Monday Made It: Where's Summer?

Summer?  Where are you going?

Summer is almost over, which is super bittersweet this year since it will mean leaving my 5 month old at home.  We've had so much fun this summer which brings me to my first Monday Made It:

 A sensory shaker bottle!  It was so easy to make!  Here's what my little assistant and I did to make it come together.

Start with a water bottle about half full of water.  Or half empty, depending on how you like to look at things. ;)

Next, add 1 drop of food coloring and watch your baby BE AMAZED!!!

Since oil and water don't mix, and we wanted to add a little interest, add about 1/4 cup of baby oil.  Bonus, if you spill a little on your hands, you'll smell good all day!

 After that, bite the lid and relish the bumpy texture of the lid.  Just kidding.  I was wanting one more liquid element, so we added a squirt or two of light corn syrup.

Last, but most definitely not least, add some glitter.  I may have added a little too much glitter - it made the bottle a bit dense.  Nevermind, is there such thing as too much glitter?

Then, shake, shake, shake and enjoy!  So fun for baby (especially the crunchy noise the bottle makes when he smacks it) but it would also be a fun density experiment in the classroom.  The glitter did not settle where I thought it would!

Made It #2 is from earlier in the summer, but I haven't shared it yet and I'm super proud of it.  Look!  I made a headboard!

It would be much more accurate to say, "My brother-in-law made a headboard and I assisted him."  :) He's going to school for construction right now, and he was a really great teacher and partner.  It was a lot of fun and we're looking for our next project. I'm pretty sure HGTV will be offering us our own show soon. :) We used these plans to build it.

And finally I've been doing everyone's favorite job, comb-binding.

I did make something fun.  I found some amazing writing papers on Pinterest, but no source of how I could get them.  So, I made some.  I do really like how they turned out and put 'em up on TpT.  I'll make them free for a week and then I think I'll price them for $1.

If you're wanting that A-Z Alphabet Art Book, you can find out more about it and a link to it (it's a freebie!) here.  And those testing pages and cutting samples have more info here.

Happy LAST Summer-Monday,
Amanda

Linking up with Fourth Grade Frolics!

Tuesday Tip: Keeping A Checklist

Happy Tuesday!  I thought I'd jump back on my own bandwagon of sharing a simple little teaching tip each Tuesday.

Here's a simple tip that I'd like to better utilize myself this year:  make a list, check it twice!

That Santa Claus knew what he was doing, the best way to avoid that right-before-school-starts-panic is to know all of those little things that need to be done and do them early.  Last year, I kept track of EVERYTHING (mostly everything) in this enormous blog post.  I still look back on it from time to time in awe of all that we do to get our rooms ready.

That blog post, though, has been crazy helpful as a resource to make a checklist (or 6) to help me get ready for school while balancing mommyhood this time around.

And guess what!  I've typed them up to share them with you and they're completely editable!  I have one for:

Back-to-School Cleaning

 Back-to-School Organizing

Back-to-School Names Prep

 Back-to-School Setup

 Back-to-School Parent Meeting

Back-to-School First Week

Those a-dorable apples were TpT freebies from The Hazel Owl!  Grab 'em here.
For yours to look like mine you'll also need to download these Rowdy fonts.
Enjoy!

Amanda

Let's Talk Books: Passion Pursuit

It's Book-Talk-Tuesday, and remember waaaay back at the beginning of summer when Deanna said that the books didn't have to necessarily be kid books?

This one's not a kid book.

I thought I'd jump on the crazy 50 Shades of Grey momentum with a very sexy book.  However, this one's painting in a refreshing black and white.

My Bible Study girls and I have been blushing all summer with this incredible Bible study by Linda Dillow and Dr. Juli Slattery.  You know church studies or Bible studies on sex that promise to be steamy and usually don't deliver?  This thing delivers like UPS before Christmas.  It talks about everything; God's view of sex (it's great!), how to be a good lover, what God says is okay in your bedroom (hint, it's not as rigid as you thought, but way clearer than you ever knew), forgiveness, and how to be smokin' hot.  And it's all carefully aligned to God's word and reads like you're talking with a good friend.

It's a 10-week study that can be used with a video,which we are using.  The video sessions tend to be around 40 minutes, but they don't feel that long.

If you're in the market for a bible study, especially one that will shake things up in a good way, I hope you'll consider Passion Pursuit.  But only if you're studying with really, really, really good friends. :)

Monday Made It: Portfolio

I've been working on this bad boy for a whole year!

I wanted an assessment portfolio that aligned perfectly with our report card so that when I assess the kids and fill out the report cards, everything would be in one spot.   I also included spaces for cutting samples, self-portraits, monthly writing samples, and photos.  AND everything is Common Core aligned with the standard and a link to each standard under each (and every) skill.  It was a lot of work, but I think I'll really like it.

Here are some random sneak-peek screenshots:

 

I hope you'll check it out, if you are in need of such a thing, or at least download the preview on TpT.  I'm putting it on sale for the first week it's up, so get it while it's hot! :)

Happy Monday Made It!
Amanda

Let's Talk Books!

It's Book Talk Tuesday again with Mrs. Jump!

But first, I have to show you what I made yesterday.  Last Tuesday I gave you 3 clues about it.  Did you guess?
1. It has to do with books.
2. It's very punny.
3. I'm using a TON of red paper to create it.


Its....




a.....




Read-box!

It definitely was not my original idea (I wish I were that clever!) and I definitely already blogged about it yesterday.  I just love it so much that I wanted to make sure you saw it. ;)

Now, "Let's Talk Books!"

To keep the "I'm not that creative" thing going,  I'm sharing an oldie-but-a-goodie.  I was thinking about this book last week while trying to convince a bunch of mom-friends to let me pass on my book exchange chain letter onto them.  (Seriously, no one wants to do it...do you?)  I may not have thought it through when I said yes to that one.  Oops.

Anyways, one of my friends politely declined saying that she and her kids had already participated and didn't get a single book.  It just made me so sad (even though, it's pretty likely my kid isn't getting any either!) so I decided that I'd send them one.  Shh...don't tell Leah!

But which book?  Which story should I introduce her pre-preschooler to?

Did you guess Pete the Cat?

Let's remember Pete, before he went and got all commercialized.  (Really, Eric Litwin?  I'm calling you out for that terrible Easter book!)  Pete the Cat:  I Love My White Shoes, is really such a pure story.  You can feel the rhythm of the text, the joy of the predictability, and it really just oozes coolness.  A cat who just keeps rolling with the punches despite his beloved white shoes turning red, blue, brown, and wet?  How marvelous!  Of all of the books I read aloud, this one might be the most fun to read with the class.  I just love the way they laugh, sing, and "read" along and it's one of the most checked out books in my library. 

And speaking of Pete being all commercialized, take a quick peek at my first day of school scavenger hunt for Pete. 

;)

-Amanda

Stop by the Readbox

Today is a Monday-Made-It and I am sooooo excited to share what I made!

It's a Read-box, get it? :)

I absolutely cannot take credit for this idea.  I found it last spring on Pinterest from Marci Coombs' blog.  It was love at first sight.  You can see her adorable readbox and more cute bulletin boards here.

A few years ago, my kindergarten-teachers-in-crime and I combined our resources and made a huge Daily 5 Leveled Library. We wanted our kiddos to have lots of choices for Read to Self and Read to Someone.  We ended up using our teacher workroom to house the library last year since the previous home to the library once again was being utilized as a classroom.  Unfortunately, the library did not look so cute.

Before

When I saw Marci's Readbox, I knew we had to make one for the Daily 5 Leveled Library.  It wasn't too hard to create either!  Here's how:

Start by covering your wall or bulletin board with red bulletin board paper.  Holy Guacamole.  That is way easier said than done.  We just paint the bulletin boards at our school and I would like to pledge to never, ever cover one with paper again.  

Next, cover the shelves to be extra-readboxy.

To make the Readbox logo, I just projected Marci's picture and traced.  And yes, I did it very old school transparency-style. :)  I'm sure you could just pull it up on your computer or document camera...if your technology is no longer hibernating for the summer.

Next, channel your inner Joey Gladstone and cut - it - out!

Staple it up, die-cut any more signage, and enjoy a super-cute library!

Happy Monday-Made-It!

Amanda

Let's Talk Books: The 12 Days of Kindergarten...and Winter...and Springtime...

Hello!  I'm guessing most of you are moseying over from Mrs. Jump's linky that I'm feeling so lucky to be a part of.  Welcome!  Let's talk books, shall we?

Sometimes we love a book for the story, and sometimes we love it for the illustrations, and okay, most of the time we love it for both.

The series of 12 Days books written by Deborah Lee Rose is very well written.  She follows the format of the song "The 12 Days of Christmas" using the themes of Kindergarten, Springtime, and Winter in a way that's oh-so-cute.

But the illustrations.

Oh the illustrations!

At first they might not seem all that special.  But then you look, and look, and look and you just can't stop looking because Carey Armstrong-Ellis has just packed each page full of details that are a story in themselves.

See the this little girl?  She's always drawing or doing something with horses.  What does that tell us about her?  Let's make an inference!

And this little boy is always making a mess and that little girl always seems to have her stuffed, um, something, nearby.

And then there's this little boy

and yes, to the delight of Kindergarteners everywhere, he is picking his nose on each and every page of all three books.  :)

While making inferences is a logical use for this story, I use The Twelve Days of Winter as a Writer's Workshop mini-lesson book.  Do you see where I'm going with this?

For some reason I find right around January some of my author/illustrators become stinky illustrators and a lot of the writing gets a tiny bit boring.  Now, every January, I whip out The Twelve Days of Winter and we laugh at and point out all of the wonderful, glorious details that Carey Armstrong-Ellis added.  And then we talk about how we can illustrate (and write) like she does.

If you've never read these books, I hope that you'll look into them.  They're so much fun!

And speaking of fun, I'm working on a fun, new project that I'm hoping to unveil next week.  Want 3 clues?

1. It has to do with books.
2. It's very punny.
3. I'm using a TON of red paper to create it.

Any guesses?  Come back next week and see if you're right!
Amanda

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