4th Monday Made It...perfect for July 4th!

Happy 4th of July, y'all!

I'm not sure how many people will be readin'

blogs on this holiday, but I couldn't

pass up postin' my 4th Monday Made It on the 4th

with my sweet friend Tara from 4th Grade Frolics!

4's all around!

Today we are attendin' a BBQ @ my parents' best friends' home.

Everybody got to choose what they wanted to bring.

I wanted to make somethin' "red, white, and blue" 

for the 4th.

I consulted my good friend, Pinterest, and looked

for some easy to make pins.

There were a lot to sort through and many to help spark 

some inspiration, but this is the one that I choose

as my pinspiration.

Source

Produce in California is BEAUTIFUL and so fresh!
Berries definitely don't look like these do when they finally make
their way to Florida.
I've been enjoyin' all the fruits every day while here!

These were super, duper easy to put together
and a mostly healthy, yet extremely delicious treat!

Red, White, and Blue and scrumptious!

I'm bringin' back a Monday Made it from two years ago...

since you guys like the task cards so much 

from last week's MMI.

I'm gettin' in the 4th of July spirit and wanted

to make somethin' festive.

This could be used any time of the year though.

"Red, White, and Blue...my teacher says I have

to multiply by more than TWO!"

I've got it up for FREE on Monday.

Be sure to leave some feedback love please.

My kids always love any review for multi-digit 

multiplication. 

Even better when it's colorful and has

patriotic clip art.

Some of my fondest memories of summer as a child

was goin' to have tea and popovers at

Jordan Pond House in 

Acadia National Park

when we would go on vacation in Maine.

As an adult, it has become a tradition for my mom

to make popovers whenever I visit my parents

in the summer.

This summer I decided to help make 

this tasty treat.

They were so quick and easy to make and even

yummier to eat!

*Mom uses the Popovers recipe from 

Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book.

Add some butter and jam and you will be in business!

I hope everyone is enjoyin' the day with family and friends.

If anyone needs me...I'll be stuffin' my face!

Happy Monday, friends!

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!

What?! I'm postin' again on a MONDAY!!!

 I have been spendin' countless hours up at school to get 

ready for Orientation and the First Day of School 

this week, but I'm takin' some time out

to share some made-its that have popped up in my room

because I'm crushin' on them big time!

What better way to show them off than to link up

with my sweet friend Tara from 4th Grade Frolics

for Monday Made It!

My podmate, Jeanne, came up with this fabulous idea

 to display student work in our hallways and I get

giddy every time I walk out into our hallways.

I can't wait to hang some stuff up their 

to show off my kiddos' creations.

My sweet friend Elizabeth from Hodges Herald

also did somethin' else similar 

last week for her Monday Made It.

They are laminated pieces of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper.

Clothespins are hidin' under the 4 inch circles

that are also made out of scrapbook paper.

The three different colors match each of our classrooms.

Mine: The bright colors with black circles. 

I will place rockstar pictures of my kids on the circles.

Jeanne's:  The blues, greens, oranges, and grays.

Anna Catherine's: The reds, grays and blacks.

*I wish I would've taken a close-up photo of their

circles, they are all differnet colors of scrapbook paper also.

 This year my 5th grade team has chosen to have

Learning Goals & Scales boards.

We put up ELA, Math and Science/Social Studies.

After we have discussed the standard and learning goals

that are in an "I Can" stament, the kiddos

will move their number to reflect their

level of understanding.

Students are able to move their numbers as

we become more familiar with each standard until

they have mastered them.

Standards and progression scales are printed on Astrobrights paper

and displayed 

in sheet protectors.  

Numbers are backed with adhesive Glue Dots

to stick on the fabric that covers the board.

This is my favorite part of my room this year.

ELA: Fireball Fuschia paper

Math: Lunar Blue paper

Science: Terra Green paper

Social Studies: Solar Yellow paper

*5th Grade Florida Standards
(ELA, Math, Science & Social Studies)
 by Teaching Ambrosia
 and Math Vocabulary
by Alyssha Tomphson-
Teaching and Tapas
are also hangin' on binder rings
for students to pull down and use.

  

 My biggest question I was askin' myself when we started 

printin' all our standards was how in the world 

was I goin' to store all of the papers? 

The lightbulb went off when I was in Walmart.

I found these expandable files and have separated

out the standards by sections so they each have their own pocket inside.

Example:  Math

1) Numbers and Operations in Base Ten

2) Operations & Algebraic Thinking

3) Number and Operations: Fractions

4) Measurement

5) Geometry

 My last made-it isn't somethin' I actually made, but

I had to share because they are cute!

I am notorius for checkin' Jane.com's daily mornin' email...

sometimes before I'm actually fully awake.

This display is the result of one of those early mornin'

email browsin' sessions.

I bought 4 packs (pink, yellow, green, blue)

I have my very own Flutterby Butterflies flyin' on my wall!

This just makes me smile!

Happy Monday, friends!