OMG Olivia Marie! The Trouble with Unicorns

OMG, Olivia Marie! The Trouble with Unicorns will be on Amazon for Kindle this weekend.

Cat Themed Classroom Shower Curtain Ideas

This is a beautiful shower curtain that I found on Amazon. It was about $30. I bought two of them for Jessica's classroom. We put one on the wall near the group time carpet. It's colorful and showcases the names of different cat breeds. 

The yellow curtains that I got her last year never were really long enough to block all the playground action out the windows, so I had a plan for the other cat shower curtain, as you can see. I cut off the top row and the bottom row and sewed it on to the yellow curtains, to brighten up the room, AND to lengthen the curtains.  Our black silhouette cats still peek playfully out behind them. Don't they look AWESOME? 

That left the middle two rows of the second cat shower curtain, ( two groups of 4 cats) so I had Jessica pick her favorite section and I sewed a quick hem edge around 3 edges of the banner. (one side edge was already hemmed) 

See below? We hung the "cat banner" outside the classroom door, just over the desk that holds popsicle sticks with their names. They put their name in the cup that ways "school lunch" or the one that says "packed lunch."  I especially love this section because the Norwegian Forest cat looks like Jessica's cat, Mac, and my sister, Annette, has two Ragdolls, Slate and Cocoa.

This still leaves me with 4 more cat faces, and I think they are each going on a floor cushion cover. It's on my very long to-do list. Ha!

Magnetic Student Job Cards

We bought a booklet of animal print large index cards at Hobby Lobby, choose some our favorites, and added student jobs that we'd printed out earlier.
Next, we hard laminated them.
The last thing we did was to put magnets on the back of the Student Job Cards with a hot glue gun.

We put them on the front of the teacher desk, which is turned toward the student desk area.

Each student had the same kind of magnetic card with their name on it, and would put their name under the job they wanted.  Choice is so important for children and many times a student would earn the right to choose first for the next week.

How do you do your Job Cards?

OMG, Olivia Marie! on Sale this week on Amazon

Jack and I visited Olivia Marie recently and I took an iPad so we could read OMG, Olivia Marie! together and have some laughs. It was interesting to see her reactions as we read a book about HER.  She also has a sweet little singing voice - we had fun singing the song and taking the 2-question quiz when we were finished with the story.

Garrett got in on the fun also, as you can see, above. I think he only likes the page that HE is on, and no wonder. It is a book about a girl. I did get a chance to show him where he shows up in the second OMG, Olivia Marie book and he liked the illustration and the storyline  - he is trying to cheer his unicorn-loving sister up by finding her a unicorn movie!

Back to Olivia Marie - I talked with her about her love of unicorns and ran through the basic storyline of the book I'm working on now.  She immediately ran out of the room and came back with a stuffed unicorn that she didn't think I'd seen yet. (She was right) She said this was her favorite unicorn at least for the next few days!

Then she decided that I should draw this unicorn and that she would color it - for the book, for the book!  That turned out pretty sweet, don't you think?

OMG, Olivia Marie! is on sale this week on Amazon for Kindle. I'd be thrilled if you downloaded it and talked about initials and choosing to do the right thing when you would rather do something wasteful or annoying.  You both might have a good laugh together.  You might also find yourself saying OMG, Olivia Marie at opportune times in your lives!

Remember, reviews and shares are SO appreciated by authors. Thank you!

The Frog Prince, A Children's Play (Annotated)

Actors, backstage, waiting for their entrance.

Teachers, do you have a favorite play that you use with your students? Does it encourage good reading skills, listening skills, teamwork, and Humanities core content? 

It's a lot to ask, I know.

When I was a gifted and talented teacher, NBCT, and jack-of-all-trades, I loved to do a good play with good students - sometimes within the classroom schedule, and sometimes as an after school workshop.  Either way, students need an authentic audience, which could be parents, or another classroom, or a big school wide event.

I have The Frog Prince, A Children's Play (Annotated) on Amazon for Kindle.  It's a humorous rendition of the old standard and is geared toward learning about drama vocabulary and our state Humanities core content.  

The play explains how to perform with 9 characters, or a whole classroom of students. (adaptability is  important)

It has great ideas for the production on a practically nonexistent public school budget, which is very helpful for any elementary school production. 

After the script comes the quizzes and practice pages and ideas for working with drama vocabulary in fun ways that help students to retain what they are learning, to be creative, and to enjoy putting on a great play. It's a bargain, ha!

See how much fun they had? I hope I can find photos from the other productions, too. 

Any questions, please email me at dinahgt@roadrunner.com.

Cat Themed Classroom Ideas

When I talked my daughter into decorating her 2nd grade classroom with a Domestic Cat theme, I didn't realize how little there is out there in "teacher-land" to buy, so I just started making decorations. I did several black cat silhouettes. I drew this cat, on his back paws, for the window. I liked him, so I drew a pattern before I taped him to the window. 

Here he is, looking out at the playground above the yellow ruffled cafe curtain. (from Amazon) He's no longer alone in that window- this cat is raising his hand, or at least that's what the students say...

Here are the two cat silhouettes in the other window. The students love them. They have a bigger purpose than decoration - they help to block what's going on out on the playground without blocking all of the natural light. (The short curtain blocks most of what the students would actually be able to see out the window)

These black cat silhouettes don't have to just be in the windows though. There was a perfect space above the doorway for this little beauty!  ( and do you see a little one on the sign on the left?)

This grey cat is made with grey poster board and a black Sharpie. She is part of the classroom rules section.   

The calico cats here brighten things up above the corners of the whiteboard at the front of the room.  I drew one pattern, then flipped it to make another. This gave me mirror images.  I drew in cat features and used yellow, brown, and rusty orange for the calico spots.  

I drew in some wise and calm features for this fat cat on a light grey poster board. He is the guardian of the weekly learning objectives for each subject.

My daughter found these cute cats to print out for student cubbies and center designations, so I made this poster for just outside her door.  Ms Sasser's cool cats love it. 

She also has placed some cute items around the shelves from her Cat Lady box items.  The kids love the big beach towel with a cat photo on it that reigns behind her desk.  I'll get a photo when I'm out there next.  

Here is the other cat silhouette from the window - the kids said it looks like he is raising his hand in class to answer a question!

If you would like to purchase these cat patterns for $25 through PayPal,  email me at dinahgt@roadrunner.com.  You can easily tweak them to match your ideas for your unique classroom. 

Teacher Aprons

How cute is this? Teachers need to keep up with so many things. These teacher aprons can be a great help with efficiency. ID, keys, pens, highlighters, phone, hand sanitizer, and so many other things can be easily in reach with these aprons.  I know I was always laying the remote to the projector down and having to look around for it. This apron can fix that little problem!

 You can make them to match your classroom theme, holidays, or use seasonal fabrics. 

The photo above is a Spring-inspired teacher apron. My daughter and I make them in the themes and colors that our colleagues ask for. We looked at some patterns and some other aprons on Pinterest, but then we just jumped in and made them with the needs of teachers in mind.

This apron is worn in a Superheroes themed classroom and the prints match the curtains in the classroom.  The students noticed immediately when the teacher first walked in with this apron on. Pow! Blam!

One of the classroom instructional assistants ordered this Frog themed apron. She was always on the go between various classrooms and was forever misplacing things, but this apron kept her organized.

This one was made for a teacher who wanted UK Blue and dark colors that wouldn't show dirt too quickly - elementary schools can really keep you busy with laundry, right?  She also wanted the taller row of pockets big enough for an iPad mini. (not shown in photo, but it works!)

This one is one of my daughter's favorites and matches her new Domestic Cat themed classroom. The print is Choco Cat, Hello Kitty's friend. 

The first thing you need to do is decide what size you want the apron to be. Most of ours are 22 inches wide by 18 inches long. We cut two of these, one for the front and one for the back. (They do not have to be of the same print) 

Next,  we make the taller set of pockets in a contrasting fabric. We cut it the width of the entire apron but double the height we want the pocket to be. It's usually around 8 inches high so we cut this piece 16 inches high with a width of our 22 inches. Then we fold it in half and press the fold. 

We lay this fold-side-at-the-top, over our front piece of the apron, lining things up at the bottom and the sides, and pin.

Then we stitch from the bottom to the top of the pocket, maybe 3 times; this makes 4 separate pockets.

The shorter set of pockets are made and attached the same way as the taller pockets.  If you want a 5 inch pocket, cut the fabric 10 inches tall and 22 inches wide. Press. Stitch onto the taller pockets. You can stitch them in the same place, or in different places.  Stitching close together will give you great "pen pockets."

Next, we put the back piece of the apron on top of the section with the pockets, right-side-together and stitched around the side, bottom, and other side in one continuous line, leaving it open at the top. Then we turned it right-side-out and trimmed the seams. 

Then we pressed it, pushing at the corners to make them look nice.

Then we cut a long piece of fabric to be the waistband of the apron and the ties, maybe 6 feet long, depending on the size of your teacher, and 6 inches wide. (See photo below)  Sometimes we stitch the contrasting fabrics here - as long as it measures around 60+ inches long, this can give your apron a nice effect.     

We press it in half all the way down the long piece, then open that up and press the edges on both sides to touch the middle, as if we are making a custom piece of bias tape.  We ironed 22 inches  by 1  1/2 inches of interfacing into the center of our waist band so that it would be a little stiffer just about the apron.

The last thing we did was place the apron's top (where it is open) into the center of the waistband and pinned it all the way to the ends of the ties.  (look at the photo below, where we are putting the apron up into the waistband so that we can pin it, then sew it)

Once we sewed this, we were done!   They really don't take long at all once you make two or three.  

I like to run the ties around to the front and tie a knot.  Some like to make a bow in the back. Either way, you could make a teacher very happy with a custom apron that matches the classroom theme!

           This owl print made an interesting apron for an owl lover.