Made it Monday!

So as I have been blog stalking this summer, I have loved checking all the Made it Monday projects that Tara at 4th grade Frolics has been hosting. Here's the latest link up partay here: Made it Monday 7

During a "drive by does Target already have school supplies out?" trip, I saw these large plastic totes stacked on shelves:

and thought "future home to all things recess"

I could see my recess ball bag and other items fitting perfectly, not to mention it will keep things off of the floor ("everything has a home")

So I couldn't just leave it lonely lime green. 

I painted it of course

H for Hawk (duh)

After seeing these Smart Beads on Pinterest

Source: dandelionsdragonflies.blogspot.com via Jennie on Pinterest

I made my own:

blue tub is from Dollar Tree

Beads are also from Dollar Tree

ribbon is from my craft room

so excited to use these in ze classroom

Now go make something....it's Monday

Hall Pass Hoopla

Browsing through Michaels led me to buying some cute unfinished wood products 

which led to me creating NEW Hall Passes.

Yaay. 

Someone else's trash became my Treasure:)

Fact number 1: I love altering and making/creating things.
Fact number 2: My husband is a garage sale/thrifting guru. When you are married to someone who has this gift of finding "treasures" among "trash", you have no choice but to participate in the journey.

So at the end of this school year I had to move classrooms (mind you I had already moved mid year). I guess you could say I'm like a traveling gypsy.  My new classroom has a perfect spot under the telephone for a small shelf.  It only took 2 Saturday's to come across the perfect fitting shelf for my room which happened to look like this:

Don't you just love the sponged on tan and blues? mmmm good looking

Scored this one for 2 whole dollars:)

So after casting forth vision, here's what I decided to do with it.

bright blue, black and white plus some hot pink...

now that's more like it

 I am quite obsessed with the top

 Oh hey cool frame from Hobby Lobby

 the black strips are....chalkboard!!! quotes, words, phrases, doodles

I love these blocks. great for list making

or if I feel generous, letting the students draw on my teacher shelf 

Now head on over to 

and check out some more trash to treasure creations.

End of the School Year Activities

I am so happy to be on summer break and have finally uploaded some photos from our last few days in the classroom.  Not only did I have to shut down the school year with report cards, IEP progress reports, and cumm folders, but I also had to pack up and move my classroom a few doors down into a new classroom. (the journey of unpacking, setting up and organizing will come later during the summer). Whew talk about exhausting.

Here's a few things we did the last few days of school.

Water Balloons

On one of the HOT days where we weren't allowed outside after 12 pm due to heat conditions, we headed outside with pages from our memory books, Popsicles, and a tub full of water balloons.  

First we sat around in a circle and I had each student share what they were most proud of from this school year. While they stood up and shared, I dictated their answers for a page that would go in their end of the year memory books.  Also while sharing we enjoyed icees as the sun was blazing down on us. 

Once we cooled off we practiced throwing our paper airplanes for the school wide Air Show that would take place the next day.  This made for some sweaty, ready to get wet students.

Then I had them pick partners and we played a few rounds of water balloon toss.  The last thing we did with the water balloons was a have a water balloon war.  We had a blast and it was a great way to cool down.

We also started  our End of the Year "remember me" shirts.  Each child got a shirt with each students handprint on it.  This served as a memory of all the friends they made this year as well as the specials times we shared as a class.  I got the shirts at a local thrift store and used my teacher discount at Michaels to get the fabric paint. 

We all wore our shirts on Awards Day. Here's how fabulous they turned out

yaay for fun crafting activities.

Candy Math

We also did a fun candy math activity using the following template i found via blog surfing: Candy Math Document  . This involves candy and math skills so you can't go wrong.  We used Skittles and M &M's. 

Once we completed the steps in the activity the students were able to eat their candy.

I don't know which they enjoyed better: the math activity, or eating the candy at the end (wink wink)

Feel free to snag any activities/ideas for future end of the school year days.  Also feel free to leave any activities you do with your students. Sharing is a MUST in the teaching world.

Mother's Day Handmade Frames

Being that I am a crafty creative person, I love doing art projects and crafts with my students.  I try to incorporate projects and art continually throughout the year which has been great because a lot of my students don't have the access to materials or crafting goodness. 

So for Mother's day I headed to Michael's and bought some unfinished wood frames as well as simple Mother's Day "stuffers" my students could pick to put in the bag with their frame.  Some of these goodies included: candles, soap, back massage's, nail kit, etc. 

We also painted bags for the frames to be presented in and wrote on the front of them adding some ribbon on the handles.  Here's a few photos of how wonderful they turned out.

Feel free to leave your Mother's Day crafting ideas in the comments section.