Pen Pals: Step One

My blog has managed to open up several opportunities for me in the classroom. This summer, a wonderful teacher from the Chicago suburbs emailed me about collaboration work. I said, "why not!?" Now, we are in the beginning stages of our pen pal exchange. Except, this is no ordinary run of the mill snail mail exchange. Well, we're starting with snail mail but moving towards more technological interfaces. 

Today, my students were given the name of their pen pal. Then, as a class we found their school using Google Earth. All of our school computers have Google Earth downloaded already, so most of my students were familiar with the program. First, we found our school in Missouri then zoooooomed over to Illinois to find out pals. Of course, everyone wanted to show me their house, their Grandma's house, what pool they swam at this summer, and where they want to go on vacation. BUT, that has to wait for Wednesday.

Generic Shot of Google Earth via Google. 

We began scoping out the area of our pen pals neighborhood. Side note: this is a random google image of Google Earth. This is not our pen pal's location!! Anyway, we were checking out the area of our pen pals and the students were firing off several similarities and differences of our schools. One being that THEIR school is surrounded by houses. Which means students are more likely to possibly walk to school? In our community, all students have to ride a bus or be dropped off. Walking isn't an option because of our location. The students were amazed! 

Then, the question was asked, "can we visit our pen pals?" I mean the kids were ready to jump into these friendships head first. They barely had their names written down and they were packing their bags for a road trip.  I pulled up Google maps and got directions to their school. We found that it would take us about 6 hours to get there. The class was super excited - I'm pretty sure they think I'm going to load up a van and drive them all there. I'll break the news to them tomorrow. 

Random Generic Map. 

Next, each student was given a checklist for writing their letter. Mrs. Larson and I decided to start with regular snail mail. We wanted to show a comparison between mail through the postal service and electronic mail (aka e-mail). The kids don't know this part yet. Shhh! It's a secret. I could barely stop the kids from writing their letters. I was reviewing them tonight and most of them told their entire life story. I had to caution a few to only include necessary information.

After we receive our letters, I'm probably going to have to rent a bus and drive my kids to Chicago. Just kidding. Actually, we plan on *hopefully* skyping with one another and/or creating Gaggle.net accounts. I'm looking forward to this experience!!

Have you ever had pen pals? How about electronic pen pals? Do share!

Polka Dots & Football

If you've been a follower of my blog for sometime, you know by now that I'm a pretty big fan of the Missouri Tigers.  With the upcoming football season approaching, I am not only anxiously awaiting our first big game of the SEC... but I'm also waiting for the postman to deliver my season tickets. Any day now.. any day now. 

It was time for my front door to sport a new wreath and I knew exactly what kind to make. MIZZOU wreath, anyone?

I bought wooden letters from JoAnn's and gave them a little paint job. 

Yellow seemed like the perfect color to start with. Each letter got a nice coat of yellow to proudly display. 

I stared at them for a little while and decided to add polka dots!

 First, I wanted to add chevron to each letter. Then, I realized I'm not talented enough to make a chevron design. I decided to stick with polka dots. Polka dots are much easier and very fun to say over and over again. 

My crafting box looked like Charlie Brown threw up all over it. Don't worry, just a little experimental painting. See what I mean about the little talent with chevron?

I used my trusty friend the hot glue gun and added a fancy football for effect. 

What do you think? Am I ready for football season or what? Now all I need are my tickets!

M-I-Z....

Z-O-U!

Happy Sunday! Enjoy this beautiful day. 

Linking up with C.R.A.F.T.! 

Yarn Wrapping is Not for Beginners

Get ready for an explosion of crafting... your eyes might pop out! 

Just kidding.

I spent the afternoon with Alissa crafting up goodies in KC. Let's just say, we got a little frustrated throughout our experience. I'm getting ahead of myself.. let's back up to the beginning.

To start our journey we took a trip to the oh-so-wonderful Hobby Lobby. We managed to find an rustic/antique like frame for the yarn letter project, and a replica of this Vintage Wood Calendar Chalkboard I wanted to purchase from Urban Outfitters. (it was out of stock!)

After Hobby Lobby we headed to Michaels because I had a coupon for 20% my entire purchase! Have I mentioned I'm not very good with coupons? Well, I'm not. In fact, I have a 10% success rate using them. Today made me feel foolish because after I asked about using my teacher discount at the checkout (feeling confident) the woman said, "Your coupon isn't valid until Sunday, m'am."

It appears I cannot read the fine print. Oops! 0/1 on coupons for the day. I was saved by my 15% teacher discount (who cannot read fine print...) That was slightly embarrassing.  Almost as embarrassing as sending an email to 60+ people confusing "too" for "two" in a sentence. Summer vacation has done wonders on me!

Moving right along to craft numero uno. I found the cutest dish towel at Anthropologie while shopping at the Plaza. I decided to display it instead of using it for its intended purpose (being a towel, duh). We found a neat frame and wrapped the towel around the glass so the embroidered knife, fork, and spoon were on display in the golden frame.

Meet Alissa: the hand model 

Here is Finnegan and our finished product! Cute, eh? I think it will look delightful hanging in my kitchen. 

Using inspiration from a craft that Ashley Fine created in her living room, I wanted to try out this so called chalkboard paint people keep raving about. I bought a cheap plastic rim frame and took the cardboard backing out. Then, using my nifty can of chalkboard paint that Alissa found in Michael's...I started spraying. 

"IT'S JUST LIKE SPRAY PAINT!" -my reaction to the paint

"It is spray paint!" -Alissa reassuring me as I painted (good thing I have her around)

The little can there did the trick! Hours later... I am still fascinated. 

After it dried for a few hours, I added a few embellishments to make it fancy. Now, when you come to visit me you can sign your name on my chalkboard and write a little message! It was by far the easiest project of the day.

I've saved the best (and most dreadful) for last. After reading Let Birds Fly blog post on Yarn Wrapped Letters, I was convinced this was the best craft for me. It didn't require any sewing, needles, or manual labor from what the pictures showed. I was hooked! I even left the link open on my desktop for days to build excitement. Maybe I should have kept that little tidbit to myself, but oh well... it's public knowledge now.

Using Let Birds Fly photo and tutorial as a reference, Alissa and I began our journey. We had the frame picked out and I decided on the word "Happy" for these reasons:
1. I like to be happy.
2. I would like for others to be happy.
3. If you're happy and you know it clap your hands.
4. Don't worry be happy.
5. My middle name is Happy (okay I lied, it's Jennifer... but it's close!)

Yarn, letters, and Ben Harper Pandora radio station ready to rolllll

Unfortunately we were not HAPPY while making this project. We started with the individual letters and began wrapping away. The curves, turns, holes, and nonsense of the letters that I chose began to become our crafting Achilles heel. It would have been much easier if we had used block letters. Lesson learned!

Throughout our wrapping experience the following noises were heard by Ali Pitt on the telephone...

"AHHHHHHHHHH"

"STOP IT."

"I'm getting frustrated." -Alissa

"Keep calm and sew on..." -My attempt at humor

"NOOOOO!"

I think you get the idea. It was frustrating! Thankfully, Ben Harper crooning in the background added to our uncomfortable silence due to the wrapping. I started with the letter H and next tackled an A. I realized afterwards that my project was slightly mocking me. As if to say, "HA" you are not done yet, sucker! I can't take credit for the Y... that was all Alissa, although I think that's a memory she will soon forget.

After multiple burns from the glue gun (we cheated) and screeches of frustration, we were able to complete a pretty nifty project! All I ask is that when you come over and see this hanging on my wall you shout with pure joy and enthusiasm by saying, "WOW! I AM SO HAPPY!"

That's all for now. I need to come up with a neat "closing" as we called it in second grade. I'll test out a few before I pick the one for me.

Over and out!
(nahh...)