BUSY, BUSY, BUSY.... & Monday Made It

Happy Monday Everyone! I almost missed it again this week, Monday Made It with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics. It seems like the closer it gets to the first day of school, the busier I become. I have been working frantically in my classroom trying to get everything in place and ready to go. I thought that I would have a couple of days of uninterrupted classroom decorating time, but that has not been the case. Faculty meeting here, professional development there, training everywhere! UGH!!! Will all the meetings ever end?!?!?!?! But anywho, I plan to create a page with pictures of my classroom. I was trying to wait until I was completely finished with it. I should be done by Wednesday afternoon. I have so many other things that I need to work on Thursday and Friday to prepare for my kiddos on the following Monday, so I better be done by Wednesday... thinking out loud.... sorry! Enough with all this chit-chat, here are my made-its for the week:

Here is a small table that I made to go between the desks of my groups. It was super easy and cheap to make. I went to Home Depot, purchased a large piece of particle board. I had them cut the wood for me. It was FREE to cut, but the wood was $18. I was able to make four of these with that one piece. I used zebra print wrapping paper and a plastic table skirt to make it look a little nicer. I forgot to take a picture of it before I added the paper and skirt. Sorry! I lifted the skirt on one of the photos. Hopefully you can get an idea of how the original "table" looked. I used wood glue to hold the pieces together and I was surprised at how well the pieces bonded together after letting them sit over night.

Here is how I will be utilizing this creation: 

I'm really happy with the end result! I still have to add a few things and organize the table a bit, but this is it for the most part.

I also made these bucket seats for my small group table. I thought the buckets would be a little taller than the crate seats for my fifth grade students. They are the perfect height for my table. YAY!!! :) I purchased the buckets and lids from Lowe's. I painted the buckets black and covered the lids with fabric. I added a cushion as well. I think they are really cute!

And here's my snack bucket. :) I just added the vinyl. Ha!

I hope everyone has had a productive Monday. Pictures of my classroom are coming soon! :) Stay tuned... Haha!! Check ya later!

Monday Made It (I've missed you!)

So I've missed Monday Made It with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics for the past two weeks. I thought I would miss it again today, but I didn't think I would be able to rest not posting something tonight before I went to bed. I spent the majority of my day working in my classroom and I'm really proud of the progress I've made. I hope to have some pictures posted by the end of the week. But enough with the chatter. Here are a few things I've made of the last few weeks...

I created these on Vistaprint and got them for free! Yes, FREE! Well, I did have to pay for shipping. It was only a few bucks. I got 10 of the ice cream cards. I plan to purchase $5.00 gift cards to ice cream shops to give to my "Student of the Month." The classroom credit cards, will allow them to add bonus points to assignments. I think the kids will really enjoy these.

Boggle Board :)

Here is my "Common Core Caboose." I haven't finished it yet. I still have to add the students' names to the cars. For every standard mastered, they will earn a card to add to their car. I think it will be a great way to motivate the students (at least that's what I'm hoping.)

Lastly, I drew painted these animals for the halls in my school. We're doing a safari theme. I had originally made all of them for our 5th grade hall, but decided to share. :) I still have to laminate them so that I can add the googly eyes.  My husband said that all the animals looked dazed and confused. He's sooo crazy! I think they're cute especially when I add the eyes. :) Sorry some of the pics are sideways. :(

These two are for my room! Ha! They're so cute!

Of course, our hall gets the zebra! LOL!!!

Clipart is a product of Scrappin' Doodles. :)

Have a good night everyone!

MIA...

Hi Blogger Friends! I feel terrible that I have been MIA for two weeks. Yes, I've missed Monday Made It two weeks in a row. I am completely devastated about it too! But guys, I have been soooo busy. I went on vacation last week, pulled carpet for my new floors, made a 30-day commitment to work out to get in a little bit of shape for my "after 29" birthday coming soon and I also started working in my classroom. Last year I taught 3rd grade and will be moving up to my first year as a 5th grade teacher. I had so much to move and clean. The room that I moved to was so gross!!! But of course it's clean now. (and the floors were cleaned too... Wooo, hooo!!!)

Here's the proof!! I have a blank slate. (Sorry for the poor quality pictures. These were not taken with my T3, these were taken with my phone that needs to be upgraded...UGH...waiting until November... iphone 5... YAY!!! )

Updates of my progress will be coming soon! :)

For some reason, the photos from my SD card will not load. Maybe better luck tomorrow so that I can post pictures of my new floor and classroom. Check ya later!

Monday Made It (#4, for me!)

Monday Made It..... Oh how I love thee! Seriously, this linky makes you complete all of those projects that you have been putting off forever. If you don't finish them, you won't have anything to share. So once again, I'm linking up with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics to share what I've worked on over the weekend. So let's get to it!

                                  

This was a Pintrest-inspired project. After clicking on the link, I found that it was created by Marie over at The Hands-On Teacher In First. She has an awesome blog and some lovely zebra themed projects. :)

          

These are my objective signs. I think I'm going to add some ribbon for hanging them. I purchased the tubs from Target and made my the labels with the rainbow zebra theme. I got this idea from the Down Under Teacher. She has a great blog! They will be used for math centers. I changed the name of the labels a little though, still sticking with the T.I.M.E acronym. You should really check out her blog to read more about how she uses them in her classroom. I'm really excited about implementing it into my classroom.

         

I saw the button idea on Pintrest as well. The link led to Miss Kranz.  At my school, it is mandatory to follow our reading program, Reading Street... yea, I know. I made these buttons as an incentive for scoring well on the weekly selection tests and the benchmark tests. The second picture shows my hall passes. I used keychains to make these. I have to buy more lanyards to attach to the others... or I could make my own using ribbon... I think I might do that! :)

                      

Brownie Points!!!! I can't wait to share this with my kiddos!!! I'm sure you've seen this everywhere! I found the picture of the brownie in Google Images... printed and laminated. I tried to make the background of the letters look like brownies. :)

                     

Here are envelopes that I laminated as part of my classroom economy. My students will use these to store their zebra bucks! Zebra bucks you ask???? I made my own money!!! I love how they turned out. I printed the different amounts on colored paper. I still have to cut them out.....60 pages.... UGH!!!

                     

Here are the accelerated reader punchcards I made!!! Rainbow Zebra!

                    

Lastly, here are my guided reading sticks! I purchased the buckets at Hobby Lobby and added the labels to them. 

                    

I have so much to do today. I will check with you all later. Happy Monday!!!!

Christmas in July!!!!

Hello All!! Today has really felt like Christmas! I received so many packages in the mail today and my husband even bought me a a really nice gift.... and it was just because! (or was it???? I think that there is a catch to it coming later. I'm not sure when, but I'm almost positive he'll bring it up when he wants something.) Anywho... I decided to upgrade from the "point and shoot" to my first SLR! OMG!!!! I absolutely love my new camera.

I couldn't open the package fast enough. My first test subject was my baby, Bella. I think she really likes for me to take pictures of her. She's sooooo cute!

I also received my document camera that I ordered from Ebay!!! It was such a hassle sharing one with all of the teachers in my building. I won't have to worry about that this year. I HAVE MY OWN!!! I'm sure most of you have Smartboards and some of the other fancy gadgets, but this is a big step up! Those resources are hard to come by where I work. That's okay though, we make it work. Maybe one day....

Sorry, the picture is sideways. :(

Finally, my sweet, yet sneaky husband bought me a nice gift. (I mean 2 gifts!!!) I really love my new laptop sleeve and my stereo headphones... IN ZEBRA PRINT!!!! Whoo, hoooo!!!

I hope everyone is having a great Saturday. I sure am!! I'm headed to take more pictures of any and everything. Haha!! 

Fabulous Find Friday!!!

Happy Friday Everyone! I'm just getting in from spending some QT with the hubby. But of course, I had to drag him to a few of my favorite stores. Do you know this man gave me a 15 minute time limit in each of the stores......(Little does he know, it only takes me 30 seconds or less to find something I want. Ha ha! ---jokes on him! :) Anywho..... I thought I would share my finds from today by linking up with Fun In Room 4B for the Fabulous Find Friday linky!

Here's what I added to my corner in the living room today:

          

Zebra Print Pens in my colors!!!! ($.40) @ Office Max. I will be going back to get the rest of them. I couldn't get all of them today like I wanted to with you-know-who breathing down my neck.

          

3-ring binder, tablet, and composition book (Wooo, hooo...)

          

Books-a-Million $1.00- Mad Libs!! I love these! I used one I found on the Internet last year for a creative writing activity. My students really enjoyed it!

               

Who can live without ribbon??? Not me, especially not these! Don't know how I going to use them just yet, but I can't live without them!
 

And for the house..... I can never have too many shoe organizers. I found this one at Ross for $9. Now I can get the 3 pair of shoes I've been hiding in my trunk without you-know-who all in my business. I'll just use the line I always use..... "I already had these!"  (tee-hee)  27 more to go to fill this baby up! :)

          


I'm headed to the trunk now while someone is napping. He's exhausted trying to keep up with me! :)
Enjoy your Friday!

Monday Made It (My #3) Yay!!!

                                             
It's time to link up with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics. I thought I wasn't going to have time to link up today because I have been ripping and running all day ....grocery snack shopping, pricing new living room furniture, cheer practice . Ugh!! But anywho... I've been quite busy again this week working on projects for my classroom and my house. Last week I started painting in the guest room and finally got it finished.Why didn't anybody tell me that painting was such hard work??? So I won't hold you guys any longer with all this chatter. Here are my classroom Made It projects:

Daily 5 Center Posters
I originally used clipart I found on google, but I purchased this Zany Zebra  clipart from Scrappin' Doodles to go with my Zebra theme.

 

Here are examples of my library basket labels.

These are my Pinterest inspired projects:

I painted this tissue box that I purchased from Hobby Lobby.
It's for notes from students.




Here is the hanger for papers with no name!

Now for my Home Made It.... I finished painting the guest room Amazon Stone (purchased from Home Depot). I covered the canvas with black and white fabric that I already had laying around the house from other projects. I really want a daybed for this room, but until I find one that I can't live without at a reasonable price... this will have to do. I removed the headboard from the full size bed and turned it sideways. Yes... a whole lot more space for this small room. If you didn't notice from the picture, I really love pillows!!!! I just pulled them from the storage and washed them up. I really love how it turned out. I still have a few other things to do in this room, but this will do for now. What do you think?

                        

                           

It's a small room so it was hard to get a good picture.

I hope everyone has had a productive Monday! I'm off to find some dinner. Check ya later!