Oriental Trading Company Archives

Although this school year has just begun, it’s already been a great one so far in Room 7! I have 30 bright-eyed, adorable, and very curious first graders in my class! Did I mention how adorable they are? This year, I decided to set up a thematic “Beach” reading corner in my room to get my students extra excited about reading. Thanks to Oriental Trading Company, it was easy to create one.

A photo of my classroom setup in process with my “Beach” Reading Corner in process. I’m obsessed with all of the plush sea animals on the canopy. My favorite is the octopus! It was so much fun to set up my classroom this year.

Here are the items I ordered from Oriental Trading Company’s online site to create my reading corner:

The DIY Sun was really easy to assemble. How cute is the face?

I could’ve easily ordered a bunch of other things too but I held back. (maybe next time) Everything was so easy to put together and hang up. I don’t think my classroom has ever looked this cute before!

What NOT To Do With Your Reading Corner at the Beginning of the School Year

Let’s first talk about what NOT to do with your reading corner at the beginning of the school year. I guess I got so excited about my thematic reading corner and had it all set up and ready to go the first day of school! What I didn’t really think about was the fact that my students might not be ready for IT that soon. On the first day of school, the worst possible thing happened….someone popped one of the green reading chairs! (Ok maybe that wasn’t the WORST thing that could’ve happened, but it was bad) Yep, it was a little girl in my class and she jumped onto it when my back was turned. I heard the noise of the pop, which was followed by a whole bunch of gasps from other students. It was at that moment that I suddenly remembered how important it was to set up my classroom expectations and review the procedures for the reading corner BEFORE allowing them to use it! I should’ve known better, especially since it’s not my first year teaching. I guess I just got forgot since I was so excited.

Establishing Rules and Procedures in the Classroom For the Reading Corner

Before you can utilize your reading corner, it’s very necessary to introduce and review the rules and procedures for how you want the children to behave and use the area. It’s very important to establish your expectations for them and to even do several sessions of practicing WHAT to do. I, often times, find that my own students need a lot more guidance because they come from homes where there is very little structure and many just haven’t learned basic ways to treat things, especially things that belong to others that they may be using. I also find that my students do really well, once I have explained and modeled my expectations and let them practice.

It’s also important to build a classroom community and give the students ownership so they feel like it belongs to them. The beginning of first grade is a big change for the students who are coming from kindergarten. I think it’s important to help them feel like our classroom is theirs and the items in our classroom are also theirs to use. The reading corner is a place they can choose to visit when they have finished their work, to read quietly. If they feel it’s theirs, they’ll treat it with respect and use it the right way.

Motivating and Keeping Students Accountable Using the Plush Clown Fish

I am SO happy that I decided to order a dozen of the Plush Clown Fish for my classroom this year. I’m using the fish to motivate my students in the classroom and also as a way to hold them accountable for staying on task.

Each morning, I have 12 glitter clothespins clipped to 12 of the fish on the wall. When the students arrive at school, they look to see who has a clip and those are the students who will have the privilege of “reading with a fish” that day and having them on their desk. ONE of the 12 students is also the student who gets to sit in the reading chair that day.Students may read with a fish on the carpet, they may also read with a fish at their desk.

Wherever they choose to read, they are held accountable in the sense that if I see them off task or playing around, I take the fish away and move to glitter clip to another student’s name for the day. (When that happens, they get really sad). It’s adorable to see them reading with the fish. Never underestimate the power of a stuffed animal with a first grader!

The students actually say that their fish help them read better!

The reading chair is the most sought-after seat in room 7!

I am so excited to see how much growth my students make this year and how well they progress in their academics. It already seems like my Beach Reading Corner is keeping them motivated and I have Oriental Trading Company to thank for helping me out with that!

Disclosure: I received products from Oriental Trading Company in order to write my review. No other compensation was received. All opinions are 100% my own.

Disclosure: I was provided with products by Oriental Trading Company, in order to conduct this review. No other type of compensation was received. All opinions are 100% my own.

In our family, we love to throw parties for every occasion. Parties for holidays, birthday parties, parties for award shows, even season premiere nights of our favorite TV shows! We’ll throw a party for any occasion! We also love to have fun with photo booth, which is a highlight at our parties. It’s really pretty simple to create your own photo booth corner to capture some unique photo memories. We had fun creating a photo booth for a “Surf’s Up” party we recently threw, using items we found on the Oriental Trading Company site. I’m going to show you how easy it is to make your own photo booth.

Choose a great spot to set up your photo booth

When you look for a spot to set up your photo booth area, remember to always pick somewhere with plenty of room for guests to be silly when they’re posing for pictures. Also, choose a location with good lighting. We usually set up our photo booth area outside because, for me, the natural lighting is much easier to work with than inside the house and you don’t usually need to worry about a flash.

Choose a photo booth background. Designate an area.

It’s really important that you choose a background for your photo booth area and designate an area at your party for your fun. We have used our wooden fence as a background for ours before. If you want a patterned background it’s easy to create by purchasing 1-2 yards of fabric and stapling it around a giant piece of cardboard or wood for guests to pose in front of. For this particular occasion, we ordered a stand-up surfboard from Oriental Trading Company that matched our theme. For some of the photos we stood it in front of a textured wall outside in our driveway. For other photos, I used a hot pink shower curtain that was hanging on a garment rack. Whatever background you choose, just make sure it’s a little taller than your tallest guest.

Designate a photographer

It’s much easier to designate someone as the official photo booth photographer for your party. It’s also better if YOU, the hostess, are not that person. I love that my BFFs step up to help me with this every time we have a party. They know how important photos are to me and they also know that I’m always so busy running around. Taking over this duty for me is something HUGE and I’m always appreciative of them. By the way, you’ll also have guests taking selfies in your photo booth with their own phones.

Have Photo Booth Props for guests

Having fun photo booth props is a NECESSITY for your photo booth! It’s actually THE most important part. You can sometimes find things around your house to use like hats, parts of old Halloween costumes, feather boas, glasses, etc., but there are also other important props that you should always have available. I found awesome photo props on sticks on the Oriental Trading Company site. I chose some lips, glasses and mustaches. Mustaches look great on everyone and they seem to be a popular choice with everyone! I like to stick all of the props into a mason jar so guests can just grab one or two that they like. In addition to photo props on sticks, I also found these oversized luau picture frame cutouts on their site. So cute!

Now that our party is over, we like to keep the jar of photo booth props on the counter so we can grab them whenever we need them to strike a pose and snap a pic! It’s just what we do around here!