Bowling Fun Anywhere You Want!

Bowling!  Oh, how I enjoy bowling!  The heavy ball making my wrists ache.  The noisy bowling alley with loud music.  The interesting aromas.  Oh, and I can't forget, the beautiful and stylish rented shoes.  I know what you're thinking.  This doesn't sound like a person who loves bowling.  But really, I do.  It's fun to go bowling.  It's even more fun to bowl in the safety and quietness of my own home.

On a particularly boring day, I decided to make a bowling set for my kids.  I collected soda bottles (mostly from my mom) and painted them.  To do this, I poured a little bit of paint into each one, put the lid on, and gave them a good shake.  I removed the lid and let them airdry overnight.

My kids had so much fun playing with this that I decided to make a set for my classroom.  It has definitely come in handy on those pesky rainy days when we can't go out on the playground.  

I just love how these turned out.  Not only do these bottles make for a fun game of bowling, but they can also be used as sensory bottles.

 

Small Upgrades to a Dull Classroom

 I have recently taken the time to redecorate my classroom.  With reduced hours and no students because of the Coronavirus, I have had plenty of time to do some fun projects to revamp my room.  One of my favorite projects is my puzzle board.  I am always on the look out for ways to help with student behavior.  Each day that my class behaves (for the most part), they can earn a puzzle piece.  I bought a few 24 piece puzzles and traced them out on brown paper.  I used scrap booking pages to decorate the background.  I started to use this about a week before we had to close our school's doors.  The kids were really excited to see what the picture would turn out to be. I can't wait to use it when we reopen.

 I have two sets of these shelves in my room and I really didn't like how they looked before.  The brackets were a cold looking metal and the shelves were plain.  A co-worker suggested sprucing them up a bit. I painted the trim around the shelves this pretty light blue color and I painted the brackets in a gold tone.  It really adds a touch of warmth to my room.

 This mirror was a a dark brown wood.  It was slightly broken and most likely would have ended up in the trash. I rescued it and added the same paint used on my shelves.  I added these cute foam dogs to it since my classroom is decorated in a dog theme.

I have really enjoyed having the time to redecorate my classroom but I can't wait to have students in my room again.  

Interchangeable Door Decorations For Your Classroom

I have always enjoyed decorating my classroom bulletin boards or door.  I love to research new ideas or stretch my creative genius to come up with new ideas.  Since I had decided to have a dog themed classroom, I wanted something fun to decorate my door with.  I also wanted something that I didn't have to take down every month or season.  I drew out and painted a dog house.  I made sure to put several coats of mode podge over it.  I then cut out a dog using construction paper and laminated him.  I found a free printable welcome sign and placed a few paw prints around it before I laminated that as well.  

The first picture is without any added decor.  The second picture is decorated for Dr. Seuss Week.  I found free printable books and a hat. 

                   

The next picture is decorated for March.  I bought the garland from the Dollar Tree.  The green hat is a window cling I purchased at the Dollar Tree.  I glued it on poster board to make it stronger.                    

                                                       

For April, I decorated my dog in an Easter theme.  I made my own garland by purchasing a package of little foam eggs and stringing them on a length of yarn.  I also bought a bunny mask to put over the dogs face.  Both the mask and the eggs were purchased at a Dollar Tree. The last picture is for the month of May.  I added some flower and butterfly cut outs.

The rest are for July, August (September was done with apples but I couldn't find the picture), November, and December. For December, I also made these lamp posts by using disinfectant wipe containers for the base. I filled them with rocks so they would not fall over.  The posts are paper towel rolls with red and white duct tape wrapped around them. The top is made from construction paper with an alternating lamp picture glued to each side.  

Decorate Your Classroom Using Clip Art.

I have somehow found myself with extra time on my hands.  With my hours temporarily reduced and no students in my classroom, I have decided to change the decor of my classroom.  As a single parent, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on decorating so I looked around the school to see what was readily available that I could use.  I had already decided on a dog theme and had scoured the internet for free clip art.  I chose a handful of dog pictures to use in my decorating madness.

To see these and more click Here

The first item I tackled was my calendar.  It already had a border on it that was a nature theme, so all I did was laminate my dog clip art and stuck them around the calendar.  Next, I printed out some colorful free paw prints and wrote numbers on them.  After sending them through the laminator, I stuck Velcro circles on the back of each one.

I then needed new Months of the Year posters.  I looked up free printable options and found one I could work with.  I glued my free dog clip art to each month and laminated it.  I didn't like how it looked on my wall so I took an old cork board and painted it.  I did the trim in a light blue and the cork board in a gold tone. I used these paints (that I borrowed from a co-worker) to spruce up a few other items in my room. I will post those later.

During my redecorating rampage, I realized that I needed a Color Chart.  I found a free printable crayon sheet and using a clip art dog, paw prints and construction paper, I created this fun Color Chart.

                  

I found this old weather poster with bears on it but it didn't fit my theme.  I printed out this cute, fat, clip art dog and glued his face over the bears faces.

                                

The last item I tackled with these cute clip art dogs is an alphabet border.  I bought a nature themed one from the Dollar Tree.  I couldn't find a dog themed one.  I glued my clip art dogs to the border. 

There is so much you can do with clip art.  You can enlarge them for bigger projects or shrink them for small ones.  They can be laminated or reinforced by gluing them on poster board.  I have really enjoyed searching for items that I can stick them on.

  

Easy Activities for Family Fun!

It's a beautiful day out!  The sky is blue, the birds are singing, and my kids are hollering that there isn't anything to do.  All my suggestions are quickly shot down because they have already done them several times. The basketball goal has become a lawn ornament, along with the soccer balls and baseballs and mitts.  The bikes are holding up the sheets we used for a fort.
I had a few ideas that I was saving for the weekend, but, oh well.  It was time for me to step out of "mom" mode and into "activity director" before the kids started to climb the walls. I compiled these new activities, along with some of our favorite ones together in hopes that it will save some other parent from the whiny voices of "there's nothing to do."

1. Movie Night.  This is probably on the top of most people's list, but that's because it's easy and entertaining.  We have had several in the last few weeks.  Each time a different family member gets to pick the movie. We then jump into our jammies, load the living room floor with blankets and pillows, and pop lots of popcorn.

2. Picnic.  My kids love a good picnic. The great thing about picnics is that you can have them anywhere. We love a good back yard picnic.  We don't always have them in the day time.  The kids love to eat out under the stars too.  If you want to skip the whole preparing the food thing, just order a pizza and enjoy it while staring into space.

3. Camping.  Well, sort of.  We don't actually go camping.  We don't even sleep in our tent all night.  But it's fun to hang out and tell stories while eating s'mores around our fake makeshift campfire.  The campfire is really easy to make if you are not able or allowed to have a real fire.  Just place toilet paper rolls in a small circle and place a light in some tissue paper.  It's also fun to play night sounds or a crackling fire sound from your phone.

4. Game night is one of our favorite activities to do.  We have a good assortment of games to choose from.  Our top picks are:

       A.  Clue 

       B. Uno 

       C. Play Nine- This is a card game based on golf.  It took a few rounds to get the hang of it, but it soon became one of our most loved games.

To find this game click HERE

                                                                          

       D. In a Pickle- This card game has brought us a lot of laughter.  The idea is to fit small things into bigger things.  If the card in play is a tornado, you have to see if the tornado will fit into one of your cards, such as a rainstorm, air, and yes, even a mirror.  This game can be played logically, but it's always fun to steer away from logic if you want more laughs.  

To find this game click HERE

      

       

5. Puzzles is an activity that I never really cared for because we didn't have a place to set up a larger puzzle due to our animals.  I recently remedied that by making my own puzzle board.  I bought a tri-fold and glued some felt on it.  It works better than I thought it would and we can easily store it under the couch.

There is so much more we do, like food fights, Nerf guns, and chasing each other around the yard with either water guns or containers of shaving cream, but those can be a little messy.