Owl Beanbags

I wanted to have something in my reading center for the kids to sit on. I had a big beanbag in my class that the kids poked a hole in last year. It was one of the vinyl ones and the duct tape kept getting pealed off. I put it in a trash bag to contain the beans and put it on my back porch. Then I had the idea to make my own bean bags to fit my theme. I looked at all of the owl beanbags on Amazon...and didn't like any of them.

I searched the web for a pattern for an owl stuffed animal. I found it and make it in the suggested scale. Then I enlarged the scale of the pattern free-hand on the material and this is what I did. 

BODY: 

I found this soft brown material at Wal-mart. It was only $2.50 a yard. You will need to cut two owl bodies out of the material, one is the front and one is the back.

The body of the owl. (placed on the fold and cut 2)

WINGS:
The pattern had a wing that was more like a triangle but I did not like the way it stuck out so I drew a wing that looked more like a tear-drop. I liked the way this one turned out much better. You will have to cut two out of the body material and two out of the belly color. Sew the wings right side together leaving the flat side un-sewn. Turn them inside out and sew around the outside edge of both wings.

the wing (cut 2 from belly color and 2 from body color)

BELLY: 
To make the belly, I placed the material on top of the body of the owl. I cut the rounded  bottom of the owl and them made the top match the bottom. You could also cut out a circle and put it in the middle. When placing it on the front of the owl, I pined it close together to keep the fabric from slipping. I first sewed it together with a zig-zag stitch. Then I sewed it again with a zig-zag stitch that was really close together. I was going to leave it that way and then thought that I wanted to add some more color to it. I decided to add pops of color using rick-rack. I decided that I would use purple, pink, and blue. I sewed it on the edge of the belly and around the eyes.

the belly(cut 1)

EYES:
To make the eyes I took a circle and traced around it. Then I placed the same circle and slightly overlapped it and traced around it a second time. Then I cut it out of white felt.

two circles slightly overlapped

the whites of the eye (cut 1)

FEET: 
I made the feet out of brown felt. I cut four pieces and then sewed two of them together using a zig-zag stitch.

the foot (cut 4)

BEAK:
I cut two of the beak pieces out of a yellow/orange piece of fabric. I used two because the fabric was thin, if you use felt or a thicker material you would only need one.

the beak (cut 2)

I sewed the eyes, beak and belly of the front of the owl. Then I set the wings and feet in place. Make sure that they are folded to be inside of the owl. Then I placed the back of the owl (right-sides together) and pinned it all together. I left about five inches at the top open (un-sewn) so that I can turn it inside out and then stuff the owl. You can use polly-fill or beanbag beans to fill the owl.

the front of the owl with eyes, beak, and belly

pin down the eyes, beak, and belly and sew around it

sewn front

The finished owl...well minus the eyes that I have to find. I want to have black or brown buttons that are about 2-3inches. I will hand sew them on when I find them.

finished owl (except for the eyes) 

my pink owl (I am going to sew big black buttons for the eyes. I just have to find the right ones)

Subject Binders

I have four binders, one for each subject (the 5th one in the photo is my planning binder). This is one way to keep all of the word wall words, worksheets (keys) and activities in one place.

the spine of the binders

In the binders, I have large manila envelopes that have a 3 inch strip of contact paper at the top and hole punched.

envelope with a 3 inch strip of contact paper attached at the top

On the contact paper I wrote the lesson number in the text book (1-2 is chapter 1 lesson 2), the title of the lesson, the standards that are covered, and the vocabulary words used in the lesson. 

the final look of the envelope

Inside the envelope I have the vocabulary words for the word wall. Behind the envelope I have any worksheets (and keys) or activities that would be used during the lesson/standards.

To Do List

It is funny how long my to do list is getting the closer I get to school. :-)

Projects to Work on:

• PowerPoints for science and social studies
• paint clothes pins for the wall
• paint popsicle sticks for word sorts
• recover the two one chair for the library
• design my student data binders
• make a welcome letter
• update school website
• update my class website
• make bookmarks
• print standards (cut and laminate) for EQ/LO/Standards board (ELA, math, science, and social studies)
• print, cut, and laminate word wall words (ELA, math, science, and social studies)
• find material for a bulletin board
• make a stand for my chart paper
• cover my door
• put up student work display place in the hall
• make an owl bean bag for library center
• make sub binder
• make a chart for "How do I get Home?"
• make a birthday chart

Odds and Ends To Do List:

• unpack room
• design room arrangement
• make first weeks copies
• go through and weed out books in library
• find bright colored and white card stock
• plan a big research project for the 1st 9wks
• plan the class novel for the 1st 9wks
• print out Daily 5/CAFE posters (and laminate them)

Seat pockets

I wanted to have something on the back of the chairs that had a pocket. I found several places that carried them but the only problem was they were too expensive (they were $11.49...EACH!). While looking I found a pattern for the pocket.

Here is what I did:

• cut (2) 17"x36" pieces of fabric (one of a thicker solid and one of a thiner material)
• pin and sew the right sides together leaving a space about 5" not sewn
• cut the tips of the corners off, make sure that you don't cut the thread
• turn the material right-side out, pushing out the corners with your fingers to make the corner square
• sew all the way around the material
• cut a 5"x7" rectangle out of a clear plastic fabric (optional)
• Pin on the pocket fabric about 2" from the top
• fold the material like a "Z" (see photos), pin and sew up the sides 
• repeat for additional pocket

Cut material

Sewing the see-through material

Showing the front

The back

The back view with flap up

Showing the side view

Front view

the finished product

My planning notebook

The notebook itself is a good 3inch binder. For the dividers I am using the plastic dividers. They are the only ones that seem to last all year. 

These are the sections of my planning notebook: 

• Pencil Pouch: In the front of the notebook I have a 3-ring pencil pouch with scissors, sticky notes, pens and pencils. This is here so that I do not have to look for them when I need to write something in my planning notebook. 

• Schedule and Calendar: This is where I place a copy of my class schedule, district schedule, school schedule (duty schedule, committee list, resource schedule, CIA Lab schedule, recess schedule, and lunch schedule), and state testing schedule.  I also printed out a monthly calendar to write down all of the dates in one location. 

• Pacing Guides: At the beginning of the year, I look at the district pacing guides for ELA and math. I then plan out the year according to the guides. Then I figure out science and social studies. I put all of the information in an excel sheet so that I can see a year-at-a-glace view of the school year. In this section I have each subject's pacing guide behind my year-at-a-glance sheet.

The pacing guide is still a work in progress.

• Weekly Lesson Plans: This is the section that I keep my weekly lesson plans. I found a really good electronic website that I use to write my lesson plans. It allows you to track the standards that you taught and it is very easy to use.  (http://planbookedu.com) I wish that I found this YEARS ago!! Most features are free but to use the features with the standards you have to pay ($25 a year). 

Lesson plans are still very slim right now. 

• ELA Common Core Standards: I put the common core standards in an excel document. In the first column I have the standard number, second column I have the standard as written and third column I have the Kid friendly standard. I did it in excel so that if I wanted to print standards on labels or sheets of paper I could use the mail merge feature in Word. I have also copied the table of contents from the textbook. This is so that I know what is in the book without having to bring the book home. (I do not teach "the book"cover to cover. I use the parts of the book that fit my needs and leave the rest.)

• Math Common Core Standards:  (same as the ELA standards)
• SC Science Standards: (same as ELA standards)
• SC Social Studies Standards: (same as ELA standards)
• Anchor Charts: I am so bad about trying to remember everything that I need to have an anchor chart for while I teach. I googled and searched for anchor charts on Pintrest. I saved the photos of the anchor charts to my computer. Then I printed the pictures out (6 to a page) and cut them out. I got 4x6 picture protectors at Office Depot and put the anchor chart pictures in the protectors. This way I can arrange them as I need and can add/subtract as necessary. An added benefit of the page protectors is that they protect the pictures so that you don't have to print them more than once. 

• Center Planning: My goal this year is to have centers for math and ELA. In this section I have partner rotations and workstations schedule. Here is where I will keep of who is at which station. I might have to re-think this at the year progresses... only time will tell. 

• ELA Centers: I found a list of ideas to use for vocabulary and reading lessons. I also have student grouping sheets here so that I can use my data (MAP and class data) to group students according to their needs. I also have center planing sheets that will help me to plan what I will have at each of the centers. (I got the forms from: http://www.theorganizedclassroomblog.com I absolutely love the website!)

• Math Centers: (same as ELA Centers)

Let's try something new!

I am going to try something new this year. New grade...new standards...new teammates...new hall...new classroom and blogging. Ok so here we go. :-)