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!