Somewhere in the Sun...

It is every teacher's job to transform 4 white walls into an environment in which students can spend a minimum of 6.5 hours per day. Bright colors, word walls, math facts, vocabulary, bulletin boards, calendars, etc. Whatever it takes to stimulate young minds. Over the course of my employment, I have worked in 4 different schools. Only one school provided me a room with a window. The others have 'boxed' me. On any given day I couldn't tell you whether the sun was shining, rain or snow fell, or if the cool wind blew. Truthfully, I don't notice it on most days until I walk out of the building and think "uh, it snowed" or "wow, what a beautiful day." But there are those days when I long for a look into the outside world. Since I know a sky-light is out of the question, I had to find a way to invite the outside world into my room. So I decided to go with a beach theme. Bring the sunshine inside...even if it is made of cardstock and lamination. ;)

It started with the welcome sign I posted earlier. Then I decided to make my own calendar. It was far more work than I anticipated, but I do have to say I have the cutest calendar in the building.

I used the Life is a Beach cartridge to cut all of the pieces except for the sun and the palm tree trunks. The tree trunks were done by hand and the sun was cut using Going Places. The fish I used for the dates were altered using Design Studio. The actual fish are longer, thinner fish. I needed to fatten them up some to fill up the calendar squares. I couldn't resist, I had to bring them to life with googley eyes. The months of the year were cut from the Life is a Beach font and 'welded' together using Design Studio. The numbers, holidays, and special occasion cards were cut using Designer's Calendar. I thought I could quickly cut each of those out in 2 hours time. 4 hours later I was still cutting and pasting...but it turned out cuter than I anticipated.

I am including both November and December so you can see some of the different elements.

I did laminate all of the pieces and put velcro on the back to make for easy changes from month to month. I do wish I had laminated the calendar poster board before putting the velcro on it. It is not quite as sturdy as I would like. But works none the less.

I bought the fish border and calendar posterboard at my local teacher supply store. I used material for the background (less fading) and sandpaper for the bottom border.