Wordle Wall

Wordle is something that my kids and I do in class. I love it and totally reccommend it for any other teachers out there. (Or if you just want to have fun!!) Another great generator much like Wordle is Tagxedo. Mike and I actually used Tagxedo in our wedding for our table numbers. (I'll post a pic when we get the pics back!)

But anyway, I came across this idea from Pinterest one day and thought it would be PERFECT for my Tech classroom. It's a Wordle Wall!!

 I will admit first off that it took me almost 2 days to get it all done, but I probably did it the long way.

In the forum where I found this, the teacher said that she printed the words out and then laminated them. I'm not sure what kind of printer she used, but my printer doesn't print letters that big, so......I went back to 1980 and did it the old fashioned way.

First, I hung bulletin board paper on the chalkboard, used Microsoft Word to create fancy letters and projected the words onto my chalkboard. I traced the letters and cut them out and then laminated them. (This is part of the reason it took me so long to get it done. I had to cut each letter out TWICE. Once from the bulletin board, once from the laminate.) Because I'm a bit of a spacial perfectionist instead of going at it and hot gluing from the get, I decided to tape the words where I thought I wanted them, first.

***That's another little tip. If you have those horrible brick walls that 

NOTHING sticks to, use hot glue!! It works great! Make sure you get the high 

heat gun, though. Guarantee your posters will stay up most of the year if not the whole 

year. The old school blue tacky putty works good, too***

Then, when I finally got it right, I hot glued away! Drum roll please......................................

I am SOOOOOOOO happy with the way this turned out. I also like the fact that I left a lot of room and there is the opportunity to add more words. I can even let the kids help me with this now!! 

Here are a few more shots I took.

Halfway through

Taped up before the commitment

DONE!! Love it!!

Ruffled Bulletin Board Border

So....I have my own classroom this year which is really exciting because I have been traveling to 4 different schools for the last 2 years. Now I have my own place, my own four walls, a door I can shut, and even my own bathroom!! All the other schools I shared my space with the Media Center which is located in the middle of the school with no walls and open to the other classrooms in the school. 2 out of the 4 schools have an open floor plan where only cabinets and bookshelves delineate where the "walls" are. I have the attention span of a flea so this was quite a problem for me. I'm so excited to start this year with my own area that I won't even complain about the fact that my walls leak and there are crickets all over my room. :)

With your own classroom comes your own bulletin boards. I had a few bulletin boards when I taught middle school, but I hate that boring scalloped border. It's just too....flat?? So, while I was searching for bulletin board ideas for my technology classroom, I came across this idea from Peace, Love and First Grade and, since it seemed pretty easy, I thought I would go for it. 

I love bright colors so first I covered my board with a purple tablecloth from Dollar Tree. Another Pinterest idea. It fit wonderfully and it was soooooo easy to put up. No more guessing how big your bulletin board was and adding more to the bottom because the paper they make isn't long enough. I will tell you that I got a tablecloth from another store and those were incredibly see-through. Dollar Tree tablecloths have thick color so what you see is what you get. 

I chose a turquoise blue for the border because, like I said, I like bright colors and I also had turquoise in the rug I put under my desk. This is such an easy thing to do, but it's a little time consuming. However, because I didn't take pictures during this process, I'll use the pics from Peace, Love and First Grade.

Using bulletin board paper, cut long strips however wide you want your border to go across. (Peace, Love and First Grade says you don't need to measure, however, I didn't measure and my border came out all different widths. I kinda like it, but just so you know...)

Then, all you have to do is fold the paper like you're creating a fan...like an accordion...all the way down. (I also thought if you wanted to just leave the strips without folding them and move right on to the fluffing and stapling, that would look good too. Maybe...)

Then, crumple up the paper so that it gives a little more texture. I twisted mine once it was folded and then just pulled the folds apart and scrunched as I pulled. It should look like this...

All you have to do now is just staple and fluff alllll the way down. 

Here is mine halfway done...you can see that the widths change as it goes down. I don't mind it, but I did consider cutting it off when it was done just to make it look cleaner.

And then completely finished...

Photo Source: Peace, Love and First Grade