Monday Made It: Team Awesome, Nut Free, and CPR!

Tomorrow the kids come... I'm so excited to meet them!  This past week was spent getting things ready in the classroom.  I'm almost ready to show it to you!  I did make up a few things for today with Monday Made It!

My team has matching shirts this year.  Aren't they awesome!?!  They are from teachershirts.com 

My team was joking around the other day and named ourselves Team Awesome.  :)  So I made up some Official Membership gifts with our favorite team candy... seriously, it makes meetings better!  LOVE the clip art from Creative Clips!

Here it is over on Google Docs!

This year I have a couple kids with nut allergies.  It's really serious how so many kids have epi-pens these days.  I made this freebie up for my window, hoping it reminds the kids to not bring in anything for birthday celebrations and class parties that could hurt others.  Maybe it can help you too!  

Going along with that, I renewed my CPR online this past week!  I sat down and MADE myself get it done before school started.  Now I am able to administer (hopefully never) epi-pens if needed.  You can save some money with the code below!

I hope you have a great day!

Monday Made It in the Classroom

Hey everyone! Sorry I'm posting so late to the party.  I've been busy in the classroom, trying to set everything up!  Linking up with Tara for another Monday Made It!

I decided to update my bulletin boards using my polkadot card stock and some frames.  Love how they turned out!  Extra love that I didn't waste my color ink when I had these at hand.  

I found these neon color pencils, so decided to make little first day treats for the kids.  

I made up these little table baskets, and added a jumbo size paperclip inside with 2 little signs.  Have you ever been to Bubba Gumps restaurant?  They have these signs at the table that say, "Run Forest Run!" and "Stop Forest Stop!" It helps the waitress know who needs help, etc.  I'm going to try this in the classroom too.  The signs are 2 different colors, so it's easy to notice from across the room.  

So what have you bought at the sale?  I'm still narrowing down my wish list... 

Remember to use the code!  

Monday Made It: Craft Time

What do you get when you put a glue gun, washi tape, and a laminator in the same room?  Can't figure it out?  It's Monday Made it!  Ha ha ha... my sorry excuse for a joke.  I hope you are having a leisurely morning - maybe you got to sleep in... maybe you were able to finish your coffee when it was still warm... maybe you are still in your PJs...  

Well, take a minute to feel my pain.  I had to be awake way too early to go meet up with my teaching friends way too early, to travel an hour away way too early, to arrive at 7:30 am for an All Day Long, All Week LONG workshop.  I'm hopeful there isn't as much traffic as I'm expecting, and I'm hopeful that I won't be bored out of my mind, and I'm hopeful that I will actually learn something that will help me as a teacher.  Did I mention that this was optional?  Yep!  Way back in March this sounded like a good idea, but now that it's the last week of summer I'm not so sure.  :)  New science standards, here we come!  Linking up on this fine Monday with Tara to share what I've been up to this past week.   

I made up my markers and erasers this past week. All 132 of them.  Just those little dollar tree puffs glued onto the top of the marker to act as the eraser.  It works!  I also didn't burn myself with the hot glue, which was a win all by itself.

  I've had some questions about these... 

1. They do last for the length of the marker - My class just needs to have a talk about proper etiquette.  

2.  I choose to glue onto the cap so that when the cap falls on the ground the neon puff makes it easily able to be seen.

3.  I know the cap can't go to the back of the marker because of the puff, but honestly my class never puts the caps on the back anyway.  This way they write with one hand, hold the eraser with the other, and when done they snap the cap back on.  

I also labeled up my new group baskets.  These hold community supplies for 4 kids.  2 years ago I gave up community supplies, I'm bringing them back ONLY for the things that partners share.  They have their own pencil boxes with the majority of the supplies (i.e. scissors, pencils, colored pencils, glue sticks, highlighters, whiteboard markers, pens), but these baskets will hold the 2 glue bottles, 2 tidy tubs, 2 crayon boxes, 1 hand held pencil sharpener, and one package of markers.  I'm going to try it one more time...  

This was my thrift store find.  It's a magnetic easel.  I added a little washi table and those laminated name tags to it.  The plan is to replace my desk post it note frame with this since I can use it as a way to stick post it notes, write notes on the laminated part, or stick notes on it using magnets.  It has a smaller footprint and won't take up as much room.  :)  

When the washi tape was pulled out I also tagged my popsicle sticks.  I wrote my  preliminary class list on them (because even if a couple of kids change, I will still have the majority complete).  The blue tape are boys, the green are girls.  I will add another layer of colored tape when I learn more about my kids so they will still look "random" but they aren't that random.  Yes, it's sneaky, but it helps me meet their needs. 

I also laminated a ton and prepped them for the journey back to the classroom, went through half my brand new package of laminating pouches... Isn't that always the life?!?

Hope you have a wonderful day! 

Monday Made It: My Week was a BIG One!

It's Monday!  Linking up with Tara to share what's ready for school.  

My HUGE project from this past week was getting my students' notebooks ready to go - all 165 of them.  In my grade level we collect supply donation money at the beginning of the year, and teachers get exactly what the students need.  It's something that parents have really liked (which as a parent it's something I like too).  So 165 composition notebooks later they are color coded, labeled, and there are dividers tucked inside (printed off on address labels and stuck on specific pages).  DONE!  

I made up folders for my new Lit. groups.  I know I have my Lit. Buckets for discussion questions, but I also decided to have a writing portion too - so I made up one per group.  They have the sheets from 4th Grade Frolics tucked inside.  I figure that the groups will take turns writing on the specific portions during their time together, after discussion, and that the papers will stay in there for the entire time that we are tackling the novel.  I did choose a bright color for the folder  (I don't have any other orange folders in the classroom) so they can't go missing - at least not easily.  

FREEBIE Time!

In case you missed it this weekend, I uploaded 2 new freebies over to my TPT Store.  One are these birthday cards for students.  I have glow sticks that I have tucked inside a jar for students to get on their special day.  I printed them off on card stock (using the black & white version).  

The other freebie is a collection of my favorite Back to School Essentials.  I told all about them yesterday.  :)  Rainbow Edit, Whole Class Writing Journals, and Monthly Grammar Coloring Sheets.  LOVE them!

I had to make up more Tidy Tubs for my students.  Every year I add a couple more bins to my class collection.  It seems that every year I add more interactive notebook activities or paper projects, and need more of these tubs in circulation.  The Dollar Store has this size in a 5 pack - which is awesome!

I also starting thinking about going deeper in my Social Studies, so I wrote up nonfiction passages about our California Explorers.  This might be the closest I ever get to my childhood dream of being a children's author...   30 pages later it is complete!  I uploaded it last night, and it's presently 50% off.

School is starting to be on my brain ALOT!  Only one week until I'm in Science trainings for the new standards.  I need to finish all these projects!  Have a super duper day!  

Monday Made It: July 13th

Another Monday Made It with Tara!  I've been loving this linky for YEARS.  It helps keep me moving along on those projects.  

This past week was a busy one (just in normal life).  I was SO NERVOUS about flying that I kept busy prepping these Student Tool Bags for the beginning of school.  Maybe you are like me, you have the kids prep their own notebooks, but you absolutely hate passing out so many little slips of paper. - one set at a time.  I ended up copying them, cutting them out, and then sorting them in sandwich bags (all done during one Netflix movie).  They are all ready for the day we tackle our Reading Comprehension notebook.  

I found the Create-Abilites TPT Store, and these FREEBIES were perfect!  I printed them off 4 per sheet to make them the perfect size to glue in - and still have room to write notes around.

 

Also tucked in the bags were these GENRE cards from Blair Turner (printed 16 cards per sheet).

These will be glued - one card per page - into their Comprehension Interactive Notebook.  Just like last year, we will keep track of the different genres that we read, and write the title of the story and our reasoning under the little heading.

Tara shared about this one a little while ago, these Fairy Tale STEM Mega Bundle from More Than a Worksheet.  I was so excited to purchase this set.  To keep things organized, I printed out the cover sheet, the student directions, and the teacher guide.  These were glued onto the cover and the inside of the file folder.  I then also printed the student sheet masters - half size (2 pages per sheet), and tucked it inside the folder for easy keeping.  I guess I could have put it into a binder, but I wanted to be able to easily see what options I still have to work with.  This past year my big 4th graders worked with our 1st grade Reading Buddies on a few STEM projects.  They did a great job with the teamwork.  I'm excited to see what they come up with this year when the focus is all about Fairy Tales.  

  

I don't know if you've realized yet that I'm pretty shy.  I get super nervous about public speaking, and making small talk with strangers is REALLY hard for me.  I don't do fake, you get what you get with me.  It kind of makes it funny that I love to blog... but I guess that's because it's behind a screen (just like the Wizard of Oz - LOL).  

Anyhow, I was so excited to go on vacation this last week.  Yes, it was professional development, but since I was meeting friends I'm classifying it as a vacation.  My goal was simply to talk to people (and not clam up like I normally do), to step out of my comfort zone.  I was also so nervous about traveling by myself without my family, of flying for the first time in 12 years, of being by myself in a new place, of taking a taxi by myself for the first time ever... 

  Do you know what happened?  I survived.  I MADE it home in one piece.  I did embarrass myself with some people - stuttering and all of that, but I also got over my initial issues and got to the point that I felt normal.  I MADE some new friends...  

Now I have the Brownies song (from Girl Scouts) singing in my head... Highly recommend stepping out of your comfort zone every once in a while, it's amazing what you are capable of doing!

So, what have you been making lately?  Share with me, then go check out the other link ups over at 4th Grade Frolics!