Paper Owl Lanterns cont.

Today I've accomplished a ton... of laundry and other cleaning around the house [after getting back from camping last night]...

PLUS I've been up since 5:00! 

[Which is COMPLETELY unheard of for me!] 

So I decided I needed a 'crafting break'... therefore I've finished the rest of the paper owl lanterns!  They couldn't have turned out cuter!  I can't wait to hang them in the classroom this fall.

The whole gang:

And while I've been crafting away... my pups were out sun bathing!  This is what I walked out to: 

Too cute! 

Lilly was smart enough to stay in the shade.  It's getting HOT!

 I think it's time for a little sunshine myself.  Also time to continue reading Mockingjay l can't wait to finish the Hunger Games trilogy.

Creating paper lantern owls

Summer vacation = finally time to finish all those crafts for the classroom I don't have time for!


So I found the cutest owl paper lantern on Pinterest the other day:

...and I thought "Oooo, I could create some of those for the classroom!"  I scrumaged [is that a word?] through my basement and found some paper lanterns that were a wedding gift [4 years ago] that we'd never used.  I thought I'd hang them from our outside 'patio thing' but figured they'd get damaged by the weather.  So they've been in a box ever since!

Until now!

My lanterns aren't round... but I think it'll work anyways... here's an example for the first one I tried!  I painted it pink, I also painted some shades of brown and green [to match the material I'm putting in the classroom next year]  so I'll post pictures of those ones once they're done.

Here's how it turned out!

I changed the eyes a bit... and I'm going to create a 'brow' on some of the others too... but I also need to hotglue on each part since they'll be hanging in the classroom and that will help them to be more durable [hopefully]!

Really easy!!  I hope you can try them out too!

Officially Summer

It's officially summer... [yeah!  loud cheering and yelling] because I just spent 3 hours this afternoon 'getting updated' on the new common core state standards, so it wasn't official until after all 'school-related' things were done.

So, maybe it's because it is summer...
Or maybe it's because I have to scrapbook/craftize everything I do...

...but instead of diving into our new c.c.s.s. and figuring everything out, I decided to make my binders pretty instead!  I hated the look of the white, too official! 

I just finished adding little details.  Of course I couldn't forget to add an owl for my theme next year.

I know I'll continue to read the many 'school' books that I packed into my bag for the summer.  And I've already ran through another thing of ink printing off ideas for next year... but for now I'm going to try and relax and enjoy the time off for a bit.  We're taking a camping trip this upcoming weekend!  Driving Tyler's Mom's RV... should be interesting!  Meeting some friends on the westside of the state.  Let's just hope it doesn't rain [too much].


Here's the cute c.c.s.s. binders for next year:

E.L.A. 3rd and 4th

Bean Life Cycle flipchart

Ahhh.  That's a sigh of relief.  Having just spent the whole morning [6 hours to be exact] correcting end of trimester assessments in rdg and math then planning some science, I'm glad to be done.  For now.

Science has been slackin'.  With all our assessments, for the state, district, and end of units I have to admit that science took the wrath. [Tear]  Time to kick it into high gear!

I'd seen some flip books/charts on Pinterest [where else?] and I set the idea aside to use for later.  Well it's now later.  We're studying 'Structures of Life' in science and our first focus in the bean pod.  I wanted to create a flip chart to show the Bean Life Cycle.

Here's how it turned out!  I think I'll glue their 'flip piece' onto a colored sheet of construction paper to help give it some structure.

The cover piece that I'll cut out ahead of time:

They will write a brief description for each part of the bean cycle:

They will write a title, 'Bean Life Cycle' in the center and arrows to show the direction of the cycle:

Can't wait to see how they turn out!