Monday, October 14, 2013

Monday Made it October

Yay! I love MMI and 4th Grade Frolics for hosting! Today's Monday Made it's are student projects!


First, is our conference project. This is the 2nd time I have used it and I love it! I got this idea last year on pinterest. Check it out here. Such a great idea and my kids love to be creative!
Here's what's included:
-Favorite Book & Info about it
-Math goals, strengths, and challenges
-Reading goals, strengths, and challenges
- 5 things I like about 5th grade
- Bucket list of 3 personal goals
-Scores from our testing
 





Didn't they turn out so CUTE?!

 
Creepy Contraction Houses: I love doing these in October. The teachers I student-taught with showed me this fun project! Simply get a Haunted House coloring sheet. Have student cut windows and doors so that they open partially. On the outside they put their contraction and on the inside they put the 2 words that make up the contraction. Love how festive these look!
 



That's it for today! Hopefully, later this week I will post my students' Explorer projects which turned out great!

1 day left until conferences! Can't wait to see more Monday Made its!

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Can't Believe it's already October!

So I have been majorly slacking on blogging! The beginning of this school year has been crazy and busy and I'm finally making time for my blog.

Even though I am a few days late I am going to add my October Currently from Farley's blog.

 
Listening: My dogs are going crazy outside this morning barking at anyone and anything. I think it's the highlight of their day!
 
Loving: I am so excited the 80s have finally left us. I want to get our my comfy boots, sweatpants, and scarves! (And yes, I probably have over 30 scarves, so I need to start wearing them!)
 
Thinking: I should really be cleaning my house instead of watching this NCIS marathon on TV. Hmm.. wonder if that'll happen?
 
Wanting: I want to go shopping for new fall clothes since the weather has changed! Old Navy anyone?
 
Needing: Can't wait for my 3-day weekend that is coming up after conferences this week. Much needed for everyone.
 
Treat: I am obsessed with Reese's candy. We can't keep it in the house for more than a day before it disappears!
 
 
Well that's it for today. Hopefully, I'll be back real soon! I need to get back in the habit!
 
Happy Weekend!
 

 
 

Monday, August 19, 2013

First Days of School Whirlwind!

Wow! I can't believe these first 3 days of school. It has been crazy and exhausting trying to get back in the swing of things! It was so exciting to see all of my kids from last year walk through my door again. They are all SO tall, I feel short! Guess that's what happens when you teach 5th grade.

Here are some fun things we have done the last couple days of school.
 I saw this great GROUPS acronym to use in my classroom. I had my kids get in groups, OF COURSE, to create their own. I love how they turned out! Now, if we have any issues we can just look up at the board!
 Next, we worked on our Classroom Constitution. I pinned this cute idea that goes along with the book We the Kids by David Catrow . If you haven't read this it is great for social studies!
 My class loves to do art projects. So again, gotta love Pinterest. We each created our own hands and decorated them. Now we have a great, unique class wreath by our door!
I'm proud to say after 3 days my desk still looks like this! YES! It probably won't last much longer after I start getting papers to grade!
 
 


Monday, August 12, 2013

Teacher Week Meet the Teacher

I love this idea of Teacher Week for my first week back at school. We'll see if I can keep up with it after actually having to work all day! EEK!
 


1. This will be my third year teaching. I have taught 4th grade for the past 2 years at my school in Kansas. This year I am looping up with my class to teach 5th grade. I am excited to learn some new curriculum and see how much farther my students can grow before they head off to middle school!
2. I am craft and Pinterest crazy! I love making things for home and school!
3. I graduated from Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, MO. I absolutely loved it there and it was a great teaching college. We love to watch their football games every fall! Go Bearcats!

4. I met my husband at NWMSU. We actually were neighbors in the dorm! How perfect did that end up?
Here we are in Colorado. How awesome is that weather made arch!?
5. My husband and I have been married for a year.
6. We have two dogs, Harley is a black lab and Roxy is a Morkie. Aren't they cute!?


7. We love working on our house, a new deck was the project this summer!
8. We also love going to the lake with our family in the summer!
9. I love country music. Must be because I went to school in a small town! I love the new Darius Rucker "Wagon Wheel" song right now!
10. And last, I have lots of shows that I watch religiously. Right now, I love Switched at Birth, because its based in our area, and The Fosters!

Well that's a little about me! Looking forward to reading about everyone else!




Sunday, August 11, 2013

Monday Made it August 12th

I can't believe it is Monday again! Back for my first full week of school! My kids start Thursday! Ah.. so much to do! But I love how this linky keeps me motivated! Click below to link up!



This last weekend we hosted my friend's bridal shower! So this has been a easy DIY go-to gift for brides! I have made it 3 times now! And the funny thing is they all had to same color of kitchen, green! Weird!

1. Gather materials. A frame, flower, a piece of scrapbook paper, and letter for their last name from Michael's. And a piece of kitchen tile from Home Depot! I went with a cheap neutral color for the tile.
2. Take out the glass from the frame, you don't need it.
3. Hot glue the scrapbook paper to the cardboard backing from the frame. Attach it to the frame. I put some hot glue on the back in each corner to hold it because there was a gap where the glass should be.
4. Then it's time to glue the tile to the paper. I had to use Wood Glue that I found in the garage because hot glue did not work!
5.  Next, glue your letter to the tile with the same wood glue.
6. Add your flower! Voila! Perfect bridal shower gift!
 
 


I have a major scarf addiction! My scarves were ALL over our closet and I could never find them. I saw this great picture on Pinterest and thought I would give it a try. All I got was 2 bathroom towel rods and shower curtain hooks! I just put one scarf in each curtain hook. And holy cow they look great! I can see them all! I think I have a problem... I have 32!
 
 
And last but not least a couple of things I finished up at school! I wanted a new jobs chart. So I created my jobs and printed them out on colorful paper. I think I'm going to love how easy it will be to switch jobs around with these clothespins!
And here is my Math Calendar Board. I am so excited to try this! I bought the beginning pack from Terri Thorton at the Creative Apple. See it here. I think it will be a great addition to my guided math centers.

Thanks for stopping by! So excited to see everyone else's Monday Made Its!

 
 
 

Friday, August 9, 2013

Five for Friday

This is my first time trying out this Five for Friday linky! Yay! Head over to Doodle Bugs to Link up!
1. Today was the first day back to school/work. Boy did my alarm go off early! Yikes!


2. Full day of teacher meetings today! But the good news is we got out early!

3. Still working on Road Trip themed Items for my classroom. Need to get to printing more of these little lovelies since I have more kids coming!
4. I'm so excited that my hubby almost has our deck finished! Only thing left is the stairs! Yay!

5. This weekend is going to be great! Tonight my cousin is in town and we are going to see Footloose. Tomorrow I have a wedding shower for my good friend and then out to eat at my brother's restaurant. Fun!

Have a great weekend!

Monday, August 5, 2013

Monday Made it!

I am linking up with Tara over at Fourth Grade Frolics for this fun linky!



Hello Teacher Toolbox!
So excited about this. Head over to Fun in Room 4B to get the free template!  So easy to make. First, I sprayed painted the ugly gray plastic with bright pink! Then all I did was tweak the labels to fit my needs and printed them out on my cute Chevron paper! And done!
 

The next thing I finished up is something my teammate and I put together last spring for our computer lab! It was so boring before we jazzed it up! My favorite part of it is the GIANT KEYBOARD! AHH!
 I found this great idea for a giant keyboard here.
Here is our finished project! The kids LOVE it! (Almost too much, we had to tell them not to actually punch the keys!)

Here is what we did:
First, we got some take out containers and cut them in half. (Thanks to my brother and our neighborhood restaurant for the donation!) We used about 74 halves. So maybe ask for them to donate about 40 boxes.

Next, we needed to make our letters and numbers. This proved to be the most time-consuming part of the whole thing! So I decided I would put them together in one document for you! Click here to get it from my store! I have a colored version and black and white version. We do not have access to a color printer we used regular construction paper and cut it so it would fit in our copier!

After we printed them out, we cut and laminated them all. See below.

Now we were ready to put it together. We started from with the second row from the bottom because we did not have to cut any of the boxes! After putting up some butcher paper behind, we stapled the "keys" to the wall first. For some boxes we used 1.5 boxes or 2.

 
Then it was time for the fun part! We got some extra sticky glue from our art teacher and began sticking them up! I had to use tape on the corners to keep the paper on until it dried. **Hint. I would suggest laminating the keys that have several pages together, like the space bar, so it is easier to glue to the boxes. (You will see I have a few I need to fix!)
How cute is this!?

SOO I decided to put all of this work into one document for sale on my TPT store! It will be so easy for you to print out and put up! It even has directions!
 



 
 I also got started picking out Math Vocabulary for this great word wall! Thanks Run! Ms. Nelson's Got the Camera! See my word wall post here.



AND I saved the best for last!
The last thing I have figured out how to do is throw a Sale at my TPT store! Since its my last few days before I head back to work I figured this is a good way to end my summer! Check out my store for all my fun creations at 15% off! My new Giant Keyboard Project is on sale too!

Thanks for stopping by!