Teacher-y Stuff

College Girl's "Big" in her sorority is graduating in just a few short days and the girls all get together and give the graduates a gift basket to send them on their way. It's a wonderful send off and I like that they ask the Seniors for a "Wish List" so they can truly get things they need or want. College Girl's Big is an Education Major and is all ready to find a job teaching little ones (early elementary) and she wanted a basket full of classroom items. College Girl was in charge of her Big's basket and this is not the kind of "stuff" she knows about so she called and said, " Help. We need teacher-y stuff!" Well, not a problem here. Right up my alley. I was on it!! So fun to make and find "teacher-y stuff" for this enthusiastic future teacher.

We started off with this fun sign for the classroom ( you may remember it from before) and set the theme with the colors and polka dots - we were aiming for "instant classroom" and tried to be fairly cohesive and find things that the future teacher would love and could use for a long time. Polka dots and a chalkboard-look on black seemed fun and classic and easy to match when she goes to find more items for her classroom.

Next came the "basket" to hold all the other goodies...

 We went with a large galvanized bucket with a handle. So versatile and useful and I'm all about the galvanized bucket. This is actually the small trash can size from Home Depot and it is only $14.99 and has a handle and lid. She can use it for a zillion things in a classroom. It came plain, of course, and we went to town making it match our theme. And we personalized it. A little strange to thinkof "Big" as Ms. Petry!! :) Was it really three years ago that I met her for the first time at our first Chi O Family Day??

I painted the alphabet and more polka dots on the back. I went with the rainbow/spectrum for our polka dot colors so she can pull out her favorites and these gifts will work with whatever she decides to do in her classroom. I tied a rainbow of polka dot ribbons on the handle and made a name sign for her door.

A little Mod Podge and some cute polka dotted papers in a rainbow of colors ( plus owls since that is the Chi O symbol) and we have a cute clipboard and clipboards are an important part of every teacher's day! It might as well be cute!

A huge burlap pencil for fun and then we filled the bucket up with all kinds of goodies from the "teacher store" near us - Sharpies, notepads, post-it notes, bulletin board borders and a huge owl set for the bulletin board, owl bathroom passes, chore charts, stickers and more. It was overflowing with goodies!!!

Hooray for teachers! Hooray for Ms. Petry!!