Monday Made It...third time is a charm!

Everybody dance now!

Why?

Because...for the 

THIRD time 

I'm linkin' up with my sweet friend Tara

from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It.

This week I was on the struggle bus on what to make because

I'm in California visitin' my parents.

Aren't they so cute?

I'm sure you can understand...I haven't really

been thinkin' too much about school stuff

other than missin' my Rockstars.

I did get into our private class Instagram account

and started browsin' pictures from all of the things

we accomplished throughout the school year.

Creatin' a private account is a great way to keep

parents involved with what is goin' on in our room.

Anyways...I'll pulled up pics from when

we spent a mornin' full of 

multiplication and a well-known

wizard and I knew I needed to share

with you the results.

I'm bringin' back somethin' that I actually made and wrote about last summer.

"I KNOW

my students are goin' to FLIP over.

No really...they are goin' to squeal when

I give this to them and aren't even goin' to complain

about doin' math.

I am in love, love, love with my 

Wizards, Witches, and Wands

a Multi-Digit Multiplication Task Cards game.

I didn't have any students with me this summer to show

this in action, so I begged bossed

my amazin' mommy and her sweet friend Pris

into playin' the game.

They whined about not bein' able to use

a calculator (sound familiar), 

but they finally agreed to do it 

the old school way."

(I am puttin' Wizards, Witches, and Wands in my TpT store for

50% off for Monday.  Please be kind and leave some

love if you download this product.) 

I was able to test this out in my classroom and I 

was CORRECT...the kids FLIPPED!

Look at all those smiles....those were GENUINE smiles...NOT prompted.
There was tons of excitement and chatter as the kids moved around
to solve the multiplication problem on each character task card.
What a great multiplication motivator!
I will definitely be pullin' this back out after everyone
has mastered their facts and earned their
Fact Family Behavior Beads that I wrote about HERE last week.

Two summers ago I made a lot of recycled wine cork crafts for 

one of my Monday Made Its.

You can read about them HERE from my post

"Monday Made It...A lot of grapes had to be tested for this".

My Daddy Rose grows grapes...grapes for wine.

Lots of grapes have to be tested to make sure they

are okay for the rest of us to consume...well not me...right now.

I took the corks that have been saved for me the past

two years and put them to good use to make some 

decorations for my parents lil' wine storage room.

Source

I just hot glued the corks on to a cardboard letter "R".

I think it turned out perfectly and matches the storage room.

Below are some previous wine cork crafts.

Make an earring holder out of recycled wine corks

I'm lookin' forward to hoppin' over to 4th Grade Frolics to see

 what everyone else has made and 

to get some much needed inspiration!

Happy Monday, friends!

Monday Made It...2 in a row...impressive!

Today I did something that I haven't done

in a long time...

I went back and read over all of my posts

that I have ever written.

I never really considered my blog

to be an online diary, but that

is exactly what it is.

I laughed, I cried, and I smiled.

If you are a blogger and you haven't done this

in a while...do it!

If you are a blog follower and you haven't

done this with your favorite blogs...do it!

It's inspirational.

I'm pretty proud of myself for makin' it to 

Monday Made It with 4th Grade Frolics once again.

This week I'm writin' about somethin' that I actually made in the past,

but never blogged about how I display and store my 

Fact Family Behavior Beads.

Fact Family Behavior Beads original post

I used Fact Family Behavior Beads to motivate my students to 

become fluent in their multiplication facts at the beginnin'

of the school year. 

This could be used with addition, subtraction

and division as well.

The followin' pictures I posted on my Instagram 
as we were workin' on our facts.

This year EVERY.SINGLE.ONE of my students

successfully mastered all of their

multiplication math facts in less 

than a month after school started.

Each day I would present the students 

with a facts quiz starting with 0's

and ending with 12's. 

I printed quizzes off of Math-Drills.com.

As students completed each quiz, I would give

them the Fact Family Behavior Bead to keep.

It's amazin' what a little piece of laminated

paper can do to get students excited about their

multiplication facts!

Each Fact Family Behavior Bead has a different

graphic for a surprise Ice Cream Sundae party

at the end.

These sweet parents brought in all the supplies and helped with our 

Ice Cream Sundae party.

As you can tell, my awesome students enjoyed their yummy reward!

Behavior Beads are kept on binder rings and displayed

usin' Command Hooks that are attached to a white board.

I ordered a box of binder rings on Amazon, but picked up the

little Command Hooks at Walmart.

I attached the hooks and the numbers to the board

usin' Blue Sticky tack (it's the only kind that I use).

The numbers are from my 

Behavior Bucks, Rewards, Numbers and Titles

that I wrote about HERE.

They are FREE..so scoop them up...like ice cream!

I use clear, plastic thread organizers to store all Behavior Beads

that I have created and hand out in my classroom.

You can find these at most craft stores for fairly inexpensive.

I can't wait to meet my new group of kiddos

to start Fact Family Behavior Beads with them.

Tomorrow I head out to California for my yearly summer

trip to visit the parental unit.

I haven't seen them since Christmas break.

I'm ECSTATIC! 

Happy Monday, friends!

I'm back...again! What did I miss?

Have you ever heard the sayin',
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder?"

I find this to be true with bloggin'.

I took another hiatus.

It wasn't you...it was me.

I had really good intentions of stickin' with bloggin' this past 

school year and then you know...life.

I have news though.

Jerm and I are buyin' a house and closin' on July 8th.

Because....

I'm growin' a human in my belly.

She is due on October 10th.

We are so flippin' over the moon about htis.

I'm overwhelmed with the generosity of everyone 

around us.  We have been blessed beyond measure already

to receive some incredible things for our little girl.

If there is one thing I've learned, people cannot resist 

buyin' little girl stuff.

All the pink stuff...it's the cuteness!

What better way to get myself back into bloggin'

than to make somethin' for Monday Made It.

I'm linkin' up with my sweet friend, Tara, from 4th Grade Frolics.

Of course I had to make somethin' for baby girl.

When I told my best friend that I was goin' to have a baby

she quickly decided we needed a code word when discussin'
all things baby.

She promptly came up with the nickname "Tippy" for our 

Tip-Top Secret.

At that point we didn't know if Tippy was a boy or a girl, 

but the name stuck.
If I didn't like somethin'....I would say,
"Tippy doesn't like that" or "Tippy has a headache"...etc.

We have officially given Tippy a proper name now.

Kinslea Rose Evans

I have looked at every pin on Pinterest ever made for

little girl's nurseries and I want it all.

I originally wanted the colors to be pink and gray and to look somethin'

like this gorgeous little room.

(Source)

And then....I stumbled across this pin and decided

I would definitely need to make this for Kinslea Rose's room.

(Source)

Jerm and I went to Michael's and bought some letters

because they were havin' a 50% off of A to Z letters.

Tryin' to spell out a name all in the same style is harder 

than you think.  

We also bought flowers for 50% to 70% off.

Pickin' out colors was not easy.

Dark pink, light pink, coral, white...so much to choose from.

This turned into all day project.  

I placed the flowers and 

Jerm burned his fingers while doin' all the hot gluin'.

I put a teaser up on Instagram last Monday, but we ran
out of flowers and had to go get more at Hobby Lobby since
we cleaned Michael's out of all their colorful selections.

And now...the reveal.

I can't wait to get into the new house and get these up on the wall! 

Now I'm considerin' doin' the nursery in pinks and corals.

Time to start makin' some decisions and do some online shoppin'.

My second Made It was actually made for me.

Well...not for me, but for Kinslea!

My sweet 5th Graders and their parents threw me a surprise

baby shower at the end of the school year.

I, of course, burst into tears when I walked into my

beautifully decorated classroom and 

was greeted by an explosion of pink

and excited smilin' faces!

We had so much fun tastin' different baby foods

(squash, peas, and green beans are so gross!)

and sniffin' diapers to see which candy bars were placed inside.
We unscrambled some baby words and my students each took
their thumb prints and put them in pink paint to put on
the letter "K".

Isn't this so special?

Now I have something to hang in Kinslea's nursery
from my Rockstars.

We will cherish this gift forever!

I certainly am goin' to miss my babies, but have

already been assured that I have lots of babysitters

ready and waitin'!

Be sure to head over to Tara's blog to see the other MMI's.

I have a common assessments trainin' today.

Wish me luck!

Happy Monday, friends!