Monday Made It: Month of September

Well, if you follow along at 4th Grade Frolics you know that Tara is making this a once a month deal-y now that we are all in school ( or for me starting tomorrow!). This is probably a good thing. It will keep us all making the cuteness but ,not be pressured to keep up with weekly.

The first thing I made are some goodie bags for the kiddo's. I used the editable ocean labels that I purchased from First Class Teacher Resources. You can check that out HERE. I was going to make one with those cute little sayings about a pencil meaning something and a starburst meaning something else but, I didn't have the space on any of the labels and I wanted to keep everything cohesive. So I just wrote the little note and put a pencil, an eraser, a sucker, and these fun little ocean animal squeezies that spray water into the bags.

This picture shows them sitting on the papers that were at their seat on Back to School night. They had a parent questionare, a student information page, and a parent packet that my grade level team put together called How to Be Extraordinarily Successful in 2nd Grade. It includes info relating to our state standards, how to contact the teachers, and some basic policies. I have not included a link for it only because it does not belong exclusively to me. It was made by one of my grade level partners and then tweaked each year by our team. But if you are interested I can talk to the team about getting you a copy. :)

At the end of the year last year I gave each of my kiddo's a bag with Swedish Fish and a little tag that said O-Fish-ally a 3rd grader. It was a good way to be a little silly with them in our last moment and not cry. :) I wanted to continue with that this year but thought it would be fun to give them one on the first day as well as the last day. These are the ones I used last year ( except they said 3rd grade). So I just printed off the 2nd grade version. This time I used rainbow goldfish crackers. I love how they look with the orange in the label. I'm sure the kiddo's will love them! ( You can get the labels HERE.)

 

 

The last thing I am going to share has a story. I have seen SO many cute book hospitals on Pinterest and wanted to make one for my room. Someone had said they found a little wooden ambulance at a craft store. But we don't have one in BR so when my best friend, my daughter and I hit up GR for a little back to school shopping on Friday I thought perfect! I can get one and make a super cute little book hospital.

 

We went to JoAnn's and first hit up the scrapbook section. I wanted to find some scrapbook paper with a hospitall-y background....band aid's, stethoscope...something. NOTHING! We looked through that aisle 3 times just to make sure we didn't miss it! I thought ok, lets look in the stickers ...NOTHING!....the closest I came was a set of "boo-boo" stickers that looked like band aids but they were brightly colored and had little sayings on them. Not exactly what I was looking for. Finally made it to the wooden crafts aisle and, you guessed it, found NOTHING! The closest I could find was a tractor....and I can be crafty, but I was not sure how I could turn a tractor into an ambulance.

 

I remembered that I had downloaded this really cute set of classroom library expectations from SWIMMING INTO 2ND. They had a chevron background and like everyone else in the Pinterest world I am obsessed with chevron. One of the posters had a sign about putting damaged books in the book hospital. So I took the sign and cut out the ambulance and the words Book Hospital and attached them with actual band- aides to the tub I was using. I think it looks great. To get the posters you can go HERE. This way what they see on the sign matches where they actually go. Lemons into lemonade I guess.  

 

 

 

***************************UPDATE********************************

Spent yet MORE time in my room today...are we ever really done? And discovered I had two more projects that I forgot about!

I started with these boring tri-fold boards that have been taunting me with their blank-ness on my back counter for weeks now! I finally figured out what I wanted to do to them to "juj" them up.

 

 

I took some acrylic paint and a paint brush and splatter painted them! It was MESSY but fun! This was what I got.

 

 

 

 

And then I added the letters to them today. These will be my ABC/ Word Work Station and a Science and Social Studies one for the other. I think they look great and, even though they will eventually be filled with I can statements and anchor charts, the parts that are out will be fun! :)

 



Thing number 2!
I had these horrible to look at ,but very functional storage spaces between my cupboards. Last year I covered these area's with a tablecloth that I cut to size and then attached velcro to. The velcro lasted all of about two days and then the rest of the year my aide and I spent taping the darn things in place. NOT an efficient use of time and resources! I threw those away at the end of last year because after all the tape they had DEFINITELY seen better days. So I was left with this space here. :(

Enter this $3!!!!! beach towel from Walmart and two tension rods! I cut the towel in half width wise and then hot glued the top down to create a little pocket for the rod to slide through. ( I didn't sew it because well, I can't.)

AND VOILA! This is what I got.

I took a pic of the back counter so you could see both "curtains" in action. I LOVE IT! And I love that I won't have to tape it up all year long. :)

So there you have it friends. Head over to 4th Grade Frolics and link up yourself. Enjoy your Labor day!