Book Nerd!

Let's get something clear... I love books. Heart them. Adore. Obsess. So needless to say, I am constantly adding to my classroom library, updating and sorting. After purchasing and sharing these books with my students, but I was struggling with books being taken and never returned. Plus many of my students haven't the foggiest idea how to locate books in an actual library.  In order to resolve both of these issues, I decided to make my classroom a little more official.  I purchased small labels and packing tape to use as my book-labeling system.  Then I printed the first three letters of the author's last name.  

Of course each book was labeled with care, and once organized by author, I ordered the titles too.  

Can you tell I'm a Gary Paulsen fan?! All of his books aren't even on the shelf yet! I only made about twenty labels for him. And used them all! 

I worked through author's who had multiple books on my shelf. This allowed me to create a bulk set of labels and organize books within authors as well.  Then I went through and pulled neighboring letters of author's names that were still undone.  I simply tucked books into place as I went from that point on.  

In the end, my shelves are beautifully organized and hopefully a bit more deterring from sticky fingers. 

Pinterest Projects!

If you are not familiar with Pinterest, it is essentially an online place to organize ideas, pictures, articles, anything onto virtual pin boards.  Plus it is hopelessly addicting...

Anyway, the hardest part for me is actually doing the neat projects and ideas that I pin. This fall I was able to use some of the clever plans I recently pinned to my advantage.  Although these projects are not really related, I figured a Pinterest project blog would save you and I the time of a few mini blogs.  

The first idea I implemented was for the benefit of my classroom.  I snagged it from Pinterest, but the original  idea came from Apartment Therapy.  I store more than colored pencils in my bins, opting to add various sizes of markers too.  

If you could see the lids, you would notice that they match the color of the products in the jugs. (Of course I did that)

My students thought this was just the coolest thing ever, and even one of my colleagues set about doing this in her class too!

My next project was to make a last minute Halloween costume in the form of a simple tutu.  I picked up two different colors of tulle from the fabric store, in full yardage rather than the easier rolls of 6 inch tulle (only because our store was sold out.) I cut strips of tulle in 6 inch widths and then folded them in half length wise. I attached the tulle to a wide strip of grosgrain ribbon in a coordinating color by pulling the loose ends through the loop created by the fold.  

Of course I failed to take a picture of myself wearing it, or have a picture taken so you can't see the final look. Blogging fail. Sorry!

I have more projects that I want to complete, but they will have to wait with all the holiday buzz! Just keep pinning!