Increasing Students' Thinking...Moving Past Right There Questions in Lower Grades

Click here to get my Bloom's Ladders. The perfect way to increase the rigor in your classroom! The best part? They can be used with ANY fiction text!!

Making Bulletin Board Titles

Happy Sunday! I wanted to pop in quickly and share how I make my titles for bulletin boards. I got several questions about this after posting my vocabulary board. 

For those who asked, the font on this title is KG Shake if Off chunky

Creating titles is super easy! I sometimes use my Silhouette Cameo to cut the letters out, but if you don't have one, don't worry! You can simply type the title in a Word document and print it out. 

Step 1:  Determine what you want the board title to be and the font. I usually open up a Powerpoint or Word document and type out the title to see what it will look like. That way I can see which font I prefer. 

I'm currently working on my evidence board, so that's where the picture is from :)

Step 2: Print it out or cut it out if you are using a cutting machine like the cameo, which I highly recommend! 

Tip! Remember this is going on a board, so it needs to be big! I usually start out at around 300pt. 

Step 3: Chances are if you are making the title bigger, it isn't going to fit on the same paper. Not a problem! Just cut and paste. 

Step 4: Laminate before cutting! Laminating it makes it look like an actual sign, so don't skip this step. 

Step 5: Cut it out. I usually scallop my titles, but this is just my preference. You can leave it or use pinking shears. Be creative! 

Step 6: Place on your boards! If you are working with a cider block wall, I recommend sticking the sign with clear packing tape first before hot glueing if that's how you get your boards to stay. This way you can reposition if the title isn't centered. If you are placing the sign on the paper, use desk tape. It easily comes off and won't tear the paper. 

Tip! Use fun fonts to create your titles! I NEVER use the fonts that come standard in Microsoft Word or Powerpoint. There are millions of gorgeous free fonts all over the internet! My favorites are KG Fonts and Hello Fonts. 

Here are some of my past boards so you can see the different titles. If you want to know a certain font, leave a comment and I'll see if I can remember it :) 

These are from my first grade days :) :)

Hope this helps! Happy Sunday! :)

Life Lately

Hi y'all! Today was scheduled for chapter 5 thoughts on Word Nerds, but that's going to be delayed until tomorrow. It's one of my favorite chapters and I just don't have it in me to write it this late in the day. I promise it will be up tomorrow!

I didn't want to skip the entire day without posting (like yesterday...), so I thought we'd have a little life lately post! :) A lot of these pics come from Instagram...if you don't have Instagram, go download it right now. It's my favorite app! I find SO many great teaching (and other) ideas there! My name is msleslieann01 :)

I organized this monstrosity of an office closet. Now I'm actually able to find supplies. If only my bookshelves would organize themselves. *sigh*

I've been enjoying my summer days with this sweet girl. :)

I discovered the world of agenda planning, in which I talk about more in this post on my Life+Style blog Southern Belle Inspired.

I finished this utterly strange book. Have y'all ever read this? It's told entirely from a 5 year old's point of view. His mom was kidnapped when she was 19 and locked in a shed for 7 years, during which she has Jack, the 5 year old narrator. It's an odd book. Not bad, just strange. Let me know what you thought of it if you've read it before!

Since I've become agenda obsessed this summer, I broke down and purchased an Erin Condren Life Planner. Let me tell y'all, I don't think I've ever been as excited for the Fed Ex man to arrive as I was Wednesday. It was like Christmas morning! Do y'all use the ECLP? I'm so stinkin' excited about it!!! :) :) 

I've watched a billion youtube videos to figure out how to make stickers for it :) 

I instagrammed this pic yesterday and a lot of y'all wondered where I got the chart paper. I purchased it from a local school supply shop called Davies. I've never ordered online, but you can check them out here. 

Apparently I've been living under a rock and have never experienced the Chick Fil A Chicken Minis. Oh my word! Quite possibly the best things I've ever eaten. Seriously. I'm swooning just looking at the picture. 

This display of Harry Potter books makes me happy. That is all. #bestbookever #expelliarmus #yepimanerd

I'm tickled pink over my latest Etsy purchase. These prints from lauraamiss are so pretty. I ordered a set of 4 that show different cities. These two are London and Chicago. Check out her gorgeous work here. 

Remember! Today is Novel Friday in my Christmas in July TpT Sale! You can get my novel guides for Frindle and Tuck Everlasting on sale for 20% off! :) Click here to shop. 

Happy Friday! :)

Classroom Decorating Day 5

Hi friends! I had a workshop during the day today, so I made myself go to my classroom later this afternoon and work. I didn't get a whole lot done, but I did finish my vocabulary (word nerds) board and I got the paper up for the front two boards. I have GOT to make myself go and really work because I have a lot of junk to place and get rid of! Teachers go back around the first week of August, so time is running out! :)

Here's my slim amount of progress, but progress nonetheless! 

The vocabulary board is up! You can read about my thinking behind this board in my Word Nerds book study here, here, here and here. :)

I get a lot of questions about making bulletin board stay on the wall. There are no actual bulletin boards in my classroom except one that is at the end of my white board. I make all the other boards. I have two cider block walls and 2 sheetrock walls. To make the boards stay on the cider block walls, I first use Scotch brand clear packing tape to temporarily hold the paper in place so I can make sure I have them where I want them and that they are straight and even. Then, I use hot glue to secure them in place. I have had one board to fall down during the winter, but that's the ONLY problem I have had with getting boards to stay. Hot glue is great and it also easily peels off so you aren't damaging the wall. I've heard people say they have problems with this method, but it's the only thing that works for me! :)

Look at those sad, empty bookshelves. :( I can't wait to fill them up with good books! My favorite part of teaching :)

Don't mind that extremely crooked line on my 3 column vocabulary chart...it WILL be corrected! :)

This is the cloze activity that is part of the vocabulary introduction that I'm modeling after Word Nerds. 

Oh lordy the front of the classroom! That whale alphabet needs to go since navy and green aren't in my color scheme anymore. Anyways, this is what the boards looked like before...

And now. They still don't have border, which isn't all that bad actually. It's kinda blinding without anything on the boards, but that won't be an issue when I get charts displayed :) Hopefully not anyways! :)

Here's a tip for putting up titles or accents on boards that are on cider block walls. I always use desk tape to place them first and make sure whatever I'm displaying is where I want it. When it is placed where I want it and looks straight, I go back and secure with hot glue. The desk tape is easily removable and doesn't tear the bulletin board paper. :)

Don't forget about the Christmas in July sale happening in my TpT store! :)

Happy Wednesday, y'all! :)

Classroom Decorating Day 3

I am exhausted, y'all! It's almost 9 o'clock and I really just want to take a bath and go to bed, but I wanted to share my progress today since it's finally starting to take shape. Plus, tomorrow's post will be chapter 3 in my Word Nerds book study. Be sure and read about chapter 1 and chapter 2 before tomorrow's post and if you don't have the book, go order it now! You will love it!!! :)

So, I arrived at my classroom this morning and starting putting up this board to kick off my black and white theme.

And then I realized I had no border. I haven't been to a school supply store ONCE this summer! Can y'all believe that?! I sure can't! I'm pretty sure the owners of my local school supply store couldn't either. :) 

Anyways, I went with the intention of purchasing ONLY border, but then I saw this:

Did y'all know they made patterned bulletin board paper?!?! I just had to get some. I mean, right? I could not pass this up! :) 

I was also shocked to discover pocket charts in other colors besides blue. I guess when you don't visit a school supply store in a year, they get new inventory! :) I needed a pocket chart for my word nerds board that I'm creating and really wanted a pretty green or purple, but I ended up with black since it was going on that pretty pink polka dot paper. 

So, after coming in for border ONLY, I left with this! I'm kinda over the chevron craze, but I did really like that pink chart paper! And I thought the black polka dot would work well with my black and white theme. The sentence strips are for my Word nerds board. 

The closest school supply store is about an hour away from me, so once I got back, I started to just call it a day and not return to the classroom, but I decided to go ahead and get a little bit done. I ended up getting 2 and 1/2 boards finished! This one is by far the biggest. It will display our comprehension skills and strategies anchor charts that we are working on during that grading period. Want to see what I'm teaching first? Check out this post. 

I found this lamp on clearance at Hancock's Fabric at the beginning of summer. Isn't it pretty? And that desk calender is from the Day Designer line by Blue Sky for Target. They have the prettiest calendars and agendas right now at Target. Love!

I haven't finished bordering this green board (future evidence board), but I wanted to show y'all how good it looks without any border at all. I'm seriously in love with this paper!

It's coming together! I can't wait to start decorating boards! :) I'll be back tomorrow with a Word Nerds post! :) Happy weekend! 

Be sure and check out my newest obsession, Agenda Planning, on my Life+Style blog Southern Belle Inspired :)