Student Bobbleheads for Display: How-To

Hi Folks! Happy Monday! I'm here with a Monday Made It to share. I am particularly fond of these little bobble head displays. My students are cute anyway, and the bobblehead style shows them off even more. They were a BIG hit with all our hallway visitors!

I have a long strip of hallway in which to show off what we do in the classroom. I like to make a yearlong spot for each student so I can swap out student work, without having to create a whole new display each time.

I saw a Pin that showed little boy and girl bobble head clipart, and it got me thinking about how I could use real photos of my students in a similar fashion. Because I am a somewhat low tech kinda girl and I didn't want to have to crop and alter photos, I took the photos for this project with the end project in mind.

I took a snapshot of each student's head with their head pretty much filling the entire frame in my camera.

No, this is not one of my students. This is my long suffering husband demonstrating how the student's head should fill the photo frame. Yes, he's wearing his yellow lego head and standing against a yellow wall in our kitchen because I wanted it to be a plain wall... we have no plain walls in our house...

Then I took a photo with the student's entire body in the frame... well, actually, I didn't. This first year I took the photo half way through their head– it helps if you have their entire neck to attach the big heads to later– down to their knees. This coming year I am going to take photos of bodies all the way down to their feet. I think the bobblehead element will be more obvious if the body is a little bit smaller in proportion than it was this year.

Next time the body photo will go all the way down
to include their feet

I printed the head and body photos in the standard 4 x 6 size. Then I recruited anyone I could... again, ever patient Jonathan, and we sat and cut out the heads and the bodies. Be sure to cut these out right on the outer edge of the figures– you don't want any excess.

I glued the big heads to the little bodies and laminated the whole thing as one piece. Then there was more cutting– this time I cut around the laminated figures with a quarter inch border because I wanted those little guys to last. You can laminate at school, of course, but I used my home laminator to do this... I tell you those things are great. They laminate with a thicker, stiffer plastic which keeps them flat and sturdy.

The trickiest part of the cutting was cutting into the bodies and around the fingers. You need to do this so that the display sheet can slide up into their hands and look like the figure is holding it. I laminated black sheets of paper, slide them under hands, then taped them to the back of the figure with Scotch packing tape– you know that wide, crystal clear kind that this teacher can't live without.

The laminated display sheet is there so the student work can easily be taped onto the sheet. Otherwise the student work itself has to be removed from the hands each time it is switched out. The fingers on those little figures are very tiny so you don't want to have to mess with them too much.

I discovered a great new wall hanging system through this project, too. I don't know about your school, but at ours, stuff likes to leap off the walls. Some kinds of poster putty work, but it is expensive and students have been known to take it. And masking tape works sometimes, especially if you hit it with a rubber mallet... ah ha! I bet you didn't know about the old rubber mallet trick, did you? Yep, I keep a rubber mallet handy and give posters a little pound after I put them up with masking tape. You can find rubber mallets like this one at the dollar store.

The Old Rubber Mallet Trick

This time, though, I knew I was going to be touching those little figures each time I swapped out the artwork and I really wanted them to stay put even when monkeyed with. So after a little exploring online, I found these tack squares.

These little double sticky squares work wonderfully!! Just two or three of them held each little bobblehead figure to the wall all year!

And the best thing about them is that they are repositionable and reuseable. They came right off the wall with no problem when I took them down at the end of the year. None of them tore or clung, even though they were still very sticky... SO sticky in fact, I kept them! I put them on the back of one of the black display sheets– yep I kept those, too– and I'm going to see if I can reuse both of them next year. It can't hurt to try.

And let me tell you, my kiddos LOVED getting to take home their own bobbleheads at the end of the year, too. They were one of the most favorite end of school "gifts" that they got. I wouldn't be surprised if they are up in bedrooms right now holding treasured masterpieces.

So there you have it! A brand new display idea to start the year and use all school year long. I hope you like it! If you do, would you please Pin It!

For more classroom display and set up ideas, keep scooting by. I am doing a series this summer on classroom design. I put together a page with links to everything from standing movement centers to valances to a classroom tour video. Click on the button to see!

One more thing... there's going to be a GIVEAWAY here in a few weeks... three giveaways to be exact! It is part of Teacher Book Talk Tuesday. More details will be on tomorrow's post. And teacher bloggers, if you would like to be part of the giveaway, then link up tomorrow with a book review!

Now, it's time to head on back to the other Monday Made It posts to fine more inspiration. There is always great stuff to be found at one of my favorite linky parties. Thanks, Tara!!

Don't forget to PIN today... if you're like me, you'll get ready to make the Bobbles and think, now what did she do again... and then forget where the heck you saw the idea! So Pin, Pin, Pin! And do feel free to share any way you'd like.

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!

Busy in Bloggy Land

Happy Monday! Linking up today with Fourth Grade Frolics for a little recap on what I made in the last three days. It's been rather Hi-ho, hi-ho, off to work I go... but not with a shovel and a pick and a rhubarb stick... those are the words to that song, right? That's what we sang as kids, I know.

I've been working non-stop in bloggy land. Now, Monday morning, I have this to show for it.

I made a classroom tour movie. It was a bigger challenge than movies I've made in the past because I used a new format and did clipping, freeze frames, labels and voice overs within video footage. Not really difficult, but it took some new learning... and toooo much time. It is also nerve wracking putting yourself out there in a video singing and dancing... well, not dancing...

I started a YouTube channel... well, I should say a NEW YouTube Channel. I have one under my own name, but I've decided that one is going to be for mostly unlisted, by invitation only videos for my friends and classroom parents.  It has two that will remain public– my HUE animation projects. They're linked to HUE and I don't want to mess them up. My new channel is Kidpeople Classroom, and it is where I'll share videos for teachers. I don't think I'll do this a lot... snort... but it is good to have. It, too, was a bigger than it could have been challenge because I thought about branding and put up a banner and stuff that the other channel doesn't have. 

I made a classroom design hub, so to speak. It is one post with all the links to other posts I've done about elements of the classroom– flexible seating, display, set up... you get the idea. I will keep this post updated with links to new classroom design posts as I write them.

This is actually the beginning of a "Page" on my blog. Right now I have an "Other Stuff" page that is going to go. When I first set up the blog I thought I'd want to write about non-teaching stuff. And I do, but usually just in regular posts. My "Other Stuff" page has become a recipe for chocolate cake... yep, ONE recipe. It is for a very GOOD chocolate cake and it has nice photos, but it should not be a whole Page. So I will rewrite that and post it... maybe as a Monday Made It in a couple weeks. And then "Other Stuff" will become "Classroom Design." I have a lot more to say about that subject.

But where IS all this stuff I've done? Just scroll back up to

• Click on #1 and get to the video with some background that might help make it more useful.
• Click on #2 and go directly to the video on the new YouTube channel.
• Click on #3 and go to the Classroom Design Hub.
• Aaaaand, click on Monday Made It at the very top when you're all done to find what other teachers have been making. Thanks to Tara and this week's host for one of my favorite linky parties.

See you again tomorrow for Teacher Book Talk Tuesday... if you have a book you'd like to share, link up with me for this summer book review series. Click on it below to go to last week's reviews.

Thanks for stopping by!

Kidpeople Classroom Design Hub

This is the spot where you'll find all the how-tos, tours, and ideas that I've posted about classroom design. They come from my classroom– current and past. Click on the photos to go to each. I will keep this post updated with an ever growing list– you might want to Pin so you remember where you saw it. Hope you find ideas you can use. Please leave comments and questions– I will answer!

Classroom Tour Video

Student Bobbleheads for Display: How-to

The Book Nook

Window Valance

Paint Drying Rack Hack

Standing Centers for Movement

Student Bobblehead Display

Do-It-Themselves Student Display

Writer's Wall Display

Interactive Displays– Chatterpix and QR Codes

Thanks for stopping by!

No Sew, Drop Ceiling, Classroom Valance

Are you interested in having a window valance in your classroom, but you can't see a good way to hang it, or you don't have an easy way to sew it? Well, if you have a drop ceiling classroom like mine, I might be able to help you make a valance like this one.

You will need:
• fabric
• ribbon
• ponytail elastics
• and binder clips

Yes, that's it. No sewing and no additional hardware.

Start by measuring the width of the windows. To that, add one foot for each rise in the scallop. In the picture above you see I have eight rises between the scallops, and then two more, one at each end.

At first I was going to do a rise at each of the window frames, which is traditionally how it is done. But then I thought, I want more of the window showing, not the frame, so I put the rises between the windows with the scallops hanging down to hide the frame. You don't have to do it this way, it's up to you.

So now that you have the total length and know how many rises you're going to have, you can determine how much you need of everything. What follows are directions to make approximations of the materials you'll need. You might get a bit more of each supply to be on the safe side. (Note at the end of the post I mention getting more fabric for the end swags.)

I wish I had these directions when I started this project, but I could not find any curtains or valances on the internet that would work for me. I thought about it a bunch and then sort of made it up as I went along. All in all, I made pretty close guesses and had enough or a bit too much of everything when I was done, so I think you'll be fine, too.

For each rise you will need one ponytail holder and two medium sized binder clips. I used the heavy duty jumbo ponytail elastics so they would hold better than just regular rubberbands, which seem to disintegrate rather quickly. You will need three or four extra clips to attach the mid point of the valance– more on that later. I got both the elastics and binder clips at the dollar store.

Dollar store purchases make the valances cheap

You will also need two feet of wide ribbon for each rise– I think mine was two inches wide. And for each rise you will also need about two feet of thinner accent ribbons. Mine were about half an inch wide– pictures below. I purchased spools of ribbon at JoAnn's, with a coupon, of course.

Because most fabrics are a standard 45 inches wide, and the valance only needs to be about two feet long, you can cut the fabric in half, width wise. Then you only need half the length of the window in fabric. The fabric I used was indeed 45 inches, and you can see how far it hangs down on my windows when I sliced the 45 inches in half.

Here's a hypothetical window example: you have twelve total feet of windows. In that length you have four framed windows, so you want four scallops, or three rises. You need to add three feet (for the three rises), and then two more feet for the ends. 12 + 3 + 2 = 17, so you need a total length of 17 feet, or roughly six yards, of valance. Because you are going to cut the fabric in half lengthwise, however, you only need half that in fabric, or three yards. With a decent coupon of 40% or 50% off, you won't be spending too much.

Here I am cutting the fabric in half lengthwise on its fold

When you are done cutting the fabric you will have enough for the entire window, with extra to be taken up in the rises.

So let's think about how this fabric is going to scallop and how it is going to attach to the window. A picture is worth a thousand words and will illustrate what I'm talking about.

Here is a photo of my window before I started. You can see that shorter top window, the one I want to hang the valance in front of, is about 21 inches tall. You can also see that the windows have blinds on them.... well, not all of the windows do... how can blinds go missing? Anyway, I don't use the blinds as I have north facing windows that don't get direct sun, and I wanted to cover the blinds up.

Also, note in the same picture below, the most important feature of the ceiling is highlighted– this edge allows the valance to be hung. The frame for the drop ceiling runs right along the edge of the window. This is the edge that the clips attach to, which allows you to hang the valance.

Oh, geez. Never mind that giraffe. He's only there to show that the window is up high. That husband of mine and his photoshop...

See! One clip on.

Now two clips on! The binder clips hold the fabric to the drop ceiling frame, allowing the valance to be hung! Easy-peasy!

But I get ahead of myself. What is that bunch of stuff attached to the ceiling??

The fabric swag is held in place with the ponytail elastics. You gather about a foot of fabric along what will be the top edge of the valance and secure it with the elastic. To bring the bottom edge of the valance up, you use the wide ribbon. The ribbon starts on the front of the fabric and loops under and up in the back, bringing the valance up to the height you want. The ends of the ribbon are held in place with the same elastic that is holding the excess fabric that allows for the scallop. Again, here are some photos to illustrate.

Elastic holding the excess fabric and ribbon end.

Elastic holding the fabric and the ribbon that forms the scallop by pulling up the bottom edge.

Since I wanted to hide that big black elastic and add a bit more color and accent to the valance, I cut lengths of three colored ribbons, two feet each.

Then I tied them around the elastic, covering it.

And now you see where the two clips will go when hanging the valance to the ceiling frame. I bet it makes a bit more sense now.

To bring the end of the valance to a neat finish in each corner, I let a length of fabric just drape down at the end. I attached the wide ribbon, but instead of pulling the bottom edge of the fabric up to the short rise length, I let it hang down, so there was just half a scallop where it came to the wall. Then the extra fabric hangs down beside it.

Here's a close-up.

If you want to have as long a finishing swag as mine, you need to add a yard of fabric to the total that you buy. That extra yard will do a yard long swag on each end. If you are doing several separate windows with wall in between them, then you'll need more fabric. If that had been the case with me, I would have made those end swags half as long– which would still look fine, but require less fabric.

The hardest part of the whole project, after you get your head wrapped around what it is you need to do, is the actual hanging. I did the first couple of scallops by trial and error. Then I measured what I had done, and could better place the elastic and clips in the correct spots. I did the actual gathering of fabric, and placement of elastics and ribbon as I was standing up by the window. I kept supplies in my pocket and at my feet on the counter, and then only needed to climb down a couple times.

Oh, one more thing. Because you are cutting the fabric to get twice the length from one piece of fabric, the valance will need to be attached in the middle. You could sew it on a machine. I didn't want to schlep my machine to school, and I really wanted this to be a new sew project, so I ended up just clipping the fabric together with four binder clips. I have the clips holding the raw edges on the back side of the valance, facing out the window, not into the room. I overlapped and folded the fabric at the top and clipped it on to the frame the same way I did it everywhere else. I rolled the fabric a bit from the bottom before clipping so the unhemmed edge would sort of curl up on itself, something that happened naturally to it all along the bottom of the valance. Here is a close up of that spot on the valance.

Because I let the scallops come down on the frame and not over the window, the middle of the valance ended up being at the full scallop. It still looked alright just clipped together. This won't be an issue for you if you pull up the scallops at the vertical window frames instead of allowing more uncovered window like I did. Your fabric will come together at a rise instead of the middle of a scallop, and the fabric will be easier to clip together and hide with the ribbons when it's up near the ceiling.

Voila! Valance! I hope this all makes sense and inspires you to add a curtain valance to your classroom windows. I think it really puts a nice finishing touch to my room. I get TONS of compliments on it. More important than the fun of it, I believe it is conducive to learning because it helps make my classroom comfortable and homelike... isn't that what brain science says is helpful for growing dendrites?

Thanks for stopping by! PLEASE do leave any comments or questions below– I'm sure I missed something in this how-to. Also, please, please, please, Pin this idea. I searched the internet to find something that would work in my particular classroom and found nothing! I know lots of teachers keep Pin boards on classroom decor and I hope this will be useful to many, not just my loyal followers– oh, how I love you.

Pin Please!

And ONE last thing... this is another post in this summer's series on classroom design. I'm working on a video and posts on various aspects of setting up and organizing the classroom. Hope you'll follow me so you don't miss a series post. Look for this new button to find the series... and Pin it, too!

Now head on back to Monday Made It by clicking on the button! A big thanks goes out to Tara as this linky is one of my favorites and I always find ideas... especially in the summer when there is more time to create. I'll be linking up again.

As always, thanks for stopping by!