*Some more* LEGO-inspired project reveal :)

So, I had a job interview this morning.  For kindergarten.  That starts on Wednesday.  And tomorrow will be filled with teacher orientation and, at night, meet-the-teacher night.  Can I just say I'm SO GLAD I started on some of these projects ahead of time?  It makes the job feel doable if I DO get it, and if not, I can focus my energies on even more fun projects and figure out what kinds of things I really do need for next time.  But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed...I should find out any minute now, literally. :)

ANYWHO, here are some more LEGO-inspired classroom projects!

Remember this?  Well, depending on where they end at the end of the day, they'll get either no fake money, 1 cent, 2 cents, 3 cents, or 5 cents...which they can store in THESE:

Probably the 3rd-most time consuming project, but aren't these little LEGO head babyfood jars SO CUTE?  :)  There's some velcro on the bottoms to help keep it on student desks.  This'll help students keep their money until they can spend it in my class "store" (which will have coupons more than junk).

I have a thing for giant dice.  These only cost me $3 to make, because I used those foam cubes in the floral section at Dollar Tree and a package of colorful rainbow foam to cover them.  If you do them, DON'T take them out of the plastic!  Just trust me on that one.  :)  Anyway, these can come in handy a LOT.

I made these out of some of the leftover foam sheets, to hang above each group of desks in the classroom.

My job chart!  Yes, I DID draw little pictures for each of the 24 classroom jobs.  See below for the list.  :)  Anywho, each MegaBlok with a job label has a smaller one on top of it where the kids' names will go.  Easily interchangeable.

Here's the whole thing. :)  Isn't it FUN?



I'm all about having as authentic experiences in the classroom as possible.  I hate when learning feels contrived.  :)  Anywho, here are my classroom jobs (24) with descriptions.  In almost any grade, I want them to "apply" for the top two or three jobs of their choosing during the first weeks of school (with interviews, references, the whole shebang!) and then keep their jobs all 9 weeks.  I don't know about that in kindergarten...I'm still mulling over it. 

POSSIBLY VOTED ON:
Class President: Meets with me (and the VP) on Fridays to discuss suggestion box and other class initiatives, occasionally may lead morning meetings
Vice President: Assists President and fills in when he/she is absent

Janitor (x2): Erasing dry erase boards, cleaning up water spills, straightening up desks at end of day, general cleaning as needed.
Teacher's Aide (x2): Passing out papers and supplies, helping with attendance/lunch count, general right-hand man
Banker (x2): Pretty self-explanatory.  For the younger grades it'll be more helping with the store and passing out coins, etc., not so much counting it or anything
Veterinarian: Helping with the class pets (probably just a fish my first year, but eventually maybe a hamster or something)
Gardener: Watering/taking care of the plants in the classroom
Tech Support: Turning on/off computers and stuff like that each day
Photographer: Taking a photo each day of classroom happenings for the class blog
Journalist: Writing a little something (or maybe drawing pictures?) each day about the biggest/best part of the day, for the class blog
Mailman: Delivers papers to mailboxes, brings papers down to the office when needed
Nurse: Grabs bandaids when needed, grabs teacher if (heaven forbid) there's an injury, walks students down to nurse's office when needed
Ecologist: Takes recycling out when needed, turns off classroom lights when we leave, etc.
Meteorologist: Checks the weather each morning for our calendar/math/weather board.
Receptionist: Answers the class phone and takes messages
Ambassador: Welcomes new students or any guests to the classroom
Librarian: Cleans up classroom library, helps me keep on top of students who haven't turned in their books
Substitute: Fills in for absent students
Inspector: Checks for desk cleanliness at random (no more than once a week, at my prompting) and issues dirty desk tickets/fines.  :)
Deejay: Picks out/handles the music for classroom brain breaks, silent seatwork, etc. 
Police: Helps me monitor students in the hallway (I'm gonna do a secret walker kinda thing), or lines in general (includes emergency drills, etc.)

I found these awesome cube-like storage thingies at Dollar Tree (although they didn't have all the colors I wanted so I had to spray paint the yellow and red ones), and the cute crayon cups at Walmart for 87 cents each.  These will go with each group to help organize shared supplies, like pencils and erasers and rulers, gluesticks and scissors, dry erase markers, and crayons.  :)  I'll also have a few of these in my storage cabinets (see below).

My LEGO-inspired weekly planner.  Each of those is a 5x7 glass frame so I can use it as a dry-erase board.  Again, better for older grades, but I'll make it work for any age.

My awesome filing cabinet.  Paul found it by the dumpster.  It was an ugly, rusty beige color, but some white and bright  colored spray paint and now I LOVE it!

My FAVORITE part of the room...my little supply cabinets!  :)  I love how they turned out...just like giant LEGOs!  Someday ALL my room will look this cool, but for now it'll be a nice, memorable conversational piece.  :)

In case you were wondering how I did it, I spray painted the doors of some hand-me-down white cabinets (gotta get some more of those for sure!) and then spray painted some of these lovelies--mini frisbees that came in multi-packs from Dollar Tree.  They ended up being the PERFECT SIZE, which made me REALLY happy!  :)

That is literally everything for now.  I'm hoping to have a LEGO-inspired bulletin board, and eventually some pillows and other major furniture that is LEGO-inspired, but until then I think I'm likin' it.  Can't wait to build up more and more of this in the next year, job or not--my classroom NEXT year will be AWESOME!