Daily Question

Last week I made a Menu board inspired by Rowdy in Room 300.  This week I have another project inspired by her blog as well.  She has a Daily Graphing Questions product up at TpT that will be perfect for my class this coming year. This pack comes with more than 180 questions to use throughout the school year. This is a perfect addition to my Morning Meeting time and we can follow up with the graphing activity sheet on days when we need some extension of the activity.

If you pop over to Rowdy in Room 300 she has an excellent tutorial on how to make these magnetic pizza pans that came from the dollar store. In order to make the yes/no boards you'll need two pizza pans, some wrapping paper, modge podge, and a spool of thick ribbon.  I put my ribbon on differently than her tutorial. My hot glue was not sticking to the wrapping paper, so I glued it to the edge of the pizza pan. I opened up a spool of polka dot ribbon and cut it in half. It was the perfect length to make the boarder around the pan. I love my black and white theme!

I used the magnetic paper (I found it at Michaels with all the magnets) and fed it right through the printer to make the yes/no headers and student name labels. I was smart this year and made a few blank ones. Last year I got two new kids during the year and had to recreate so many things. This year I am making extra of every thing just in case!

I printed and laminated the 180+ questions for the year. Then came the question of how to store them. I decided to put them into a Sterlite plastic box from Target for easy storing. I was excited to find this perfect container that holds the cards. Due to the fact that some of the questions are seasonal, I decided to make month dividers using my McGill divider punch and gluing them to cardstock. This way the questions are organized and easy to find throughout the year. I'll add a book mark as I use the questions so I know what we've used and what's next.

I'm excited that I finally figured out how to use the Silhouette I borrowed from a friend. I have a feeling that there are going to be many, many projects involving vinyl and the Silhouette before school starts. A Silhouette Cameo is on my love list. Someday.

Menu Board

This summer I am excited to be sharing a 'Monday Made it' each and every Monday. This little linky has kicked my bum into gear to get some crafty things done around here.

Today's Monday Made It is actually a little something for home rather than the classroom. However, this little Menu Board is going to make my life so much easier when school rolls around in August. You see, I am *terrible* at meal planning. I'm pretty busy teaching during the day and then trying to spend some quality time with my two little girls in the evenings. We eat out far too much, so this Menu Board is going to help me meal plan and grocery shop ahead of time so there is a plan. Kind of like lesson planning. =)

I found this idea here at Rowdy in Room 300 and fell in love with it.  My kitchen is done in a light blue, black and white Paris theme so I needed something to match. Rowdy in Room 300 has a great tutorial and some printables here on her post that you can use for the board. I made my own menu header and days of the week to match my theme. If you'd like a black and white version, here's what I used for my board. The shopping list is from Rowdy's printables. I added magnets to the back so it hangs right on my fridge for easy viewing and use.

There is also a link to the formatted Word document used to create the meal cards. What's awesome about this is the ingredients for each meal are listed on the back of each card. So when I am making my shopping list I can flip over the card and write down what I need to shop for rather than having to find the recipe to create my grocery list. Brilliant!

All you need for this project is a 11x14 inch cork board, slightly larger fabric piece, 7 clothes pins, a tiny box to cover for the menu cards, a post-it pad or note pad for the shopping list, and optional ribbon and magnets. You also need to print out the menu header and create your own family menu list with ingredients. 

I know that this little project is going to save me lots of stress and money!

Birthday Balloons

Last summer I sat on the sidelines and watched teacher blog after teacher blog post all their fun stuff they were making for their classrooms.  This summer, since I have a blog, I'm going to play along as well! This is my first ever link up with Made It Monday with 4th Grade Frolics.

I thought I'd ease gently into the 'thinking about the classroom' mode and make something easy. I've seen these birthday bouquets with crazy straws all over the place. I thought it would be fun to have these ready to give to my students when it's their birthday. I purchased the crazy straws at Michael's in the $2 bin. The Happy Birthday balloons are a free printable by Teaching in Flip Flops.  You can find the free printable here. I taped the
straws to the back of the balloon using washi tape. I repurposed the black container from my office and I already had the ribbon and the shredded paper stuffing. I'm going to add a little packet of Kool-Aid to the back of the balloon as well.

I'm sure the kids will like this little goodie better than my silly little Happy Birthday certificate and pencil.