Monday Made It- Pirate Style

I am linking up with Tara again for

But before I start, make sure you hop over to another book study I am participating in.

I was so busy last week that I didn't even post. Bad blogging friend! But I am back to share with you something that took me an eternity forever. As you may have read/figured out, I am doing a pirate theme next year. But everything I found was red and black. And that just wasn't enough color for me. You have seen a couple pieces of my pirate theme set, but it is finally.all.done!

In a few other posts I shared some of the pieces to this set, already put together. If you missed those, I will link them at the bottom. On top of what I have already shown, there are 2 sets of calendar cards- one with seasonal art, one with no art. I included 3 sets of calendar numbers so you could practice patterns on your calendar by mixing and matching the cards. There are also days of the week cards (I used them on my drawers that will be linked at the bottom) and cards for today is, tomorrow will be, and yesterday was.

The next batch of fun includes subject cards and blank cards. I used the subject ones in drawers (post at the bottom) but they could also be used for schedule cards. I included blank ones so you could write subjects in that maybe I didn't include or to use them as group labels. I also included 8 desk name tags. My kids loved these last year and utilized them a lot. I just suggest covering them up when you are doing tests on facts (multiplication facts). 

 

This next picture shows an example of the alphabet cards that are included. There are 2 more sets of numbers but these are not calendar numbers. These can be used for many other things. I am using one set for my library check out system (post about this coming soon) and the other set is being used for my computer rotations.

There you have it. I love the way it all came together. The first picture will take you to the listing on TpT. Oh! I forgot there is also a student binder cover included!! I can't wait to get in and decorate!

Links to posts referenced here:

Labels for days of week and subjects and word wall

Noise and Sound Check

Monday Made It #3

I am LOVING how much I am getting done this summer. And I have Tara to thank for this because I know I just NEED to post and link up with her for

I got a TON done since my last MMI post. So much so, that I actually took a break and, GASP, stopped working. Admittedly I would have stopped anyways because we had company in from out of town and our daughter's 2nd birthday party. BUT I didn't feel stressed about not getting anything done because I was so productive earlier in the week. So without further ado... here is what I made in the past week...

I originally saw this pinned from here but I didn't want my kids to have the "outside voice" option. And I wanted these colors. So I just made my own. I don't see any reason my kids would need an "outside voice" while in my classroom, so I just didn't include it.
To go along with this, I made

These letters to hang on my whiteboard. Every time we work in groups or partners, I find myself telling the students "If I have to stop you one more time, we will be on silent". This willmake it so I don't have to say that. I will have these hanging on the board. If it gets too loud, I will simply remove one letter. If we get down to only having NO left, we immediately go on silent. Now I haven't decided if this will be for the remainder of the day or just that given activity. I am thinking just that activity, because I do A LOT of group work and can't have that messed up. I KNOW I won't have to say I am removing a letter because kids are observant and they will see it and quickly warn their friends to quiet down. (I remember seeing this on someone's blog or maybe a pin from a blog but I can't remember who now.)

The next thing was

Now I didn't MAKE this but I did cut and laminate so that counts right? I got this freebie right here and knew I had to have it. My kids have the hardest time telling time and knowing the "adult words" for telling time (as we call them). I am hoping this will help.

Then I made this

It isn't anything fancy BUT it is a good place for kids to drop notes from home, money they owe, etc instead of on my desk. I always lose things in the mess that my desk becomes and find them a couple days later (luckily it has never been anything insanely time sensitive). I am hoping this will help with some of that chaos. I found this idea on pinterest but it is an image only so I have no idea who the original idea came from.

The last thing I made that I LOVE is

My desk name tags. I made some last year to match the color scheme I went with but I needed some to match my pirate theme. Last year I had a couple problems with them. 1. Kids peeled them off their desk even though I had them taped on there completely covered with packaging tape. 2. When we wanted to rearrange (which was often) the tags had to be peeled up and moved (I had all different sized furniture so moving the desk didn't always work), meaning they eventually lost stickiness and got ruined and ripped. This year I am trying something different. I laminated them with no names. I will write the names with sharpie marker once I have a class list. And I have already prepared velcro. I am going to velcro them to desks this year so that when we rearrange I can just lift the tags and move them.

I already have about 5 more things I want to get making, but I am taking a break so that I can read the Daily 5. We will see what I get done.

Monday Made it #2

I am linking up with Tara again for 

And I am super excited about this one. See, I am moving into a new classroom next year. Three years of being in the trailer was enough. I am finally breaking free! Sadly...when my students helped me move some things into my new room, they saw it and said "OH.... we don't want you to move in here... this is disgusting!"

Well... when you have a bunch of third graders who have spent the year in a LITERALLY falling apart trailer telling you the new class is bad, you immediately start thinking about what you can do to make it better.

Step 1- come up with a theme- CHECK

Step 2- start making things to go with said theme. I have a notebook FULL of ideas and am slowly starting to make them for my classroom. 

My theme this year is...Pirates! But... I didn't want the typical all black and red pirate decor. So I went on the hunt for cute clipart. It took me over a week but I finally found something I liked. Since no one has created pirates in the colors I wanted, I am starting from scratch.

One of the first things I did was make a word wall title and letters.

(It dawned on me after seeing a friend's post that I didn't put the lowercase of each letter!! I have since fixed it for the file but I am not reprinting and laminating again.) This is hanging on my daughter's chalk wall for picture purposes. I have these letters (with the lowercase) and some letters with cute pirate clipart, but those aren't the ones I am using. Once the entire file is complete, I will be sure to share previews.

The next thing I decided was that I needed to redo my plastic drawers. Here are the before pictures...

(If you want to know HOW I use each of these, you will have to follow Pamela's blog for a guest post by me. It will be up on Friday.)

The white plastic was FILTHY. The ones with the subjects had pen all over them and the days of the week were just blah. And I didn't want white. So I got out my spray paint and went to town. Which ended with me having black spray paint all over my new manicure, my feet, and apparently my daughter's little blow up pool. Then I made new labels to match my theme and put them together...

Big difference right?! I liked them before because they served a fantastic purpose. But now.. now I LOVE them!!!

Be sure to check out all the posts that link up with Tara. I end up finding such good ideas for things I want to make!

Monday Made It

It is the first weekly Monday Made It of the summer and I am so excited. Last year I participated in a couple of these and just loved them. I think what I love more is looking at everyone else's posts and getting ideas for what I want to do. I have a lot of ideas,  but sadly I am not sure how many I will get done due to extreme exhaustion. (That is a story for another day.) Onto my Monday Made It...

One thing that I recently made is an activity for the classroom. I like to call it "30 minutes of teacher sanity right before a long weekend, vacation, etc." You know, when the kids just need something fun but still semi educational? Or you are in a pinch because you are so drained you didn't plan enough.

My students LOVE these activities. To make it more fun, we turn it into a competition. Each group works together to see who can come up with the most words. Typically I set the timer for about 20 minutes and they just work together to come up with words. First of all, they are working together. Second, they are working on spelling and vocabulary. and Third, they aren't being crazy about the upcoming long weekend or whatever it may be.

 I included 12 different phrases for students to use. They are:
Back to School
Happy Halloween
Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Holidays
Merry Christmas
Happy New Year
Valentines Day
Groundhog Day
St Patricks Day
Hoppy Easter
Honor the Veterans
Summer Vacation

If you click the cover page, it will take you to the listing on TpT where you can download the preview to get the Groundhog Day one for free.

My next Monday Made It is for my daughter. Her birthday is coming up (seriously 2 years already?! I have no idea where the time went!) Her party is next Friday and I kinda haven't sent out invitations. Ooops. Good thing I have already verbally invited everyone that will be coming. I have seen tons of cute "ticket" style invitations floating around etsy, ebay, pinterest, etc. So I decided to give it a try to make it myself.

Personally I think they turned out really cute! And she loves them! Or just loves that Sofia is on them. I also made her a Happy Birthday Banner and Thank You cards but I will share those once they are printed out.

I am off to look at everyone else's posts to get ideas for what to make for next week!