Getting Ready for Back to School – Day 3

I feel like I was very productive today because I got a lot of little things crossed off my to do list. That is always a great feeling. I still don’t know what I will be teaching so I can continue with getting those things done that aren’t planning for a specific grade.

The first thing I did today was complete the bulletin board outside my classroom. I wanted something generic so that no matter what I am teaching (grade 2 or 4/5) it would work. I saw a bulletin board similar to this on Pinterest and thought it would be perfect!

The hardest parts were picking all the fonts for the words and deciding what color I wanted the “You!” to be. At first I had a purple “You!” but it didn’t seem quite right so with the help of a wonderful friend and fellow teacher we decided on yellow. I think it really pops. 

Update: My students LOVED the bulletin board and it tied in nicely to our study on character traits. I had students create a selfie picture and around the border they wrote personal character traits. These all went on the wall around this BE bulletin board. It was a hit for sure.

Keep reading to the end of this post for free templates to create your own BE… bulletin board. 

After I put the black paper and the border on the board and before I added all the words, I had to take care of the staples. If you have ever seen me put up a bulletin board you would be shaking your head. Everything goes up with push pins first and then I commit with staples. When I have a black bulletin board all I see is the shiny silver staples ( I probably should seek professional help). A couple years ago I found the solution (until someone invents black staples) that is quick and easy. SHARPIES!!!!!!

After I finished my bulletin board I didn’t want to do anything on my to do list so I helped (great procrastination) the above mentioned friend/teacher start on her bulletin board.

Just like I am (some say) obsessed with matching my color theme, she is (some say) obsessed with animal print. She had this Welcome sign that she wanted to use so we came up with a jungle tree board. She is not quite finished but this is what we did today. I am excited to see how she finishes it off!!!

Okay, now it was time for me to get back to my list. I different friend/teacher at my school, asked me if I wanted these flower boxes and because I am a “collecting” (not hoarding) I said “of course!” I am not sure quite yet what I am going to do with them but I knew I didn’t want them brown.

 Last year I found this large roll of washi tape that I thought was super cute. Again, no idea what I would do with it but I bought it anyways 🙂 Well it finally came in handy. The large roll made it super easy to cover the boxes with. All I had to do was roll it on, fold the edges, then cut out the handles! Now if I could only figure out what to do with the boxes 🙂 

 I decided to stick with the taping work and FINALLY cover my second Pringles container that holds my classroom rulers. For a good portion of last year I only had one covered and it bugged my but there were bigger things to tend to. Well now they are both done and off my to do list! 

Every year I have Unfinished work folders for my class and they need to be labeled with students’ names. They are plastic folders and most labels won’t stick to them so I use duct tape. Easy to peel off and it last the entire year. Even though I don’t have a class list yet, I decided to get the labels on all of them to make it quicker later. I have a more detailed blog post about how I use them here if you want to check it out!  

Here is the freebie I promised you above. If you want to create your own “Be…” bulletin board here are some word labels for you to use 🙂 Just click on the picture to get your FREE copy.

I am not sure what my next Getting Ready for Back to School post is going to be about but here is a link to my Day 2 post.  

Cheers,