Monday Made it: Bulletin board update and my new teacher easel

It's official: only one week until teachers go back to work here! On the bright side, I was able to get into my classroom last week, so I already have a pretty good chunk of my classroom prep done.

I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for another Monday Made it!

I am not a big fan of working on bulletin boards. For some reason, I can never get the staples to go in straight! Anyway, I usually leave them up for a few years in a row to save myself some trouble.

I was planning on using my same boards from last year, but then I thought they could use a little something, enter: double borders!

I watched the video tutorial from KinderCraze, and it really inspired me to try working with more than one border! 

I used hot glue to stick the two borders together, then stapled the two to the board.

I took pictures of the board that I use to display our classroom rules and school-wide expectations. Here is the before:

and the after:

I love how the addition of the pink really brightens up the board!

I was dropping some stuff off at Goodwill the other day when I spotted something I was powerless to resist- a teacher easel!

I have always wanted one, but it was never in the budget until I saw it there for $40!

I forgot to take a before picture, but found this one:

I love everything about it except the primary colors! I stopped by Michael's to get some spray paint and came out with this pretty sea foam green.

I ended up painting the red bins and yellow pieces. It took two cans and felt like ages, but I am pleased with the result!

I decided that I can live with the blue frame until I see if the spray paint holds up on the rest of it. If it does, I will be painting the rest next summer!

That's it for this week, I am really hoping to have my classroom ready to reveal for next week!

In the meantime, check out all of the other great made-its at 4th Grade Frolics and don't forget the TPT best year ever sale!

Classroom Rules Makeover

Summer has officially started and I am ready to show off my first Monday made-it of the year: my classroom rules makeover!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently made the decision to use a little less pink in the classroom and a little more blue/turquoise. For the past two years, my classroom rules and school expectations board looked like this:

 

 

 

I like it, but the pink background looks too dark in the room and I don't like how busy the canvases look.

 

I wanted to re-do the rules, but didn't feel like buying new canvases or peeling off all of the old paper, so I just slapped some Mod Podge on and put the new paper right on top!

 

 

I used a roll of Fadeless paper and it was thick enough to cover the old canvases without showing anything through! BIG time saver! I really like the plain black paper background. The old polka dots were cute, but it looked too busy.

 

 I had the new rules papers printed at Staples so that the ink wouldn't smear when I put the top coat on and I think they look great!

 

The new school expectations:

 

 

 

My new rules:

 

 

I am going to get some blue felt to cover the board with in August. I think that this will really brighten up the room and make everything easier to see.

 

 

 

Now I'm off to the classroom supply store to get some new borders and get my new nameplates laminated!