The Great School Makeover

A new school semester is about to begin, so I'm going to plan a huge School Makeover. No, I'm not making over the school. That's a ginormous project too big for me to undertake. Rather, I'm only going to make over my class, my cubby, and try to inspire happiness among the classroom.

I have a couple of plans in this project.

1. Organize cubby
1. Place all textbooks vertically to decrease used space.
1. Place a scrapbook-page-made 'placemat' under the vertical textbook 'fence' to make your bland mint-green cubby look more festive and inviting.
2. Shopping bag caddy 
1. makeover
1. Paint a shopping bag
2. Tape thin(ish, compared to the corrugated kind) cardboard along the walls
3.  Then tape thick cardboard to the bottom. Be careful! Pick only strong-ish cardboard, not flimsy, looks-thick-but-really-isn't cardboard.
4. Put in gardening/craft stuff!
2. Purpose
1. Part of this is to organize my cubby, but part of it is also to plant things around the school and cross my fingers to hope they grow.
3. "My Happiness" board
1. makeover
1. Take an old, expired stand-up-by-itself desk calendar and rip out all of the pages.
2. Paint one side (or both, if you like) with chalkboard paint. I bought a taupe colored Martha Stewart chalkboard paint and am ever so excited to do this project!
3. Let dry following manufacturer's instructions.
4. Optional step: Using a Sharpie or other permanent marker, write either "I am...." or "I am feeling" or "My mood" or "My feeling" or whatever.
5. Have fun and rock n' roll! You can draw faces to represent your happiness level, or a temperature degree thing with a lot of marks and labels, or just scribble down your mood in a word or two with chalk! Easy to clean, too: magnificent!
2. Purpose
1. Inspire kids all over the classroom to be happy and laugh whenever they see it.

Okay, but I still have to make a motto poster, because it's not good enough, right? Laugh out loud! That is so mean! Whatever, I really do want to make a motto poster, but I'm just not sure how because I'm using an old Macintosh computer. Well, I'll figure it out!

Amazing Kids!

I am ashamed to say that I have been putting off posting for a while, and part of the reason was because  of my vow to you that I would post beautiful motto posters every time! Well, I'm back into 'photo frenzy' mode, so I have lots of pictures to work with-- but maybe not so many cute sayings. But maybe that's alright!

Anyway, I come to you today to say that I've got some really good news. One of my submissions has been accepted to Amazing Kids! Magazine! You can access their online magazine publication's website through this link.

I have been informed that the submission will appear in the March issue of their magazine. So look for it there! I will post the link to the article when it has been uploaded to their website by the Amazing Kids! Magazine staff.

Looking forward to it!

~~Dana

Self Poems!!

Self Poems are a really fun activity, even though some students may fool around with it. Here is the format:

I am leading a _________ life
I am watching ___________________
I had a ___________but I lost it
I used to believe _______________
But now I know_________________________
And now, at ____years old, I have seen ____________
I have touched _________________
I believe _____________________
I don't know why______________________
I hate_______________________
I love_______________________
I hope____________________________
And my heart is_____________________.


An example might be:
I am leading a standstill life
I am watching the world go by
I had a beautiful ponytail holder but I lost it
I used to believe in happy endings
But now I know they only happen to some people.
And now, at ten years old, I have seen the inside of a surgery room
I have touched a cow’s udder (for real!)
I believe that dreams can come true
I don’t know why feelings is the hardest subject
I hate jump rope
I love the unpolluted world
I hope something I don’t dare to say
And my heart is waiting for someone to take the reins.

You could make a serious one, such as the one above, or a lighthearted one, but both are very cool and interesting activities for kids!

--Dana

The Daily Motto Poster

I started turning my photographs into Motto Posters and I will try to post them up here. Although it definitely won't be a daily event, every time I post there should be a Motto Poster at the top. Today's is:

"To be a rose......is to see the sunshine lurking everywhere."

Yes, I made that up. But so what? It's uplifting and cheerful and bright and pretty. Well, sorry about the Tahoma font for "To be a rose...." but yes, you can fix that with Microsoft Paint because that's the software I used to put on the words!

A Thought for Today

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does. -Josh Billings, columnist and humorist (1818-1885) 
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Conscience, in this example, refers to that feeling of guilt when you do something wrong. So, is he saying that we often make mistakes regarding reason but are always saved by our conscience? Or is he saying that there are often unreasonable things, but never things that are not conscientious? This is a bit confusing, because it's one of those things that sound easy to understand but aren't really, and its profound meaning is quite interesting.

Luv ya lots!

Dana xoxo

P.S. More to come.

Curls and hair!

I just adore curls and curly hair. Don't you?

Actually, I like wavy hair better, because I simply despise some kinds of curls. Including frizzy curls and poomfy hair. But usually? I like both.

And guess what? I learned how to put honest-to-goodness curls in my hair!

So as a New Year's Eve special, I'm going to be sharing not one, but two ways to curl your hair!

(My dad says it's really complicated, and that you should just use his method. So I'll show you that, too. Warning: I have not tested either one on short hair, but I think that it has to be about shoulder-length to work.)

Dad's Method (Not Recommended XD):

1. Shower, take a bath, walk through the rain, or otherwise get your hair wet.
2. Curl your hair with pencils or other cylindrical objects (????)
3. Use a hair dryer.

Disclaimer: Above method not guaranteed. I will not be held responsible for any freak hair accidents gone wrong.

My Method (No, it's not my method! It's a method from YouTube! Plagiarism alert!):

Here I will include an image, directions, and a video. Good luck! (P.S. My instructions are horribly unclear. If you wish to be challenged, look at them, but make sure to watch the video too!)

PPS It sounds awfully long (7 and a half minutes!) but you only need to watch till 2:05 to get the main idea :)

And here's the promised image:

The directions are in the image, but whatever:

1. Take a strand of hair and moisten slightly.
2. Wrap ONCE around two fingers
3. Wrap the "rest of hair" around the hair leading to head, but remember to leave a tail!
4. Sandwich tail between fingers and pull through (not all the way!!)
5. Holding onto the "bump" that comes out on the side of the wrapped hair opposite the tail, push the wrapped hair ("cocoon") down!

VOILA!!! The perfect curl.

Writing Prompt #3

Hey guys, sorry it's been forever, but here's to the new writing prompt!!

~~~~

If you had a chance to go into your favorite story as yourself, what would you do? 


~~~~

I, of course, would go into The Sisters Eight series and..... (drumroll) convince them that I am the ninth eight and that there are some people called the Nuevos and the Neufs. (lol) Then I would say that Crazy Serena's evil triplet is also thriving... and so is Lucy and Queen's triplet who is even eviller than Queen! Oh no!!! (P.S. Eights. The Wicket is actually related to you. O.o)

So yeah. Please read the Sisters Eight books. They are hilarious and silly and perfect. <3

Bye bye!