I Made-it! again :)

     Woohoo!  It's time to post another entry for Monday Made-it with 4th Grade Frolics.  :)  I haven't been on my blog posting that much this week because I've been doing things to enjoy my summer before it's gone and working on school stuff too.  Last Monday I went into school to drop off my welcome letter and while I was there I picked up some things from my classroom that I needed to finish up some projects.  I didn't take pictures of them, but I got my 2 containers for the prize coupons that I will be doing this year instead of actual toy like prizes.  I got all the coupons printed, laminated, cut, sorted, and put into their section of the tackle box like container.  Previously the containers had been used to store my fun foam alphabet letters so I could easily grab the letters I needed, but last year I made letter bags for my word work station so those containers were sitting in my cabinet empty.  Yay for not having to buy something new!  I also brought home my craft sticks so I could make my brain break sticks to go in the container I had previously shown you guys.  So those were printed and taped and are now in the container as well.  

     I bought a basket for all of my stuffed animals for the kids to use as book buddies and I made a sign for it.  

Most of my stuffed animals are at school already (as I brought them back when I went in last Monday), so there were just a couple to put in the basket.  Here's my sign if you'd like.  I just used DJ Inkers clipart and the Howser font.  Last year if a kiddo picked Read to Someone and they couldn't find a buddy I used to give them a big Mickey to read to.  Then near the end I was thinking about all of the stuffed animals I have and I thought I could make the basket for them to choose from (it also works for one of my prize coupons "keep a stuffed animal on your desk for the day").  I know I have seen others of you who are doing the same thing as well.  

     Then for my other made it, I was inspired by Erica Bohrer and her Mr. Moo mascot pack.  Now since my classroom theme is the rainforest, the cow really wouldn't work for me, so I went to Build-A-Bear and got a monkey.  Then I used a canvas bag (from Michaels) and an iron on transfer and a binder to make the rest.  

I'm excited to try this this year.  The last 2 years I did themed family literacy bags, where I put in 4 or 5 books of a certain theme and games, activities, and other things to go with it in a canvas bag and families could check it out for some fun family literacy time.  However, this year I'm not doing it because I've had problems with them not coming back on time and then things being missing or damaged.  I just didn't want to deal with that this year, even though the kids loved them.  I thought this might be better to try.  You can go here to get the iron on transfer for the bag and here to get all of the items for the binder.  I left them in Word so you could edit them to fit you if you wanted them.  So just like Erica suggested, the students get to take Morty home for the weekend, they can read the 2 books I will put in there to him and do other fun things with him and write about it in the binder.  

     I also got another packet done for my tpt and teacher's notebook stores.  Click on the picture to go to my tpt store.  If you click on "download preview" you get a free uno type game for the spelling pattern ai/ay.  

     So today my lovely niece Lizzie will be coming with me to my classroom today to start getting it ready.  It will be more of a mess when we leave, but I'm using her to help me bring everything back to school and to get everything down from the top of the shelves and move furniture.  lol  She's a tall 15 year old girl and she likes to help me.  I'll treat her to a movie and feed her.  lol  I'm also hoping to get my class list today so I can see who I have in my class and start working on name stuff for that.  Happy Monday!  Can't wait to look at everyone's awesome made-its!