Monday Made it #5

Hi all! I know it is late, but I just couldn't miss out on Monday Made it! I feel like I have done a lot of DIY stuff, but I am blanking! I am sure some of it has made its way to my classroom, so I have two simple projects for tonight! Both are pinterest inspired with my own twist of course!

1. Book Hospital!

I have seen many different red containers, but I knew I wanted this book box kind! I have been stalking the Target Dollar Spot and finally found a red one! Yay! I had the scrapbook stickers already and picked up the ambulance at Hobby Lobby a couple weeks ago! LOVE how it turned out! Simple and cute!

2. Hall Pass sign!

Okay, so honestly, I am not so sure how often this will be used considering I have a bathroom in my classroom and I can see the office from my lovely BIG window (basically a window wall)! I just couldn't pass up the sign that I got at Hobby Lobby for a whoopin' $0.60! I already had the wood letters left over from another project and the monkey was from Michaels! Project for less than $2! Score! Now I need to add the clothespins!

Head on over to 4th Grade Frolics to share your Monday Made it!

Happy Sunday +Freebie!

Oh my goodness! The first thing I said to myself this morning when I woke up was...my summer is over! I start back tomorrow doing a two day thing with my school, then Wed-Fri a new teacher orientation. The following week is when all teachers are required to report Mon-Wed and then on Thursday the kiddos arrive! Holy smokes! I had to let that go WoW!

Anyways! I was at the gym the other day and had a brilliant idea! Sticker charts created to look like ten frames! (This idea may already exist, but I thought I was a genius!) My original idea was to print them on note cards (I am beginning to hate cutting haha), but that didn't work when I tried to print because of trying to attach the note cards to the paper and blah blah blah! I still created the charts to fit on a notecard, so if you can figure it out yay! I made them black and white so I can print them on colorful paper, but if you would like some color let me know and I can try and add some colorful ones!

Click here to pick them up in my TpT store! FOR FREE!

Also, I donated one of my TpT item to a fellow blogger and her giveaway is up and going! Head on over to The Resource Room Teacher to enter!

Have a wonderful Sunday and I will be back tomorrow with Monday Made it! Oh my...I have been making it all week!

Winner! & Tell me more, Tell me more!!!

Congratulations to Janine over at Faithful in First! You are the winner of my 125 followers giveaway! Have fun at Kohl's and Starbucks!

I have also been seeing this linky on many blogs and think it is so fun! So I am linking up with Amy over at Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons!

1. I NEVER thought I would be teaching 1st grade, but I could not be MORE EXCITED! With a very close family member passing away right before I began my methods, who was a teacher for many many years, I believe she has pointed me in the direction of my heart! Thank you GP!

2. I met my AmAzInG fiance the first weekend at college! I told myself before going that I was not going to date or get into a serious relationship until I was at least a junior HAHA that didn't work and I couldn't be happier! Lots of wedding planning going on here! We have been engaged two years and have just started planning! Wedding May or June 2013 here we come!

3. I love Amy's comment about sleeping in V-necks! I do the same thing except I cannot wear pants to bed! They get stuck on the sheets and tug and AHH! It makes me so mad! Shorts are the way to go! Plus living in AZ it is always too hot to wear pants!

4. I had an extra tooth! Yup, I said that extra tooth and it was growing in the roof of my mouth up to my nose! So weird! So I had to get that removed before I had braces!

5. I hate to snorkel, actually I hate the ocean! It gives me the creeps! I do not like the fact that there are weird creatures under me that I cannot see! I am in their element of water! I don't mind going on boats or anything, but swimming in the ocean freaks me out!

6. Speaking of ocean, I went on a cruise with my family, while I was in high school. We went on this excursion where you went to a sandbar in the middle of the ocean and their were huge stingrays! I was reluctant, but my dad got me off the boat and in the water. He told me that if I didn't have food they wouldn't come near me so I kept shuffling along. Then this thing started coming toward me and my dad just kept saying they will go around you, you don't have food! Then this thing came right up my belly and was right in my face! Cue the blood curdling screams! I shuffled my little self right back up on that boat!

7. I have very fair skin and that means going to the dermatologist A LOT! I had one removed on my lower back which kept me from wearing pants because of where the waistband would lay! This was during student teaching and we had my first field trip coming up! I was not going to go on my first field trip in a dress or skirt. Ah-ha moment! Maternity pants have a stretchy waistband! Ran out and got a pair...with that very awkward moment at the register when the lady asks when I am due! Haha

Anyways there are some random facts and stories (sorry) about me! Hop on over to Amy's blog to link up!

Giveaway Reminder & other Ramblings!

Hi all I just wanted to remind you that there is just a little over an hour left to enter my giveaway! I will be announcing the winner tomorrow!

Click here to enter!!!

On another note, my principal is already being very supportive! He gave my name to a program, my district does, and I have attended it the past two days! I have gained so many great ideas for early literacy on top of the ideas I already have!! It is making me even more excited for August 9th to roll around! My favorite moment was yesterday when the presenter read Skippy Jon Jones! She is AMAZING at read alouds! I was laughing so hard it was wonderful! I love doing read alouds and I hope I can practice Skippy enough to read it like she did! WOW! We will be doing a make and take tomorrow so I will be back to share! Have a great night!

My Teacher Chair! Monday Made it #4

Here it is! Yay! I am so excited I have finally finished my teacher chair! It has been quite a project, but I am so in LOVE with the final product! (There is one more thing I want to do add a cute bow in the top corner, but I have not found the right color ribbon)

Here is what I started with:

My sister, fiancé and I then started ripping the fabric off, but we kept the fabric together:

My wonderful fiancé started to sand some parts of the chair that were rough:

Then prime it:

Then paint it the color of your choice! I was debating this for a while, but with the zebra fabric, I thought I was going to use, I thought black would look best:

This is when the project went on hold! Thank you Arizona monsoons! I love them, but they were not letting me finish this project!

Then, one day, my wonderful fiancé, he ended up helping me a TON with this, top coated the chair and while he was doing that I cute the fabric. I cut it bigger then the original because I wanted to fold the fabric under when I stapled it to the chair, hoping that fraying would be minimized!:

Then I used scotch guard to protect the cute fabric and began stapling away! Fold, staple, fold, staple...:

Then I stumbled upon the cutest trim for the chair to give it a pop! I got fabric glue and a lot of patience!:

I repeated again on all sides and TA-DA! Wonderful teacher chair completed (minus bow)!

Sorry for the mess I have been doing lots of teacher shopping! Oh and the lighter, I used this to burn the edges of the trim so that it would minimize fraying! Very important! 

Thanks for following along to this long reveal of my chair! I am so excited! There are a few imperfections, but it was the first time I ever did something like this and I didn't follow any tutorial so I am thrilled with how it turned out! Have a wonderful Monday and be sure to link up with 4th Grade Frolics and share your Monday Made it!

Oh and don't forget to enter my giveaway! It is ending in a few days! Who wouldn't love to get some Skippy items from Kohls and grab a Starbucks! Click here to head on over to enter!

Fabulous Find & Newbie Blogger Hop!

First off I could not be more excited about the deal I got this week! I was browsing Michaels weekly ad online and found this!

It was on sale for $37.99 and I found a 25% off your entire purchase including sale items! That rarely happens at Michael's! I ended up getting this for less than $30! Score! 

Does anyone else use this storage in their classroom? Would you recommend getting a second? Thanks! 

Also, I found this fun linky! I still feel like a newbie so I figured I would join!

1. What state are you in? Arizona!

2. Your current teaching position? 1st grade!

3. Your teaching experience? This will be my first year teaching! I did my methods and student teaching in 1st!

4. When you started blogging? April 2012

5. Share a blogging tip/blogging resource. I would definitely recommend hosting giveaways with rafflecopter! They make it so easy!

Head on over to see who else is new to the blogging world at Grade Three is the Place for Me!

Have a wonderful Friday! Don't forget to enter my giveaway click here to head on over!

Giveaways Galore!

Hi all! I have been working my bum off making things on the computer for my class! Goodness it can be time consuming! Distractions=other blogs! I have found many wonderful giveaways and I would love to share them with you!

First off, don't forget to enter my giveaway! A Kohl's and Starbucks gift card! Woohoo!

Another wonderful giveaway is happening at Fourth Grade Fanatics! She reached 100 Followers! Yay!

Another one is going on over at Calling Plays in 2nd Grade! She also reached 100 Followers! Congrats!

Another is happening at Sprinkles to Kindergarten! Lots of fun resources up for grabs here!

Also, check out Teaching Maddeness! She has reached 500 followers! That is awesome! (fingers crossed that is me someday)

Then, The Hands-on Teacher is having a 300 followers giveaway! Wow! There will be three winners! That is awesome! Check it out!

Oh and this one is for a super cute burlap sign! Head on over to Rowdy in Room 300 to enter!

Last! Fabulous in First is giving away a set of Dr Jean's song books and CDs! This would be great for me as a new teacher! A whole set! 

Anyways, thank you for listening to me ramble about these wonderful giveaways happening right now! Some are ending soon so check them out!

Oh and my chair is almost done! Just need to do the finishing touches! It WILL be ready for Monday Made it! Yay!

125 Followers, Freebies, and a Giveaway!

I cannot believe that just a few weeks ago I only had 25 followers and now I have 100 more! Thank you all for your support as I begin my teaching journey! To honor you all I am going to make my "flash freebies" from Monday permanent freebies!

Click here to grab my clip chart!

Click here to grab the Word Wall Headers!

Also, (you didn't think that was it...did you?) I am going to be giving away a $10 gift card to Kohl's! I thought this would be perfect because of the new Kohl's Cares Collection or for a future one! Also, a $5 gift card to Starbucks! Who doesn't love to splurge on a nice drink every once and a while! Good luck to all and thank you again for your support! 

(Graphic by The 3am Teacher)

P.S. Please be honest! I will be checking that you did, what you said you did! Thank you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Favorite Picture Books!

Picture books have been the thing that I have been collecting the longest knowing I would be a teacher! Anytime I can I pick up just one or two knowing that I would one day have a classroom library to fill up! So when I stumbled upon this linky over at The Teacher Wife I couldn't help myself!

My favorite books to read for read-alouds are a collection of counting books by Jennifer Ward! They have such a fun rhythm to read to and the kids love looking for the "hidden numbers" on each page!

-Way up in the Arctic

-Way out in the Desert

-Somewhere in the Ocean

-Over in the Garden

Another favorite that I love reading to talk about diversity and how we are all unique, but the same on the inside! Whoever You Are by Mem Fox! It is a wonderful book and I would definitely recommend it!

Lastly, I really enjoy Big Al by Andrew Clements! It is a great book for looking past how someone looks and looking at their personality! Such a cute ending and the message is pretty deep! My firsties during student teaching came up with the funniest answers about what the book was about! 

There you go! Here are a few of my favorites! If you want to share your favorites please leave comments or head on over to The Teacher Wife and link up!

Monday Made it #3 a Flash Freebie!

So because of the wonderful monsoons happening in AZ right now, my chair is still on hold! I don't want to risk a storm ruining my chair! 

I have been debating what I want to do for classroom management and I know how popular clip charts are so even if I don't use it in the end I have one! I figured I would share it with you all for my Monday Made it and for the next two days it will be free in my TpT!

I have also been working on a word wall set! I have finished the letter headers! They are also my theme with my colors! They will also be free for two days! 

Click here to head on over to my TpT to grab the clip chart! Click here to head on over to my TpT to grab the word wall cards! And head on over to 4th Grade Frolics to share your Monday Made it!

Oh and don't forget to check out my Linky party for the first day/week of school activities!

And the Winner is... & First Day Linky!

Heather over at Swinging Through Second Grade! Congrats!

A big thank you to all other who entered the giveaway too! I hope to have a giveaway again soon! It was so much fun! In honor of all of those who participated I am having a 20% off sale in my store for the next few days! It starts today and will end Friday night! Thanks again for all of your support! Click here to visit my TpT store!

In other news I finally got into my classroom and started moving in! Yay! The floors haven't been cleaned yet though so I can't really start to set up, but I am totally in school mode! I want to print and cut and laminate and cut and repeat! =] I am so excited, nervous, scared, thrilled and so on about the first day of school! So what better way to get ideas on what to do then host a linky! (This is my first time hosting and I am a little nervous, hopefully I can figure out how to do it!)Graphic is courtesy of The 3am Teacher!

First Day of School Activities!

One of the things I really hadn't thought of until I was reading my giveaway comments was taking pictures on the first day! One of my goals every time I enter a classroom is to know all of the students names by the time I leave the first day! This will definitely help me accomplish this goal! One teacher I know decorated her desk with pictures of her students that she took on the first day! It was adorable! 

I also have seen an idea on interest floating around...

I really want to make this for my kiddos! Except it will say 1st grade instead of Kinder! Maybe a future Monday Made it! Not sure where the original source is, but if it is yours let me know! 

So that is a first day activity I plan on doing in my class! Now it is your turn! Here are some ideas of what you can share!

*An activity you always do on the first day!

*A resource you made to use for the first day/week

*Anything else you do with your students on the first day!

I hope you are all having a great start to your week! If you feel like linky up I would be thrilled! A new teacher can always use ideas for the 1st day!Also, if you do not have a blog, but would like to share leave a comment!

Monday Made it #2 and Last day for my Giveaway!

I am so excited for my second week doing Monday Made it with 4th Grade Frolics! AND 100 Followers! I think I need to come up with another giveaway...

One of the things I made was these wonderful animal print pom poms that I referenced in an earlier post! Tissue paper pom poms are not my original idea. There are tons of tutorials online!

I got the tissue paper from Amazon and couldn't be happier! It will go perfect with my jungle/safari themed classroom!

First you need 8 pieces of tissue paper! Because this tissue paper is a print there is more of the print on one side then the other so I put four pieces facing down and four facing up!

Then I started to accordion fold and fold and fold!

Then I found the center and took a small piece of wire and wrapped it around the center! Because I wasn't currently in my class I attacher two paper clips, one to the top and one to the bottom so that I can hang them from the ceiling and then below hang a picture and name of the animal tissue!

Don't forgot to cut the edges if you would like! I did a pointy tip to make them look fierce! I have seen some people just leave them without cutting and some do a rounded edge!

Then I began to fluff! I took one sheet at a time and pulled it up! 

Then when I had done the top, four sheets, (or bottom depending on how you look at it!) I flipped the ball and started again!

Wallah! Now just fluff up those awkward spots and you are done! I cannot wait to use these for my class table groups!

Here are all of the prints completed! I just need one more for elephants, but they don't have a print so time to go to Target and find some grey tissue paper!

I am almost done with my never ending teacher chair and I hope to post a full tutorial/picture display of what I did tomorrow when I announce the winner of my giveaway! If you haven't entered it isn't too late! There are only a few hours left so click here NOW to enter!