Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' into the future....

Wow, it's hard to keep up with everything.  The holidays have made things extra busy around here, but I have accomplished some major goals:
The new shelves are in!

 First we had to move a few sections at a time.  Thankfully 4 sections were light enough to move with the books on them.  The big section, under the bulletin board, was too heavy to move without taking the books off of it.

 One thing I noticed while we were in the transition phase was that I liked the "pony wall" effect of the shelves in front of the couch area.  The only problem was I couldn't see through them to know if they kids were putting their feet on the coffee table or what books were in their hands.

After we got all the blue shelving moved, I donated 2 of the shelf sections to teachers who needed them.  One became my new periodical shelf, and one was relocated to a spot by my desk and houses the alphabet books and I Spy books.  I've moved a good chunk of the books from nonfiction that are below a 2.5 level.  Some aren't AR and we had to guess, but my volunteers and I are doing pretty well with it.  There are more than I anticipated and that is one of the reasons we moved the alphabet books and I Spy onto another shelf.  We just don't have room.  Now the books are arranged much more closely to Dewey Decimal.  Things don't always stay perfect and we don't sort the animal books exactly - bugs and spiders are together, fish, birds, and mammals have their own little sections.

The maintenance man wanted to demolish the largest section of shelves, but I had other ideas.  It is the perfect size to act as my pony wall and only need a few repairs.  I was surprised when it was brought back to me, freshly painted!  It is now my display wall, where I will display any odds and ends that might inspire the kids to ask "where, what, why, how & who?"  This is a slow process of course, since there isn't a "inspiring curiosity" line in the school budget.

Visually the design of the shelf is very appealing and I love how it looks.  It gives a nice pop of bright blue (our school's main color).  Right now it has our globe on it.  I am hoping to add more globes from different time frames to the display.  Globes out date quickly because of the political changes in our world, but why not have them from different times in history so kids can see the difference?  The topographical globe I already have - it has raised mountain ranges - is old enough to still say U.S.S.R.  A more current one would make it easier to show the kids how the political map changes while the physical continents remain static.

The other addition to the shelf was this little guy.  Isn't he awesome!  He's actually from Disney World's Animal Kingdom Dinoland.  I would guess that a toy this big (the size of my cat) cost at least $30 in the theme park.  His legs can be posed and he has the coolest texture on his skin.  I found him at a thrift store for $2.50.  His horn was bent so I doctored it up and his frill was ripping away from his shoulder, so that got fixed too.  The kids can't get enough of him.  I have a student with cerebral palsy in one of the kindergarten classes.  He loves one on one interaction and textures.  I asked him, "Have you ever wanted to hold a dinosaur on your lap?"  I sat the dinosaur on his lap and his eyes got so big!  Then I placed his hand on the dinosaur's lap and he giggled.  I am so excited that he responded so well.  Even our principal can't resist reaching out and petting the dinosaur as she goes through the library.

Many of the kids have asked what kind of dinosaur he is, and I have had a few kindergarten paleontologists tell me that he is a triceratops, but he isn't.  I did some research into what dinosaurs are featured in the theme park ride and the only one that fits him is the Styracosaurus.  Here is the wikipedia link on this type of dinosaur. (Yes, I know wiki isn't the greatest source but I can't link into our school's online encyclopedia.)  I was thinking it would be a lot of fun to have a contest where the kids fill out slips with their guesses as to what kind of dinosaur he is.  After a certain time frame I would take all the correct guesses and draw randomly for them for a winner.  I have a cute dinosaur board book that would win for the K, 1 & 2 winner but I'd have to find something for the 3 & 4 and 5 & 6 winners.

Another great idea that my nieces shared with me is that at their school, each month you get to enter your name in for a drawing for a book.  If you check out 2 books you get 2 slips for the drawing box.  My niece won a copy of Rick Riordan's "House of Hades" last month.  I went through my books and I have some I could use for prizes, but probably not enough to do monthly drawings.  I think it would be okay to do a drawing at Christmas time and a drawing at the end of school in the spring.  If we have a summer program it would be a nice incentive for that too.  I will have to do more thinking on it.

I also went ahead and made a wreath for a fun "Charlotte's Web" display.  The first grade classes read it each year, so it's a school favorite.

The spider web is made of kite string and I used a heavier string to add the letters for "Some Pig".  I added the raffia to look like hay, the story takes place in a barn after all. The kids sometimes don't see it right away.  Then they ask, "What's that supposed to be?"  I added Wilbur (using a great drawing I found online) and that helps some.  The last step will be to make Charlotte herself.  She needs to be soft and gray.  I bought some little poof balls to make her and our cat stole them.  So she's not there yet, but she will be.

One last thing to share.  The teachers had an after school get together and made crayon wreathes.  Mine was the last completed but I love how it turned out.

Where has the time gone?

I'm shocked to see my last post was back at the beginning of September, but truth be told, I have been a busy little librarian!

I've been buying books, lots and lots of books!  I started off with my wish list of books I'd compiled over the summer from reading reviews in Publisher's Weekly.  Then I started picking up stuff the kids had requested.  Note to other librarians: if you put a direction sign with "Gotham City" on it up in your library, the kids will hound your mercilessly until you get some Batman books.  I was able to get them in the 2.5-3.9 range as well as 4.0 and above (AR levels).

My latest project ('cause I don't have enough on my plate) has been to rework the dreaded green-dot section.  The first step was to sort the books and remove anything over a 2.5 AR level.  This section is where kindergartners and first graders get most of their books as well as second graders with low AR levels.  How terrible do I feel telling a child, "You can't take the one and only book I have about leopards because it's a level 7.2."  I also think there was so much in that section that the kids were mistreating the books without even realizing it.  The next step was to work in the Nonfiction section getting everything with AR available labeled - our school district has unlimited use of tests, so no worries about whether or not we own that test.  Now that we know what most of the books are AR-wise, we can start pulling lower level stuff to move over to the revamped "J Nonfiction" section.  I did get permission to order my new shelves and I'm so excited for when we get them installed!

I also decided that I needed to create a section for kids just starting to read, like high-reading kindergartners and first graders.  These books are not nonfiction so I created a new classification called "JrE".  JrE books are usually below 1.5 AR level or extremely simple (think Dick and Jane books).  They also have a green dot but will be located in their own shelf. 

On the lighter side, I had a lot of fun decorating for Halloween:

This is Charlotte.  The kids loved her and I was constantly telling them to leave her web alone.  I am thinking of making a more permanent display for her...so she can weave "Some Pig" into her web with no worries of little fingers touching it.

The animals got into the Halloween spirit!  Pooh is dressed as Tigger, Franklin is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, the Cat (from If You Give a Cat a Cupcake) is a red cardinal, the Pig (from If You Give a Pig a Pancake) is the Phantom of the Opera, the Mouse (from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie) is a cat and the Moose (from If You Give a Moose a Muffin) has on a sunburst mask.  I made them quickly using yarn, craft foam and permanent markers.

I went a little batty behind my desk.  For $5 I got a set of multi-sized vinyl wall cling bats from Target.  Then we cut bats from black construction paper, curled their wings and added them to the mix.

Now that Halloween is over I have to be a touch more serious...yeah, right!  The kids have been begging for the new Wimpy Kid book, Hard Luck.  I finally created a hold list and put this up since I only bought 5 copies to satisfy 500 kids!

And finally, I was bored with my Choose Your Own Adventure bulletin board so I decided to have some fun with a new one.  I totally lifted this idea from another librarian but I did mine a little different:

Here is the inspiration (above.)  I copied the phrase exactly when I did the board.

So, why is the phrase different now?  Well I work in a building with teachers, a.k.a. grammar police.  Apparently the word There's doesn't point to the word minion, it points to reasons, so the correct phrase is, There are a minion reasons to read.  I also made my board a little differently.  I went online and found coloring pages of minions I liked and an image of a stack of books.  Then I copied them onto transparency sheets.  Then we turned the entire school upside down looking for a transparency machine.  There was only 1 left in the entire school - thank you to our Art Teacher!  The design was done on a solid sheet of white in pencil and then retraced in black marker.  I originally thought I'd have time to color it in but never got it done.  I kind of like it this way.  Oh, and I'm extra proud of the titles of the books.  I searched my library catalog for titles with Apple and Banana in them, since what else would minions want to read about?

The kids love the board so much that I think I might have a minion themed Christmas tree this year.  I could have each child color a minion for my tree since they are all my "reading minions."

Progress, it's happening!

I am excited to see progress at the library!  I'm working with one of my awesome volunteers to go through all the books and anything that isn't marked AR (Accelerated Reader) is being checked.  If there is a test, I print the label and get the book updated in the catalog.  If it isn't, we mark it NOT AR inside the front cover.  We are working through the picture books right now and are halfway through the collection.  We do still have to do Fiction, Junior Fiction, Special Collections and Nonfiction as well.

Another great idea that I've been shown by the middle school librarian in town is to add the volume number to the spine labels of books in a series.  Her labels look like this:

FIC
Riordan
vol. 1

I would switch the author name to RIO but I very much like the idea of putting the volume number on the label instead of relying on the book to have it on the spine already, and I'd love to relabel the books that have the number written on them in marker - it just looks terrible.

So those are two big projects to work through and I need to do some kind of inventory where I can see each book, and how it is cataloged.  If I go through and scan each book, I can make necessary updates and relabel the ones that need it.  I have a Macbook on a rolling cart to do this with, I don't even have to pull whole sections at a time!

I'm also excited because I have asked my principal if I can replace the shelves where my "green dot" books are.  It is a large section of homemade shelving that has seen better days.  The shelves are all about hip height even though the bulletin board is only behind 4 of the 7 sections.  The shelves are also a bunch of different heights and the books just don't fit right.  She is all for it and after I did a bunch of looking, I thought I could replace the section for about $2000.  She suggested we spend more money and get 3 taller shelves and 4 short shelves.  They are all going to be the same style and will match my existing shelves better than what I have now.  I can't wait!

But on the sad side, I did have to ditch the solar system idea, at least for now.  I discovered that it was a lot harder to make them with the yarn than I thought it would be.  So until I find a better solution, no solar system.  At least not a 3D one - I found a very nice solar system poster on clearance at Target for $1.78!!  I took it to school and laminated it.  I also made a cute little information plaque to go with it.  Remember when there were 9 planets?  We learned a fun mnemonic: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas (or something like that).  I put it onto the poster with little pictures of each of the planets, then under that I put, "But wait, since Pluto is now classified as a dwarf planet, how about if we say: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles."  I also put one last line about finding the planets in the 520s of nonfiction. 

I kind of went on a poster rampage this week.  We had an early out on Wednesday for teacher inservice.  The paras (me included) were given the choice to do busy work after school got out or take the afternoon off.  Since my husband took the day off, I was able to stay and work.  I spent the afternoon emptying out the storage cupboards and drawers.  I mostly sorted through bulletin board type materials, but I also found a lot of really nice library posters.    I got rid of about half of the decorations.  I just don't think I'll make use of tablecloths and place mats that are holiday themed.  I wouldn't decorate my home that way so I won't decorate my library that way.  I also got rid of outdated materials like a presidential portrait set that only goes as high as George Bush (the first one.)  I'll never be able to find matching Clinton through Obama so I figured why keep it?  I then took down all of the nonfiction informational posters on the shelves.  There is a fairly new set of Rubber Ducky nonfiction posters I moved from the ends of my shelves up onto the wall above Nonfiction.  Then rather than bombard the kids with yet another set of nonfiction posters, I laminated and hung posters from inside the DK Eye Witness Books.  I found posters for Battle (which covers soldiers from all periods of history), the Titanic (need I say more, the kids eat that stuff up) and Treasure (really archeology.)  I also laminated a poster on mummies of all kinds but because there is a photograph on it of a natural ice mummy, I chose not to hang it.  I think it might freak out the little kids.  But the sixth grade classes do a unit on mummies later in the year and I've already offered to loan it to them. 

I have a few more posters to get laminated but I see no reason why they all have to be "READ" oriented.  Yes, the library is about reading but it is also a source of science, math, history, and everything else in between.  Why not inspire the kids to dive into those stacks and find a book or two about the types of things they see on my posters?

A librarian's work is never done!

It's been a few weeks since school started, and I think I might be getting into the swing of things.

In the first full week of school I had it pointed out to me that I need to work on classroom techniques - i.e. getting the kids to listen to me when I tell them to be quiet, line up correctly, etc.  It upset me at the time (it was my Principal who came to talk to me, so yeah) but now I see that it's true.  I'm a librarian, not a teacher.  So I've been working with the kids on their library manners.  The majority of the classes know how to behave, but I've got a few issues to deal with. 

The biggest problem I have is my 6 tables in the library.  Each table has 4 chairs, and ideally only 4 children will sit at each table.  They shouldn't be clustered together, which we all know leads to whispering, which leads to talking, which leads to me shushing them.  The other issue I have is that when I let kids check out books, there is always one kid who needs 30 seconds to find his books and then one who needs almost the whole class period and my help to find her books.  So how do I help 24 kids find books while there is a line forming at my desk waiting for checkout.  And mind you, the line isn't quiet and the kids in it aren't patient. 

My friend Raynette suggested that I label each table.  After the kids find their books they go sit down BEFORE they go to my desk.  Once everyone has a book I can then call them up by table to check out.  This is a very good system.  So I figured, why not solve to problems at once?  I used the school die-cut machine - best resource ever - and cut 5 circles of each color.  The tables now have a central dot with a cute saying (that I totally stole from Risking Failure!)
Red any good books lately?
Orange you glad you read good books?
Yellow books are just ducky!
It's not easy being green...
Don't be blue.  Check out a good book!
Books are grape!
I then added the other four dots of each color in front of the four seats for that table.  So now, each child should have a dot directly in front of them when they sit at the tables in the library.  There is no reason for any of them to sit between any of those dots since there are extra spots to sit scattered all over the library.  It was a quick project I threw together on Friday before our Homecoming pep rally.  I can't wait to try it out with the kids on Monday morning!

In other news, I've decided to try a different approach with the solar system model.  I still want to do one but I don't have the time to invest into making them out of yarn.  It's a bummer but there are only so many hours in a day.  I am now thinking I'll find paper lanterns online and buy varying sizes.  I can get basic colors for each planet and then add pain effects to make them look more planetary.

I'm also still working on amassing the objects I need for my I Spy Dewey display.  The kids and I even found a small wasps' nest over the summer for it.  We sealed it into a plastic bag and then froze it (just in case!).  I need to start putting the objects in so I can see what I need to find to complete the different sections.  Once I get it all together then I'll take it to school and ask our maintenance man to help me find a way to display them.

Finishing touches - school starts in t-minus 3 days!

So I'm finally feeling like I'm maybe ready to be a school librarian!  I have 3 days left until school starts.  In that time I need to create my class lists, finalize my schedule, do some cataloging and then shelf the books.  I really think I have done a good job with the library.

I finished up early last week with the weeding.  I wasn't able to clear quite enough room in Jr. Fiction to get all the books on their appointed shelves, but once check outs start, it should be okay.  My solution was to pull large series from the shelves (waist high) and put them on top with book ends.  This should increase the series' visibility and maybe up their circulation.  I didn't have to weed much in the E Books, just shelf reading and shifting.  I have seen signs that say "Easy Books" but they are more like the picture books that I would read to my kids, not necessarily easy.  Also, I don't want to discourage older kids from choosing from that section if they just want to read for the fun of it, so I'm thinking about making a sign in the future that says, "E for Excellent Books".

I finished my bulletin board last Friday.  I was inspired by this idea from Rachel Moani:

She didn't give a lot of details of how to make it, but I think I got it to work okay. I used a water heater box and used roll paper to cover the pieces.  After I attached the book pages to the end pieces I glued down 1 sheet of white paper.  Then I cut a second piece and only glued it at the spine.  Then I was able to add my letters (love the die-cut machine at the school!) and art.  As you can see, the book wouldn't actually go on my board.  It's too big and heavy.  My solution was to use book display stands to prop it up on the bookshelf directly below the bulletin board.  Then I put up the pictures I colored of different types of adventure.  To finish it off, I used the label making machine to create the story choices like the ones found in the Choose Your Own Adventure books.  The finishing touch was to display some of our Choose Your Own Adventure books beside the board - how many kids have never even tried this type of book?  I'm hoping to have a few try them and like them since I enjoyed them so much as a young reader.

I finally found Yoda!  I had turned the house upside down on multiple occasions looking for him, but for some reason never looked in one particular frame.  I thought there was no way he could be in it since it was bought specifically for a map of the cave system in Keystone, South Dakota.  My husband convinced me to look and I found him!!!  I went out today and bought him a new frame and he looks awesome!  You'd never guess he's 30 years old.  I would love to eventually find a copy of the ALA poster of the Muppets released around the same time.

This one is not cheap.  I found some on eBay.com but I think I'll have to wait for them to become a little cheaper.  I am hoping to purchase these two posters from the ALA Store with some of the money I make with this year's book fair:

And speaking of the Muppets (yeah, I know I'm a total nerd) I got super lucky yesterday.  I decided to log in to Disney Movie Rewards and check for new rewards.  I almost never have any luck.  I always find something I want and don't have enough points, so I save up my points and then the item I wanted is out of stock....grrrr.  But yesterday I logged in and found a 15" Kermit plush!

He's not the super high quality one I wanted, but he was free.  If you don't do the Disney Movie Rewards program you are missing out!  You don't even have to pay shipping.

With school starting so soon I had to go through the kids clothes and figure out what I needed to buy.  I found my daughter's Mo Willem's Pigeon t-shirt.  She doesn't wear it anymore and I could have put it into the box of t-shirts that will eventually become a t-shirt quilt, but then I decided to get some more use out of it.  I didn't want to sew it into a pillow and I didn't want to have to buy a frame.  So I came up with this:

I had the canvas on hand - I think I found it for a dollar at the thrift store and never found a use for it.  Then I just pinned it into place with straight pins.  I do wish it had been a smidge smaller canvas - in order to center the pigeon, I had to leave some of the neck line on the t-shirt visible.  But the stuffed pigeon who lives at my school can perch up there and it will look great.

I have a new board on Pinterest too!  It's a Library Wishlist.  I mostly have artwork I'd like to work in at the library, but you never know what I'll pin to it in the future!

So many things!!

We are down to about 2 weeks before school starts!  It's exciting and scary at the same time.  I am off the regular schedule at the public library now so my kids and I have been spending all our time at the school getting the library into shape.

I have been able to complete some projects thanks to finding a some great supplies on my vacation to see my family.  At Hobby Lobby I found the perfect solution to my Very Hungry Caterpillar problem.  I was inspired by this caterpillar from Let Me Think:

But I was having troubles finding any paper lanterns at a decent cost.  Instead I found tissue paper fans.  Each package had 3 sizes of fans.  This caterpillar cost me about $7.

I have also been working hard on the nonfiction section.  As it was when I started, it hadn't been dusted or shelf read in quite a while.  I spent weeks (since I couldn't be there full time) working on it and one of my main jobs was pulling off all of the labels on the shelves.  I understand that the labels are easier for the kids, but if they have labels they can skip actually learning the Dewey Decimal System.  Also, every time you shift books your labels have to be peeled off and remade.  I still need to go back in and use Goo Gone and a scraper to remove all the gunk from the shelves.

Since I removed the labels, I knew I had to find a way to  help the kids navigate the Nonfiction.  I loved this idea, but lacked the money to buy the set.

And while this is neat, it doesn't work for my shelves because they are so very full.

So my solution was to create these:

They are double sided.  The white section was made on the computer and has little visual clues along with my abbreviated Dewey guide for that level.  I then cut tag board into 8.5x14" pieces (legal size) and glued the white pieces on to each side.  Thanks to a new friend at the library, I learned to laminate them and after cutting them out, slipped them into the beginning of each section.  I may go back later and break the sections down further, but depending on how the cataloging is done, not all the books will end up clumped together -- like the 790s for example.  Yes, most of the baseball stuff is together, but you might have a few that fall earlier in the section or a different type of sport like golf that intermingles with it.  That's another reason I don't like the labels.  You can't put every like item together unless you catalog them that way or you end up with mis-shelved books.

I've also been working on my solar system.  I have learned something about myself from this project.  I apparently subscribe to the belief that if I'm going to do something, I'm going to go big or crash and burn.  As one of my favorite songs says,

If you're gonna go down, go strong go proud go on go hard or go home. 

I started with the giant beach ball, wanting to get my sun done first.   I am working my way through a 364 yard skein of acrylic yellow yarn.  I have used half of it along with 5 school-sized bottles of glue (watered down about 1 glue to 1.5 water).  I have a basic framework on the ball.  I read the instructions and I was like, "oh this won't be hard."  Yeah right.  I discovered right off that if you go in too many directions around the ball you run the risk of loops of yarn coming off, and then tangles when you go back and try to fix them.  So my first evening I rubbed vaseline all over the ball - like starting your cookies with a greased cookie sheet - and then working in a basically vertical direction.  I let that dry and today I figured out I could hold on to the ball with the spout at the top and spin the ball to load the yarn in loops around it.  This isn't going to work for the whole thing, but it does give me a horizontal layer.  I think with the basic framework of horizontal and vertical in place, I'll be able to start working in other directions.  After I finish this skein of yellow I want to use a skein of white on top of it.  I am still trying to figure out if it would be cheaper to just make my own glue, and I don't even want to consider the possibility that it falls apart when I deflate the ball and pull it out...

Not a Gnome...a Fairy!

I just got back from a short trip back to my parents' home in Nebraska.  I am so excited about all the treasures I found there!  First off, Mom let me go through her yarn and I found more than enough colors to go ahead and make my solar system!  A trip to Hobby Lobby had the balloons I'll need.  I think to make the sun I will still try to find an inflatable exercise ball I can borrow from a friend, since it should be a lot bigger than the planets.  If I could find a second exercise ball in a smaller size that would be nice for Jupiter.  I am going to start working on them tomorrow evening.

Mom had also finished the small blue and white quilt I asked for to cover my story chair.  It has more white on it than I anticipated but that's okay, it's still gorgeous.  I'll take a picture of it over the chair when I get to the school later this week.

And last but not least, Mom provided me with a perfect answer to the gnome problem.  I had pretty much decided to take the gnome out of my yard and use him at the school, even though he isn't reading a book - which is what the one I loved from Amazon had.  But anyway, right after I got to her house, Mom took me on a tour of her yard (she has a slight problem with collecting yard decorations...)  She showed me a very pretty little girl reading a book!

As you can see, she's made of resin and has some wear, but I like how her paint is faded in places.  There are a few things to fix, the hole in her sleeve and the crack on the book, and you can see she at one time had wings attached to her back.  I will make new wings for her before she goes to school with me.  Something like this:

I do think I'll need to use a better wire though.  This is wire I got to make jewelry with and while it is easy to shape, it will also be harder to keep in shape.  I think maybe "sculpting" new wings for her out of wire hangers might work better.

I have even come up with a name for her.  Ceridwen the Book Fairy.  She is actually named after one of my favorite characters from Kim Harrison's Hollows series.

Giant solar system mobile

I have found from my shelf reading that the kids love the 520s - a.k.a. books on the solar system and space.  So I decided it would be fun to add a decorative display of the planets for my students.  But never fear, I'm not going to take anything away from their science teachers - mine won't be proportionally correct.  I found a very cool website called Planet Size Comparison where you can see how big the planets are in comparison to each other.  For example, Earth and Venus both rank right at size 1 but Jupiter is an 11 and Mercury is 2.5 times smaller than Earth.  Oh and the sun is 108 times larger than the Earth.  So you see what I mean when I say I have a proportion problem.

Anyway, when I was having my brainstorm, I remembered seeing this cute project all over the Internet:

This is the best idea for the planets I can think of.  I'll use different sized balloons to make the planets, along with yarn in colors that represent each planet.  This is basically just taking the yarn, dipping it in watered down glue, and wrapping it around and around the balloon.  Then a second coating of glue can be brushed on.  Once it's all dry, you pop the balloon, pull it out the area you left open, and viola!  If you really want to see how to do this project, visit this great tutorial by Raechel Myers.

My planets won't be light fixtures, they'll just hang from the cross beams of the skylight.  I plan to stagger them out from the Sun, not necessarily in a straight line, but in different orbits.

Projects completed!! Yay!

I am so excited!  I finished up the last of the direction arrows today.  I love that Cricut!  I can't wait for the raise I'll get when the school year starts, I want to save up and buy myself a Sure Cuts A Lot software/cutter combo.  Nothing against the Cricut, I just need to be able to do a little bit more and not be limited to cartridges.

Remember this cute idea? 

I made a doorway today for I. Liebe Leabhar, the library gnome I've asked to come and live at the school library.

I cut the door out of foam core, so it is about 20" tall.  Then I made a matching arch for the door frame.  Since I used black foam core, I used the Elmer's Glue crackle technique to make the door look like wood.  I used a barn red paint on top of the glue, then I used a pencil eraser to make the plank lines.  I like that they are crooked, very fun.  I had the little gold hinges on hand from a previous project and those are attached with scrapbooking brads.  The doorknob is a drawer pull that my husband had on hand.  I used the crackle finish on it as well.  I'd like for this door to have a little stone walkway (laminated cut outs of "stones") and a few toadstools around it.  I'm planning to make the toadstools out of small bowls and pieces of wood, similar to this:

Mine are going to be smaller, using bowls I got at Wal-Mart.  We had a storm recently and a lot of people lost trees.  My husband snagged some wood from a tree at his parent's house and we'll use that to make a toadstool for my gnome.  The bowls are little clear condiment bowls. 

I started by gluing in paper circles I punched out of cardstock using Mod Podge.  After that dried I painted them with the same color of red paint I used on the door.  I used the vise on my husband's workbench to cut the lengths of wood to make the stems with a hand saw.  I am not allowed to use the power tools (something about cutting my own head off...)  I have a small drill I used to drill holes in the 3 small bowls and the bigger blue bowl.  Then I used screws to fix the stems in place before adding the toadstool heads.  To make it look more finished, I used hot glue to reinforce the stems and add the river rocks.  Now he has his toadstools and a place to hold his business card.

I. Liebe Leabhar

Library Gnome, Esquire

His name is actually a mix of 3 languages (English, German & Irish Gaelic) and means "I Love Books".  And I thought the Esquire just sounded fun.  I know I've seen it in books but wasn't sure what it meant.  According to Dictionary.com it means: an unofficial title of respect, having no precise significance, sometimes placed, especially in its abbreviated form, after a man's surname in formal written address. Abbreviation:  Esq.  The definition makes it even funnier!  And it might be fun to send kids to the dictionary to look it up themselves.  I don't have a gnome yet to "live" at the school.  I wonder if he should be the kind that only comes out at night...I've never even seen him.  I'm sure the kids will just love that.  I am thinking if I don't find one by the time school starts the gnome who currently lives in my yard can move to the school.

I also made a fake coin slot for the gumball machine.

 It is 2 layers of foam core, with  the only difference being the "coin slot" cut out of the top one.  I got the shape the way I wanted and then I used a ruler to push in the lines - kind of like a metal plate might have.  Then I colored the whole front piece with a gold sharpie - I'm out of gold paint.  When I painted the outside edges with blue, I put a coat on top of the top piece of foam core and wiped it away immediately.  It left blue in the ruler indentations giving the appearance of depth and aging.  The last steps were to write in the cost and then I dug through my metal junk box and found a wind up key for a music box.  It is a little smaller than I would have liked but my only other idea was to buy a can opener at the thrift store and attempt to take it apart to get the crank.  Considering I sliced my finger open just making these simple projects today, taking apart a can opener might not be a great idea for me.  I'm a bit clumsy. 

Whimsical Direction Signs (almost done!)

So here we are in installment #3 of the direction signs.  My friend loaned me her Cricut and I've been working away creating the names for the signs.  She suggested using Mod Podge to attach the letters and that is definitely the easiest way to get them onto the signs - but it becomes tacky quickly and if you try to peel the letters up they don't always come away cleanly.

Here's what I have done so far:

You'll notice that the arrows don't all point in the same direction, and I tried to vary the colors and text.  The magnets on the back are button magnets that attach with adhesive foam.  I have enough for 3 magnets each so hopefully that will be enough to keep them hanging safely.

I'm sad to admit that I wasn't able to do the silhouettes.  I ran out of room on Wonderland and Zucker's Farm, so I probably won't bother with any of them.  I have Whoville, Neverland and Diagon Alley drying now and I have to pick up some more paper to finish the rest.  I don't have any solid black or gray, colors I need for both Gotham City and the Death Star. 

Faux Gumball Machine! Reading Challenges & Ideas

I have once again been inspired!  Check out this cute idea:

This is adorable, but looking online I found that Gumball Machines aren't cheap!  So today, being my day off, I dragged my girls to the thrift shop and found this plastic container thingy.  Yes, the technical word is thingy.  It was $0.50.  I figured, add a little paint and viola!

I painted the inside of the lid and pedestal.  I knew acrylic paint wouldn't be super durable with kids, so I worked in layers to get the look I wanted.  I started with the gold paint, since I was painting from the inside out.  You want the first thing you paint to be the first thing you see (kind of the opposite of painting on the outside.)  The plastic doesn't absorb the moisture from the paint so you have to let it dry completely between coats, otherwise the almost dry paint sticks to the wet paint brush and comes off the plastic.  Use very thin coats!  I found they dry quickly and there is less chance of the colors mixing and causing you to need to start from scratch (I did twice.)

I found the little plastic containers (called Toy Vending Capsules) on Amazon.com but I am sure you can get them on eBay or other sites, I think the 250 count on Amazon would work for me, as opposed to the 1000 count.  My other thought on this was to make lucky stars (origami).  The silly poem, joke, quote, picture sentence or book suggestion could be printed on a strip of paper and then folded into a star.  Easy-peasy and cheap! Here are some visual instructions.  I did some checking online and I found that start with a strip of paper 30cm, or 1 foot long, and about 1cm wide, or about half an inch.  I found that makes a very small star.  So I might adjust the width.

My daughter informs me that the stars are hard to unravel without tearing them, and she is almost 9 so I imagine younger hands would find it even harder.  I guess I'll go with the toy capsules.  I've been working on a list of reading challenges, here's what I have so far:

• Read a book where you share either your first or last name with the main character.
• What’s the longest book you’ve ever read?  Read one 25-50 pages longer.
• Read a book written about the years when your parents were your age.
• Read a book written about the years when your grandparents were your age.
• Read a book that rhymes (poetry!)
• Do you have a pet dog?  Read about a cat.  Do you have a pet cat?  Read about a dog.
• Read about a country that starts with the same letter as your last initial.
• Read about a country that starts with the same letter as your first initial.
• Choose a book by the cover only.
• Read a book that takes place in South Dakota.
• Re-read one of your favorite books.
• Read a mystery that has “The Secret of the....” in the title.
• Read a mystery that has “The Mystery of the....” in the title.
• Read a Newberry Award winning book.
• Read a book where you share either your first or last name with the author.
• Read a book recommended by your teacher or Mrs. O.
• Read a book about a place you have never visited.
• Read a book about a place you have visited.
• Read a book where the main character is not a person, dog or cat.
• Read a graphic novel.
• Read a book that has a dragon in it.
• Read a book that your best friend recommends.
• Read a book about someone who is being bullied.
• Read a book written at least 50 years before you were born.
• Read a book with the word “Never” in the title.
• Read a book from the 000s in the Nonfiction.
• Read a book from the 100s in the Nonfiction.
• Read a book from the 200s in the Nonfiction.
• Read a book from the 300s in the Nonfiction.
• Read a book from the 400s in the Nonfiction.
• Read a book from the 500s in the Nonfiction.
• Read a book from the 600s in the Nonfiction.
• Read a book from the 700s in the Nonfiction.
• Read a book from the 800s in the Nonfiction.
• Read a book from the 900s in the Nonfiction.
• If you are a boy, read a book where the main character is a girl.
• If you are a girl, read a book where the main character is a boy.