So, Pinterest is my new favorite thing. Also, I love etsy.  I spend entirely too much time on both sites. Awhile ago while poking around on Pinterest I found this:

You can find it on etsy here: we can do hard things.

I thought it kind of summed up a truth I’ve realized over the last couple of years and something I try to get my students to believe every day. I thought, “Oh, my gosh, that’d be an awesome thing to having hanging in my classroom!” Then I thought, “Oh, my gosh, that thing is $70.” And, while it is very awesome and I’m sure the person who made it is lovely and talented, I don’t have $70 to throw at classroom wall-decor.

What do I have? A printer, some scissors, and a bunch of kids who like crayons.

We made this:

It’s not as well photographed, for sure, but I think it’s cute. Plus, there’s something I like about that being the first thing you see when you walk into the room.  When you’re in third grade and you’re still having a hard time keeping your short-vowel sounds straight, I feel like that’s a message you probably need to see every day.

Of course, if that’s you, probably you can’t read the sign anyway…but we’ll get to that. 🙂