February Fun!

So as usual things have been busy and I haven't been on blogging.  It's weird, obviously in the summer I have tons of time to blog, but I'm not in my classroom so not much to blog about.  lol  In the fall, I have tons to blog about, but no time.  Oh well.  I do my best.  lol
So this month has been busy as usual.  February is the shortest month and the most jam-packed!  So we started out with 100 Day.  In my school, kindergarten and first grade do a big thing for 100 Day, but that's it.  I still think it's a fun thing, maybe because I taught kindergarten and first grade, so I still do a little something.  The kids have a fun coloring sheet to do when they come in and they have a snack waiting for them: a pretzel rod to be the 1 and two mini donuts (a chocolate and a powdered) to be the 0s to make 100.  We also read 100 Day books as well.
Then we moved on to learning about Abraham Lincoln and Black History Month, which really tie in well with each other.  We had learned a little bit in our social studies book and with Martin Luther King in January so now we are learning more.
Then it was student-led conference week and Valentine's Day, with Valentine's Day falling on the half-day conference day.  So I had conferences all week, a couple a day before and after school, and then it was time to celebrate.  When our long conference day falls on Valentine's Day, I do a breakfast theme for our party.  I bring in a toaster and ask others to bring in toasters and we have eggo toaster waffles with fun toppings (strawberries, blueberries, whip cream, syrup, chocolate sauce).  This year I also asked for pop-tarts and one of my student's aunts also brought in pigs in a blanket which was a HUGE hit.  Then of course milk or orange juice.  Much better to me than having candy and cupcakes in the morning since the students got out at 11:45AM.  While we were toasting things I had the students do a great Valentine ABC hunt and Valentine Linking Verbs hunt from the fabulous Christina Bainbridge.  So the students walked around the classroom and hallway with their clipboards and found the words and followed the directions.  It kept them busy and moving around and learning at the same time!  Not bad for a party.  lol  As the students finished, they went to get food and start eating.  As they finished eating I had them do conversation heart math.  When they finished THAT, then they were able to start going around and pass out their Valentines, which is all they want to do anyway.  It was a nice, low-key party, which is what I like for the last big holiday party.  Halloween is the craziest and then it goes down from there.  We made these Valentine holders during the week as part of Art of the Week to collect the valentines in.

They were an idea from Michaels craft store's online page a few years ago and I make them every year.  I think they are great to hold everything in because they are big and have the handles.  The bags come in a pack of 13 and I use my 40% off coupon to get them.  I go in 2 times so I can use 2 coupons.  In the past I have also put them on my donation letter to the parents as well.  I cut the mouths in the bags beforehand, and made a cardboard tracer for the students to use for their heart faces and then they just match it up to the mouth on the bag and make any creature they want.  Mine is the last one, it's a love bug. :)  I get the fun foam shapes for the students to add to it too.  They love it.
So after the party, it was time to clean up, eat lunch, and do my last 16 conferences.  That's the night we have to be there until 8PM.  It was a good day though.  The kids were great during the day and made me feel loved, we had fun, and the conferences went well.
With all of the extra hours we put in for conference week we always get the next day off and then we had Presidents' Day off as well so it was a nice 4-day weekend.  I baby-sat my niece Josie and worked on 2 more packs for TPT and TN stores.  Then we started learning about George Washington too.  The class this past week did an art of the week on what they would do if they were president and it turned out cute.  I'll take a picture this week once everyone is finished to show you.  It was an idea from The First Grade Parade and I just modified it a bit.
This week we are doing a paper plate craft of the lion and the lamb.  We haven't done it in a couple of years and with March coming on Friday, it works out well to do it this year.  The students predict whether March will come in like a lion or a lamb and they either make a lamb head (with cotton balls) or a lion head (strips of brown paper) as their prediction and then they have to write what they chose and why (as we do Art of the Week as a Work on Writing choice, so we always adding writing into it).
Here is a freebie of the writing paper I made to go with it:

We also have a new evaluation system and a big thing with it is making sure that students are reflecting and assessing themselves on their learning.  This can be a hard thing with 2nd graders.  They did a good job at conferences because I made sure to tell them that they would be sharing their reflections with their parents and me.  This sparked me to create a rubric for them to use during Daily 5 as my team mates and I were talking about it.  At this time of year the students have been doing Daily 5 so long and they start to get spring fever that they don't do as good of a job as they did when it was newer.  There are a lot more people wandering or talking.  My kids do better at this because I bribe them with prize coins for students who do a good job, lol, but I still thought I'd make a rubric for them to use as well.  The rubric contains the statements we wrote on the I-charts for each Daily 5 center.  So if they do everything that we wrote, they earn a 3, if they mostly did it but had some trouble with focus or chattiness, they get a 2, if they are one of the wanderers they get a 1.  I put it in my tpt shop as a freebie if you are interested.  Click on the pic below to take you there.  

Well I hope you have a great weekend and week!  Hopefully I'll be back on soon with pictures of bulletin boards and projects!  :)

Friday Freebie! :)

Hello again!  Look at that!  Another post this week!  Amazing!  lol  Maybe that will be my resolution this year, to try to post at least once a week!  lol

So today I'm linking up with TBA's Friday Freebies (which I have not done in a long time).  My freebie is something that is part of my new packet on TPT.  It's graphic organizers for the students to use to write an animal report.  Just click on any of the pictures below to take you to the page you'll find it on and click on the "Download Preview" button.  I hope you will find this useful.  We have used something similar to this before and I think this will help make things even easier for the students this year.

In other news, today I'm taking down all of my Christmas decorations.  Always so sad.  I love the light of the Christmas tree.  My eldest sister and her kids (teenagers) come over to help me put it up and to take it down, so at least that makes it better.  I'm also hoping to make another packet for TPT today, but we'll see how that goes.  I wanted to do that yesterday too and ended up spending the whole day with my dad after I took him to his doctor appointment, which was nice, just didn't get a lot done.  lol  We'll see what happens today.  Have a very Happy Friday everyone!  :)

I "heart" Columbus Day! lol

I made it through conference week last week!  All of my conferences went really well.  No problems at all and I have really nice families.  I was just wiped out from all of the planning of them and everything else going on.  It just seemed like it was one thing after another when it came to school stuff that I was trying to catch up, with no success.  Then came the blessed 4-day weekend after conferences!  I got all of my papers graded Friday.  I got some more of my math games laminated and cut Saturday and Sunday I finished up another unit for TPT and TN.  Not to mention I caught up on all of my tv I was so completely behind on too and my sleep!!!  Today the plan is to update my class webpage and make another unit or 2 for TPT and TN (I hope I can do it!).  I even had time to come on here and update!  I love long weekends!!!
This week will be busy (of course) because my teammate who I share my wall with and myself, will be opening the wall for the first time to get our classes used to it.  We do Daily 5 and guided reading book clubs together so this week we will get them used to it.  We are on a review week in our LA series so we won't be meeting with book clubs.  We will start them next week.  We have used these past 6 weeks to introduce and practice Daily 5 and get that routine going.  Now this week the wall will be open they will start learning how the Daily 5 structure will work and we'll be available to help out where needed and see where there is a need for re-practicing before starting book clubs next week.  It should be fun.  We're also starting this week differentiated math groups.  The same teammate and I along with 1 of our other teammates, got together to plan out how to split our classes up to better meet the needs of our students in math.  We're new to this so it's not perfect.  Any suggestions you have are always appreciated.  We're going to teach the whole group lesson to our class first for the first 20 minutes of math and then for the remaining 40 minutes, the students were divided up into approaching, on-level, and beyond groups and they will go to one of us to get instruction and games tailored to where they're at.  I got the on-level group, which is the biggest at 28 kiddos.  We wanted to keep the approaching group little so they could really get the assistance they needed.  That meant that the other 2 groups were bigger (the beyond has 24 kiddos).  My plan as of right now is to make groups out of the 28 and meet with some of them during our time together while the rest play games to practice the skills we're working on.  For this unit it's simple because it's fact power.  I have tons of games for that.  So I'm excited to see how this works.  Telling you about this made me remember some other things I have to add to my to-do list today to get ready for the week.  I'm just so glad that I have the time to think about and work on it!!
So to share my happiness and wish you a Happy Columbus Day I'm linking up with Manic Monday by Classroom Freebies (which I haven't been able to do in a while).
This week's freebie is one that I made as part of the review unit I posted Sunday.  If you click on the picture below it will take you to my TPT store where you can click the download preview button and get my Long Vowel Go Fish game for free!  Have a Marvelous Monday!!  :)

First Week

I hope everyone who started school had a great week.  Mine was wonderful, with Friday being the best day so far (I know it was only the 3rd day, but still, momentum! lol).  We had absolutely no issues on Friday.  Everyone was happy to be there all day long.  Next week we will start getting into curriculum with the Treasures Smart Start unit and the lessons in Everyday Math.  It will be good to start getting into more of what our day to day routine will be like.  I started Daily 5 on our first full day of school, so we'll continue on with that as well.  Luckily with this group, most of them did it in first grade, so they kind of know the drill already.  There are so many things I want to do with all of the great ideas I've gotten from pinterest and blogs, that I have to try and remember them all!
We also have Back-to-School Night (open house) Wednesday evening, so I can't wait to get that done with.  I never enjoy that night.  They sit there staring at me while I explain and show things and you know some of them are not taking in a thing I'm saying.  lol
Today my siblings and their families and myself are taking family pictures as a Christmas gift for my parents.  We haven't done this for 6 years and there have been 3 new members of our family since then.  So it should be fun.  However the plan (since there are so many of us) is to do it outside and there is an 80% chance of rain.  lol  The Plan B is to be in a gazebo in a park if it's raining.  So we'll see how all of that goes and how willing some of the little kids are with cooperating.  lol  It might be a long afternoon in the rain.  lol
I'm going to leave you with a freebie I use in my room every year.  The students have to think of a wish (goal) that they have for 2nd grade.  Maybe it's to make new friends or to practice their spelling or math facts or to learn how to tell time.  They write them down and draw a picture of themselves accomplishing that goal.  I display them for Back-to-School Night and then put them in their writing portfolio and talk about them at the first conference and see how it's going.  Click on the picture to get your free copy.

Happy Sunday everyone! :)

Last Friday of break :(

So this week I've been pretty busy.  I've gone into my classroom to work and spent the day with family on Wednesday.  Monday my sister and niece helped me set up my room, Tuesday I went in by myself. This was the day that a lot of people came in so I ended up chatting more than working in my room.  lol  Then yesterday I went in because I was meeting with my 2 special ed. students I will be having in my room, so they could meet me and learn about the classroom before the year begins.  I also got a surprise when I came in, there were all of these boxes piled up at the front of my room.  I was confused because we had already gotten our math journals and handwriting books, so I didn't know what it could be.  I'm team leader, so I get the boxes.  My team mate who I team teach with during Daily 5/guided reading time, came over too.  Then it hit me what it must be.   At the end of last year we were asked to go through catalogs and make a wishlist of stuff we would like that would help us with teaching common core.  My team did this and picked a whole bunch of stuff, really going all out because we thought, there is no way we're getting this stuff, we have no money.  Well that was the only think I could think of what could be in those boxes, especially since it was from EAI.  So I started opening, and it was like Christmas!  It was a lot of the stuff from our wishlist!  We each (4 of us) got a huge tub filled with 3000 unifix cubes (so excited because those are expensive and I was borrowing some from other teachers as they really help the kids understand double-digit addition/subtraction), some I Have, Who Has games for time, money, and math facts, a big container of all different kinds of dice, money cubes, graphing chart book, a graphing resource book, a writing prompts resource book, and a 6 Traits writing mini-lessons cube.  We were very excited!  Then we talked to one of our old team members who helped with ordering stuff.  She moved to first grade for this year and she said that they hadn't done the wishlist!  We were so happy that we did!  So today I think I'm going to go in to send some things to the copy center we have in our building.  I'm torn though because it would also be nice to spend my last official day of summer break, not going in to school.  We'll see.  I'll probably go in just for a bit and then have the rest of my day.
I haven't linked up with Freebie Friday in a bit, so I think I'll do it today.  My freebie is paper bracelets that say Officially in 2nd Grade.  I usually get the stickers from Really Good Stuff, but I was trying to save some money this year.  I got the idea from Kindergarten Works teacher's notebook store freebie.  In her directions, she gives you a recipe for lickable glue that you can put on the end of the bracelet so you don't have to tape the bracelets together.  The students can lick and stick them on.

Lickable Glue Recipe

1 small pack of gelatin

10 oz. of white vinegar

an air-tight container

Supplies Needed:

Instructions:

1. Boil the vinegar.

2. Stir in the package of gelatin.

3. Stir until the gelatin is dissolved.

4. Cool down and pour into the container you’ll use for storing left over.

5. Use a brush to apply to the right hand column of bracelets. Paper will

crinkle slightly due to moisture.

6. Put aside papers to dry. Store the rest in an air-tight container.

So a huge thank you to Kindergarten Works for sharing that!  

Enjoy your Friday everyone!  :)

1 week left

     In 1 week I will officially be back to my normal school routine, waking up early, no more being lazy and lounging around in PJ's on the computer and doing what I want.  I need to make the most of this week, but I have to finish setting up my classroom!  Today is the first official day we can go in to work on our rooms (I already went in last Monday and got a lot done).  My sister Jodie and 4 year old niece Brynn are going to be coming in to help me like they have the last couple of years.  Jodie always cleans out and organizes my desk after I've trashed it the previous year and with throwing things in it to clear off my desk for the summer.  lol  Now at least she'll have my teacher toolbox to use to help organize it some more.  Now let me get on to my Made-its with 4th Grade Frolics!

     So again I printed out a whole bunch of stuff and laminated it so it's ready for school.  I made my classroom job cards, which you can get for free here.  I couldn't find any cards that were in the rainforest theme and were jobs I use in my classroom.  I have board cleaners, mail helpers, lunch helper, librarians, clean-up crew, sub, supply managers (fix up supplies in writing center and community baskets), coin counter (counts to make sure a student has 10 caught being good coins to turn in for a prize), prize patrol (makes sure they don't take too long at the prizes and that they only take 1 prize), and cubby helpers (makes sure the cubbies look nice throughout the day, and especially at the end of the day).  I have a helper of the day who gets to be the line leader, paper passer outer, and anything else I need done during the day.
     I also made my birthday straws from Once Upon a First Grade.  I still need a container to put them in though because nothing I have is big enough.
     I also made the ruler holder that has popped up everywhere from a Pringles can (as I've been saving them for a while for various projects) and what I'm calling my Spelling Sticks.  They come from Growing Kinders and are called Sight Word Chants.  I'm going to put them in word work though and let the kids practice their spelling words with them as one of their choices.  I made the can out of a Pringles can again, just cut down to size.

     Another thing I made was a desktop blotter from Classroom DIY.  I used paper that matched my toolbox that will be on my desk and my leftover green duck tape from my boggle board.  I usually get a free desktop calendar from one of the teacher stores I go to, but I didn't end up needing to go there this year, so I thought, hey I'll make this and use it for the same thing, and it's also free (pretty much, I mean I had everything already).  The calendar I printed out to put on top is from Fun in First Grade.  I loved that I could personalize it and that it will be right there on my desk to easily see (hopefully, lol).  

     Saturday my friend Tina and I hit some teacher appreciation sales and then I helped her make one of those great first day of school frames that so many others have made.  It turned out really cute.  I don't want to post a picture without asking first (as she's in the picture), but she did a great job and it was fun crafting together!  

     Also, don't forget that today is the last day for the teacherspayteachers Back-to-School sale.  I still have to get the stuff I want!  All of the stuff in both of my stores is 20% off through today.  

     Now hopefully I'll have time to look at the rest of the made-its this week, as I didn't have a chance last week, no time!  

     Happy Monday!!  :)

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!  

Lots of Made-its! :)

     Good morning!  Yay for another Monday Made-it with 4th Grade Frolics (although these Mondays take me hours to get through everyone who links up, lol).  Well this week I was a busy girl!  Yesterday was my parents 45th anniversary so I made a lot of stuff in honor of that this week, but I did get school stuff done too.

     Okay well first off, my younger sister and I had an Olympic opening ceremony party and we made some yummy snacky foods for it, but my surprise contribution to the party was this:

my Olympic rings sugar cookie with M&Ms.  I thought it turned out well.  

     Now onto my parents anniversary, I made this for my parents as part of their gift.  

Then I love to bake, so I made these for them too.  

My interpretation replica of their wedding cake.  My parents wedding cake was a 5 tier white cake with strawberry filling with lily of the valley flowers and white bells.  So to make my 5 tiers, I used my torte pan, a regular cake pan, a small cake pan, a cupcake, and a mini-cupcake.  I did put strawberry filling in it too and put fake lily of the valley from Michaels and little silver bells with bows on it too.  Then I added the blue 45 (45 is Sapphire).  This was all for a surprise dinner party my 4 siblings and I had for my parents at my house on Saturday night.  My parents not knowing about it (obviously) planned an outdoor lunch by the lake for Sunday and my dad asked me to make a dessert for that, so I made these:

they are the super soft sugar cookies you can buy in the store (that usually have sprinkles on them), but I made them.  They turned out fine and everyone enjoyed them today.  I thought they would be the easiest thing to transport and have outside.  It was such a beautiful day to be out too!  

     Now for school, I laminated all of the things that I have printed so far while I was watching the Olympics.  I also made my birthday chair covers, which was inspired by this picture:

The link didn't go to anywhere, but this picture.  Now I can't sew, so I looked at that and thought, I wonder if I could use a pillowcase and iron on transfers.  So that's what I did.  Here's mine:

I got the pillowcases at Marshalls.  They were on sale for $5.99 for 2.  I got 2 packs, so I'd have 4.  I had one year where I had 3 students who had the exact same birthday and 1 the day before, so I thought, I'll make 4 to be safe.  lol  You can get my iron-on transfer print out here for free, if you're interested.  After I ironed the transfer on, I folded the bottom of the pillowcase up, to make the pillowcase shorter and then ironed it again.  I may cut holes in the sides and add ribbon if I feel it needs to be tighter around the chairs.  So this will go on their chair when we celebrate their birthday.  I'm excited for it and I'm sure the kids will be too.  

      So there are all my made-its for this week!  Whew!  lol  Now this morning I'm off to school to copy my Welcome letter so my school can send them out to my future students and I want to get a peak on how my classroom looks and try to remember to pick up my craft sticks so I can make my brain break and sight word sticks.  Have a great Monday and can't wait to see all of the neat ideas for this week!  :)

If you're here from Classroom freebies, click the link above to get my birthday chair cover template for free.  :)

My 3rd Monday Made-it and Manic Monday :)

       

 
     I have such fun making this stuff and getting ideas!!  So happy for the chance to share with anyone interested!  This week I got a lot of little projects done.  Ones that have been on my to-do list since the end of the school year (when I start making my list so I don't forget everything I want to do for the next school year!)  So here's a picture of some of what I got accomplished this week.  :)

     We'll go from left to right.  So I too, HAD to make the lightbulb moment basket.  I loved the idea and I really want to try this year to have more movement in my room, especially for those that need it, and love that this is a quiet, great way for them to get a bit.  It took me 2 Targets to get 10 of the lightbulbs.  lol  All the rest of you are out buying them too!  ;)  In case you haven't gotten the link from the other people who've made and posted it already, here it is again.  

     As I said, I want to incorporate more movement in my classroom throughout the day, so I had pinned this a while back (click on the picture to get the sticks).  

I knew that I wanted to do something like this.  So I bought one of those empty quart paint cans from lowes, put scrapbooking paper and ribbon around it, and typed up the label.  I haven't been able to make the sticks yet because they are in my classroom.  I have a ton there, so I didn't want to buy more just to make them, when I can make them when I can get into my classroom.  

     I was also inspired by this on pinterest

and I thought, I totally need this for all of the bingo chips, plastic coins, cards, and other math manipulatives that my students find after we've cleaned up and end up going on my desk.  I thought this way, they can put it in there and then the next time we pull out one of the manipulatives and they don't have enough, they can go look in there and see if the missing piece is there.  I got the basket for $1 at Michaels and then made the sign on my computer and tacky glued it on.  (I tacky glued on all of my signs.)  Here is a freebie of my Brain Break and Math Lost and Found sign if you would care for it.  

     Then I made the highlighter cup.  I had thought of making it and starting it after spring break, but I thought that would confuse my students to have to start doing it then when they hadn't been doing it all year, so I saved to do it for this upcoming year.  That way it will be from the start.  My inspiration:

This was one of the very first things I pinned when I joined pinterest.  If you click on the link above, it will take you to the website and you can download her label for free.  That's what I did.  I used a Planters mixed nuts container that I washed and let air dry and the label was a bit big, so I had to cut off the dotted border.  I put scrapbooking paper, ribbon, and the label and now it's waiting for highlighters to go in it.  

     The last thing I made was the paperclip bookmarks.  You can see a better picture of them below:

I got the paperclips in the Walmart 88 cent aisle (4 come in a package).  When I saw them, I thought, I can make those bookmarks I've seen floating around!  I got my ribbon at Michaels.  Each spool was only 50 cents and they are ready to go for my new students.  

     So I gave you one little freebie above, but I have another one for Classroom Freebies Manic Monday.  I also decided to do the behavior charts this year, where you recognize good behavior too.  I love my behavior chart now, which is a magnetic stoplight poster, because I love that it doesn't take up as much space (it's just on the side of my whiteboard).  I love the idea of being able to recognize the students more who are doing awesome though, so I decided to make this one from Sunny Days in 2nd Grade:

So I recreated it on my computer, but I haven't printed it out yet.  I'm going to print it out and laminate it and then stick it to my board where my my stoplight was, so it's still not taking up other space I need (I had thought of using my magnet paper, but that doesn't always hold up for very long).  Instead of clothespins, I'm going to make those glass pebble magnets with my students names on them to use to move around (that's my goal for today, find the right size glass pebbles).  So on to the freebie.  I made a form that my students will fill out during the week and then take home at the end of the week to go along with the behavior chart so parents can see how they've been doing and can get those positive notes home too for when they go above and beyond.  

Just click on the picture to get it.  I figure if the key at the bottom doesn't work for you, you could always cut it off and copy it without that (otherwise I cans send you the editable version, just leave me a comment asking for it).  I liked how it showcased their week, made them accountable, and gave them a goal to work towards.  So there is my LONG post for today.  Have a fabulous day!  Can't wait to see what everyone else has made to get even more great ideas!!  :)

      Don't forget to stop by Swimming in Second for Day 5 of her 10 Day Giveaway.  Today it's a $10 amazon gift card.  I know those never last long with me!  :)

Time for another Friday Freebie!

So every year I get special ed students, reading students, and ELL students.  That's a lot of kids coming and going out of my room.  Now each group goes during a certain block of time, but still there are days when it can be hard to remember where someone is.  To help with that I made these Where AM I sticks (sorry I don't have a picture).  I made labels that say: at ELL, with Reading Team, with Social Worker, at OT/PT, at Resource, at Speech.  I then put the labels on the large colored popsicle sticks.  I did different colored sticks for each different place (for instance my OT/PT sticks are blue, Resource are green).  The sticks are kept in colored library pockets that I have stuck to my door with command strips.  When a child is leaving to go to one of their services, they take a stick and put it on their desk.  That way, if I'm having a moment and I don't know where a student is or one of the teachers needed to take a student at a different time, all I have to do is look at their desk and see where they are.  It also helps the paper passer to know not to give them whatever paper we are working on while they are gone (because I always say they were doing work with that teacher).  I guess I should make one that says office too, but usually when my students go to the office it's because they are going super quick to pick something up or they are sick and I really don't need them touching anything extra if they are.  lol  My students usually help me if that's the case and I forget.  I also kind of do this with the bathroom.  We don't need passes to be in the hallway, and my room is right next to the bathroom (a blessing and a curse, lol).  Instead, I put my passes on ribbon and attach them around a stuffed animal.  When the students need to leave the room to go to the bathroom or get a drink, they get the specified stuffed animal and put it on their desk.  This way I can easily see who's out of the room for that.  It's also helpful to the students.  They can easily see someone is using the pass and they have to wait.  Since my room is a rainforest, I have a gorilla and a jaguar stuffed animals (from kohl's care for kids one year, $5).  The girls have the gorilla and the boys have the jaguar.  I did 2 of each one year and that didn't work out too well because there was too much going to the bathroom with friends going on.
So the freebie I'm offering are my labels that tell where the students are, if you're interested.
Where Am I? Sticks
I got my bathroom passes here at a site that used to be called teachfactory.  She has a whole bunch of free themed resources you an download.
Enjoy!  Today I'm super excited because I'm going to be going to Lakeshore (I only go once a year because it's not close to me, I go to another store that's not as far) and use a gift card a student gave me as an end of the year gift and I was super excited to check online and find out it's for $40!  I'm hoping to get the pocket charts like Hilary from Rockin' Teacher Materials has, because I love her idea for the kids picking their Daily 5 choices.
Also today is Day 2 of Swimming through Second's giveaway.  Today she's giving away 3 back-to-school activities from herself, Amy Lemmons from Step into Second Grade, and The Teacher Wife. Go check it out!

Monday, Monday

I had a very nice Sunday.  Relaxed, did a bit of shopping, and then went over to a friend's house for a dinner party.  Loved it.  So today I'm going to link up with Classroom Freebies Manic Monday AND 4th Grade Frolics Monday Made-it!
I'll start with Monday Made-it!
So for my first Monday Made-it, I'm going to show you my pinterest inspired craft I made for my niece who was born last month.  I gave this to my sister at her baby shower.  It's one of those monogrammed button pictures.  Since the nursery is pink, white, and dark cherry wood furniture, I went with an assortment of pinkish buttons (which I picked up at Archivers), the pretty pink and white patterned scrapbook paper, and white shadow box frame (both from Michaels).

I have a Silhouette SD die-cutting machine, so what I did was I bought 2 of those scrapbooking papers and I used one to cut the A out first.  So I picked a font on my computer that I liked the way the A looked (I don't even remember what font it is, sorry!) and then my machine cut it out for me.  Then I glued the A on top of the paper to camoflage it and give me a template to glue the buttons on top of.  I LOVED the way it turned out and now it is hanging in her nursery when you first walk in.  

My 2nd Monday Made-it! is for my classroom.  I got this idea from Classroom DIY.  It's a duct tape baggie quilt.  When I saw it, I knew I wanted to make it as a boggle board for my classroom.  That way I wouldn't need a bulletin board, I could hang it where I have a free space.  

Now my classroom has a rainforest theme, and my district has gone for the brain research where you don't want too many colors or patterns or anything, so for the rainforest I have different greens with some brown thrown in.  Because of this, I went with the plain green duck tape.  There were also a lot of great boggle letters out in blog land, but they didn't fit my color pattern, so I made my own with the green circles and brown letters.  Then I just glued them on some muted green patterned scrapbook paper.  Again, very happy with the way it turned out and excited to use it this year.  Hopefully my students will be too!  I'm including my word doc of my boggle letters for free, in case someone would like to use it and customize it to the colors that fit your room.  The font I used is Pea KT Polkie Dot from KevinandAmanda.com .  

So those are my 2 Monday Made-its with a little freebie in there.  Now for my freebie for Manic Monday.  It's a small freebie too.  I am loving all of the behavior prize coupons that everyone has out now and can't wait to use that in my classroom this year instead of buying stuff!  I have downloaded and printed quite a few out, but I made some of my own for other things I wanted and hadn't seen prize coupons for.  So you can download my 18 prize coupons too (6 different kinds, 3 of each).  :)

Prize Coupons

Have a great Monday!  I think I'm going to go to Michaels and use their 25% off entire purchase coupon to pick up some ribbon to make those large paperclip/ribbon bookmarks for my class this year with the clips I got for 88 cents at Walmart (see post here).  :)

 

Freebie Friday :)

So here it is, Friday the 13th, wooooo.  lol  It just means it's time for another freebie!  My freebie that I have for you today is for Writing Binders.  I do Writing portfolios/binders every year.  I love how it shows the growth of the students throughout the year.  In it, my students have a few guides to serve as reminders of the writing process, a journal for their "sloppy copies" and then their finished pieces.  I TRY to keep the writing in chronological order, but we have a student author book basket in our book nook area where students can put any of their writing that they have published.  I leave it in there for a while and then after a little bit I go through and hole punch and put in binders.  That's why I'm not always sure if it's chronological or not, but it's close enough!  lol  Our reading program has a small writing component with it and I try to follow it a bit.  For the first 6 weeks, the focus is Personal Narratives, then it moves on to How-To Articles, Persuasive Letters, Research Reports (we do animal reports), and Compare/Contrast essays.  These are each in 6 week intervals.  The end of the school year is so crazy I never do the Unit 6 focus.  I don't even know what it is!  lol  So back to the freebie.  This freebie contains the decorative papers I use to split up my students' writing binders.  It has the cover page I put in the clear pocket in the front and then I have dividers that say Personal Narrative, How-To Article, Persuasive Letter, Animal Report, Poetry, Stories, and Extra Work (anything else fun I want to add in).  There is also the resource I keep in each groups Resource Binder, and then a check-off list for each of their writing binders.  I like how they add a nice break to all of the craziness of the kids' writings, and it makes it a little more organized, AND I can see who hasn't finished one of the the writing focuses we've been working on, so I can say, "______ are you still working on your how-to article?"  Use what you'd like, or not.  lol

Writing Binder

And of course this upcoming year I'm going to be adding the "Currently" for each month into the binder too.  You can get that freebie if you haven't from here.  Hopefully my schedule for this year will allow for more time to focus on writing.  

Well today I'm off to Archiver's Scrapmania for my monthly scrap session with a previous co-worker of mine (we used to work at a daycare together and then we worked in the same school until I moved to a different building in the district).  We love the planned time to actually get pages done and it's a fun way to catch up.  Hope everyone else has a fun Friday and not a crazy one!  :)