Teacher Tips on a Snow Day

Way back in the summer I {Jami} told Angie that I would do a “Back to School” guest blog with a few of my favorite tips and tricks for teachers.  Somehow this year has flown by and I’m just getting to it on this snow day.  I’m sure all the teachers out there can agree with how fast the year zooms by once it starts!?!

Here are a few of my favorite tips and tricks I use in my classroom.

1.  New Student Bags

I’m sure all the teachers out there can agree that getting a new student in the middle of the year always comes at the most stressful times.  I can speak from recent experience—last Friday as I was ready to leave school I got an email that I would have a new student starting Monday. 

For once, I was not trying to pull everything together making sure that I had all the things I needed for a new student—the name tag, lunch number, birthday candle for our display, labels for folders, desk plates, spelling folders, take-home folders, notebooks, beginning of the year information notes, brochure about our classroom…the list could go on and on.

This year I planned ahead to try to save myself time in the long run by making new student bags.  This summer when I was getting everything ready for my classroom I made 5 extra of everything.  I made a baggie for new students and numbered them 1-5.  As I organized things for my classroom, I put the extras in these baggies (in preparation for students that would arrive mid-year).

Now, I’m able to just pull my “New Student #1”baggie out of my cabinet and I’m ready to go.  All I have to do is add his/her name of the supplies.  This simple trick has made getting a new student so stress-free!!!

2.  Fun Fonts

I LOVE fun, cute fonts!  I especially love DJ Inkers.  Often times I use CDs that have been purchased by my school and download clipart and fonts.  My favorite is Super Fontastic.  You can also download fonts and clip art off of their website.  You can either purchase the whole Super Fontastic package or just one font.  One of my favorite fonts is below. 

Although their fonts are not free, it is well worth it if you are a teacher that makes lots of your own things—and I do!  I pretty much use these fonts for all of my worksheets, newsletters, signs, bulletin board letters, and much more.  It is such a simple touch to make everything so much cuter!

3.  Organizing Construction Paper

I always struggled with finding a good way to organize construction paper.  Once you open it out of the package it's always a mess.  I stumbled across this tip from a friend when I went into her classroom and she had her construction paper drawer open.  What a brilliant idea that I had never thought of--organize construction paper in hanging folder in a file cabinet.  Luckily I have a big cabinet that has a couple of pull out drawers.  All I had to do was insert a file cabinet metal frame, get out some hanging files, and get to sorting.  It's so simple, and yet it makes it so quick and easy to get to the construction paper that you need.

4.  Bulletin Boards

Let me just start by saying that I love bulletin boards!  For some of my fellow teachers, this is one of the most dreaded tasks.  For me, this is one of my very favorite things about being a teacher.  I love coming up with creative ideas and thrifty ways to create great displays to showcase what’s going on my classroom.  It’s kind of my creative outlet and stress reliever some days.

Use fabric.

I always use fabric on the back of my bulletin boards instead of paper.  The teachers out there can agree how difficult it is to measure the paper just right—still it somehow never fits the whole bulletin board and you have to piece it together to cover the whole board—and it impossible to get it stapled up without the paper getting all wrinkled.  I decided to use fabric on my bulletin boards as a suggestion from my co-workers my first year, and I’ve never gone back to paper.  The bulletin boards in my classroom stay the same all year, so it’s easy to put the fabric up and not have to change anything.  I change the bulletin board outside of my door each month, usually based on a holiday theme.  I’ve bought different colors of fabric and cut them to fit my hallway bulletin board perfectly.  Then I use it, take it down, fold it up, and reuse it over and over.

Laminate border.

I always laminate my border.  This is definitely something that takes a little bit of time, but is so worth it!  It makes bulletin board displays looks great, and makes the border stay in great condition to use over and over.  The wavy borders are much more time consuming to cut out.  Because I change the bulletin boards in the hall frequently, I usually try to use the thick, straight borders because they are easier to cut out of lamination.

Organize in baggies.

I keep all of my holiday bulletin boards to reuse in the years to come.  I have found that the best way for me to keep things organized is in baggies.  I make a baggie for the whole bulletin board set.  I put the letters in a smaller baggie and label what it says.  I also fold the fabric and put it in the bag.  Then I roll up the laminated border and include it, too.  Everything I need for that specific bulletin board is in this bag.  It’s so easy to get the bag out and use in the future.

Here's a peek inside of my bulletin board drawer in my cabinet at school:

Make your own letters.

I never buy letters for my bulletin boards and classroom displays.  I’ve decided not to buy these for a couple of reasons—they can be expensive and they never have all of the letters you need.  I make all of my letters using fun fonts like I talked about earlier.  I just increase the font size to fit what I need and print them on colored paper and cut out.  It really doesn’t take much time and it easier in the long run.

Layer wavy borders.

When I do use wavy borders, I like to layer them.  I usually put a patterned one on the outside and put a plain color behind it.  I originally started doing this because I cut my fabric too short and had a gap between my fabric and border.  Now I layer the wavy borders anytime I use it because it just makes displays look that much cuter.

Use tacks.

I always use tacks to put up things on my bulletin board before I staple them down.  It never failed that I would start stapling things on and then halfway through the job, realize that I needed to reposition things.  Then I would have to take it all down, start over, and waste lots of staples and time.  By putting it all up with tacks first, it is so easy to reposition until it looks just right.  I staple it all down, remove the tacks, and voila—everything is put up perfectly in a fraction of the time.

Here are some of the bulletin boards from my classroom.  As I was loading these, I realized I didn't have pictures of some of my all-time favorites, but here are just a few of the ones I've done in the past.  I apologize for the glare on most of the pictures—it’s because I laminate EVERYTHING!!! 

 Back to School Bulletin Board

Fall Bulletin Board

Halloween Bulletin Board

Thanksgiving Bulletin Board

Christmas Bulletin Board

 

Winter Bulletin Board

Spring Bulletin Board

End of the Year Bulletin Board (one of my favorites!)
"Hanging Up Our Favorite Fourth Grade Memories" (sorry it's a little blurry)

5.  Make Your Own Plan Book

As you’ve probably figured by now, I make almost all of my own things in my classroom.  While buying premade supplies at the teacher store is easy, they are usually pretty generic.  I found that it took a lot of time to tailor it to fit what I needed, so I just started making my own stuff.  Two of the best things that I make each year are my own plan book and grade book.  I LOVE them!  I'm going to first share with you about my plan book.

First off, I can not totally take credit for this idea.  Another wonderful teacher in my building originally made this plan book template.  She generously passed it along, and I was able to adapt it to fit my schedule perfectly!  I make these books on legal size paper.  I make everything on the computer, print it, and take it to Office Max for them to laminate and bind.  I have them laminate the cover with a thicker, harder lamination than we have at school.  I then have them use a coil to bind it.

For my plan book, I created the inside pages to fit my specific schedule in the classroom.  This saves SO much time.  With the plan books you buy at teacher stores, you have to write in the times, or use a ruler to divide the boxes to fit your schedule.  By making my own pages it fits my schedule perfectly, includes all of the information I need, and is great way to keep things organized.

I'll have to share my grade book in another post!

6.  Make Your Own Personalized Stationery

If you’ve not yet discovered Vista Print—you’ve got to check it out!  This site isn’t just for teachers.  You can either upload your own design, or pick from their templates.  Vista Print lets you make your own personalized stationery items for virtually nothing.  I made my own postcards that I use for classroom thank you cards.  Teachers, you know how many thank you cards you have to write for all of the little goodies you get and people that help out in your classroom.  I ordered 100 postcards FOR FREE—the only thing I had to pay was shipping (about $7).  Vista Print runs all kinds of deals and varies which products are on special, so check it often.  Also, once you order they will send coupons to you for all kinds of free products.  It’s great!!!

I'll leave you with everyone's favorite...school pictures!  

4th grade student school picture

(Guess with that kind of sweater I was destined to be a teacher.  
Don't worry--I don't wear them now!!!)

4th grade teacher school picture

I hope by passing these ideas along it will give you a new idea or two.  I would love to hear if you have any great things to share from your classrooms, too!

~Jami~