I know washi tape is all the rage, but to be honest–I haven’t really jumped on board.  I kept telling myself that if I saw a project I REALLY wanted to do, I’d jump in.  That hasn’t happened yet, but on one of my little shopping expeditions last week, I accidentally sort of bought a roll.  Just one.  It matched my classroom.  Don’t judge.

So it sat on my counter looking cute for a few days until I went to ANOTHER store and bought my new desk calendar.  Now, if you knew me, you would know there is NO room on my desk for a calendar–so there must be another use.  Indeed you are correct.  I had a cute calendar set up every year for about 18 years.  Every month I would walk in on the first day and think “Shoot!  I have to change over the stupid calendar!”  I dreaded it.  I tried having students do it.  It just never worked.  So–call me lazy–a few years ago I took down all the thumbtacks, number cut outs, and decorations and slapped a desk calendar in the same spot.

It was brilliant.  I could write important dates on it.  I could cross off mistakes easily.  I could simply tear off a page on the first day of the new month.  I loved it.

So . . . last year I started writing students’ birthdays on the calendar in fun colors with little designs on them.  It was kind of a fun way to celebrate their birthdays.  This year I thought I’d try a little something different–washi tape birthdays!  I simply cut a piece of fun washi tape to fit inside the box, wrote the students’ names, and put them on the calendar.  It brightens it up while still allowing room in the box to write . . . like this