Floral Embellishments

  

I am in California at CTP this week. It is always fun to visit with everyone and to check out the new stuff that’s in the works.

One thing is certain....

Things are always blooming at CTP. 

 

              

Last fall CTP introduced a new bulletin board set with flowers in pots called SPRING GARDEN! The flowers were so cute that we couldn't resist making more. In this most recent fall release, we added to the flower garden theme with a Poppin' Pattern border and the flowers.  The flowers come in six styles in all three sizes…6-inch, 10-inch jumbos, and 1-inch mini cut outs.  Put them all together and you have a great bulletin board.

But you can use the flowers for more than decoration.  Here is center idea for a magnet board. I cut the 6-in. flowers apart and put pictures on each half. In the center the kids match up the flowers. The pictures are from one of the Games Galore books.  This game works on blends.

Or how about using the jumbo cut outs to make a class book?

Each child has a flower with his/her name on it.  Everyone can practice reading the names of the kids in the class. 

Notice how the new borders coordinate so well with the flowers.

These magnet boards are designed for sorting.  Once again, the Games Galore books provide pictures for lots of skills.

This is a T-Graph for sorting

Long a and Short a.

This is a TRIO board for sorting words of one, two, or three syllables.

This is a 4-Square for sorting beginning consonants.

Check out all the Language Games Galore for practice in various language skills. They are great for game pieces.

Another idea is to make greeting cards
from the flowers.

Fold a 9" x 24" piece of construction paper in half (hamburger style).  Then fold back the top part in half again.  You then have      9 " x 12"  card.  Place the pot and the flowers on the card then fold back down.  The words say....My love for you grows and grows as you unfold the card.

 

May inspiration bloom!



Embellishments of the Heart

In 1893, Sears and Roebuck printed their first catalog. Way back in my Grandma’s day there was great excitement about the arrival of the catalog. Everyone took turns making wishes and marking pages. Today, it seems I get a dozen catalogs every day. There are so many! 
I get excited, however, when I see one from CTP because I know samples of the actual products are soon to follow.

                                          Go to http://www.creativeteaching.com/ to view the catalog.

Two weeks ago, I received a box marked PRODUCT SAMPLES. 
The new stuff had arrived!!  
As I opened the big box I actually heard an audible voice that said,

“GO FORTH AND EMBELLISH!”

So much really cute stuff....I could hardy wait! 
In the box there were three new styles of designer
cut-outs...snowflakes, flowers, and hearts. 
I was immediately drawn to the hearts.

The cut-outs were in all three sizes….6”,
as well as the jumbo 10”, and the mini 1”.

Then I noticed that the new borders coordinated
with the cut-outs.

How convenient!

I remembered a part of a little poem,
“I made a hundred valentines, a hundred did I say!
I made a thousand valentines, one cold an wintery day.”
It was something about the valentines being seeds for birds. I couldn’t remember the whole poem.


So, I Googled it. (Isn’t that the greatest invention!)
The only thing that came up was a three year old kid singing it as a song.
It was the poem and the kid was cute.
You can Google, too, and check out the YouTube performance.
So, I had the words and I had my inspiration for my first HEART project.

I copied the poem on a clear packing label and put it on one of the 6" hearts. Then I made a bird feeder to hold my Valentines (seeds) for February birds.

I cut down a milk carton and edged it with the new border. I used a pipe-cleaner attached to each side to hang the birdfeeder. Then, I added a few hearts and of course a bow because "everything looks better with a bow"!

More Embellishments of the Heart

Use heart cut-outs and minis to decorate a small mail box to receive all your Valentine mail.

Make your own Valentine cards.....

Combine hearts to make fish,

love Bugs,

butterflies or

whatever you can imagine.

The hearts match the mini bulletin board which was introduced last year. 

This makes a great Friendship bulletin board.

 Heartbreaker! 

Make a matching game by cutting the hearts apart. 

Add a picture to each piece of the hearts. 

In this game the kids are practicing rhyming words.

 When you have a complete heart your match is correct.  

Hearts are not just for Valentine's Day. 

They also make great Mother's Day gifts. 

Use mini hearts to decorate a memory box to go with

the holiday reader called Celebrating Mother's Day. 

Or make a cluster of mini hearts to create

 a flower for a cork board for Mom.

 

How about you?

I love the new designer hearts, too!

We hold these truths to be self-evident…..

After posting my last blog I found out that Al Roker was not doing a public service announcement. He was doing a commercial. I was corrected by my husband who was actually watching the television program. I was multi-tasking by cooking dinner while watching television. I was having a little trouble hearing Al over the buzz of the microwave.

Which leads me to tell you about the Gilmore Creed.

My three sisters and I were the original Gilmore Girls.

                            

                                                        Gilmore Girls In Your Easter Bonnet circa 1964

Here is our creed….

We hold these truths to be self-evident….

Truth #1 You never let the truth interfere with a good story. Don’t you just hate it when one of your kids says, “Mom, that’s not what really happened.” Like it really matters if it makes a good story!

Truth #2 Anything worth doing is worth OVERDOING!

This is especially true when dealing with a large family gathering and food. Someone once told me “less is more”. That is just ridiculous! Less is less. MORE IS MORE!

Truth #3 Everything looks better with a bow.

I am an excellent bow maker. Last Christmas I made one hundred and twenty-three bows for the altar guild at church. Every poinsettia in the entire church had a bow on its pot. It was all lovely!

(Refer back to Truth #1 about a good story and to Truth #2 about overdoing.)

I like to think of it as embellishment!


We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and (to embellish in) the pursuit of happiness.

So, go forth today and embellish in the pursuit of happiness!

Last night, Kate was handing out cards from her Fancy Nancy notes to everyone in the room. This was mine…

               Fancy Nancy knows about embellishments!

Welcome Back to School

Last week I saw Al Roker of the Today show on television doing a public service announcement about how much teachers spend out-of-pocket on their classroom supplies. He said that teachers spend an average of $500 each year. I spent 20+ years working in an educational supply store. For some teachers (especially those who teach in the lower grades) that number seems a little low.

One year during Back to School, I was in the store working at the check out counter. In the long line were a young first-year teacher and her mother. Since it was her first classroom her mother had come with her to buy her a few things. The bill came to about $60. When they finished the young teacher turned to her mother and said, “Thanks, Mom, but just think we won’t have to do this next year.” A seasoned veteran teacher was behind her in line. She said, “Honey! (We are from Texas.) You have no idea! I have been at this for 23 years and I am still buying stuff!”

 I have been out of the store for four years now. I wondered if the teachers are still buying stuff so I took a field trip this week to two local stores to see for myself what teachers were buying. (Thank you to Teach Mart in Keller, TX, and Teacher’s Tools in Hurst, TX.)

My Shopping Field Trip

Here is what I found in my research.

Calendars and class schedules are still essentials.













Things need to match!
Poppin’ Patterns make that easy!

Dots on chocolate are really sweet!

My School Field Trip

After a day in the stores, I went to visit some teacher friends at our local elementary school. First grade teacher, Rachel Boyd, was getting ready. This year she was moved from second grade to first grade so she was making a few adjustments in her classroom. Thursday was “Meet the Teacher” night so she had lots to do to get ready before the kids and parents got there.

.....desks to be arranged


…..books to be unpacked


…..games to be organized.







……names to be printed on name plates .

……”Welcome” letters to be written.








Did I mention that it was 103 degrees that day!
What happened to starting school in the fall!

Why do teachers continue to spend money and do this all this work?

If you asked the teachers they might mention that they spend most of their days in their classrooms. They want their surroundings to be pleasant and comfortable. They would surely mention that they want their kids to be successful and to pass THE TEST!

But most of all, the reason they do all this is for the anxious little girl walking through the kindergarten door on “Meet the Teacher” night.

Teachers want each child to feel “at home” and excited and ready to learn!

To my precious friend, Sandi Hill, who gives all her kindergarteners the gift of believing in themselves!

To my granddaughter, Kate, welcome to this new great adventure!

I am so happy that this year the two of you will be together!

                                Welcome to School!

In Praise of Books

Today the children responded with open delight
as I read them a story
which was written over one hundred fifty years ago
and half a world away.
A story which was read to me when I was their age,
every night upon demand.

And now it is their turn, Father,
to receive this story in joy,
and claim it for their own.

What a marvel language is,
that it can freeze an author's thoughts and emotions,
and preserve them,
until they melt into the mind and heart
of the reader.

What a wonder words are,
that they can transcend space and time,
class and race,
uniting your sons and daughters
in literary fellowship.

Father, thank you for books.
Thank you for children.
And thank you for the delightful privilege
of bringing the two together.

Bringing books and children together....

This was a delightful day in April when we had the privilege of bringing the two together.

The poem is from a wonderful little book called Chalkdust...Prayer Meditations for Teachers by Elspeth Campbell Murphy.

The books the children are reading are from CTP's new Fun and Fantasy series from the Learn to Read collection.  To find out more about the books go to www.creativeteaching.com and search for Learn to Read.  You can choose from hundreds of books.

The children are from the Pre-K class at Premier Academy in Keller, Texas. Thanks for sharing your class with us.

But, the sentiment is all mine.....

It is a joy and privilege to bring together children and books.

I Love Chocolate!

I went on an exciting vacation with the family.  I went to New Jersey for a wonderful workshop with a hundred teachers.
Then, I returned home to find that CTP has all the new products for the new release ready to ship. Now, that means I have to go to work....enough fooling around!

One of the favorite parts of my job is to take the new stuff and use it the way teachers would use it.  Working with this release has been fun. Next week, I will have pictures of some of the things that I have been making.   

Yesterday, Trevor informed me that school starts for him in two weeks.  He will be going into fourth grade.  Kate starts kindergarten.  She is SO ready.  I am not sure that kindergarten is ready for her! It is an exciting time for kids and a busy time for teachers!

It is always fun to decorate your class around a certain theme. What is your theme is for this year?  Click on comments below and leave a message or a picture. 
This year my favorite is CHOCOLATE.

CTP started the chocolate craze a couple of years ago and the theme has grown and grown.  Go to www.creativeteaching.com to see all the Dots on Chocolate.  They are really SWEET!

New this year is the Dots on Chocolate Classbook bulletin board.  This is already one of our best sellers. It is a great interactive way to start off the year.

 Haleigh, Trevor, Isabella and Savanah volunteered to help me with this display.  We had a great time putting everything together.  In this picture Haleigh is putting the pieces on a magnetic white board.  Meanwhile,  the others were working on the pieces to go on the board.  After a few minutes one of them said, "Hey this is like Facebook only I can do this!  My mom doesn't let me post on the real Facebook. I can post on this!" 

There is so much to the kit.  There is a poster for class rules, a welcome poster, and well as the "classbook" part.

Post your own rules.  I tried to come up with ones that were positive instead of "don'ts".

I printed the rules on colored paper and posted them in the circles of the chart.

Check out Isabella's profile.  Individual cards are included in the kit so each child can post his or her own profile.  There is a reproducible  sheet inside the bulletin board kit for the kids to write their profile information.   It is like an "all about me" sheet. After the kids complete their information the pages can be bound together to make a class book.  The kids can read to find out more about each other.

My helpers were completing the pages to go in their book.  I heard Trevor say to Savanah , "Oh, you read Harry Potter.  I do, too.  Which ones have your read?"   This book is a good conversation starter.

The last part of the page has a place for a joke.  This is an example of third grade humor. 

Where do Hogwarts go to the bathroom?   In the Harry Potty!

If you mount the major pieces of the bulletin board to a magnetic board you can simply change out the spotlight, blog, newsfeed, and notes by using printed pages attached with magnets.  The teacher or kids can update the blog and news feed daily.  Of course, I covered the magnets with the mini dots on chocolate cut outs to make them sweet too.

 

The bulletin board kit co-ordinates with all the dots on chocolate products such as the jumbo and mini dots, name plates, name tags, letter stickers, border and designer letters in dots and the new designer letters with stitches on chocolate. 

So as you get ready for another school year....

Don't miss out on the chocolate!

What are you doing in your classroom???