For No Reason Whatsoever!

I had a few little things I wanted to post about, but none of it went together.  None of it was terribly important, but I still wanted to blab about them.  So, here you go!  Two oddball items and four Pinterest fun finds.  For no reason whatsoever!

2 Oddball Items!

Clip Art  It has been a very nice weekend so far thanks to state testing.  Not having to plan instruction for the week allowed me to get ahead on my plan book.  I didn't have to bring it home this weekend!  That is a rarity.  I don't know how people get their plan books done during the week.  I always end up doing mine on the weekend.  Perhaps one of the things that slows me down is my penchant for sticking silly clip art in my plans whenever I can.  Take a look below.  These are snapshots of my plans for the coming week. 

Chock full of clip art!  We have the PTO plant sale this week, it's National School Nurse Day, and we have chorus so of course I need some silly singing faces.  Best of all, we have a class trip to Medieval Times on Thursday.  Yeah, I could just type in "Medieval Times Trip," but a jousting knight is just so much more fun! :-D

Here's a poster that hangs in my room. I have my friends come to the board quite a lot during the course of the day.  As they leave, I will always have the class tell them "good job."  A couple of years ago, I realized we needed to change it up a bit.  In looking around my room, I noticed that I had my own little United Nations.  Problem solved!  I sent a note home asking parents to help out.  If another language was spoken at home, or if they knew how to say good job in the language of their culture, I asked them to please send in the spelling and phonetic spelling.  We then add it to this chart.  Now, whenever a friend does a good job, we pick a language of the day to praise them in.    What's nice is that it also honors the various cultures in our classroom and we all learn a little something new. 

4 Fun Pinterest Finds

I've done this before, but it's so much fun I thought I would do it again!  My love of Pinterest has led me to pin a ton of different ideas that I can't wait to try.  I thought I would share some with you.  These are more fun things, not so much teaching/curriculum related.  All the pictures I used are from the original blogs I linked to, not the Pinterest pins.  I figure you have to give credit where credit is due, so I'm sending you right to the sources.  Here are four of my favorites lately.

Love these gummy skewers!  Found these over at Hostess with the Mostess Daily Blog.  The picture is directly from their post.  I think they are just so cute!  In June, my friends go to a local pool club for the day as an end-of-year class trip.  These would be a perfect treat for when we return.  They make so many different gummy shapes, you could probably find some to fit any theme.

Glitter!  This one is just too good, especially if you teach the preschool crowd.  It's not just glitter, it's EDIBLE glitter!  It's table sugar mixed with some food coloring, and then baked in the oven for ten minutes.  Now, I haven't tried it but I sure plan to. The picture looks promising!  Glitter is expensive, so in addition to this being a non-toxic alternative, it's budget friendly!  I found this on the website Planet Pals.  The link will take you to a page that is full of recipes for non-toxic art mediums like puffy paint, paste, etc.

The Countdown  I saw this on Pinterest and pinned it.  When I went back to find the original site, I couldn't.  It just links to Pinterest.  So, with a little more searching, I finally found the original post.  It is from the blog Alpha Mom.  She does a great tutorial on how to repurpose leftover Halloween candy.  I'm thinking I could use this in a different way for my friends.   We have two weeks of school in June, ten days.  This would be cute to put a slip of paper in each cup that has a reward or treat written on it.  Each morning, my friends could just punch out a cup and they get the "prize."  I'm thinking the slips in each cup could have simple things like everyone sits where they want today, 30 minutes extra recess, and things to that effect.  For the full tutorial on how to make this, go visit Alpha Mom!

Maracas!  I so wish I had found this one when I did my post on how to use up all those plastic Easter eggs.  I also wish I had remembered that I pinned this one in time to do it before Cinco de Mayo.  Oh well!  But, I'm going to share it anyway because I think it's really a clever idea.  The blog Made gives a tutorial on how to make maracas using two plastic spoons, a plastic egg, some popcorn kernels, and a little masking tape.  Then, your friends can use markers to decorate them.  Instant maracas!  You don't need to wait until Cindo de Mayo for these. It would be fun to have a basket of these in the classroom for when you sing Happy Birthday.  They would be good for challenges where they shake their maraca when they know the answer.  I think they are just too fun!

 

So, there's my list of unrelated items for no reason whatsoever!