Monday Made-It - Fact Fluency Sticker Charts and Calendar (Freebies)

Happy Monday! 

I'm at a Pathways to Reading (PTR) training today through Wednesday. I absolutely love PTR! I was first introduced to it when student teaching with Kristi, and then of course, I had to be trained in it when I was hired on in that district/school. To be honest, I felt like that training taught me more about teaching kids to read than any college course that I had taken. 

My new school is going to be implementing PTR this school year. The other teachers went to a Year 1 training, but since I had already been I'll be at the Year 2 training. I'm a little nervous...I will actually be working with kiddos (that's the fun part) but since I didn't really do PTR last year, I'm feeling a little rusty...and I think other teachers and the trainer will be watching me. Ack! Hope it all comes back to me and quick!

Okay...enough about that. 

I'm linking up with Tara for Monday Made-It. I still haven't gotten crafty this summer (except for the Pinterest party wreaths), but I did manage to get some fact fluency sticker charts finished.

Last year, I started using the ones from The Curriculum Corner (great site w/ lots of free resources). The kids loved having a sticker chart on their desk, but they were all the same. I wanted to be able to see at a glance who was working on which set of facts so I decided to make up ones for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

 Let me explain a bit. I do math timed tests in my room two or three times a week, and no it is not the kind that gets my kiddos all stressed out and worried. I keep it very low-key and fun...joking about when to start, etc. In fact, my kiddos are always begging me to take timed tests. I'm also a bit of a softie and if I can tell someone has been working really hard to pass, I will make up a reason to give the class a few extra seconds to work that day.

Each time they pass (all facts finished and score better than 95%), they get to put a sticker on their chart. When they pass a mixed facts page and move to the next level, I buy them a pop. I had a handful of second graders that made it to division facts last year, and one that was soooo close to passing her mixed division. Through the year, I buy 12 packs of pop at a time depending on what they request. Then at the end of the year, I use the leftovers to have a float party...works out pretty well.

So...if you're interested, click here to grab your free sticker charts.

I also managed to upload my second how-to video. Click here if you missed the first one. Check it out if you want to see how I change up a PowerPoint file quickly by swapping out graphics (remember I don't claim to be an expert :-)). In the video, I changed our free robot calendar to a kids calendar (so it could be used with almost any theme).

Yours free if you'd like to have it. Just click here (TPT) or here (TN).

Looking forward to checking out the Monday Made-Its! Here's hoping I haven't embarrassed myself at the training...yet. :-)

Monday Made-It - Robot Cuteness (FREEBIE)!!!

Several months ago, I purchased this cute robot pack from Graphics From the Pond. I fell in love with those little robots, but at the time I really didn't know what I planned to do with them. Sadly, they sat in my graphics folder...lonely and dejected. Every time I thought of creating something, the robots were calling, "Pick us! Pick us!" 

Okay, not really...but that is what it felt like!

Last week as Kristi started talking about her plans for all the owl cuteness she was making, I decided to give a robot theme pack a try. If you've followed us very long, you know we have made some mini-theme packs before - baseball, football, sports, frogs, and a more general colorful pack. We kept them mini...you know? 

Well, these robots sort of took over my life last week and I came up with a not so mini-theme pack. Take a look:

I may have gotten a little carried away, but I was enjoying it! I made the full-color version, then decided some people might not want to use all that colored ink so I made a less-color option. Then I decided editable was the way to go and made almost the entire pack editable too! Call me crazy...I know. Anyway if you're interested in the robot theme pack, you can hop on over to our TPT or TN store.

What theme pack would be complete without a cute calendar to go along with it? You can grab this 2014-2015 calendar here for FREE (TPT) or HERE (TN)!

Next up...I'll be tackling the music room I ignored all last year. Some of you know I moved schools last year, and I worked really hard to make my 2nd grade classroom my own. By the time I finished that, I had no "want-to" left for the sad little music room. I'll post some before pictures soon...

Be sure to link up with Tara. I can't wait to check out all the Monday Made-Its!

Have a great week!

Monday Made-It - Mesh Wreath, Seasoning Mixes, and Chicken Flautas!!!

Good morning! I'm so excited to share the fun Kristi and I had at our Pinterest party last week! 

We invited some of our teaching buddies and tried some things we've seen on Pinterest. I thought linking up for Tara's Monday Made-It would be the perfect way to share the things we made! Check out her new buttons (if you haven't already) as you scroll along. Too cute!

First we got a little crafty and made some wreaths (inspired by this pin and tutorial):

It was a lot of fun (once I got past the perfectionist in me)! Here's how our wreaths came out:

Kristi is still going to paint her T, but other than that hers is complete. She is actually switching from frogs to owls in her classroom this year. I'm excited to see the cuteness she comes up with for her new room (a little envious...)!

And then there is mine...which was supposed to look Dr. Suess-ish. I need some more embellishments that we didn't have available. I'm hoping for something for like this:

This PIN just links to the picture so I have no idea who to give credit to...

When I get it finished, I will post another picture. Kristi insisted that I had to share mine even though it wasn't complete! ;-)

The next thing we did was make some seasoning mixes. I'm sorry I forgot to take pictures of this part! It was a mess, I can tell you that! Ha! Our recipes came from One Good Thing by Jillee. Everyone went home with S.O.S mix, taco seasoning, ranch seasoning, and onion soup mix. I can't wait to try them all out!

It was a little crazy and pricey getting enough spices for all of us...if you try this at a Pinterest party, I'd suggest maybe not making so many kinds of mixes. Even with everyone bringing a spice to share, we still had to get quite a few on our own.

Everyone also brought a Pinterest inspired dish to share. I made these baked chicken flautas from Spoon Fork Bacon. Yummy! I doubled the batch and had some for supper too. I would definitely make these again--would make a good lunch even when school starts up again!

There was a lot of great food (sorry I don't have all the pins and links)! We had watermelon cake, goat cheese grapes (delicious--who knew?), apple dumplings (made with mountain dew), Smores dip, garlic hummus and chips, layered chocolate chip cookie cheesecake, and a broccoli cauliflower cheese salad.

If you haven't tried a Pinterest party yet, I say go for it! We all had a great time! ;-) 

Have a blessed week! 

Monday Made-It - Birthday Cupcakes and an Awesome Piano!

Made-It #1

 

 

Aren't these cute?

 

I'm glad you think so...

 

...because getting to this final product was a nightmare!

 

You know when you have a "great idea" but then you get started and that great idea transforms...many times. I'm not going to go into details, but I will admit that I spent about 2 hours total getting to this point and it took a friend of mine (thanks Sara!) to give me the idea to line them up in this straight line.

 

Go ahead...laugh and make fun of me (Kristi).

 

I will admit that I am--hmmm--particular about things. I had seen the cupcakes with candles for birthdays on Pinterest. I thought it would be pretty cool to somehow make them 3-D -- easier thought than done.

 

Anyway, I'm going to tell you how to make these cool cupcakes and save you the headache (and trial and error) that I had after messing with them.

 

First, get the corrugated border that has been hiding in your cabinet or closet from back when it was cool. Then cut it the length you want to make the bottom of your cupcakes. Hold in place and staple to your bulletin board. Next fluff and stuff tissue paper in the top. Finally, add glittery "fire-looking" poms to craft sticks (mine are small because I wanted colored and my jumbos were plain - I think jumbos would be easier to see...). Write your kiddos' names and birthdays on the sticks. Use a tiny bit of hot glue to hold them in place. Add the month labels--I'm sure you could make your labels cuter but I was DONE by this point in my experiment. Ha!

 

Easy peasy...well, for you anyway because you get to benefit from my OCD ways! :-)

 

Made-It #2

 

Check out this piano!

 

I tell you, my kids are such a blessing to me! They are always willing to help me in my classroom. My 13-year-old son made this awesome piano and put together this bulletin board. We are planning to add some black Mustangs (that is our school mascot) to finish it off.

 

Why am I decorating a music bulletin board? Well, I told you I'd explain later so I guess this is it...

 

My new job is at a very small  K-2 school. The specials teacher--she taught music, PE, art, and technology--retired and the district decided not to fill her position so the classroom teachers are each taking a "special."

 

The K teacher is also teaching PE.

The 1st grade teacher is also teaching Art/Technology.

The 2nd grade teacher (me) is also teaching Music.

 

We will have one hour a day where we rotate the classes through the specials (20 minutes each).

 

No, I do not play piano nor do I consider myself all that musical, but I can push play on a CD player and the school does have a music curriculum for me to use. It's going to be a learning experience, but I am going to try my best! I made the principal promise that I wouldn't get fired over my music teaching - HA!

 

My son has played piano since he was in the first grade. He loves music AND he loves to organize. While I worked in my 2nd grade classroom, I was able to send him over to the music room to organize and tidy up. He was perfectly happy to do so because it meant he could stop and play on the Clavinova every so often. :-)

 

My daughter was also helping during this time. She did another bulletin board, passed out all my books, and labeled almost everything.

 

Like I said I really do have the best kids!

 

Oh, and the winner is...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Congrats, Jennifer! I'll be e-mailing you shortly. :-) 

 

Head on over to link up your Monday Made-It (or to check out all the other cool projects)!

 

 

 

 

Many Monday Made-Its = Freebies!

Let me apologize in advance...this post is kind of all over the place, but it does have lots of pictures! You will want to stick with me - our 400+ Giveaway is at the bottom. :-)

 

First my daughter's "made-it"...she's been busy! Check out how she dressed up some of her school supplies from last year in preparation for back-to-school:

 

Made-It #1 - Flower Bed

This summer I finally put in a flower bed...we moved to the country in 2007 and there was so much dirt work to be done around the house, I kind of gave up the idea of having flowers like at my house in town. I had hubby move a giant rock out by our driveway and created the flower bed around it. Here's my first Dahlia bloom. Beautiful!

Made-It #2 - S'mores Pie

 

Birthday picture - not a great one! But hey, I told you I would let you know about the S'mores Pie (pinterest inspired). I think it should be called S'mores Candy, but it was pretty tasty. :-)

 

 

Made-It #3 - Rules Posters (Freebie)

 

Click the picture to grab it!

 Here they are up in my room!

 

 

These posters were inspired by Stephanie at 3rd Grade Thoughts. I loved hers, which are also free, but I didn't want...

"Raise your hand for permission to stand."

(which was part of her rule #3)

 

My posters say:

1. Listen when your teacher is talking.

2. Follow directions quickly.

3. Raise your hand for permission to speak.

4. Respect others. Respect yourself. Respect our school.

5. Be safe. Be kind. Be honest.

 

 

Just had to add this picture too...it is my Reading Focus Wall coming together (below the rules). Hooray!

Please note - if you downloaded my free Focus Wall Headers, I changed the yellow to orange so they would be easier to read (same with my thought bubbles - see below). You may want to redownload.

 

Aren't they cute??? Love how they turned out.

 Made-It #4 - Binder

 

This binder part goes along with a great linky going on over at:

 

 

 

I blogged about the binder pack I purchased here. It comes from Bridget at Little Lovely Learners. The made-it part comes as I have put it together and added to it... I was going to wait to post this because I'm not all the way done, but I know some of you are already back at it and thought you might benefit from seeing how I'm putting mine together, so... 

First thing you see when you open it up is my daily check-list. I know my check-list will change this year, but I went ahead and put it in to remind me to include it. This truly saved me so much time last year!

 



 

Monthly Calendar - The binder pack comes with a good 1-page calendar...it took me awhile to choose, but eventually I went with this FREE 2-page spread from Marshall in the Middle.

Weekly Calendar - I wanted to combine my binder...personal and school...so I wanted a weekly spread to keep me organized with all our activities through the week. Grab them here free if you want.

 

A place to write dinner plans at the bottom = one less page in my home management binder.

 

Okay, back to more school sections:

 

I made this yearly planning calendar.

I got the idea from someone else - it was chevron backgrounds. If it is you, let me know and I will point people in the right direction. I also don't want to give this away in case that person had it for sale. Sorry... :-(

 

The binder pack comes with MANY more covers and pages for inside your binders. I plan to make at least three more binders: Student Information/Data, MTSS (Bridget made by special request), and a Sub binder.

***I also absolutely LOVE a work skills/behavior checklist that Bridget includes in the pack.

 

Okay, if you've stuck with me this long, you deserve a giveaway! Kristi and I are so excited that we reached 400 followers on Bloglovin' that we wanted to celebrate. We figured anyone can enjoy a $25 gift card to Target! Use the Rafflecopter below to enter and good luck!

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to link up your Monday Made-It with Tara!