One of things I never posted about was last year's Teacher Appreciation Week. Our PTA does an amazing job planning out a week full of goodies and love for our teachers and staff--and let's all agree, they deserve it!!!!! My neighbor had signed up to decorate the Teachers' Lounge for the traditional Friday teachers' luncheon which caps off the week's festivities and asked if I wanted to help. I was game. A 'Sports' theme was set for the week and I was definitely disappointed because I had envisioned paper flowers and something Spring-ish. However, we made the best of it and went with an All Star motif.
There were two paths we could have taken: (1) Go to Party City and buy up all the Sports stuff we could find OR...(2) Get Crafty! We really wanted to the teachers to feel special AND we wanted to put a glamorous spin to the All Star Theme, so we got crafty! We set our palette to red (the school color), black, gold and fuchsia--think Oscars with a feminine edge. Before I get into the details let me share the pictures first...please note our school mascot is the cardinal.
Now onto the details...we made a bunch of red and gold paper rosettes, tissue fringe (for the balloons) and all the kids in the boys' after school program assembled paper cardinals, the school mascot, for us to decorate with. The cardinals were my favorite...I could have made all 60 myself, but I could never have captured the charm and perfect imperfection of the kid's cardinals. Finally came installation day, the Thursday before the lunch. We went to work and covered the three bulletin boards with black paper (to mimic a chalk board) and then painted on a gold boarder to add some elegance. My neighbor is quite skilled in hand lettering and painted lovely messages for the teachers, 'You are All Stars' & 'YOU ROCK', in white to complete chalkboard look. Then we added the cardinals en masse on one board and the rosettes on the other. The tables were treated with red tablecloths and potted bright pink geraniums wrapped in gold foil. Mini cardinals soared out of each pot and a framed message sat on each table (I spray painted yellow frames from Target gold). The teachers loved it! One of the school administrators told us our bulletin boards made it to her Top 5 List!
Teacher Appreciation this year is on May 6th this year, so don't be afraid to get crafty!
-K
