Monday Made It #7: Crafty Clipboards 2 and Shh-arpeners

I'm back!!!  I have missed the past few Monday Made It due to family visits, wedding stuff, and getting ready for the new year but along the way I have definitely been crafting and storing it all up and now can share a few (I'm saving some in case I can't craft one week but can still link up, lol).  This week I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics to show you more of my Crafty Clipboards and my new Shh-arperners.

Crafty Clipboards Part 2:
Here are my next nine clipboards that I will be using to showcase my student's amazing work!  Click here to check out the first ten and how I created them.  I had to wait a while to create the rest because I started to notice that they all were beginning to have the same design and I didn't want that.  I'm only so creative! LOL  My favorite of this batch is the plaid with the circular numbers, but I do like the nod to my college, UCF, and my background, the blue jeans ;o)  I think I might even go back to the blue jeans one and put white stitching around the edges with a paint marker.

Shh-arpeners:
One of my pet peeves is when my students are working so quietly or trying to get started and all the sudden their concentration is broken by the sound of the electric sharpener!  This year I am changing that!  If it is quiet time in my classroom and our voices are off, then so are the electric sharpeners.  "Well what do I do when I break my pencil?"  Use the Shh-arpeners :o)  I got the fun little box from Target's Dollar Spot and created the label in Word.  Inside are all my hand held sharpeners that will stay in there.  Click on the picture to get your copy of the label.

Tomorrow is my first official day back in the classroom and will be putting up my clipboards so I will soon post pictures of how they all look.  You know me, as long as it looks like an explosion of color I'm loving it.  It's funny because we are finishing up our registry for our wedding and I keep noticing how our home is very natural with warm colors and I think I would have a heart attack if this explosion of colors were in my house but in my second home I love it and wouldn't have it any other way!

Sabra

Monday Made It #6: Vista Print Creations

This past week has been crazy!  My family came into town and we did the whole tourist thing: Disney, Sea World, the works!  It was so much fun to see them again but I definitely did not get a classroom "craft" done per se.  I did however get some Vistaprint creations done and in the mail today and I am very excited.  So this week's Monday Made It with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics is a digital classroom craft.

I created three new Vistaprint creations: 2012-2013 Sunshine State Feast Invitation (50 rack cards), Math Reference card (100 regular size postcard), and Classroom Rules banner (small vinyl banner).

Sunshine State Feast Invitation 2012-2013

Every student who reads all 15 Sunshine State Books will receive this special invitation to our Sunshine State Feast.  I plan on writing their name on the blank space under "That's a Wrap" in silver permanent marker.

Math Reference Sheet
I will be putting these in my math area by the TIMER Tubs so the students can always grab one to refer to when they are stuck.  I was nervous that the font would be too small and unreadable but it turned out perfect!  I snagged the front side from Ms. Sanchez's website (she's got great downloads!) and the back from the Utah Government website.

Classroom Rules

I've been seeing these types of subway signs all over the place, including my home for house rules, and I wanted to create one for our class.  I used Print Shop to create the sign and saved it as a PDF, then uploaded it onto Vistaprint and made a vinyl banner.  As you can tell there is some extra space on the actual banner but it is still larger than I imagined (it took up about half of my coffee table).  I'm going to frame it using yard sticks tomorrow.  I'm already thrilled with how it will look and it's not even done yet!  If you want a copy, head on over to my TPT store!

Do you want to know the best part of this DIY?  It was free!!!!!  That's right, Vistaprint was having this amazing sale and I only had to pay for shipping :o)  Can't beat that!

Sabra

Monday Made It #5 - Pot of Gold

Here it is, Monday again!  Which means I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics and showing off my newest creation.  I actually made quite a few things this past week but my upcoming schedule is pretty full so I'm going to save them for the weeks to come (just in case I can't make anything).

My Monday Made It this week is inspired by a lot of things actually.  First was the cute lollipop tree that I've seen on Pinterest.  When kids do a great job they get to pick one from the tree and some special lollipops have the bottom of their stick colored which gets them an extra special treat.  I know a lot of primary grades do this and I wasn't sure how my bigger kids would go for the lollipop and what my extra treat would be, but I loved the concept!  Okay, that was number one.  Second inspiration: My kids last year got so excited whenever we pulled out my phone to use an app, time each other, etc. (I so wish I could get an IPAD!) that I wanted to incorporate a little more technology into our classroom.  And the final inspiration for this week's project is my heritage and how the kids responded to it last year.  I'm part Irish (in case that glaring bright white skin didn't give it away) and for some reason the kids were all over that last year.  They loved it!  I think they really just all loved finding out each other's cultures but one student in my class dubbed me "Tirishcan" = Texan Irish American.  I can't even make that up if I tried, lol.  So thus, you add those three inspirations together and you get "Pot of Gold," my motivational incentive!

I snagged my witch's pot from Halloween, made a cute little tag and tied it off with raffia around the brim and I've got myself a pot.  Now for the gold part.  I had about 40 bottle caps and spray painted them gold.  I recommend spraying close and only one coat or the color tends to dull, although that could have just been my paint.  Then you figure out your rewards.  Here are some that I did:

$5, $10, $25, $50 Classroom Cash

No homework pass

Free pencil

Free candy

Free snack

5 extra credit points

Pick your chair for next class

Lunch with a friend

Pick a book for our next literature circle

Computer Time

Add 50 class points

Pick an item from the treasure chest

I turned those rewards into QR Codes by going to the website Qurify and typing them into it's QR Code generator.  You can save the code as a picture, print it off, or just copy!  For those of you who don't know what a QR Code is, it's that box that looks like a messed up bar code and you can scan them with your phone and it takes you to a site, or in our case pulls up a reward message.  I printed them off on Avery's 3/4" Circle Stickers and used their template off line.

When my kids are going above and beyond they can pick a piece of gold from the pot and at the end of class we will scan it and let them get their reward.  You can put the gold back for another "lucky" student when finished!  Some of the easier ones, like pencil or candy, have about 5-6 bottle caps, whereas $50 Classroom Cash has only one bottle cap.

 

 

I have a lot more bottle caps and plan to make some math stations with them.  Maybe multiplication or division with the problem on the top of the cap and you'll have to scan underneath to get the answer.  Or possibly putting fractions in order from least to greatest and you have to scan to see if it is correct.  Who knows?!  The possibilities are endless...  What would you do with them?

Sabra

Monday Made It #4 - T.I.M.E.R. Tubs

I'm once again linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It!  This week is a little less crafty and more so having to do with creating a whole new section of my classroom.  As you all know, I only teach Reading, Language Arts, and Social Studies but I would like to incorporate Math into my classroom for multiple reasons.  The first being that most classrooms are predominantly reading literacy based (especially mine) and kids don't get to see a lot of math or even science literacy.  Even though I have an extensive selection of math and science literature books, they are not put on display very well and I don't have any posters for kids to absorb different kinds of vocab.  Which is fine because they get it when they go to those specific classes, but when my homeroom kids stay with me on Wednesdays, they are exposed to a reading room.  "What do I do when I'm done?" - "READ"  Again, perfectly acceptable!  But I wanted to switch it up a little and add in some math stations.  Secondly, I thought doing this would help relate to the children that all the subjects are connected, you use reading in math!  The same strategies we use in reading can also be used in math.  Lastly, I just wanted a little challenge, something a little different this year (and I sort of miss math, lol).

This week's Monday Made It is T.I.M.E.R Tubs!  I was looking online through all the wonderful blogs out there for math stations and ran across these two: Down Under Teacher and Adventures in Teaching.  Both of these blogs have wonderul examples of, essentially, guided math groups.  Since the county is doing a big push for guided reading, why not throw in a little guided math on Wednesdays to spice it up a bit?!  After reading these two blogs I came up with my own system that I knew would work for me and my kiddos.

How I envision this in my head (who knows, it could go totally wrong but I'm the kind of girl that's gotta try!) is that I will have a chart that says where students go that Wednesday, just like guided reading groups.  Students will either be at T - Team Up, I - Independent Reading or Working, M - Manipulatives, E - Expand Your Knowledge, or R - Review.  I plan to work mostly with the Review kids unless they are getting the hang of it and another group needs my help.  The students will switch tubs every week and I will change out the contents of the tub about every 4-5 weeks.  That is not to say that I won't be repeating some of the activities or even moving some of the activities to different tubs as the year progresses.  Click on the T.I.M.E.R. Tubs explanation above to grab your free copy and labels!

I got the wonderful bins at the Dollar Tree last week!  Can't beat a whole new math station for just $5!  A lot of my activities are things I created, pages from e-books from Scholastic's Dollar Deals, ideas from workshops, games/worksheets from The Mailbox magazine and the wonderful freebies that others share online.  Here are some of my favorites:

• SNAP Math Fair - has great puzzles for Expand Your Knowledge (intermediate grades)
• Laura Candler's Math File Cabinet
• The Cornerstone
• Super Math Centers Link Up - teachers from all grades gave one math station idea and a freebie!
• Adventures in Teaching - she gives you some of her BUILD activities and where she found others
• Pinterest - math stations or centers

There are so many out there all you have to do is look!  If you have any great ideas, especially for 5th, please leave me a comment or link so I can add to the TIMER Tub collection.  Lord knows I need all the help I can get! LOL  Don't forget - today is the last day my Fraction Wars will be free to my followers!  Head over to my TPT store to grab your copy and leave me some feedback :o)
Sabra

Monday Made It #3 - LEARN Letters

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted but we went out of town for a wedding and had a crazy fun time! Now we are dealing with Tropical Storm Debbie, but I somehow still found time to finish my Monday Made It project, lol. I will be posting my Guiding Readers Chapter 2 Review tomorrow as well (trying to play catch up).

Like I said, I'm linking up again with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It. This week, really the past few weeks, I have been creating my LEARN letters to put on top of my cabinets. I saw on Pinterest these wonderful CREATE letters from Mrs. Knights Smartest Artists and knew I had to have them for my cabinets as well. This past year was the first time I had ever had above cabinet space and I had nothing to put there! I eventually put the student's projects up there but there was still blank space for a good portion of the year. Now I have wonderful 3-D letters! I wanted the two feet letters but they were just a little to tall and, truth be told, a little too skinny for what I wanted to put on them. So these letters are about a foot tall and block lettering and seem to fit all the do-dads I glued on them nicely!

 

Tomorrow I will be heading into my classroom so I will take a picture of what they look like on top of my cabinets.  The do-dads on the letters are:

L - crayons

E - glitter yarn (just keep wrapping around)

A - green and blue buttons

R - map with scrapbook embellishments

N - pencils (cut with a coping saw and flatten edges with sand paper - SUPER EASY)

I have been seeing everyone else's letters and I'm just loving what everyone is coming up with!  Have I mentioned how much I love this linky and I am getting so much done!

Sabra

Monday Made It #2 - Book Recommendation Carousel

It's Moday Made It time and I've once again linked up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics!  I feel like I have been nonstop crafting and it is taking over my house.  Thankfully this linky party is making me finish these projects instead of just jumping around.  This week's creation is my Book Recommendation Carousel.

I found this great idea on Pinterest (where would we be without it?) and wanted to recreate it but for student's book recommendations.  Last year I had a sports theme and I made a baseball bat poster that said "Sure Hits" and students wrote down books that they thought were amazing.  It was great up until it was so full you couldn't read any of the books anymore.  This year I wanted to break it up by genre since they will be doing the 30 book challenge from the Book Whisperer.

The genre posters are from Beth Newingham but I did recreate some of them so the books were more on the 5th grade level (she teaches third).  The book recommendation sheet I created on Word and put it on top of fancy paper from JoAnn's.  Slide it into a sheet protector and place them in the binder rings.  Close the binder rings around the paper towel holder and you're done!  This could be used for a number of things, including showing off student's work!  If you have any more ideas for the carousel I would LOVE to hear them!

Sabra

Monday Made It #1 - Crafty Clipboards

Ok, it's official... This linky party stuff is addictive!  I've just joined another one with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics.

Every Monday I'll upload one of the many crafts I'm creating this summer!  Since I already have a few going I better get some of them finished, lol!  The theme for my classroom this year seems to be Pinterest so be prepared.  I'm sure when I start to look at everyone else's creations I will be making a lot more - this could be dangerous.  I'm so excited!!!

Here is my newest obsession - Crafty Clipboards.  I will be making 20 of these bad boys.  Yes, you read that right... 20!  I will be putting them up in a grid formation on one of my blank walls and this will be where students display their wonderful work.  I haven't decided what to call it yet, but I want it to be something clever and catchy.

Sorry the pictures are a little dark and fuzzy, I took the pictures with my phone)

Surprisingly these were not as difficult (or expensive) to make as anticipated.  I got the clipboards from Office Depot for $1/each (they are always that price) and the paper from Michaels and Jo-Anns with coupons and sales.  The best advice I can give anyone making these is to create a template when making your first board.  It will save you hours of time in the long run.  Once you've cut your paper to your liking, spread modge podge on the clipboard and then attach the paper.  Be careful, it sticks easily!  Once you've smoothed it down with your hand take a pan scrapper or an old credit card and run it across your paper to get all the air bubbles out.  Trust me - they're there.  When you have glued all your paper and embelishments on give the whole thing another coat of Modge Podge and voila!  You've created your own crafty clipboard.  These are also great for teacher appreciation gifts ;o).  Until next Monday...
Sabra