Pirate Bulletin Board Game {FREEBIE}

I have been using the same types of homework incentive charts for years now.  I decided it was time for something different this year!!!  How about a bulletin board game?!?!

The mascot at my school is the owl, so I use a lot of owls in my room.  This year, our PTA adopted a pirate theme, so we are now seeing lots of pirate owls all around school!  The theme also goes along with a theme our principal has adopted called "teach like a pirate."  This is based on some professional development by Dave Burgess.  Check him out, there is some great stuff there!

So, back to my homework incentive chart.  I have wanted to make a large bulletin board game for a while now.  I found some really cute owl pirate clip art, and decided to go for it.  Students will all start at the owl pirate and follow the map to get to the treasure box.  They each have a ship with their name on it that will sail the "speechie seas."  I laminated each ship and put a tiny piece of adhesive putty on the back. 

As students start to return their homework, they will get to roll the dice and move their ship that many spaces.  When they reach the treasure box they will get a prize!

I am hoping this will motivate some of my students a little more than just the regular incentive chart.  Not sure it will work, but I am going to try it!  I'll keep you updated to let you know if it works.

If you want to join me in using this type of game, here is a FREEBIE for you!

File Cabinet Makeover

So this year, I was not able to get into my speech room until the last minute.   We had some major renovations done to my school, and I had to pack absolutely everything up.  I also have a student intern with me this fall and wanted to make sure to familiarize her with the school and procedures, etc. during my first two days back.  Because of these reasons, I really have not done anything too creative with my room yet.  I want to put together a cute bulletin board outside of my room, but it just has not happened yet.  I do, however, have something to share with you that is new to my room this year!

At the end of this last school year, I came across this filing cabinet in a hallway at my school.  Someone was getting rid of this trash treasure.

I am forever looking for new storage options for my room, and scooped it right up!  The custodian thought I was crazy for being excited about this, but I knew that I had big plans for this baby!

First, I took off all of the handles and took the drawers out of the cabinet area.  Then, I primed the whole thing using Rust-Oleum Professional Primer.  I only had to do one coat with this.  I covered really easily.  I used three cans.

 

I finished it off with a coat of Rustoleum Gray Spray Paint.  I only used two cans of this paint because I had already primed it, and it seemed to be going on really well.

After everything was dry, I applied some really pretty coordinating paper to the drawers using Mod Podge.

I cut the paper so that it overlapped on the drawers just a bit.  Then, I put a coat of Mod Podge on the back of the paper and applied it to the drawer front.  Then, I put an additional coat of the Mod Podge over the paper.  After it dried, I put all of the hardware back on the cabinets, and was ready to take this baby back to my office!

Here is my finished product...

I couldn't resist covering my pencil cans with my paper too!

Happy start of the year everyone!!!