Monday Made It – The Teaching Texan

Monday Made It: A Bit of Turkey and Superheroes

theteachingtexan — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 13:34:00 +0000

How about the weather across the U.S. today?? I’m a little jealous of the snow in many parts of the country – good ol’ Texas is going to get up to around 80 degrees today. Can I trade with someone who doesn’t want the snow???

I thought I’d kick off Monday morning by linking up with Tara from [4th Grade Frolics] for her monthly Monday Made It linky!

I don’t have any awesome crafts to share this month, but I do have a couple of new digital creations that I would love to share!

I whipped up a fun little no-prep packet for Thanksgiving. We are really getting into the meaning of Thanksgiving, and I wanted some additional resources to use throughout the next couple of weeks. Voila! My first no-prep packet was born! You can check it out [here]. It’s full of additional literacy practice pages, math practice pages, word wall posters, and a fun craftivity!

My second creation is a superhero themed writing packet! My campus is a following a writing initiative this year to help our students become better writers. This Friday is a campus-wide writing day. All grades will spend the entire day going through the entire writing process (this should be interesting in Kinder!). Anyway, the topic is going to be to write about a time the student was a hero or someone was a hero to them. I decided we needed a super cute booklet so that our students will have a fantastic finished product to be proud of. It will also be great exposure for our kiddos to “write a book.” You can check out my Superhero Writing Prompts Booklet [here].

I hope everyone has a fantastic Monday! Stay safe in the weather! Only 2 weeks until Thanksgiving break – let the countdown begin!

A Teacher Tool Box and an Organized Desktop

theteachingtexan — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 17:53:00 +0000

I just did a count and I only have 3 more Mondays until I begin training with my new district, and I only have 5 more Mondays until the first day of school! This makes me happy that I’ve been pretty consistent with getting things ready for next year.

I’m linking up with Tara from [4th Grade Frolics] for her Monday Made It linky!

I have two creations to share with you today. Both of them are to help me be more organized! I feel that classroom organization is so key to my success as an educator, so I’m determined to do a better job at it.

My first creation is my new computer desktop. I saw this idea last week on [Cheryle’s blog] when I was scouring through Monday Made It posts. The original idea came from Charity, and you can check that out [here]. Charity has a great tutorial for some sizing issues, so I recommend visiting her site.

This background was made in PowerPoint, then I saved the whole thing as a PNG image and uploaded it as my desktop. It is so easy to go in and change something and then upload the new picture to the desktop. (I know because I’ve already done it several times!) I love how my computer desktop will match the nautical theme that my classroom will have.

Here’s a before and after look at my desktop. Before there was no rhyme or reason for what files/folders were on my desktop, where they were placed, or anything for that matter!

Now I have specific areas to place folders and files on the desktop to keep me organized. I also added a sticky note (Mac feature) to each so that I can quickly type notes in.

I also went into the settings and hid the toolbar at the bottom so that it only pops up when I scroll the mouse to the bottom of the screen.

My second creation is my new teacher tool box! I’m sure we have all seen them all over blogs and Pinterest, and I knew it would make a HUGE impact on organization so I had to make one.

UPDATE 7/29/15 — You can now grab a copy of similar labels on my [TpT Store] by clicking [here]! These do not require scrapbook paper, so there is less time commitment!

I picked up the plastic organizer at Home Depot for $10! It was on sale from $17. How can you beat $10??? Then, I grabbed a few more sheets of scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby. The colors and patterns are perfect for matching my nautical themed classroom!

Before I did anything else, I removed the drawers and spray painted the whole box navy blue to match my classroom theme.

I didn’t have any labels at the time and my printer does not like to print in color… So I had to go the long route in making the covers for each drawer. I made a stencil on PowerPoint for the drawer covers that were 2.12″ x 4.25″ (large drawers) and 1.38″ x 2″ (small drawers). Then I used the stencil to cut the scrapbook papers out. In PowerPoint I created simple black and white labels that I printed onto regular paper and cut out. I used 0.63″ x 1.25″ (small labels) and 1.37″ x 3.5″ (large labels) as sizes for the labels.

Using Mod Podge (love that stuff! I adhered the labels to the scrapbook paper and gave it all a good coat to help them be more durable. After they dried, I used double stick tape to stick them into the drawers. I was initially nervous to use double stick tape because I thought you could see it, but you can’t at all! I’m also happy I used the Mod Podge first because I was able to peel some of the tape off that had a wrinkle without tearing the paper.

If you want to see more Monday Made It ideas, head over to [Tara’s blog]!

Monday Made It: Anchor Wreath & Sight Word Work

theteachingtexan — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 16:49:00 +0000

I mentioned on Friday that I was working on a project that involved this guy…

Well, I finished what this fun little anchor goes with, and I’m going to share it by linking of with Tara from [4th Grade Frolics] for a Monday Made It post!

Before I get into my creation for today, I wanted to give a bit of background on my inspiration for it. Last year I got caught in the whirlwind of finishing up grad classes, taking comprehensive exams, new teacher training, and getting moved into my classroom that the theme I had in mind (Western) never really came to fruition.

That was an OK enough excuse for last year, but I am not about to let it happen again! This year I am going with a nautical theme in red/navy/white. I was searching through Pinterest (as usual) and found this really cool looking wreath. I clicked on it of course. It took me to an Etsy sight and the wreath was quite a bit more than I was willing to spend.

What to do…. Well I decided to make one myself! Here’s the finished product. (Warning: There are quite a few pictures!)

I love it! I can’t wait to make/get more things for my classroom theme this year!

Here’s how I made it…

First gather all of your supplies. You’ll need yarn (I chose navy and white), ribbon (I chose red), glue sticks and a hot glue gun, a foam circle, scissors, and rope. I had already made the anchor before starting the wreath – but that was just a wooden cutout, red acrylic paint, and a white paint pen. I got all of the supplies from Michael’s.

I started out by marking 2 lines in the middle of the circle. This made it easy to know where to start one color and stop the previous color.

Then, I used the hot glue gun to get a good hold between the end of the yarn and the circle.

FYI, when I started I kept the yarn attached to the whole bundle. This got tedious because you have to feed the bundle through the circle each time you wrap another bit of yarn around the circle. I started cutting large pieces of yarn – it was a lot easier to manage! If you glue the end of one yarn piece down and start the beginning of the next piece right on top of the other one you can’t even see where it ends/begins.

After MUCH patience, I got the whole thing wrapped in yarn! Phew! I used a lot of hot glue (probably more than necessary) to get the yarn to stay exactly where I wrapped it.

I added some red ribbon as an accent in between each color.

I used the same red ribbon to create a hook for hanging the wreath. I just wrapped it around, added some hot glue and stuck the end of the ribbon back into the glue to create the loop.

Next, I added the finished anchor to the wreath using hot glue.

Finally, it was time to add the rope!

Voila! I plan to hang it on the wall right outside my classroom.

Since it’s Monday Made It, I wanted to share my latest TPT creation as well!! I know that I shared it on Friday, but I am just so excited about it!

Over 135 pages of sight word practice with activities like read it, trace it, rainbow write it, use it build it; fluency passages; sight word graphing; and flash cards! I can’t wait to use it during reading centers this year. You can grab a copy of my Mega Sight Word Practice Pack [HERE].

Family Weekend & Monday Made It: Digraph Sticks

theteachingtexan — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 15:01:00 +0000

Happy Monday! I am feeling so refreshed today after a nice weekend in San Angelo visiting the padre and stepmom!

On Saturday we went to downtown San Angelo for some shopping and a bit of wine. There is a fun general store downtown called Eggemeyer’s. They have an awesome kitchen gadget section. It’s hard not to buy everything in there!

We stopped to get some Italian Ice, as well. Although from the picture it appears to be “Hatian Ice,” haha. There’s a few other mistakes on this board – there goes the teacher in me!

The “food” fun didn’t end downtown though. I always eat WAY too much when I visit San Angelo. Here’s a peak at why…

Homemade peach cobbler and homemade venison sausage gravy & biscuits.

Carb city for sure, and I loved it!

While we were out of town, my mind started spinning with ideas for things I need to create! Sometimes stepping away from everything is just what you need to get those creative juices flowing again. I’ve been busy working since we got back last night, and I’m linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for her Monday Made It linky!

I am really excited about this creation! It was pretty easy (and cheap)!

This week I made digraph practice sticks! I got this idea from Hilary over at [Rockin Teacher Materials]. This is a fun way for students to sort beginning digraph sounds into groups.

Wondering how I made them?? Alright, I’ll share!

First you need to gather all the materials. You’ll need spray paint, paint sticks, and velcro. I was able to get the paint sticks for free at Lowe’s. The grand total of the spray paint and velcro (also at Lowe’s) was about $6.

I laid out all of the paint sticks onto pages from a magazine. All of my cardboard boxes are currently housing my classroom, so I had to improvise!

I put two coats on each side of the paint sticks and waited about 30 minutes between coats. If you’re a perfectionist like myself, make sure you spray the edges of the sticks or you’ll end up annoyed!

Then, I cut the velcro into small squares and attached one side to the paint sticks and the other to the back of laminated digraph tokens.

Now the kiddos can sort the diagraph tokens by attaching them to the paint sticks. This keeps it simple and there’s no mess! No more sorting and a kid accidentally bumping them and causing them to get mixed up because they’re attached to the paint stick! After students sort all of the digraphs by sound, they can quickly draw in the picture and try to spell the word using the correct digraph. I’m not so concerned they spell the words correctly (unless it is a spelling word), but more so that they are practicing writing with that digraph when they hear it.

You can grab the digraph set [HERE].

I’m getting so excited thinking about all of the ways I can use these paint sticks! I chose not to add any permanent labels to them (such as the digraph names) so that I can use them for other sound sorts, as well as sorts in math, science, etc.

Head over to 4th Grade Frolics to see some other great Monday Made It creations!

Monday Made It: Word Wall Card Organizer

theteachingtexan — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:27:00 +0000

Today I am linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for a Monday Made It post!

I’ve been feeling a little crafty lately, but couldn’t really pinpoint what it was that I felt like making. I started thinking about things that could make my life easier in the classroom, and it came to me!

I am ~~awful~~ trying to be better at using my word wall in the coming year. Last year I didn’t think ahead and purchase/make words in advance to go on my word wall. The consequence… I wasn’t always as faithful as I should have been with adding our new words to the word wall.

I am on a mission to fix this problem! This takes me right back to teaching problem & solution during read aloud…

Me: “If there’s a problem…”

Students: “We will solve it!”

Ok, sorry… Enough with the flashback!

Anyway, as I was saying I was feeling crafty and finally figured out what could help satisfy that urge, as well as get me more organized with my word wall. I had seen a few pins floating around Pinterest using a 3×5 note card box to organize small things (such as word wall cards). I decided that would be perfect for getting my word wall materials organized.

Of course, running out and buying a plastic box was not going to satisfy my urge to be crafty. SO I broke out the Mod Podge and some scrapbook paper! I spent some taking making careful measurements and Mod Podge-ing the heck out of this thing…

…and I came up with this bad boy!

After adding a couple finishing touches, I have an awesome storage box for my word wall cards!

I added some 3×5 dividers, and I am ready to go! Now… I just have to get some word wall cards made up!

If you are interested in making a box like this, let me save you some time. Staples has them! The poor mister and myself drove around to about 5 different stores yesterday looking for one and had no luck. Don’t waste your time, just go to Staples! haha

Head over to Tara’s blog [4th Grade Frolics] to check out some other Monday Made It creations!

OH! And don’t forget to check back tomorrow to enter my one year blogiversary giveaway! There have been over 30 awesome donations from some great TPT Teacher-Authors!

Sight Word Practice as a Coloring Page??

theteachingtexan — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 21:03:00 +0000

Today I had lunch with one of my really good teacher friends, and I left feeling inspired to get some more work done (the margarita may have helped my motivation)!

When I got home, I set right to work on my next Color by Sight Word Packet! This one is summer themed! That brings my packet list up to Fall, Winter, and Summer. All I have left in this series is to make my Spring packet and bundle them all together! I’m so excited to have these practice pages for next year that correlate with the seasons!

I don’t know about your kiddos, but sometimes mine just need a different way to practice sight words during reading centers or Daily 5. Whenever I see engagement starting to slip, I try to think of a way to improve the current activity, or come up with a new way to practice sight words. I used sight word coloring pages a lot last year, and my first graders absolutely loved them. Sometimes I just had my kiddos work on them for morning work. The best thing about them is that my first graders don’t even realize that they are reading their sight words over and over! That was my inspiration for the series that I’m currently working on.

You can grab a copy of my Summer Themed Color by Sight Word Packet [HERE] if you’d like.

Since I was already being productive today ANYWAY, I decided to link up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for her weekly Monday Made It linky party!

Check out Tara’s page to visit lots of other great teachers’ blogs who are sharing their latest work!