Dog Theme Classroom Cozy Floor Area

If you have room n your classroom for a comfortable and cozy floor area, you can continue the dog theme there.  You won't have to spend a lot, either. My students love this area of "The Doghouse."

I bought the black and zebra print dog bed at TJ Max for $22. It's a large dog bed and the kids love it. Two students can comfortable read on it and they love that it's got an embroidered bone on it. (Retail $75 - how could I not buy that?)  

The red and bright blue floor pillows are floor pillow inserts from Walmart. I was going to sew pillowcases for them that would be long-wearing and easy to bring home and throw into the washer and dryer and it just CAME TO ME - this idea - in the bathroom towel section. I pulled a large towel off the shelf and folded it over the floor pillow - TA DA!  I came home and folded the towel in half and sewed down the sides, inserted the floor pillow insert, and shut the opening with double-sided toupee tape ( from Sally Beauty - that stuff has a thousand uses)  Now, they are big, they match the room, they are sturdy, and economical. They're very easy to pull off and run through the laundry cycle.

I bought the light brown dog at Walmart for $10.  (I've since received another as a Christmas present form a student.)  The dark brown dog is on loan from a student - she wanted to add to the collection.

I found this beagle second-hand. They have all different breeds on Amazon. He's sturdy and the kids love him. I have a teacher-friend who has a German Shepard stuffed dog in her room she found for $4 at a church rummage sale and it's German Shepard-Sized!

I also have two ultra-fleece throws with a dog print on them that are well-loved.

When the students go to this area they know they can have one pillow, rug, fleece throw, or dog. They go by the rules. They name the dogs, too.

We also have a dachshund that plays a song when you push a button and the tail wags and the ears go up and down. They work hard to earn a "song break" from that little dog.

So, keep and eye out and add to your collection. Kids love to have a place that they love to get on the floor and read or research or do math games.

Zebra Table

Don't you love when some creative idea just hits you and you make something - it doesn't take long, and it comes out just like you want it to?  It happened here.  My daughter has the Animal Print Classroom that you see on this blog and I have the Dog Theme Classroom. I was helping her the other day and she has this system with the student names on sticks. As the students come in the door, they pick their stick up off the table and put it in the cup for lunch from home, or the one marked Cafeteria. The table was bare last year, so I'd picked up the zebra fabric and was going to just cover the table that day....

When I placed the fabric on the table, I just "Saw" him in my mind - Zeke, Zeke the Zebra, we named him.  I pulled up zebras in Google images on my phone, grabbed black, red, and green sharpies and a white poster board. About twenty minutes later I was double-stick taping Zeke's head to the wall just behind the table outside the classroom door.

I used black yarn to tie the fabric to the back legs - this gave him more of the illusion of being a zebra. The table legs near the wall didn't seem to need it. We had a little piece of furry zebra fabric that hadn't been used yet, so I cut Zeke a tail and wrapped the end of it with several short pieces of black yarn. Then I used heavy-duty double-stick tape to "Pin the tail on Zeke." lol.

Isn't he cute? It's like he's looking back at the students each morning to see what they are doing....

Now, I am going to have to make a dog table for my classroom. I will share with you as soon as I can get it done.  Maybe a dalmation....maybe a beagle......

Dalmatian Costume

Since my new classroom is dog-themed also, I am just adding to the fun decor that came with me. In going through costumes the other day, I came across this flannel dalmatian costume I'd made my son, Ger, when  he was little. So, I brought it to school and put it on a a stuffed doll and sat it in the director's chair - pretty cute, especially since we are approaching Halloween. ( I haven't decided if he will stay after halloween or not, but I think he will.)

This can work for many different classroom themes. Think about your theme and if there are costumes that would easily work into your creative decor.  An animal-print theme could have any of the jungle animals costumes to match, like the do-it-yourself lion costume I just saw on Pinterest.  A Harry Potter-themed class would be easy to find, buy, borrow, or make one of the characters, muggle or otherwise. Dr Seuss classrooms are big now and that would be fun!

Even if your classroom doesn't give you any ideas for a costume to match your theme, you could dress up a stuffed doll as a mad scientist for the science section, or a colonial girl, or something to match the book you might be reading.

I'd love to hear about your ideas! Your students will notice your imaginative ideas and even come up with their own. My students pull this little dog up into their small groups so he won't be left out......

How's Your Weather?

When students come into the classroom in the morning, they pick up the clip with their name on it and clip around the edge of the "How's Your Weather?" chart. This gives teachers a heads-up on their emotional weather. Equally important, it gives each student a quick opportunity to self-assess the climate they are starting the day in.

Most days everyone is on SUNNY or CLEAR - that's why I made them larger and on opposite sides of the chart. The other choices usually get noticed so teachers can go by and (in a few seconds) have a little conference:
"I see that you're STORMY today..."
"Yes, everyone was rushing around at home this morning. It made me cranky."
"Everyone has mornings like that sometimes. I hope you can just go from here and get SUNNY."

Sometimes students move their clip to a better emotion later in the day but it's mostly just a morning thing.

At the first of the school year these choices were put on a whiteboard space and students would write their name on the board, but I knew there had to be a more efficient way, so this is what I did:

I drew up a plan. I cut posterboard for each area and glued it to a posterboard. I put the question in the center since there's no clip-action there. The last thing was to put duct tape on all four sides all the way around. It's folded back halfway. This was to reinforce the poster where the clips will be moved so it will last. The poster is now on the whiteboard with big magnet clips.

YOU can make it to match your classroom theme or colors easily. Attach a photo here and share because we would all love to see them!

Paleo Pumpkin Cake in a Mug

I haven't had a Ghirardelli Dark chocolate chip in so long.... and I was thinking about how good one of those would be this morning....with 2 slices of uncured bacon and a mug of coffee...... but I'd promised Ger - no chocolate chips in the house. So, I made a Pumpkin version and I didn't miss those chocolate chips at all!  We are gearing up around here for Central East Regionals 2013,  and I will be a sugar-free spectator, in my Crossfit Countdown shirts - - - can't wait!

I rubbed coconut oil inside my big coffee mug.
I added the dry ingredients and STIRRED:

1/2 cup almond meal
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
(I stirred with the fork I was going to eat it with)

Then add the wet ingredients:
2 TBSP local honey ( if you use raw honey, heat it a bit first; Pure maple syrup or agave will work, too)
2 drops real vanilla
1 egg
3 TBSP pumpkin (from a can - this is what makes it so moist)
1 heaping TBSP dried goji berries (optional; dried cranberries would be nice, too)

I stirred again, making sure I'd stirred all the almond flour up off the bottom of the mug.

I put it in the microwave for 1 minute and 50 seconds.

Dessert for one. Or, breakfast, with bacon and coffee! 

This Story's a Handful

First graders were working on finding the problem and solution involving the main character from stories they'd been reading.  We took this information and applied it to writing our own short stories.

I had them draw around their hand "as if it were a big puffy Mickey Mouse glove." Then they cut the hand out and turned it sideways.

next they directed their imaginations to the task of making up a story with a MAIN CHARACTER, a PROBLEM, and a SOLUTION. They were to share their ideas with the students at their table.

Then I showed them the pink poster with the directions:
1.  BOX the main character.
2.  UNDERLINE the problem.
3.  CIRCLE the solution.

We shared them with each other and did tiny illustrations. We put them in the hallway for a while, but not long, because the 1st grade Talent Pool students couldn't wait to take them home!

I think our stories were much more interesting than if I'd just said, "Write a short story."

Make Themed Word Searches

As a year-end review activity, I asked these first grade to students to think of BIG words that they were certain they could spell correctly.  I passed out Post-It notes and had them generate lists together at thier tables.

While they were busy with that, I taped down a big piece of grid paper (cut from a roll) at each table.  Their curiosity was stirring now!

I took them to the carpet and had them get our 3 class ipads and open  a word search ap in the "vocabulary games" app folder. We talked about word searches and how you hint for WORDS on the LIST that are hidden in the GRID....... They are started saying, "WE are making a word Search!" and "That's what the big graph paper is for!"

We talked about all the ways  that words can be hidden - vertical, horizontal, forward, backward, and "crooked" which means diagonal.

The last thing we talked about was how the words go in first; THEN the empty boxes are filled in with random letters... " but not just a bunch of Qs in a row." ( This is such an entertaining class!)

They went back to the tables and attacked the project! One of them asked what we were going to do with them when we finished. They thought we could trade them with other tables and work each others. I said that was one great idea, but we could also choose to have the second graders find their words..... I got a resounding "YES!"

The second graders enjoyed them, but immediately wanted to do their own word searches. (That's what I wanted them to say.....) I told them they could take it up a notch since they were a whole year farther along in their education.

I explained that the first graders worked in groups of 4 to make a word search of BIG words, but THEY were going to choose a non-fiction book from the Jr Greatbooks collections and make a word search with important words from their book choice. I gave them Post-it notes and half a sheet of graph paper each.

                                                       They attacked their project, too!