After five years of the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, I have decided to change my classroom theme to monsters for the upcoming year. I am sooooooo excited about my kiddos becoming Madden's Monster-ous Masterminds! I actually started the process before the school year ended (thanks to finding so many cute ideas on Pinterest!) One of the first projects was painting monster canvases. I saw this idea on a nursery posting (inspiration) and knew that I needed some to sit on my windowsills. So, I bought some cheap canvases from Hobby Lobby, lots of acrylic paint and wrangled Mr. Madden into our own "sips and strokes" session in the garage one weekend. While the end result is not perfect, they're perfectly monster-ous and I think the kids will love them! Once these were complete, I set off to tackle yet another Pinterest craft - no-sew monster pillows (inspiration). After yet another trip to Hobby Lobby, I had lots of fleece and fabric glue - that's all it took! Oh, I also bought a cheap 18" cross stitch hoop to use to trace my circles onto the fleece (which I plan to turn into a wreath at a later point, so money not wasted). I think they turned out cute for a VERY cheap, VERY quick project! One more for now - my lunch choice station! For years I've used the plate system and love how it works, so I knew I wanted to keep that, but make it monster-ous somehow! :) I've decided to use red and turquoise as my room colors (nothing to do with the fact that I'm too lazy to change the red curtains from my Hollywood theme, of course). I found these fabulous HARD plastic, turquoise plates at Party City (hehe...almost typed Hobby Lobby there since it's been my second home lately). They were perfect! I used paint pens to draw monster faces on them and voila! The small clothespin on each plate is to hold the lunch choice for the day. This job belongs to one of the students. I post the weekly menu on this cabinet and each afternoon the student writes each lunch choice on a post-it and clips it to the plate. All students have a large clothespin with their classroom number on it attached to the ribbon beneath the plates. Each morning they clip their clothespin to the side of the plate of the lunch choice they want for the day. Any clothespins remaining on the ribbons belong to absent students - voila! - lunch choices and attendance knocked out together! More about the monster invasion at the Madden home this summer later! What is your classroom theme for next year? What projects are you tackling this summer?