My Last Monday Made It!

My summer is over, I go back to work next Monday :( I am sad to end this relaxing, fun summer with my daughter but looking forward to a new group of kids. Make sure to pop over to 4th Grade Frolic and see the wonderful ideas posted for Monday Made It!

#1 Recipe Book

I created a recipe binder years ago but it was dirty and  unorganized from years of use. I created a new one with the following sections: breakfast, bread and muffins; starters, dips, soups, salads and beverages; sides, pasta and sandwiches; beef and pork; poultry; vegetarian and other; cakes and cupcakes; cookies; other desserts. I use page protectors for the recipes to keep them clean and only put recipes I have tried and like in the book. Any recipes that I want to try go in the front pocket. I made tabs because other tabs were hidden by the page protector.

#2 Pennant Banner

I made a pennant banner for my niece's 1st birthday party. The theme is pink and white pot-a-dots. 

#3 Teacher Toolbox

It only took me all summer but I finally bought and made my teacher toolbox. Better late than never :)

#4 Best Thing I Learned.....

I saw this idea on Pinterest, for my 4th grade class on Friday they will write the best thing they learned that week and put it on the board. I am planning to give students a page protector for their classroom binder, they can place their old sticky note in it when they post a new one. At the end of the year students can look at all they things they learned. I used a full poster board and added fun Duck Tape to dress it up :)

It is a bit blurry :(

#5 Morning Work/Writing Pictures

From National Geographic

I like using pictures and books when teaching and practicing writing with my 4th graders. In a previous post I used pictures from National Geographic to teach Ba-Da-Bing and Ba-Da-Boom sentences. I love the National Geographic photo website, they have great pictures for writing. It is great to have pictures I pull up on my Mimio but I wanted pictures for the students to hold in their hands. My wonderful family has been saving magazines for me and I went through and pulled interesting pictures and create categories for them. I plan to use them as morning work. There will be a picture each group of desk and a prompt on the board. Ex. In 3 or more sentences tell me what the person is thinking?, Describe what you see in 5 or more sentences., If you were standing in this place what do you think it sounds like?, What do you think this taste/smells like?, etc

From National Geographic

For those of you still on summer break enjoy!

Made it Monday! #6

The summer is flying by but I feel like I have been very productive. This week I was able to get a lot done. (It helped that my daughter and I stayed home) First, I made a card binder for my daughter. After her second birthday I realized that I wanted to save the cards but wanted them to be organized and in one (small) area. This is what I did....

I created a cover and dividers (birthdays, Valentine's Day, Easter, Christmas and Other) .

Cover

One of the dividers.

I then placed a page protector in each section. For the birthday section I will add a new page protector for each year. 

Birthday Cards for 2nd Birthday.

The cards are stored in the page protector behind the dividers. 

#2 - Dry Erase Calendar

My second project was a dry erase calendar. I found the idea through Tara's Made it Monday on Miss V's Busy Bee blog. I probably over thought this as I was making it but LOVE how it turned out. I changed the background three times before deciding on the one you see below. 

I used a 11X14 frame and cut the days from card stock. This was the hardest part figuring out the size of the days and placing them so they were straight and even. After I finished getting everything perfect (at least I am pretending it is perfect) I added magnetic strips to the back so it can hang on my fridge. This is what I ended up with. 

I LOVE IT!!

The calendar is hanging on my fridge with the meal planner I made a few weeks ago. I can easily see it and add events. Yay!! I am feeling so crafty and productive!

**The magnetic strip will not hold up the large calendar. Make sure to attach the magnetic with some type of glue, otherwise you will wake up in the middle of the night to a loud crash :)**

#3 Classroom Book Recommendation Boards

This idea came from Stephanie at Teaching in Room 6, she has great ideas. Students can fill out the book recommendation card and post it for other students to see. Stephine used a large cork board in her classroom. I decided to use the small cork boards you can buy in a pack of 4 at Wal-Mart. I created two boards, one for any type of book and the other specifically for Sunshine State Readers. I strongly encourage my students to read the books on the Sunshine State Reader list so they are able to participate in the end of the year party. Also, I know that the books are right at the 4th and 5th grade reading level and are really great reads. This is how my boards turned out. 

The book recommendation cards I created. After looking at the cards that Stephine made for her class I created my own including some of her ideas and adding other items I wanted included. I can't wait to use this in my room. I am still thinking about how I can use the recommendation cards with my Literature Writing Assignment.

#4 Deep Cleaning the House

I am also working through the list of deep cleaning for your  house from the blog D and R Tabb. Another Pinterest find, she has a list of 18 things to do to deep clean the house. So far I have completed a few of the items, they are not hard to do, just requires motivation. :)


#5 Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

I made Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes (there is a whole Oreo at the bottom!) for my husband's company picnic. They were easy and really good. I found the recipe on Pinterest, big surprise. ;) 

This was a relaxing stay home week and I was able to get so much done! Yay! I am super excited about next weeks project!! Can't wait to show it off! Make sure to check out 4th Grade Frolic. There are so many ideas that people post for Made it Monday.The first week there were 30 people that linked up and last week there was 185!!! Wow! Tara you have definitely started something.

Made it Monday! #5

This week my Made it Monday was my little girls birthday party. We had a great party and it was so much fun to watch her enjoy the party. There was a lots we did for the party but I am going to share one of my favorite things we made. My sister made 4th of July popsicles, she used my Zoku maker from Brookstone. If you have never used or heard of this popsicles maker you should check it out, it is amazing. I received it last Christmas and love it. For the different colors we used red, blue and clear sports drinks.

My sister making the popsicles.

This is how they turned out.

Birthday girl enjoying the popsicles.

Today, I put up balloons and streamers in the hallway to her room and playroom for her birthday. I found this idea on Pinterest.

This has nothing to do with school but I also was able to clean out and organize our walk-in closet. It was a big undertaking since my two year old wanted to help :) I now have two plastic bins of clothes and one of shoes for a yard sale. (cleaning the closet was a bit overdue)

Before

After

After

- For next week I have a few ideas that I am going to work on. Head over to 4th Grade Frolics to see what everyone else is up to this week.

Book Recommendation Board for Classroom

Love this sign!

Scrap skirt.

Monday Made It!! #4

Yay! Monday Made It! Tara at 4th Grade Frolics has keep me busy and motivated this summer. I have made several fun things for my daughter and actually completed a few things for next school year. Thanks Tara!

This week I decided to catch up (or try to) with things I have wanted to do around the house. First, I made sensory balloons for my daughter that I found on Tot Treasures. She loves squeezing them, as I was making them she would say 'More balloons mommy.' I think she likes them :) We talked about bumpy and smooth, but we are still working on that concept.

I filled my balloons with rice, large uncooked beans, corn kernels, flour, small pom-poms, coffee, and sand.

Easy project and she played for hours with the balloons. So far, they have not busted open :)

Project #2 - Wedding Pictures 

My youngest sister was married in January and I have yet to hang a picture. I finally got the wedding CD, printed the pictures and put them in a frame. YAY! Now I am after my other sister for wedding pictures from her wedding 3 years ago that was 2 months before my daughter was born. Her pictures were put on the back burner. I would like to make a family wedding wall. (She has a just walking, 10 month old, so it may take a while) For now I will hang one set of wedding pictures.

Project #3 - Meal Calendar

I found this idea on Pinterest via Girl Loves Glam. I attached magnetic strips to the back so that it will stick to the fridge. Now what I plan to cook will be listed right on the fridge door.

Project #4 - Boston Cream Cupcakes

Before my daughter was born I would bake all summer long. Now that I have a toddler running around I try to bake but it doesn't happened as much as I would like. This week I made Boston Cream Cupcakes for a luncheon at my husbands office. I found the recipe on American's Test Kitchen - Feed through Pinterest. They were a hit. 

I am now off to clean out and organize my closet. Happy Monday!

Monday Made It! #3

Another Monday, another Monday Made It! with Tara at 4th Grade Frolic. The past week was busy and jam packed. I was able to make and send out birthday invitations for my little girl's birthday. Her birthday is on July 9th and she is turning two. The theme I borrowed from Pinterest is Red, White and Two! I am in love with the theme and love how the invites turned out.

My second project I found on 3rd Grade Thoughts. Stephine has a great way to pick Brain Breaks in the classroom. My students have a very tight schedule and we do not have recess, I have been looking for a way to break up the day. I have not used Brain Breaks before but hope they help the students from getting ants in their pants. So, I made a Brain Break Bucket.

I used a bucket my daughter had from Halloween.

There are 30 activities that I made for this bucket.

This is a close up of two activities.

Below are the links to the documents I made, one is the Brain Break cards and the other is directions. Please feel free to use them. If you have Brain Breaks that have worked in your class please let me know.

                                Brain Break Directions            Brain Break Cards

Below is a list of Brain Break sites that I found. I pulled together Brain Breaks that I thought would work best for my class. I teach Language Arts for 4th and 5th grade, so my activities are geared towards that area. There are many Brain Breaks for math and other areas. There are lots of books and sites out there. 

• Brain Breaks 1
• Brain Breaks 2
• Austin Independent School District 
• Mr. Kennedy's Classroom 
• National Association for Sports and Physical Education 

Again, if you have Brain Breaks that have worked well in your class please let me know! :)

Monday Made It! #2

It is Monday so that means Monday Made It! I was on vacation last week so this is week 2 for me, but week 3 for everyone else. So, I had almost two weeks and was able to get three, yes three, projects done. They were easy and took about 45 minutes total :)

Project #1 - Teacher Binder

 

Looking through all the great ideas on Tara's 4th Grade Frolics blog inspires me to get back in touch with the first year teacher that is still in me. This week I made a teacher binder to hold all my important information. I borrowed the idea from Beyond the Grade..... I like to be organized but as the year goes on I end up with things in different places. Now it will all be in one place. This is such a great and simple idea, not sure why it took me 6 years to do it. 

I used scrap-booking paper I had for the cover. It is a bit blurry, but says Mrs. Bryan's Teaching Binder.

This tab is for lesson plans.

This tab is for Meeting Notes.

         This tab is for Student Data - 4th Grade. Because I have two classes of students, I made separate tabs for each set of data.

This tab is for Student Data - 5th Grade

This tab is for Calendars/Schedules

This is a misc. tab, for all the things that we get at the last minute :)




Project #2 - Clothesline Art Work Display

I have decided that each week I am going to do something with or for my silly, busy toddler. This week I was able to get two things done.  

I found this idea on Pinterest awhile ago and just got around to putting it up. This took about 10 minutes to put up. I used pink and green ribbon for the lines to match the other colors in the room. Originally, I used clothespins but they were to heavy so I switched to paper clips. Now I have a perfect place to show off all my little girls great art. 

 Before

 After

Project #3 - Toddler Fun Box

My second project was this fun magician's wipe box. This was another Pinterest idea. It was easy and my little girl loved it.

  

 First, I cut old fabric that I had into strips. I was not neat about this, it will be pulled and played with :)

 Next, I tied the strips together.

 Picture of all the pieces put together.

Finally, I put the pieces into the box with one end hanging out.