Creating a Garden, Part 1

Almost one year ago, our school garden became a reality...

 We had some awesome parents, teachers, and students who volunteered their Saturday morning...

 

 

 

Reading Counts Bulletin Board

Our schoolwide Reading Counts competition bulletin board. I named it the Reading Counts Tracker with the subtitle 'How does your class compare?'

Each grade level has there own section. The sections are labeled but the silver letters didn't show up well...

 The class with the highest total points gets a blue ribbon...

I printed names on white paper then stuck them into sheet protectors. The push pins I used to hang them turned out to be convenient blue ribbon holders.

Birthday Pics

I love how my birthday board pictures turned out! I printed them out in 5 x 7 so you can see the kids better. The set I printed out in 4 x 6 seemed so much smaller. The other months are on the other side of my calendar.

Teacher Chair

Poor chair. This picture doesn't do it justice.
A few years ago, when I lived nearby a Salvation Army store, I came about an old director's chair. It was shabby and worn but still had that great sturdy quality that comes with older furniture. I bought that chair for the tag price of $5 and have not regretted a single penny I've put into it. I took out a couple of screws to paint the foot rest with chrome spray paint and reupholster the cushion with red velvet remnant. I painted the body of the chair with black spray paint after a light scrub with sandpaper. Voila! A beautiful chair that you wish you can sit when running around the classroom.

Scrunchy Border

This had to be the most pain-staking activity involved in setting up my classroom this year. Sure, it's cute, but this bit of eye candy took me FOUR days to put together. I may be a little ADD in that I couldn't handle all the cutting, folding, scrunching, and stapling for long periods of time. Seriously though, this was at least an hour each day.

Here is what I did. Maybe you can take it upon yourself to tell me what I can do to shorten the process if I ever wttempt to do this again in the future.
First, cut lots and lots of strips of butcher paper. I made mine five inches wide. Then fan fold ALL of it. It doesn't have to be perfect, but that doesn't mean you won't waste a good amount of time doing it.

Next, scrunch up all of your hard work, flatten it out gently since you want to keep the scrunchy look, then fan fold again. Really, is there an easier way?

My fan folds were about an inch and a half to two inches wide. Then I stapled... and stapled... and stapled... This border was not done by the first day of school. And quite frankly after doing one long side and a bit of a short one, I didn't care anymore.

I stapled into the valley fold right in the middle of the paper about an inch or inch and a half from the last one.
When you eventually finish stapling days later, you will want to even it all out by poofing it up and then scrunch it yet again.

Gumball Machine Bucket Fillers

We do the Fill Your Bucket program at my school. Last year, I used clear cups to hold the fuzz balls that the students receive for kind behavior. I thought that was better than the little tomato sauce cans others were using since the kids could see their progress through the clear sides. I got over that.

As I was perusing the 99 Cent Store Shelves yesterday I came across these.

Three jars for a buck! I couldn't pass that up. My oldest child was with me at the time and he has a thing for gumball machines. So I remembered seeing on Pinterest cute little gumball machines made from a bowl/jar and a terracotta pot. So off to the garden section at the same 99 Cent Store. All I found were these:

They are plastic. On the bright side though, they are ten for a dollar. Can't beat that! So I grabbed enough jars and pots for my class of 32 and left the store $15 + tax poorer.
I also picked up a can of Royal Red enamel spray paint at Home Depot for $4, then commenced getting paint all over myself and the jar lids and pots. I suggest using a pair of latex gloves and a mask while doing this. I didn't- don't tell my hubby. Now, my fingers taste like nail polish remover.
Here's the before:

 

Here's the after:

 

I used an old broom handle pounded into the ground to hold the pots while I spray painted them.

Assembly was easy since my oldest took it upon himself to complete the gumball machines. Notice all the gumball machines he had completed already in this shot. What a great helper!

 

After my little elf finished helping me, I heated up the good old, hot glue gun and went to town burning my finger tips until no fingerprints remained. I found that a ring of hot glue on the bottom of the pot was the best. It held on really well.

This is what we ended up with:

Cute, aren't they? I'm really excited to have something more than those plastic cups and yarn for the Bucket Filling program. The kids really like them, too.
One tip about attaching the glass to the base... Wash the jars! This may be a no brainer to most, and I really did think about doing it. However, I chanced it anyway since my little ones were running around and I wanted to get these done. Needless to say the glue didn't hold and I found myself spending more time than I would have initially had I just washed them.

This is a Test...

Why bother with this blog? I don't update regularly. I rarely find time for anything 'me'. So don't expect much!