Pirates & Painted Palette - Classroom Decor on the High Seas!

Creative Teaching Press Painted Palette Collection

Every year the teachers at my school vote on a school-wide theme for the next school year. We're free to decorate however we want within that theme, which allows us to express our own creativity while still showing a unified front. This year we decided to combine two themes for the 2015-2016 school year - Oceans and Pirates!

My brain was already percolating with all of the classroom decor choices I need to make, along with bulletin board ideas, when Creative Teaching Press contacted me and asked me to be one of their Exclusive Bloggers for 2015. I love CTP because it is a family-owned, teacher-managed company. This year they are celebrating their 50th Anniversary!

Part of being a CTP 2015 Exclusive Blogger is participating in Blog Hops like this one, where I get to show you some of my favorite CTP items that I'll be using in my classroom PLUS I get to host giveaways for CTP products! It's a winning situation all around!

Back in February, at the EdExpo 2015, I was able to get a look at some of CTP's new items and I fell in love with their Painted Palette collection. I love bright, bold colors, which the Painted Palette has, but what I love even more is being able to pick and choose which colors to use so that I can have my color without it being overwhelming!

With my Ocean/Pirate theme, I'm mainly going to go with the Turquoise, Poppy Red and Blue from the Painted Palette collection.

I'm going to use these Painted Palette Library Pockets to create a name chart for labels, puzzles and other name activities for each student. 

The cabinets in my classroom are painted a turquoise blue, my reading area canopy is also blue and my reading pillows and the covers of my crate seats are also blue! All of this blue is very calming, so I feel confident that I can add splashes of the poppy red to liven things up without being overwhelming. The Painted Palette Ombré Poppy Red Herringbone Nameplates will be used on our cubbies and in our Writing Center. The Painted Palette Poppy Red 2" Letter Stickers will go on my word walls, and of course the Painted Palette Ombré Poppy Red Scallops Labels can be used as nametags for the first week of school (so much better than having to pin on a nametag!) as well as to label different supplies around the room!

I love how you can overlap the Painted Palette Ombré Scallops Borders! I think I'll have to play around with the different combinations to really get my classroom boards to pop!

How adorable would a bulletin board display be with these Painted Palette Blue Ombré Scallops Borders? I'll have a pirate ship for each student and during the first week of school I can take a picture of each student in a pirate costume and add them to the helm of "their" ship! I'm thinking I can even have parents help them create their own ship's flag at our Back to School night! 

And, the rest of the Painted Palette colors match my table colors! I have that ubiquitous rug with squares in 5 colors - orange, blue, green, red and purple. I can use these Painted Palette Pennants to make a Welcome banner  AND to create table flags with the students' names on them!

If your school is anything like mine, you're expected to switch out your bulletin boards on a regular basis. I love, love, love the new seasonal items CTP has!The best part of course is that they coordinate with the poppy red I'll already have up - so I can layer a Peppermint Candies Border over top of Painted Palette Poppy Red Ombré Scallops Border! The adorable forest animals are from the Winter Woodland Friends collection while the ornaments are from the 'Tis The Season Mini-Bulletin Board set which also has a boy and girl elf that could be used as a classroom management strategy. Just put together the elves as the class gets behavior compliments and when the display is finished, they get a small treat - like the Merry & Bright stickers! And, if you use incentive charts or reading logs, your students will get a kick out of the Peppermint Candy Hot Spots Stickers! The Holiday Chart Cards will be perfect for listing my standards next to our bulletin board displays, and I think I can even use them to create the covers for a class book!

Now, here's the most exciting part of this post! You can win $50 worth of Creative Teaching Press products!! And, if you hop over and see my friend Amanda at The Primary Gal, you can check out what she's doing with the Chalk It Up! collection AND enter to win her giveaway for $50 worth of CTP Products! Then keep hopping to check out more classroom decor, check out bulletin board ideas and get some organizational tips as you enter each of the 30+ giveaways! That's a lot of chances to win!

Congrats to the winner, Deirdre! I'm sure she'll love her prizes! If you didn't win, don't despair, you can purchase your own Creative Teaching Press products at many local retailers. Check out the store locater for a retailer near you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
Best of luck to you! Now remember to get hoppin' to The Primary Gal for your next chance to win!