Monday Made It

The reality that I have less than two weeks of summer has officially hit home.  Since I am determined not to go back to school until I absolutely have to, I have tried to work a little harder at home.  Today I am linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics. 

 Last year was my first year giving students book boxes and I LOVED it.  Having book boxes increases the chances that students always have a book they are interested in reading.  It also reduces the amount of browsing time since students have assigned times to browse and have multiple self-selected options of books to read.  These boxes are from Ikea.  A great bargain, but the bottoms started to fall out about mid year.  This year I decided to tape the boxes to make them more secure.  Originally I tried to cover the entire box in duct tape, then realized I would probably be okay as long as I secured the bottom.  SO I have about 10 completely covered and 20 with the two stripes and the bottoms covered.

I came up with an idea for my box from last week's Monday Made It.  I am going to have my students perform a random act of kindness each day.  I figure each day we will pull one of the cards out of the box and each student has to perform that act of kindness.  I'm hoping this will help create a climate of respect.

 I have seen these class journals all over the place and decided to use them this year.  I am going to write one sample in each journal so students have an idea of my expectations.  The topics are: My Weekend, Hobbies, Vacations, Sports, Birthdays, Wishes, Sickness, and Giggles.  The graphics I used for these came from My Cute Graphics.  This is my go to site, I adore their graphics.

 

 The last thing I am sharing is my check for understanding posters.  I know I found this idea somewhere, but it was awhile ago so I don't remember.  I know the colors didn't match my theme of shades of blue so I created my own.  The graphics for the children came from Clips by Jen.  The blue border can be found here.  The chalk star can be found here.   

Thanks for stopping by.  Head over to 4th Grade Frolic to check out what others have made and to link up with Tara.  Enjoy!

Monday Made It

Today I am excited to link up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics to share some of the things I have made over the summer.  Many of these are from earlier in the summer.  All of these ideas came from other blogs I have visited.  Now that I am blogging I'll try as much as possible to remember and link back to sources when I can. Hope you enjoy! I know I enjoyed making them, so therapeutic for me!

Made It #1:

Sorry there are no erasers, but I made this to store my erasers.  This was super easy and cheap because the gumball machine has been housed at my mother's house for many years.  I know she was glad to get rid of it.  I spray painted the top and base, then used modpodge to stick the eraser on it!

Made It #2:

To be honest I have no idea how I am going to use this, but this was a summer project I did with some kiddos and I had to make one for myself too!  Hopefully by next week I'll have an idea of how to use it.

Made It #3:

This is an attempt to keep myself organized.  I am the teacher who can never find pens, post its, or markers after they have been opened or used a few times.  The tricky part will be to remember to return things to the right place.

Thanks for checking out my Made Its for the week!