Freebie posters and a new TpT item.

Well I am recovering from my surgery and so far so good.  Thank you for all the well wishes, positive thoughts and prayers! I was able to talk my husband into letting me play around on the computer instead of just being still.  So I had fun making some inspirational posters. I hope you like them. Just click on the picture.  

I was also able to finish a beach theme teacher binder/notebook for my little store.

My husband was kind enough to DVR TLC's Craft Wars.  So I'm off to watch it and see if it is any good. Good ol' Donna Martin, I mean Tori Spelling is hosting so it will be interesting.

Monday Made It 4 ~ Welcome Wreath

It is Monday Made It again at 4th Grade Frolics!  I should be recovering from my surgery today.  So, I decided to make my wreath prior to my surgery since I don't know how I'll be feeling.  Making this was actually relaxing and it was great to get to put something together while my son was at Preschool.

I was inspired by Tessa at Nine & Sixteen to create this wreath.  There are so many creative and cute ones, but I was drawn to the pink.   I'll be hanging this up next to our classroom door.  I followed Tessa's tutorial (minus the floral wire, I used thread I had).

Here are the materials I used. I did use pink polka dot ribbon from the Dollar Tree it isn't pictured here. The tissue is from the dollar section at Target. Oh, and I didn't need that much paper.

It was pretty easy after I got my "practice" paper flowers done. Those got tossed in the trash. Then, I got better as I went.

Since my wreath is rather small it didn't take to long to get it covered. Now, for my Welcome Sign. I used some scrap book paper and printed out my welcome and used it to frame the word.

Well I think I have to make the sign a wee bit smaller but overall I'm happy with it.  I'll be taking down what I have by my class door and replacing it with this.

Here is my little guy. He would not pose for a picture with his balloon.  The balloon was just too fascinating. Happy 3rd Birthday J! 

Happy Thursday! Grand Opening!

Well I am so happy that I finally got my Teachers Pay Teachers store up and running. Stop by and check it out. Please become a follower.  There isn't much there yet. (There are freebies.) I'm just glad I did it, I was going to do it a year ago but things got a bit busy.  Last year, I was just finishing my Masters and we were getting the diagnosis on my son.

Here is my first product up for sale.  

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Lorena-Reimann

As always, there are some bumps in the road.  So, now I'm going in for surgery tomorrow.  Three years to the day I went in to get induced for labor.  This time it is for a hysterectomy.  My husband says I'll no longer have an "oven."   I'll be happy when it is all over but it doesn't sound to pleasant.  I am on here trying to keep my mind off of it.  Any positive energy or prayers are greatly appreciated.

Also I have a craft I made for Made It Monday on 4th Grade Frolics (blogger isn't giving me a chance to link pages, grrr) but I'm not sure I'll be able to post it.  I'll see how I'm feeling. 

Monday Made It - Paint Chips - Help

It is  Monday Made It once again.  Come on over to Tara's 4th Grade Frolics and join in the fun. This week I decided to take some more Pinterest inspiration and work with paint chips.  There are some great paint chip art projects out there like these.

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I decided to go with something a little more practical which is using them to keep track of my students' logins and passwords for different sites we use.  This past school year, I just used index cards and a ring to hold mine together. I thought to add more color I could use the paint chips and ribbon.

 If you have more than three sites the students use there are paint chips with more color sections.  Also, I have to get more of them to make a class set.

I know you can just use a spreadsheet or a simple word document, but when you have to travel to the computer lab and the kids don't bring a folder with them I have found this to be effective.  You have the logins at your finger tips.  The students can easily find their own too.


I have a request for help.  Does anyone know what format to save a Publisher file in, so that whoever downloads it can edit it?   I had a request for my freebie to be in a format so the user can edit the document for their use.  Any ideas?  Thanks!

Pencil Sharpener - Saving My Sanity

I have had a tough time with electric pencil sharpeners.  A year ago, I had back to back sharpeners burn out on me.  When it did work, the students would complain that it was only partially sharp, or they would break with their first stroke of the pencil.


This year, we didn't go through a whole lot, however, I had students waste time, because they wanted to use their lead pencils or their personal pencil sharpeners.  


Well. I don't know why I waited so long to try this wonderful tool.  I was sent a Groovy Green pencil sharpener, from Troy Decoff of Classroom Friendly Supplies to try out, and... guess what? I finally found the only sharpener I will ever use in the classroom.  No more motor burn out, no time wasted with refilling of lead pencils, gone are the days of sharpening with a "little cute panda bear"  pencil sharpener.

I decided to get "The World's Best Pencil" Ticonderoga and test it out.  You can see it is so amazingly sharp, and ready for use.

This sharpener is quiet and easy to use. (It is, virtually green, since it's a manual crank)  I'll be using it to stock up on my sharp pencil basket when we start up again this August.  


If you get one it will be one of the best classroom tools you invest in.

My Style - Teacher Binder Freebie

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I have seen awesome binders on blogs and Pinterest, but I wanted to make something that had a pop of color and had flowers. 

I got some awesome clip art and some new fonts I was playing with and I thought I would make some dividers for my teacher binder. 

But first my inspiration was:

Kindergarten Works post on Binder Basics

Beyond the grades 

Tales of a Teacherista

Click on the image below and feel free to use these if you like.  Any feedback would be wonderful too.

The font is Elizabeth Skinny.
 The fabulous flowers are from Apo Design on Etsy.

Monday Made It - 2

Another Monday to show off my craftiness or lack there of.  I am linking up to  Tara at 4th Grade Frolics is having a Monday Made It linky party. 

Well I took a stab at making a sign for my classroom. I saw this cute quote on Pinterest.

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I thought I would try some more painting and Mod Podge. Things were looking great until I figured out I was using a paint brush that was a bit too big for what I needed.  Well I said, "oh heck" and thought of this picture.

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Well maybe that is too dramatic but I do think it looks better if you squint and tilt your head at a 45 degree angle (from 5 feet away).  

Anyway this is the final product minus ribbon, I have yet to make a trip to Micheal's or Jo-Anne's.  It is on my long to do list.  I'll be hanging this right next to my door so the students can appreciate it every time they exit the classroom.

Currently

I am linking up with Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for her June Currently! Go on over and join up.  I am so in love with her blog design.

Monday Made It!

Tara at 4th Grade Frolics is having a Monday Made It linky party.  I decided to join in and show a project you could do for Father's Day.  We are always out of school before Father's Day so I don't do a craft with my students for the occasion.  I was able to make one with my little boy for his Daddy.

1. First I painted a piece of wood I had around the house.

2. I found a picture of my little guy and some clip art.  Sorry the pictures aren't the greatest.  The call out bubble says, "When I need help I just call my... Super Dad."  I got the Super Dad clip art here.  I used Mod Podge, hence the shine.

3.  My little boy helped out with providing his hand print.  

4.  I went ahead and painted DADDY on the space that was left.  I need to add a ribbon for hanging but I thought it turned out pretty well.