DIY Library Letters

So, I don't know about you, but I am not the craftiest person that has ever walked this planet. I try very hard, but most of the time I DIY, I fail. Except for today, I would call it a success. So trust me when I say this project was easy, it was EASY PEASY! 

I've been wanting to spice up my classroom library, so I thought, why not some cute letters. I did not want to spend a ton of money, so I thought I would paint my own. My body is still on Ireland time, so I patiently waited since 6:30AM for Target to open to go get the letters I needed.

The materials for this project were minimal and cheap. I bought the letters at Target, and the paint and brushes were colors I already had, all previously bought from Michael's (Craft Smart brand).

Paint Colors

Lighter blue: Pool Blue

Darker blue: Turquoise

Lighter green: Ocean Breeze

Darker green: Spearmint

My original plan was to wrap the letters in really cute sparkly washi tape, there could be no failing with that, it would be fool proof. As I was almost finished with the third letter, I noticed that none of the tape was sticking. WHOMP.

Change of plans, I was going to dust off my paint brushes and give painting the letters a try. I wanted them to be somewhat fancy, so I was going to give stripes a try. 

Step #1: I painted the lighter color all over the letters, multiple coats until I couldn't see the wood anymore. This kind of painting I am a fan of because you cannot mess it up, simply paint all over. I let those dry completely. 

Step #2: After the first coat was dry, I put down painters tape in diagonal stripes. I did not measure the spaces, I completely eye-balled them. I then painted the darker color over the open area. I once again did multiple coats to insure there would be a distinct difference in the colors. I let them sit and dry completely.

Step #3: I checked to make sure the paint was completely dry, then I pulled the painters tape off carefully. Then wa-la! My DIY letters were complete!

Believe me when I say, if I can do this, you can too! I hope this helps if you are looking to add a little DIY to your classroom this summer!

Happy painting! :)

New Erin Condren Teacher Planner

I received the most beautiful package in the mail on Tuesday, and if you've ordered from Erin Condren before you can spot her beautiful packaging from a mile away! My new Teacher Planner finally arrived. I was tracking it on my phone, and it must not have connected to the UPS online system because it said it hadn't even been to get it tracking label on, so long story short, it was actually a surprise to me when it was sitting on my door step! 

I have a confession to make. I have not always used the EC Teacher Planner. My first year of teaching, let's be honest, before I knew what I was doing, I had one. I stopped using it half way through the year and switched to one I made my own based off of a sweet blogger's template. That template is what I used all last year, and here I am. I am back to giving the EC Planner a try. I am a little more savvy in making things, so I can't wait to take my old template and make it fit this new planner. I am going to have to come back and compare the two after this year!

My plan for this post is to give you the highlights on the '16-'17 EC Teacher Planner. I am not going to go into all of the details, just what I think are the main parts of it and how I plan to use it.

Enough about me, let's get back to this beauty. I LOVE almost all of the cover options that are available this year! I went with this on right after spotting it. The cover is durable, and will definitely hold up through all of the meetings and throwing into my bag it will see this year. Also, I am obsessed with the fonts this year, as many of us font lovers are!

With the Teacher Planner, I thought I was going to have to purchase some extra accessories, but come to find out I got all of the products above for free with my order! I am SUPER PUMPED about the Date Dots, it saved so much more time than writing in the date for every month, and the colors are really cute!

This planner has a month layout for every month, and it is such a nice way to look at each month at a glance for a quick reference. The Date Dots also pop right from the pages!

After all of the months at a glance, you get to the meat of the planner, the lessons section. This is the part and I still deciding how I am going to use it. I have some labels I am going to put at the top for my subjects and times, but our schedule isn't finalized, so I haven't printed them out year. I don't like my handwriting, so whatever I put in the lined part will by typed, in a cute font, of course. This section of the planner is up in the air right now! Sounds silly considering it is the most important part, but I'll figure it out! 

This is the last section of the planner is the checklist section. I am planning on using this for my grades this year, once again, a new system for me, but I'm going to give it a go! I think I am going to like having everything all in one place!

I am excited to give the EC Teacher Planner another chance! If you have never bought any of the Erin Condren products, I highly recommend you do, her Life Planner is also amazing! Use the link below to go explore the options Erin Condren has!

Erin Condren.

Hopefully you're enjoying your summer break, but if you're like me you're always working and thinking about the next year, happy planning! :)

Summer To-Do List Freebie

I don't know about you, but I am enjoying not getting up at 5AM and having my coffee while watching The Today Show, not at a meeting. I hope you are having a wonderful start to your summer! 

I am in full to-do list mode of all of the things I want to get done this summer before the next school year. Let's be really honest here, the summer will get away from me and I won't finish everything I want to, but I am going to TRY, key word try, to accomplish my to-dos. I have post-its in every planner and on my bed side table, but I will never get what I want done if it not staring my right in the face! 

I am going to organize all my post-it notes with the help of a pretty to-do list, who doesn't love a pretty to-do list? I am going to prioritize my to-dos, following the wise words of Ashley Schroeder to attempt to use time in the best way possible!

Grab the FREEBIE in my TPT store to begin your list making! 

(click the picture below)

I wanted to share a FREEBIE with you to start the summer off right and organized! :) I am off to a 2 week trip to Europe, so I'll be back once I get home! :)

Happy To-Do List Making!

End of the Year Gifts

I am writing you with an empty box of Kleenexes next to me because I had to say good-bye to my 25 favorite people yesterday. Our last day of school was fun and full of laughs and tears.  This class was a special group for me, they are wonderful kids with bright futures ahead of them. I wanted to get them a little something for the end of the year, and keep it on the cheaper end.

This was a two part gift, I got each kid a dry erase board and marker. I went to Lowes and bought one sheet of shower board and had them cut it into 25 even boards. It was very inexpensive because all I needed was one board, and Lowes will cut it for free! I ordered the markers in bulk off of Amazon. I wanted to attach the markers to the board, so I bought really cute, sparkly washi tape form Target!

The second part of my gift was my favorite! My resource teacher gave me this idea. On Monday, I had everyone sit on the carpet in a circle and they needed a clip board and a piece of paper. They wrote their name at the top of the paper. The class' job was write something they either liked, enjoyed, admired, or loved about the person whose name was at the top of the paper. We then passed around the clipboards until everyone, including me, had a chance to write about every class member. I stopped the rotating right before it got back to the owner because I didn't want anyone to see what was written about them until I typed it up.

I made a quick template on my computer and typed up all the amazing things said about each and every one of my students. My heart was full after typing all of them up. The beauty of this part, it was completely FREE! :)

The final product was printed out on AstroBights and laminated for each student! If you would like this template, feel free to email me at crazinessinfifth@gmail.com!

On our last day, I put all of the parts and pieces together and had their gifts on their desks when they walked in. They were so excited to see what people wrote about them, they have never been that focused on something that early in the morning! 

Bonus! My students had the great idea of making the back of their new white boards like a mini yearbook, so we each went around and signed our names on the back of everyone's board, how genius is that idea? I love how creative my kids are!

I hope that this gives you a fun way to personalize end of the year gifts without breaking the bank!

Marshmallow Toothpick Bridges & FREEBIE!

End of the year craziness is in full force! Field trips here, convocations there, y'all know the drill. I wanted to come up with something that would keep my kids engaged for longer than most convocations with fifth graders do, if you know what I am sayin'. 

So, I made my own twist on the classic marshmallow toothpick bridge. Students were going to build a bridge to go across two kleenex boxes using only toothpicks and marshmallows. Set up was easy-peasy. All I bought was four bags of mini marshmallows and toothpicks, all from my favorite store, TARGET! :)

I broke my class up into 8 teams and they worked together to build a suspension bridge. They had to first discuss and decide on a design for their bridge. 

Once they drew up their plans, they were handed their marshmallows and toothpicks and begin engineering and building their bridges. Each group was different and unique. Hearing them talk while they built their bridges was the best part. They were able to go over and make sure their bridge was long enough to rest on each kleenex box. I did not allow them to test their bridges with the coins. 

Once we cleaned up the stickiness that the marshmallows became, which was a MESS, it was time to test out these very creative bridges. 

My literacy specialist popped in and actually got a picture of me in the middle of our bridge testing! (Weird seeing myself on my phone without it being a selfie!)

Of course, this couldn't be a successful activity without the content. Students definitely used their STEM brains, but I also used this activity to review some of the math skills we learned this year! After we recorded all of the data on the board, it was time for the students to analyze the data by finding the mean, median, mode of the number of pennies held by each bridge. 

This was such a fun activity for the end of the year! If you want to give it a try in your classroom, click HERE to get the student book I used for this activity in my TPT store!