message. How did I forget that I bought this book way back when?! So glad I came across this treasure.

This one in particular is so fitting for the end of first grade (sob). I threw together a little response to literature activity to go along with this precious read aloud. You can grab the FREEBIE here,

I read the book to the kiddos and then talked them through a meditation. By "meditation" I mean, they close their eyes and I talk them through the relaxation process. Then I shift their focus to whatever I want them to ponder. I have the say, the quality of work that I get after a "meditation" is remarkably better than when I don't do a meditation. I usually do these with response to literature activities or a writing activity. I have to say, I am pretty proud of the finished (and not quite yet finished!) products.

Oh boy, I sure am going to miss this batch of littles! :(

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Hey, Hollywood! EOY

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Oh my WORD. Who is ready for the year to be OVER? This coming from the girl who bursts out crying as I write reports and put the final "we have cherished our year with xxx. We will miss him/her dearly and wish XXX all the best in second grade" because I know I won't see my littles next year. I am in a weird place of wishing the year was over about 3 days ago, yet also wanting to freeze time and capture every little smile, laugh, story, lunch, morning meeting we are sharing together as a class. For. The. Last. Time. :( Such a conundrum. I think if there was a way to not make reports due at this time of year, it would make everything a zillion times easier. Anyone else out there do narrative reports? 20 students x 5 subjects at a page each = 100 pages worth of narrative reports. Luckily they are due 4 hours (right down to the wire) so I can finally BREATHE and get back to my newest passion- blogging and teacher instagram :)

Anyway, I wanted to share a little lifesaver that has been getting me through reading groups this week... Wait, reading groups this week? I didn't plan any of those! I'm reporting and assessing, DUH! ...'cause that's how every teacher wants to spend the last few moments of the year with their kiddos. YEA RIGHT.

Luckily, this activity kills two birds with one stone. My Hollywood Voices activity practices fluency and gives lists of short vowels, word families, diphthongs, digraphs, vowel teams and 150 sight words which means that while we are playing away, I am secretly assessing them on their mastery of these concepts.

The young readers snatch up a word list (you can differentiate by separating the easy from harder lists) then pick a Hollywood Voice card. They then have to read the word list as that particular character. I guarantee this will have you and your littles rolling on the floor laughing.

Some of their faves:

Aloha (hula dancer)

Opera Singer

Queen of England

Surfer Dude

Firework Words (an excuse to scream)

Some of my faves:

Whisper Words

Stick Out Your Tongue (so, so funny!)

Hold Your Breath

Easy breezy way to have fun and end off the year with your kiddos!

ps- please excuse the lack of cute pics. I just can't right now. I promise I'll be cute and aesthetically pleasing again in 8 days.

pps- yes, I do use my zillion dollar mobile Promethean Board as a stage. That monstrosity has to be good for somethin' ;)

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Five For Friday Linky Party : Gratitude

Friday, May 16, 2014

I am overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude as I write this Five for Friday Linky Party with Doodle Bugs Teaching {thanks for hosting!}. I tried to choose 5 things I am grateful for this week in my post. Yes, some of them are superficial and silly, but the big one (I'lll save it for number five) really resonated with me this week. For me, it was one of those things that made me take a step back and say, "Wow, I am I am one lucky gal". I have to admit, I get this feeling of gratitude and appreciation far less than I should. I am glad I had the opportunity to put things into perspective yesterday and my goal (it makes it a real goal if I put it in writing, right?!) is to try to be cognizant of this feeling more often. Here goes...

I am happy that my tiny feet (size 6.5) can fit into these size 7 children's Michael Kors hot pink jellies. They were only $46! I am thankful for this major, major bargain!

It takes a lot of guts to post a picture like this out there for the world to see! No judgements, please ;)

I am thankful that my colorist has the patience to spend 4 HOURS on my highlights. This bottled blonde takes a heck of a lot of foils (over 150) that then need to sit and "cook" for the better part of 90 minutes. At least it was a yucky night here in New York so I didn't feel bad being cooped up in the salon from 3:15-7pm.

Oh, the price of beauty....

If you follow me on Instagram, you've already seen some of these pictures. Today my class took a field trip to World of Wings in connection with our study of butterflies. We got to take a tour of their indoor atrium that was brimming with over 250 butterflies, most of them exotic breeds flown in from around the world. It was pretty awesome how the butterflies would just fly right up onto our shirts, heads, feet, everywhere! The second to last photo is pretty cool. That moth had a wingspan of over 6 inches (largest winged insect in the world!) and if you look closely, it is camouflaged to look like a snake on the wing tips. I am thankful to have spent a day having fun and breakin' the normal routine with my kiddos.

The first picture is my Jacks from Wednesday afternoon. I went to kick a soccer ball at recess and my foot just flew right through the toe piece. Major, major bummer. But the "gold" lining is that I was able to get a new pair at Lord and Taylor's and they happened to be having a 15% off sale, so got these babies for $23 off! Woo hoo!

The second picture is a "live" photo from my couch as I write this post. I am thankful for the delicious glass of chilled Kendall Jackson (a perfect way to end the say of my aforementioned class trip) and the candle featured in this picture. I love how Papyrus always has delightfully scented candles at jaw-dropping prices. The candle pictured here was less than $13!

Okay, okay enough with the superficial goodies...

Here is what I am most grateful and thankful for this week:

A picture of the view from my new school. Stunning.

{I like to keep some degree of privacy on the blog, not to be secretive from all of you, but to make myself less "traceable" to parents and colleagues}

Yesterday I spent a "transition" day at my new school. Without getting toooo emotional here, I will say that it has been a very difficult process for me to decide to leave my current school. I am someone who absolutely detests change and resists it with great gusto and force. For the first time in my life, I have had to make an "real" adult decision about my career- stay where I knew in my heart was not the best place for me but was comfortable and "known", or make a huge shift and go somewhere new and "unknown". In the past, I have either gotten a promotion to a new school that I could not turn down, or my program was completed and I had to find a new placement.

I put my faith in God on this one and He lead me right to this new position. There were a few moments along the path where I doubted if I was doing the right thing by leaving behind something I had grown accustomed to and dear, dear colleagues turned best friends. Each time I was doubtful, something would happen to make me realize that I was making the right choice by moving on. Visiting yesterday solidified and confirmed all that I knew in my heart (and my head, too!) was right. I visited my new school for the morning and I kept having those "pinch myself" moments where I was overcome by how happy I was to be there. I just felt so proud to be calling this new school my own, my home for good. I even waited around in my car for 35 minutes for the bookstore to open so I could scoop up a new sweatshirt and car decal sticker to proudly rock my new school gear. So, to sum up this "thankful" Five for Friday, I am thankful that I am going to my new school; thankful that they offered me a job as a Kindergarten teacher {yep, I'm heading down to the Kinders!}, I am just . simply. thankful.

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Reading Snapshot: Synonym Chefs!

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Phew! It feels so good to get back to sharing on the blog again. There has been so many fun and adorable activites going on in my room but {like everyone else out there} I've been running around at a zillion miles an hour and blogging is low on the to-do list. Here are some snapshots of our Synonym Chef activity we did last week :) You can grab the freebie {GoogleDoc} below.

Synonym Chefs! Head Chefs at the Culinary Institute of the Lower School

A big 'thanks' to my AT for being such a good sport :)

Culinary training... doing our Write Around the Room Synonym Scramble.

The little SYNONYM CHEFS! To make these hats, you simply need a sentence strip and two pieces of tissue paper. Pinch and scrunch the bottom of the tissue paper and tape onto the sentence strip. Once you have covered the whole sentence strip (you should use two large pieces of tissue paper), fit the strip around the student's head and staple together. Lastly, gather the loose ends of the tissue paper on top and give it a few good staples :)

Each child cut out a 'synonym bun' and picked one word off of our synonym list. They then had to make a synonym swirl with six synonyms along the swirl. Lastly, they were able to decorate (with colored pencils) their synonym bun with frosting and sprinkles! So cute!

The whole group! I gave them a special treat of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal after we finished. Delicious!