Monday, August 27, 2012

Gotta Love Monday Made-Its....I've Got A Freebie!!

I am so thankful to Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics for starting Monday Made-Its.  While I love creating curriculum it has been soooo much fun making some crafty stuff! I get just plain giddy as Monday approaches!

Monday Made-It #1:  Pick Me Pot
My daughter and I love to spend an afternoon painting at our local Crock N Doodle.  I thought this would be a great way to make a "Pick Me Pot" for my classroom.  I was thrilled with how it turned out!  I wonder how long it will take for one of my little munchkins to knock it off the counter?


Monday Made-It #2Daily 5 Book Boxes {Freebie}
I am going to be starting the Daily 5 this fall for the first time.  I am super excited because I have heard nothing but awesomeness about the program!!  I have had so many aha moments while reading the book.  So I wanted to make book boxes for my little kidlettes.  They were a bit of work but definitely worth it!  I bought the boxes at Ikea so they were really affordable.  I used scrapbook paper from Walmart, Mod Podge, and some cuties I made on the computer.  The long side of the box will face out so I used scrapbook paper to cover it.  I added a piece of ribbon and a co-ordinating paper square.  I covered the whole thing with Mod Podge for durability.  I made signs that match the Daily 5 to go on each side of the box and a cuties label for the front of the box.  I made name tags with the kid's name on them and I used velcro to attach them to the box.  Oh, boy I hope the pictures do a better job of explaining them than I just did!!





I covered all the sides with Mod Podge and then sprayed them with Acrylic sealer to get rid of the tacky feeling Mod Podge leaves behind.


Okay so tell me you are ubber excited about my book boxes!!!!  I have included a FREEBIE for you just in case you want to make your own.  Just click HERE to get a copy for yourself:)




Monday Made-It #3:  Book Bin Labels Collection For Your Classroom Library
I am super excited that I finally got around to making labels for my classroom library.  I had seen a lot of cute sets out there but to be honest I wanted mine to have MelonHeadz graphics.  You can never have enough MelonHeadz!  I made 118 different labesl to choose from and I included sticker labels so you can label the books as well.  Here's a peek and if you are interested in a set for yourself then pop over to my TpT store.



 

Monday Made-It #4:  Personalized Teacher Business Cards
I have seen these in lots of different places and I thought they are a great way to send a good first impression to the parents in your class.  They took no time at all and I found printable magnetic sheets at Staples ~ awesome!  You just print on them and cut them out with regular scissors.





 

 






 
This is available at my TpT store in an editable format.  All you have to do is choose the card that best suits you, insert your information, and then print them out.  I have included 9 female images, 3 males images, and one substitute teacher.  They are super cute and of course use MelonHeadz graphics!

Made-It @ Home:  Another Week of Still Being "Cool" In My Daughter's Eyes!!
(1)  We went to the Wam Bam 2012 concert and boy it was awesome!  Mind you I felt really old!!  The concert played for 7 hours!  The headlining groups were Owl City, Carly Rae Jepson, and The Wanted!!


(2) Like every other 12 year old girl in the world ~ my daughter, Julia, LOVES the group "One Direction."  They have these "pop-up" stores that literally "pop-up" for one month and then they're gone.  I laughed when I took this picture because you would almost think they were really there!

 
 
(3)  Julia has wanted to get the tips of her hair dyed for awhile.  She is very quiet, not at all rebellious, compassionate, gentle, thoughtful..... the mommy list goes on and on:)  Anywhooooo... she is only 12 so have fun, right?  There are too many years that she'll have to do it the conventional way. 
What fun!! 
 



I am finally off to set up my classroom {we only get 3 days!} so I better boogie!
Thanks for stopping by!

Bye for now,
Natalie









Friday, August 24, 2012

I Am Stressed...and Birthdays!

Howdy!  I am feeling a little extremely stressed right now!  I am frustrated because I went to the school this week to be told that the custodians weren't done with my room and that they wouldn't be letting us in to set up our room until August 27!  That means I have 3 days to get my room set up!!!!  Are you kidding me?!  I was in 2 weeks ago and was told they needed one more week.  Okey-dokey... I wasn't thrilled but hey I guess they fell behind.  But when I was told it was still a no go I thought I was going to cry!  Well looking on the happy side ~ it gave me more time to get some more "creative" jobs done.  I will post these on Monday so make sure you come back then ~ just to entice you...I'll have freebies:)  I put together my birthday bags so I can check that off my list.  I  got everything at the Dollar Tree {including the birthday bags} and even though I don't have any birthdays in my class until December {weird!} I'll be glad I did it ahead of time.
Everyone got:  playdough. fancy pencil, cool eraser, super bouncy ball, Skittles, and a glow stick bracelet.  I think they'll be happy:)


I also printed off my MelonHeadz bookmarks to go in the book pouches I made earlier in the summer.  If you didn't see that post you can click HERE to go back and pick up the freebie labels I made so you can make your own.  As you know I love MelonHeadz and her monthly bookmark bundle is awesome!  I wanted the boys to have a "boy picture" so I just covered the "girl" with another graphic I had.

 
I am almost finished my book boxes for the Daily 5 and I am soooo excited with how they turned out!  I'll have pictures {and a freebie} of them on Monday.

Enjoy your weekend!

Natalie

Monday, August 20, 2012

Monday Made-Its ~ Lots of Pictures and Lots of Freebies!

Hello and happy Monday to you!  Sadly, many of the super cute and creative Pinterest ideas must be put on the back burner as we all prepare for a new school year.  I have linked up with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics for yet another Monday Made-It linky.
Everything I made this week was computer generated and I think I went through Mod Podge withdrawl!  It was time to get to some of the more boring practical things that needed to be done.

Monday Made-It: #1 ~ Daily Folders
These are everywhere on the internet and on TpT so it is not an original idea.  I saw the example from the Clutter-Free Classroom and knew it was time to revamp mine.  I wanted some colour so I remade the labels to match the colours in my classroom ~ I like bright!  In the past I have used cardstock folders but they are a mess by Christmas.  This year I bought plastic 3-prong folders with 2 pockets with the hopes that they will make it through the year {fingers crossed}.  I read a suggestion to use Mod Podge to affix the labels to the folders and page protectors ~ DO NOT do that!  This was a waste of time because it just peels off the plastic.  So I printed the labels, laminated them, cut them out, and used a glue runner to stick them to the folders.  I bought purple folders {they look blue in the pictures} from Staples.

I put 2 page protectors in the middle.  The first one is for signed forms and money.  I put a velcro tab at the top so nothing falls out.  The second one will hold our monthly calendar and monthly newsletter.
The left pocket is labelled "return to school" - sorry it's hard to see.

The right pocket is labelled "keep at home" ~ brutal picture!

And these babies will be housed by the door in this cutsie bin!!









And because I love you for taking the time to stop by ~ you can get a copy of all the labels {editable!} by clicking HERE.   Just a note:  The font doesn't look right when you first see it in Google Docs but once you download it it is fine.

I remember to make anchor charts for reading, writing, math.... but admittedly I haven't been doing them for important things like how I expect children to behave.  I needed an excuse {lol} to buy a couple of new bundles from MelonHeadz so after purchasing Nikki's Kidlettes Bundle and Classroom Cuties Bundle I put together a set of 10 cards to remind my students to be the best student they can be:)  I attached the cards to ribbon using my handy dandy glue gun and presto ~ one super cute anchor chart!




And yes ~ another freebie!
If you would like a free copy of these cards then click on any of the pictures or HERE!

I also made some signs for various bins in my classroom and I thought some of you might be able to use them, too.  You can get your copy by clicking HERE.


Thank you for reading to the end ~ this was a long one!
Just one more quick thing ~ thank you to those of you who helped me out last week with how to leave a comment with a link back to my blog.  I really appreciated it!

I'd love to hear from you if you download the freebies:)
Bye for now,
Natalie