Monday Made It #3!

I am linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics once again for Monday Made It! Be sure to stop by her page to check out all her fun ideas and some inspiration from other fellow teachers.

So over the weekend I was finally able to get into my classroom. Let me tell you, it is a train wreck, er... organized chaos. I was assigned the old Literacy Lab for my classroom, so I have piles of stuff to go through. While this could potentially be a GREAT thing for a new teacher, it also adds to my To Do list. I have stuff from previous teachers and stuff from the literacy lab as well to go through. Needless to say I will be hanging out in my classroom most of the week.

Now, on to my Monday Made It.... I made a Calendar for my classroom! I used poster board from Walmart and blue cardstock I had on hand. I printed all my words and such off of Word and cut to fit with cute decorating scissors. I had Scotch brand 5x7 self laminating sheets on hand to laminate the months, however I need to get into the school's laminating machine to do my whole calendar. I put velcro pads on the months, so that they can be removed. I plan on using an overhead marker to write the numbers on..... we will see how this works once it is actually laminated. If they do not wipe off easy enough I will print numbers with velcro on the back to be able to remove. 

I added an "Important Dates" piece so that the students can quickly check for upcoming events.. such as tests, picture days, no school... etc. 

The hardest part was measuring and drawing lines so that it all fit and looked just right. I plan to add a Jayhawk in the upper right hand side once I get access to the school printer :)

So why make my own, you ask? Well, because it was WAYYY cheaper and it matches my decor!

What has inspired you this week?

Monday Made It!

This is my first official "Monday Made It" linky with 4th Grade Frolics! Be sure to link up with her and show off your Monday Made It!

Ok, so I am a Pin-aholic.. is that a word? Well, anyway I love all the amazing ideas I find on Pinterest. So for this week's "Monday Made It" I got my first idea to create a "No Name" paper holder. My actual product is slightly different from the original. The link to the inspiration came from 3rd Grade Thoughts, and hers is just as cute, if not cuter :)

However, I took a cheaper more economical way out. Instead of buying wooden letters and paint I found a cute, 11x14 red frame at the local dollar general on clearance for $2, BONUS! I already had the clothes pins, but they have them at dollar general in red, yellow, and blue if you do not have any and do not want to paint them. I hot glued (my favorite way to adhere things) the clothes pins to the frame. After some scrapbook paper and punch out letters, this is my finished product:

I am excited for this! No need to leave little holes all over my bulletin boards :)

My other Monday Made It item is for all those little notes, drawings, and inspirational goodies we get from our little lovelies. I also got this idea from Pinterest. You can find the link here, at Lesson Plan Diva. This way it isn't all over the desk or pinned on the wall. I will probably keep mine by my desk, but one pinner suggests to keep it in your class library for others to look at :)

I used sparkly foam letters on mine (that I had laying around in my landfill massive craft supply).

I had fun making these cute things for my classroom and will be even more excited to get it INTO my class next week!

Preparing for the big day!

I am so excited to start teaching in my OWN classroom! Over the summer I have been compiling and creating things for my class. I have found a multitude of amazing blogs and ideas on Pinterest (that site is amazing!) I have made an Absent Box, which holds two weeks worth of assignments so the students are responsible for retrieving their own work. I will provide them with a sheet that tells them the instructions but they need to get their own assignments out of the box.

I have also made the infamous Teacher Toolbox, I got the inspiration from Fun in Room 4B (an awesome teacher blog). I used her template (found here) to fit my needs, however you need to be aware that unsharpened pencils and some markers/highlighters/pens will not fit as the length of the individual boxes are not sufficient. I did not know this until I created mine. I found mine at Walmart Online, it is red casing, but you can find black as well. I am told you can find them at Ace Hardware and Lowes. It is labeled as "Stack-On 22 Bin". As you can see I have a red and blue theme going here, I am totally a KU fan through and through ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK! :)

Lastly I am starting to compile some wall art. Again, I have to credit Pinterest for this lovely idea. I think it is personal for the students and they feel appreciated and loved to see this daily. I created mine in Publisher and saved it as a JPG file. I printed it poster size 12''x18'' (same day) at Walmart for $8.86. Not a bad price for same day and personalized. I don't know about you, but I cannot go into Walmart without finding something I think I need for my classroom!