At work this year I have been focusing on doing the decorations big and bold and fun. It is an area where the state has suggested in the past that we spend a little bit of time on in the future. The problem is that we have lunch in the gym so we not only share a space with gym classes K-8, but also with programs, plays, all assemblies, science fairs, and anything else that needs to be done in a large room. The room is referred to as the Gymateria, Cafetorium, Lunchnasium, and any other combo word made out of lunch, gymnasium, cafeteria, and auditorium. It is also a room that is made out of cinder blocks. One whole wall is a rock wall for the kids to climb, one wall is a movable wall that folds up into the music room, and the other two have doors down low and windows up high. In one corner is the door leading into the kitchen with a metal roller window that opens to serve the food. Basically we are able to decorate that corner of the room. In our area we have one cork board that we use for the lunch program.
I really wanted to start the year off "BIG" so this is what we came up with:
Cork Board:
Space above the metal rolling window:
The house above the serving window is just the roof of the "Up" house. We were able to recreate it and it made it look like the kitchen was floating away. The whole thing is about 40 feet high and 25 feet long. It was amazing. It took us a few hours over 2 days to make and put it up before school started in August. We left it up through September because it was such a large and hard piece to do. We put the names of the staff from our school on the balloons.
In October we wanted to have another big decoration for the kids to enjoy during lunch. I was at the Dollar Store and saw a bag of spider rings and the idea just came to me.
Cork Board:
The large spider was purchased for $1 as well from a local grocery store. It adds a 3D element to the decor. This picture was taken at the end of the month so you can see some signatures on the background. The school had the BYU football team come and talk to the middle school and they signed a bunch of stuff for the kids. They also signed the wall.
Space above the metal rolling window:
We thought a giant spider would take up a lot of room on the giant white wall. You can see in this picture how big we make everything. (Just an FYI: The spider was about half of the size of the "Up" house that we did the month before. We made it into a Black Widow because the kids kept thinking it was some sort of hat on top of the serving window.
In November and December we used snowflakes and snowmen but they were unceremoniously pulled down and trashed by the crew who put up sound boards all over the walls in the Cafetorium. It really helps with the echos but it limits how we can decorate. I will post the Feb and March decorations later in the month.
