Writer's Eye Bulletin Board Set

I'm so stoked to announce that my Writer's Eye Bulletin Board set is up and rocking on Teachers Pay Teachers.  So, if you want to check it out it'll be on SALE for the next few days.  This is my first "big" product I've designed so I'm pretty excited.  Check the product out here!  

This is a photo of the older Writer's Eye board.  Once I am able to get back in my room I'll "remodel" it with my new, updated version and post a new and improved photo.  I can't wait!  Thanks for all the support and have a great last week of June.

Rookie Mistake and FREEBIES

So, I know I posted about putting the Writer's Eye Board file on Teachers Pay Teachers today.  Well, I just tried and I made a rookie mistake.  My file is way.  too.  BIG!  It only lets you have a 50 MB file and somehow my zip file was 347 MB.  Yowza!  I have to go back and tweek it so it'll work.  Sorry!  Here are a few teasers though...

If you'd like any of the above images as FREEBIES just click on any images you want then save it to your computer.  (If you have a PC right click on the image and save as).  Please remember that all the above images are my own work and they're copyrighted.  You may use them for classroom use only, unless you get permission from me.  Thanks for being respectful.  Have a happy night!

Writer's Eye Glasses

Hello everyone.  I'm pleased to post a tutorial for making the Writer's Eye Glasses.  I enlisted the help of my hubby, since he is the genius behind the Writer's Eye Glasses.  So, without further delay, here goes the tutorial...

You'll need to gather supplies... 2 embroidery hoops (I used 14 inch hoops here), spray paint, 2 small black paper plates, a cut of vinyl (I had a 16 inch piece cut to ensure it covered my hoops), a piece of wood (I cut a 12 inch long piece of 11/16"x1" pine), and screws (I used #6x3/4" brass wood screws).  I bought all of the supplies new and it cost under $14.  I also had left over supplies so if you already have some of this stuff use it and save some money honey!

1.  Lay out the hoops and wood piece.  Decide where you want the wood piece to be on the glasses.

2.  After you find the right spot trace the curve of the hoops onto the wood piece.

3.  Here is what the lines look like after being traced.

4.  Using a saw cut the wood along your trace marks.  

5.  Here is what the cut piece of wood looks like.

6.  Place the wood piece where it belongs between the outer hoops.  Mark where you want to place screws being careful to note the screw size.  Oh, and if you want to skip the screws you can use gorilla glue or wood glue to attach the wood piece.  You'll just have to let it sit overnight after gluing before you can finish the project.

7.  Here are some close ups of the marks.

8.  Make pilot holes in the hoop to guide you.

9.  Line up the pilot holes with the wood piece and draw marks to guide you.

10.  Here is a shot of the marks.

11.  Screw holes in the wood piece using the pencil guide marks.

12.  Screw the screws through the pilot holes attaching the outer hoops to the wood piece.

13.  The glasses frames are now assembled!

14.  Spray paint all the glasses pieces and let dry.

15.  Lay out the vinyl piece.  Cut the vinyl in two.

16.  Place the vinyl over the outer hoop.  Make sure to pull the vinyl back as tight and smooth as you can to avoid big wrinkles in the "lenses".

17.  Once you've got the vinyl just right screw the inner hoop down and trim off the excess vinyl from the sides.

18.  You're all done!  Now you have a fun pair of giant Writer's Eye Glasses for your classroom.

Writer's Eye Glasses

I teach my students to use their Writer's Eye. The Writer's Eye was taught to me when I took my CLIP class through ASU. The basics of the Writer's Eye is to teach the children to ask themselves questions while writing. Here are the basic questions:
1. Do I see a capital letter at the beginning of my sentence?
2. Do I see finger spaces between the words I wrote?
3. Did I use lowercase letters throughout my sentence, unless I needed to use a capital letter?
4. Do I see a punctuation mark at the end of my sentence?
5. Does my sentence make sense when I read it?
To remind my students to ask themselves the above mentioned questions I created this bulletin board. Actually, Mr. Phippen was the genius who came up with the idea of using embroidery hoops to form the glasses. Anyway, you need 2 hoops, a small piece of wood to join the hoops, 2 black paper plates, and spray paint to create the Writer's Eye glasses man. The kids love it!


PS  I have updated this Writer's Eye board and even made a Writer's Eye Bulletin Board product on my Teachers Pay Teachers store if you'd like.  Plus, I posted a tutorial on how to make the giant glasses too.