Monday Made It! 5 Projects to Share!

Hello All!

My summer vacation time is ending and I return to work in exactly one week.  I am very anxious because I don’t have access to my classroom due to my floor tiles being replaced.  It was a MUCH needed repair, but I really want to get my room set up for the new school year.  Luckily, I did complete most of my bulletin boards. 

Today I am linking up with Tara from 4th GradeFrolics for her linky... Monday Made It.  This is my absolute favorite linky because I love looking at all the wonderful and creative things everyone has made. 

My first project is my new sharp and dull pencil containers.  I purchased the buckets from Dollar Tree, the jute from Target, and the denim ribbon and letters (They are stickers.) from Michael’s.  I cut the pencils out on my Cricut machine.

 

My second project are birthday treats for my students.  I have a western theme in my classroom so they will receive birthday loot bags and a card from me. 

My mother made the bags out of burlap and handmade all of the birthday cards.  She made each card different so that they are a little more personal.  She is very talented and always willing to spend part of her summer helping me with my classroom.  Here is another card and the poem that is inside of each card.

This is what the students will find inside their loot bag.  The inside of all the bags are the same with the exception of the color of the eraser and pattern on the birthday pencil.  I have written their names on the bookmark and on the outside of their birthday card.

Project number three are my two bench seats.  They were made with materials purchased at Michael’s with the exception of the wood for the top, which was purchased at Lowe’s.  I put two hinges on the top of each bench to make them easy to open and close.  I LOVE benches!!!  I have them all over my classroom.  I don’t have built in storage in my classroom, so the benches provide storage for all of my stuff.

Project number four is one that I can’t take credit for at all.  My mother found an old bench at a yard sale.  It was brown and full of stains.  She covered the bottom in dark denim and the top with denim waistbands and seams from old jeans. 

This is the miracle she worked on it!  This sitting bench was made for my home.  It is filled with sweaters.  I was able to empty one whole dresser into this bench.  The pictures don’t do it justice… it is gorgeous and very spacious! 

 

She made a smaller one for me last year for my classroom, but I really wanted one for my home, too.  It is still a nice size.  Two students can comfortably sit on it together.  I store our cleaning wipes in it.

 

This is how it looked when I bought it from a yard sale and when she was laying out the denim seams.  She is very meticulous, so it took her forever.  I LOVE you mom!

 

My last project is my 20 responding to Reading ChoiceBoards.  I used a version of them in my classroom last year and my students were very successful with them.  It was insightful for me when I read their responses and helped me guide them during conferences.  This summer I touched them up to make them more visually appealing and reworded some of the prompts that my students found confusing.    

I use choice boards with my small groups and to hold my students accountable during independent reading. The boards can be teacher or student selected. My students are given the half sheet choice boards so that they can glue them in their reading journal. I typically tell them how many choices they are required to complete and then they color in the boxes as they answer the question in their journal.  I have also included full page choice boards if you choose to have your students staple their responses to the back of their choice board and turn it in to you.

You will find the following 20 choice boards included in this resource:

5 Respond to Reading Choice Boards
Character
Setting
Plot
Nonfiction
Summarizing
Predicting – Fiction
Predicting – Nonfiction
Inferring – Fiction
Inferring – Nonfiction
Analyzing – Fiction
Analyzing – Nonfiction
Making Connections – Fiction
Making Connections – Nonfiction
Synthesizing – Fiction
Synthesizing – Nonfiction

If you would like to take a closer look at it or get a copy to use with your students… it can be found HERE.

Now it is time for you to hop on over to Tara’s blog at 4^th Grade Frolics and take a look at some more teacher creations.

Until next time,