Made It is ON and Classroom Finds

Holy Moly Oly!!!!!  (yes Mr. Spell checker, that is a word.....at least in my book, more like a phrase but...)

People, you are all so sweet and awesome and amazing and guess what?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

WE ARE DOING "MONDAY MADE IT" LINKIES EVERY MONDAY:)))))))))

(ok, sorry for the all caps.......I just had an Oprah moment....."you get a car and you get a car and everyone gets a car"........heehee.......I wish!  I want my lovely followers to know I would do it if I could....in a sec;)  )

Anywho, your response to Monday Made It was so awesome and lots of requests to make it a linky, so peeps, drag out the craft kits, mod podge, and plug in those glue guns.........IT'S ON:D

I am soosooooooo excited!!!!  We will all be inspiring each other and be one crafty, inspired, bunch AND when the new school year rolls around, we are ready!!!!

For the linky, all I ask is that if it was an inspiration from someone else, please give credit and link to them if possible:)  I'm also going to ask that for sure, you have to have something classroom/school related to share AND if you want to add a home edition as well, that's fine.  It is summer and we are human.  I know these are teaching blogs BUT a little other inspiration is awesome too.  Hope that's ok and I'm not breaking any bloggy rules......teachers have life outside of teaching.....so teachery/classroom thing for sure to share, a home craft if you want:D

I have to confess the pressure is on even more now to come up with something and make it and, and, and.....I'm telling you now so you can plan and prepare.....and think and make.....and take cute pics....

if only we could all meet every Monday with coffee and chat......well, let's pretend.  Yep, after you link up, grab your coffee and we'll all visit!

Other news........smack me......I have read all year about people finding yummy things at Hobby Lobby and cried like a baby that there isn't one in Florida....even thought I did a google search....well guess what?  I think there are 2, one about 40 minutes from me and the better news....they are building one about 8 blocks from me!!!!!!  Woot woot!!!  So, daughter and I had a girls day to go check it out.............word of advise!!!!  Warning!!!!  Don't go there without a list or a game plan.........squirrel anyone?????  It wasn't pretty.......I mean the store was but my head wasn't!!!!  I couldn't think or focus or remember what I wanted to make/do.....................sad.....so sad:(

I did manage to focus in the clearance area.....well, that wasn't hard with my black/white theme and these darlins staring at me:

All on clearance....gotta love that:)  These are going to look awesome here:

I'm going to line them across the top of the cubbies...that will really pull some b/w there:)  Still thinking about what books I will put in them....want to have one for author studies for sure.....so excited!!

I also found some new super fun duct tape......you know what will be coming up soon with this.....a new quilt.  If you didn't see my first one, you can check it out here.  Who knew that duct tape could come in such fun colors!!!!  Scary where this might end up....I might go duct tape crazy!!

Happy Thursday to all!!!  I know some are still in school.....sorry.....others are enjoying summer, Yeah:)
Not sure if I will be posting again until the Monday Made It (I will be so busy, busy craftin!!!)  If I don't, have a blessed weekend and see ya all Monday for our first Monday Made It Linky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

       SO EXCITED!!!!

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Monday "Made It" Reveal - Classroom/Home Edition

Alrighty, I don't  know about you guys but I have only been out of school since Friday and I can't shut my mind off!!!  (and it's not the coffee Kim;) )

My head is bursting with Pinterest inspired/wonderful bloggy bud creations that I must make for the new school year!!!!  I MUST!!!!!

BUT, I also have a home list a mile long of things I want to get accomplished this summer at my house as well....paint my bedroom yummy grey.......paint the patio furniture......clean.......I'm not sure if it's just me or do all houses suffer at times during the school year??????

So, here is my game plan......hope you think it's a good idea........................it has 2 purposes....
1: to share and hopefully inspire
2: to keep me focused and productive

So each Monday I am going to do a post called "Made It Monday" and will do a "reveal" of a project that I have done for my classroom.  I figure if I do one a week, that's good and if I do one house project a week I should be at least putting a dent in the mile long lists!!!  It will also be a lot of pressure if I say I'm gonna post every Monday about it then I'll have to do it......haha.......it will keep me on task and focused and productive over the summer:)))  EEEK!  It's summer break and I still sound like a teacher......(I don't like pressure but work pretty well under it)

Now let me say right now that so far the projects I have done and the ones on my list are not original.......I hope to come up with an original one or two but the wonderful, amazing blog world full of creative teachers has me so preoccupied that there is no time for original!!!!  As I am posting my inspired projects, know that I will always give credit and links (as long as I can find them) to the originals:)

And, if you get inspired to make something, might even be fun to have a guest blogger share their "Made It"...........hmmmmm.............

Ok, so my classroom "Made It" reveal is something I am oh so excited about!!!!  As soon as I saw this on Pinterest I went nuts!!!!  Oh my word!!!!!!!!

So simple yet gonna be super awesome on my whiteboard!!!  I used several digital papers and backgrounds from:  3 AM Teacher, KPM Doodles, and Lilly Bimble.  Go check out their stores and blogs:)

I preprinted the subjects on the paper because my handwriting is not cute:/  The frames are from Dollar Tree.  I also grabbed a couple packs of photo paper from Dollar Tree too and printed on that and it turned out so nice:))  (Photo paper at Dollar Tree.....who knew!!!!)

Sorry the pics are a little blurry........

So that is my first classroom "Made It" reveal.  Hope you like it and are inspired to maybe make one for your classroom.  (P.S.  I could not track this on Pinterest so if this idea is yours, please let me know and I will add your link to this post:))

Now I won't be boring you with my house "Made It" reveals a lot but had to share this one.  If you have been following me for a while, you know my backyard is my therapy, sanctuary,.....well, the hubs does pools and decks and last week had some left over pavers his boss gave him.  SCORE!  Free pavers + some  family labor and I have a little patio area for my table and chairs (which are vintage and getting a paint job soon). Pics are beginning to end:)

Huge stack of pavers we moved out of the trailer and to the backyard.

Packing sand down and ground leveled.

Puzzle time!  My hubs and daughter put the brick in place, I carried the bricks to them.....hubby was a machine...going faster than I could carry them and I was bringing 5-8 at a time.

More sand.........

Finished product:)  Gonna be here a lot this summer!!!!

Thanks for poppin by and let me know your thoughts on my "Made It" Monday idea;)

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Awesome Acrostics

Here is a super fun Pinterest find that I had my kiddos do their last week and they loved it.  It's from Amy at Step Into Second Grade with Mrs. Lemons and they are adorable acrostic name poems.   

The kids had to come up with words that describe them and their personality:)  They really enjoyed this and had fun coming up with JUST THE RIGHT WORDS.  Some of them even dug out the dictionary.

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This girl nailed it!  Especially with the joker....she is a bubbly, happy thing:)

After they finished their names, they did a self portrait.

Love that this one says leader.  We have been doing the 7 habits and striving to teach our students to be responsible role models and leaders:0)

This would be fun for now or..........................................................

Wait a minute!!!!!!!!!  Did anyone just see the light bulb go off over my head???????

Did you see it??????  Really????  It did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It would be  a great activity for the beginning of the school year too!  The kids could do it and then do a small presentation for a getting to know you activity to introduce themselves:D

So doing this in August!!!

Happy Friday all!!!

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Laughin' and the Ugly Cry

I am spent!!!!!  Spent a little physically because of packing and hauling and shoving furniture........

but super spent emotionally!!!!!!  It doesn't seem real and I know lots of you are still counting days or celebrating but I just can't right now.......I'm really sad this group is gone:,,,,(

 Super sweet kids and they have each changed my life in several ways this year.

By 8:30 I had messaged Miss Squirrels 2 times because I had done the ugly cry already 3 times!!!  It wasn't pretty people!!!!  So it will take a few days for it to soak in because right now, it doesn't feel over and I'm sad............................................so sad......................

Now, along with the ugly cry, we also had some laughs.  The kiddos finished their Memories and Me journals (which, if you are still in school and need an end of the year activity, you can grab it at my store for free HERE).  Gotta love the honesty of kids.  They totally humble me and crack me up at the same time............

here are a few of my faves:

Now......I feel the need to clear something up......I don't recall when but early in the year instead of saying "no horsing around" or "no screwing around" when I was "laying down the law" I would say "no poppin off". Then one day I went to pick the peeps up from specials (and I would usually have a couple that couldn't quite contain themselves) and my adorable "reporter" came to me and said:

"Mrs. Eiken, no one popped off today."  LOL!  Too cute.  I cracked up!  Maybe not the best phrase, but our phrase and it worked for us:)  So you see her #1 word of wisdom is......no poppin' off!  NEVER!  lol

This kiddo cracks me up.......yep, she did get in trouble for locking all the bathroom stall doors.  The cute thing is A) she remembered it  B) she was honest in her response and C)  she would like to have done it over to fix it:)

I wish I could have kept these because they were awesome!!  Love their responses!  It was really fun to read them and laugh, cry, giggle..........

FYI, according to several of the kids journals, the secret is out...............................................

they know I have eyes in the back of my head!!!!!   HAHA!   Love that they think that:)

Spelling is a little off on this last one, one of my ELL babies and believe me when I tell you her spelling is much better, but the message is loud and clear and was my goal for this school year, to bring back the LOVE of reading (thank you Book Whisperer!!!)

It's all about the lives you touch and change daily people:)

I'll be back tomorrow to post one of our Pinterest inspired, end of the year activities:D

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Organizing as I'm Packing!

Happy Saturday everyone!!

I am so excited because I have one of my "Summer Bucket List for My Classroom" projects done, thanks to my wonderful daughter.  At the beginning of this school year I saw a  post from my friend Rebecca at Create*Teach*Share, about a wonderful teacher toolbox that she made. (see post HERE)

Well.....I decided as I am slowly starting to pack my classroom away for the summer, I would also do some major organizing.  I have wanted to make this teacher toolbox all year...just never had the time.  So we went to Lowes and grabbed the toolbox, gave it a makeover, and voila..............

LOVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And all decked out in my black/white theme:)  Here's a close up:

So super cute and organized and everything in one place.  This will go on my bookcase behind my teacher table next year:)

I also decided to cutesy up my word work bin (well I decided....Tay did it)  I'm organizing she's making it cute.

and then we organized all my bulletin board borders.......

So check one item off my To Do list.........now only 30 to go......teehee!!

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Baggies + Duct Tape = Fun Quilt!

Hi everyone!!!  Ok, so I only cried 3 times today....that's good, right???  (If you haven't read in the past few days, I'm crying because I'm sad my kiddos are almost done, not because I'm crazy!!!  Or in Farley terms...cray cray)

I mean it's more than yesterday but less than 5........so, I'm thinking that's good!!!  Miss Squirrels says hormones are to blame.........and stress, and tons to do and cleaning and, and.....

Anywho, focus.......and here we go......I made this quite a while ago and just plain old forgot about it (it's hanging in the front office, not my room, so I forgot......very easy for me to do.......out of sight, out of mind.....and with me you can add, out of mouth, out of mind, meaning as soon as I say it, it's forgotten:(  so sad, I know).

 I found the idea in a book by The Bag Ladies.  As soon as I saw it, I just knew I had to make one!!

The duct tape comes in so many fun colors, you can make it to match about anything!!  So all this is is the gallon sized baggies and duct tape.  That's it:)  The Bag Ladies instructions are super easy. 

(Link for their website Here)

Once you make your quilt, you can fill it with anything!!  We just put in a new (Pinterest inspired) activity that we had done last week.  Since The Book Whisperer and teaching my kiddos to love to read again instead of reading as  a job, I had them make a list of all the reasons they read.  Then they picked out little circles I punched out of paint sample cards and wrote their reasons on them.  Then glued them on and they were done:)

I think they turned out pretty neat:D

Here are a few of my faves:))))))

So put this quilt on your summer bucket list:)  I'm gonna have to make a new one with black and white and pink!!

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UGH! Please RE-Download

Super fast post guys!  I'm a huge spaz and I'm sorry BUT if you downloaded my Memories freebie before Wednesday morning, please download it again..........I spelled a word wrong.  I said advise instead of advice.....

I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOO  SORRY!!!!!!

That's not me yelling, that's me being sick over it!!!!  Could I use the excuse that it's the end of the year and my brain is in a million places....like a million.....sorry, there should be no excuses.......

That's what I get for trying to do too many things at one time!  My biggest, biggest apologies!!


Please forgive me:,((((((((((((((((

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My Memories and Me FREEBIE

Yep, that's right.....I said FREEBIE!  Gotta love a freebie!

When I was in elementary school.....I'm thinking 3rd grade.....we made memory books and I still have mine.  They were called Warm Fuzzy books and all they consisted of was small square pieces of construction paper....you just took your pieces around and had your classmates write something on them.  Then we punched 2 holes and yarned (Mr. Spell checker.....um, could you just leave me alone???)  them up.  That was back in the day when we didn't have computers or clip art or blogging or..........I'm not that old people..........I'm sure there must have been some sort of computers.....just not in my teeny, tiny farm town up in Illinois (population 1300....tiny)......anywho, I wanted a little memory book for my kiddos to work on before we are done.  (cry......tears......sob......sniff.......)  I have seen some really cute ones in blog land but had some specific questions I wanted answers to...so little old O.C.D. me had to make one for my peeps and decided to share it with you all!

Adorable graphics are from KPM Doodles.  

I hate, hate wasting paper so I tend to do 2 pages per one sheet of paper.  (I know that sounds weird but you get it, right???  That's 2 journal pages...)

This little memory book has 8 pages with prompts so they can reflect (hopefully) on their school year and write some thoughtful responses.  Here's a peek:

I'm also hoping this is something they will hold on to, like I still have mine, and look back in and SMILE!!  If you would like a copy you can grab it at my TPT store HERE.  Leave me some love if it's something you can use:)

   Happy Tuesday!!!

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Miscellaneous Monday!!

Happy Monday all!!!  I cannot believe I only have 8 school days left with my kiddos!  I am truly going to miss them!!!  I have been blessed with a wonderful class this year and I always get way tooooooo attached!!! WAY too attached.......I cry.........I cry just thinking about it........sad........tho thad!! (Reagan and Teeny)

 So on to my miscellaneousness (not a word.............is now;)!!!)

Miscellaneous #1

I am doing the happy dance.....I worked on some of my bloggy organization over the weekend and started thumbnail galleries!!!  When I saw this on the lovely and witty Kristen's blog, Ladybug's Teacher Files, I knew it was on the "TO DO" list for the summer.....well, I had a few minutes and decided to get started.  If you look at the tabs at the top of my blog, you can go to the different pages with direct links to each pic.  No more looking around and scanning the posts....:)  If you check it out, please let me know what ya think!

Miscellaneous #2 and 2 1/2...hehe
I am sooooo excited about the bloggy get together I'm hosting with Mor and Jen!!  It will be here before we know it!!  If you are in Florida during this time, please come see us!!  We can't wait to meet you!!!  We can hang and chat and chat and I'll learn a few names......and then I'll forget them (cuz my memory stinks!!) but I will try, I promise;)

If you're planning on coming please let Mor know at A Teacher's Treasure so we have a head count:)
AND....
speaking of my friend Mor, she has hit 1000 followers and is having a hugemongous (yep, made that a word just now too;)  ) giveaway!  You have got to go enter it......I want to enter it but can't cuz I am part of it......it's an awesome one!!  You can check it out HERE!!

Miscellaneous #3

My new classroom decor things came in the mail and I am too excited!  They will add a different little "pop" for me:D  Crazy I know, cuz my new students will have never seen my room before but hey, I figure I spend a LARGE majority of my time there so I should like it:))

In love with the new borders...especially the pennant one:)

 

These are fun frames, desk name tags, and library pockets.  I have big plans for those for next year:)

Miscellaneous #4

Mel is celebrating her 1 year blogiversary and having a HUGE, MASSIVE giveaway.  You have got to head over there and check it out:)  Hurry, what are you waiting for??? Click the button below!

Miscellaneous #5

I have not had any coffee since Friday.  Yes Kim, you read that right........NO coffee since Friday........and I didn't die!!!!!..........what's up with that you ask........me, Tara, the coffeeholic......well, I had huge iced coffees both days I had my migraines and am scared they added to the headache........so, not sure where I go from here..hmmmmmmm

Miscellaneous #6
Voting starts today for Most Fascinating Blog.  If ya have a sec, I would love your vote:)

Whew.....that's a lot of miscellaneousness (um.....Mr. Spell Checker, did you not see I made that a word already at the beginning of this post?!!!)

....sorry.......I'm worn out.......I might need a coffee....teehee!

Happy Miscellaneous Monday to you all!!

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Mother's Day Fun - Last Minute, that's Me!!

Hi all!  This is going to be a super quick post....I am way behind on reading blogs, housework, laundry, lesson plans.......it just feels like life in general!  I have had 2 of the worst migraines these past 2 days in a row that have pretty much kept me from doing anything.....:(((

Good news, so far today, no headache.......

I wanted to share with you the gifts my kiddos made for their mommas!  Now to say I am going a million different directions this time of year is an understatement (possibly the cause of my headaches...)....so even though the words Mother's Day came out of my mouth a few times this week, I was a total spaz and didn't plan anything!!!!!!  What's wrong with me?!?!?!

Thank the Lord for the blog world and Dana at 3rd Grade Gridiron.  I was in a panic and scanning blogland for  something for my kiddos to do that would be different and fun and came across Dana's post on Classroom DIY about decorating tiles with markers.  Here's how some of ours turned out:)

The kids loved making them and they turned out great!!  Go check out Dana's post  to get directions:)

Now I'm off to garden!!  I want to wish everyone is blogland and all my bloggy friends a happy and blessed Mother's Day!!

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Science and Skype - Fun Day!!!

Well, not really Skype....we have to use Safari but it's like Skype....so anyway, I am just so excited because ..

because......

because......are ya ready???

Well, we.....my class and I, had a video chat today with my friend Molly from Lessons with Laughter and her 4th grade class.

So super fun!!!  We're talking Florida to California people.  It was like they were right next door.  A few of her students read their Pourquoi Tales and they were awesome!!  My class is going to start writing some of their own tomorrow:)  Can't wait!!   We are also going to be video chatting again tomorrow:)
Thanks Molly!!!  Too FUN!!!

Now for the Science portion...I  wanted to share some Science/non-fiction report like thingies we did.......how's that for a wonderful name of a project????

It was probably named that because it was a last minute idea (sometimes.....rarely.....but sometimes I do work well under pressure.  Gotta love it when the last minute ideas come out great!) when my classroom had to be super quiet for 5th grade testing.  I needed a project, it covered Science and Reading (2 subjects in one...love that), it was kind of a report/foldable.......hence the name thingy!!!  There!

Anywho, we did a smaller version of this when they used the Fun Facts with the Lorax (free at my Teachers Notebook store).  Each kiddo had to get a magazine (Nat. Geo, Zoobooks, Discovery Kids).  Then choose an article and read it.  After they were done they had to make their thingy......just kidding, their report!  They had to design a cover that included the title of the article they read.  Then on the inside of their report they had to include:
1 picture
1 caption
5 facts
A summary

Finally, I wanted to share some more exciting news.....my post Boggle Board = Word Work Fun earned me a nomination for most fascinating blog:)  I am too excited and have some wonderful company in this area as a lot of my bloggy buds have gotten this nomination too!  Congrats to all of them:)  Thank you all for reading.  I may be asking for some votes soon;)

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