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!

Parent Gifts

I know all of our minds are on the school year coming up... in like, three weeks (EEKK!), but I thought I'd share about some small ideas for parents gifts that I used at the end of the year.

Gum.  Super easy right?!  I used these gems as the gifts to my parents who volunteered throughout the school year.  Just something small, but it lets them know their help was appreciated.  I got the idea from Pinterest and created my own tags to attach to them.

Gift Cards.  Easy and usable.  Parents aren't throwing these puppies in the trash when their child brings them home.  Again I saw this idea on Pinterest.  I actually used a similar idea for parent gifts a few year ago (you can see them here.)  I had three "room parents" this year that planned our class parties and such.  I purchased three $5.00 gift cards to Starbucks, had my students sign the inside of all three, then attached the note to the top.

If you want the labels for the Starbucks gift cards - you can grab them here for FREE!

Fill It Up {Math Freebie}

We are working in one of our addition, subtraction, and numbers math units.  We are currently learning about and practicing addition and combinations of numbers within ten.  We are lucky to have many manipulatives provided to us through our math curriculum, but sometimes there's just too much going on for my little Kinders to handle.  I wanted to create an activity page that included a ten frame so that would be one less thing they would have to organize in their work space.  So I made Fill It Up, and am offering it to you as a freebie in my TpT store!

Here are some pictures of students working with partners.

Click on this link or the picture below to get this FREEBIE!

I'm Back - Reading Rubric Freebie!

You may have been wondering what happened to me and why I've haven't blogged in two months!  Kindergarten.  Kindergarten happened to me.  I moved from second grade to Kindergarten this school year, and I have been CRAZY BUSY.  I always heard Kindergarten was in a world of it's own, and now I am in that world.  Less grading, more creating.  Less independent reading and writing, more directions. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.  And the list continues.  The good news?  I really am loving it so far.

So in hopes that my readers will forgive me out there... here is a freebie!  I created this Independent Reading Rubric last summer and put it on my blog for free through email.  With this new school year, I have been getting a lot of requests for it, so I decided to spruce it up and offer it for free in my TPT store.

Click on the picture to get your free copy!  Then check out some of my other new products.