Back to School Night, Here We Come!

Our home is busily preparing for Back to School Night and the start of the school year.  Trying to get all my ducks in a row has proven to be a full time job.  Good thing the show, "Mighty Machines" is on Netflix for my boys.  It's practically a documentary for children about big machines, and my boys love it!

Part of our prep for Back to School Night and simply for school to start involves some serious power tool usage.  Today I put up door stoppers on the fence, specifically for curious little ones to play with.  They were a big hit immediately with my boys. 

 On that same fence I've put up a 8x4 magnetic chalkboard with a wind chime on either side.  I'm also hoping to get a spinner put on the board in the top left corner so it can be a giant game board.  For Back to School Night I'll be painting circles on the grass for an outdoor version of Twister.  It's going to be so much fun!

 I've also been busy printing and preparing a few signs for the backyard to serve as guides for the evening since I'll be super busy all evening long.

Our basement demolition has ended and everything is back to normal with a new banister that I feel much more comfortable with.  Yay!

 I took a break from creating digital lesson plans to be creative with crayons and a hot glue gun.  I intended to do a tutorial for this, but I don't have pictures along the way of the process.  So here is the basic of it:

1. Knowing that I couldn't fit all the letters in crayons on my board I decided to just do the first letter of each word.
2. I lined up crayons for each letter starting with red at the top and ending with purple at the bottom (I'm a little OCD that way).
3. Using a kitchen knife, I cut away portions of the crayons to make the letters.
4. Then, I used some hot glue to glue the crayons to the canvas.
5. With my handy knife and cutting board again, I cut small pieces of crayons (shavings really) and sprinkled them all over the canvas.
6. I tried the hot hair dryer to melt the shavings.  I'll share with you that it just blows them off your canvas and makes a mess :(
7. I stuck the canvas in my oven and set it to preheat at 170*.  Just a few seconds before the preheat was done I pulled out the canvas.  It got hot enough to melt the shavings, but not too hot to melt my letters.
8. I purchased 2 inch foam letters from our local fabric and craft store and spelled the rest of the words.
9. I hung it up in the preschool and I'm excited to show it off!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Check back again soon for links to the printables for September!

Don't forget to enter our book giveaway: http://www.littleadventurespreschool.blogspot.com/2012/08/today-i-feel-silly-book-giveaway.html

Also, don't forget to download the August printables before the free sale ends!
http://www.littleadventurespreschool.blogspot.com/2012/08/august-preschool-and-tot-packs.html