Monday Made It

So I realized as I was typing this post that the Monday Made It linky party is now over for the summer, but I am too stinking proud of these boxes for them not to get their own post!
I'm starting Daily Five this year, and I knew that I would be needing book boxes. Ideally I wanted ones that matched my classroom, but my #1 was that they needed to be plastic not cardboard. After the sticker shock of looking at some teacher stores, I decided to go with ice buckets from Walmart. I brought them into my room and let them sit for a few days before taking them back home to paint! Since my room is teal and read, I went with doing 10 teal and 10 red. After talking to the very helpful man at Lowes, I went with a primer and then my color of choice. Now all I had to do was wait for it to cool down! We were having a heat wave, so I waited until it cooled down a bit. Finally, about two weeks after making up my mind to paint the boxes, I had a perfect, 85 degree day! I did all of my painting outside on the picnic table that I covered with a dollar plastic sheet. Next time I would also use gloves since my hands ended up a total mess!

Ready to get started. 

The future teal boxes out on the table. I primed them, let them sit for about an hour, and then spray painted them. 

The teal boxes are done and the red are primed and ready to paint! 

My finished boxes! I love the way they turned out. I let them cure at home for about a week before I brought them to school and filled them with books.

The finished product! I made the numbers to match, though cutting out circles was a nightmare. I'm sticking to squares from now on! They were a lot of work, but I think they look great and really help tie the room together. 

End of an Era

I've been meaning to write this for a while. The last two years have been by far the most difficult and rewarding years of my life. I moved to a new state, went to grad school, started teaching, and grew in my faith and profession. Along the way I cried plenty, laughed even more, and was so touched by my little people I worked with every day.  

Some random pictures from the last few weeks of school. 

A sweet kiddo from my last class. He was so proud of himself and his growth this year! 

Last week of school fun. We "cleaned" our desks with shaving cream. A VERY messy endeavor, but a lot of fun! 

Getting flowers in the last week of school. This little one cried so hard when I announced I was leaving. It broke my heart. 

My grad program mentor came in to teach the kids yoga. We showed her our Maximo moves after she did a lesson with us! 

One of my absolute favorite students. She was not always the most focused, but she was so honest and kind! 

My fab 5 from my first year of teaching. Even after they left my class, they came in to help, talk, and hang out with me every morning. Two of the girls wrote me letters every week giving me an update! 

A mixture of my first and second classes with our thumbprint tree. I love these kiddos and all they taught me!

At graduation! The stress and hard work was worth it! 

 Although I am excited for my next chapter, a piece of my heart will always be with the people I worked with in Memphis. I only hope I touched them even half as much as they did me.