Monday Made It 7-15-13

 

I just LOVE Tara's link party on Mondays! I've gotten so many great ideas and have found some amazing blogs from it!  

 

Back in May my whole class was buzzing as things were boxed up and the room began to look bare.  They HATED it! My class even made me promise to not take down the paper lanterns in the library corner until after the last day of school. :)  During this process I overheard a conversation between two students that completely made my heart melt!  

 

Student 1- "Most teachers buy stuff for their room, but our teacher makes stuff."

Student 2- "Yep, and when people make stuff home-made for you, it means they really love you."

 

So precious and so true! I love my classroom. I love my job. Most importantly, I love my students!  I truly believe a comfortable, colorful, and organized classroom creates the best learning environment.  These quotes from my students make me proud of all the hard work I do all year long!

 

 

So, back to Monday Made It....for those of you who don't know, my classroom is a sweet shoppe theme. You know, because learning is sweet!!!!  All around my classroom you can find ice-cream scoops of success, smart cookies, brownie points, glittery lollipops, and these adorable cupcakes!

 

 

These cupcakes can be found all around the room for decoration. Here's two of them hanging around our classroom library. :)  So, I decided this summer to add the cupcakes to my positive behavior reward system...enter THE GOLDEN CUPCAKE AWARD!!!

 

I'll pause for your reaction...(ooooo-ahhhh)

 

I'm not sure how I am exactly going to be using this...perhaps it will sit on the desk of the student with the cleanest desk...or best behaved table grouping?? I'm not sure, BUT I'm hoping it'll be a hit! PLUS I always think it's a great idea for a teacher have some extra special rewards in your back pocket so to speak.

 

 

AND, since I was having so much fun I decided to make a silver and bronze cupcake award too!

Unfortunately, I can't locate the blog from which I got my directions on how to make these cute little guys. So here is my cliff's notes version of the tutorial.

 

Materials: cupcake wrappers, Plaster of Paris, Styrofoam spheres, Light Spackling, paint, glitter, pom-pom, & hot glue gun

 

 

First, I place my cupcake wrappers into a cupcake pan and pour Plaster of Paris into each wrapper. This creates your cupcake base. Let these dry overnight before moving onto the next step.

 

 

Second, I glue 1/2 of a Styrofoam sphere onto the top of each cupcake base with my trusty hot glue gun.  This creates a nice rounded top for my cupcake.

 

 

Third, I mix a small amount of paint (for color) with my spackling.  This will be my frosting! I use a disposable piping bag to help, however you could also spread the spackling on with a plastic knife.

 

 

Finish it off with a sprinkling of glitter "sprinkles" and a sparkly red pom-pom and you're all set!

 

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out other great ideas from Tara's partay!