Literary Road Sign

9:15 AM Sarah Koves 0 Comments

The 2015-2016 school year starts tomorrow for me, and I have TONS of stuff to do, so I thought I would write a blog post instead.

This beauty finally went up in my classroom yesterday. It isn't done; I want to add a few more settings, but as it has been sitting unfinished for a year, I thought it was better to assemble and add more signs as I finish them than to let it sit another year.

My dad actually helped make this dream classroom project a reality last summer...yes, last summer. He cut all the boards and assembled the sign post for me. He got a sawmill, and he was very excited to show me and use it. He is EXCEEDINGLY handy, and made the base sturdier than I would have.

He also cut me boards of varying sizes for the signs themselves.

The sign post got a coat of black paint. He has all kinds of gadgets in his shop. The little bracket on the base was EXACTLY what we needed because I had to be able to transport the sign in my car.

At home I painted all the boards different bight colors. I have this never-dwindling paint stash that I can't seem to use up no matter how hard I try.

I like all the bright colors.

And this is as far as I got last summer. It then sat unfinished in my basement.

This summer I was determined to get it up in my classroom as I have different furniture (ie smaller) that has allowed me to have a reading corner in my room.

The hardest part was deciding what settings to put on the sign. I wanted some literary and some geeky pop culture. I also wanted them to be ones I like and not just ones we read, so sorry Salem, MA, but you are a no-go for my cute sign.

I have these four up and know I will be adding Sherwood Forrest and Hogwarts soon. I wanted the signs to match the font after my Winterfell turned out poorly, so I searched online until I found the setting in just the right font, and either hand-drew (Shire and Camelot) or transferred (Wonderland) it to the wood.

I tried both marker and paint for the signs. The marker is ok, but painting them in was better...like the current adult coloring fad, I could mindlessly paint while binge watching the Harry Potter movies.