Monday Made It

Today I'm linking up with Fourth Grade Frolics for Monday Made It.  I've definitely been in work mode the last few weeks trying to get things created and ready for my classroom.

#1 This upcoming school year I'm doing something different for student birthdays.  Every year I've made play dough for my students for different reasons.  I saw this on Pinterest and thought I'd do it for my student birthdays this year.  I'm waiting until school starts to make the play dough so it will be fresher; but I have already made the containers for it.  I bought the containers at Walmart, like these, made the labels, and hot glued them onto the lids.

If you like the labels, I've included them in my TpT store.  They are a FLASH FREEBIE today and tomorrow ONLY.  **This freebie has expired.

#2 I also made a Vacation Journal for my students this year.  Last year I had a lot of families travel during the school year, and even had a few parents ask about a journal.  So I finally made one that fit my needs.  If interested, it's in my TpT store, clicking on the picture will take you to it.

#3 I bought these Composition books last year, wanting to use them with my kiddos, but ended up not using them.  So this year I knew I wanted to put them to use!  Since I'm teaching Kindergarten I figure my kiddos won't be needing full pages, so I sweetly asked my hubby to cut them in half as I've seen on Pinterest.

My husband used some kind of saw he had in the basement, but the cut didn't come out super clean.  So I researched a bit on where to take them to get them cut.  I've heard Office Max will do it, so I took them there.  They said they charge for each cut and could do maybe two books at a time.  Although it would have only been around $5.00, I figured I could buy another set of books for that price so it defeated the purpose.  I also checked with FedEx.  They also charge but they were offering a little cheaper price.  The man that worked there cut one for me so I could see the cut.  In the picture below, you can see the cut from FedEx comes out a lot cleaner that my hubby's saw.  But in the end, the frugal part of me decided the cut isn't so important and I took the free route.

Now I'm off to a Homegrown Institute for Lucy Calkins Units of Study!