Monday Made It #7

Watch out!

My second #MMI in a row...

I'm linking up with Tara again and I don't have much to share this week, but it's still something that has been hanging out on my to do list ALL SUMMER. The best part about this Monday Made It is that it cost me approximately $10. WINNING.

I made some a ton, of crate covers. I got a little crate crazy. These are the two that I started putting together this weekend. I'm planning on making it up to school at the end of the month and having these done at home is just smart. Work smarter, not harder, right? That's what I tell my kids!

These neon crates are less than $4 at Wal-Mart. They're even cheaper than the ones at Target, and the colors are much more appealing... in my opinion.

I had the orange ribbon at home, and the bottom ribbon I picked up at Wal-Mart, too.

I had the page protectors and I made the crate covers and printed them on card stock.

Sorry the pictures are so awful, the lighting in our living room is terrible!

Well, there you have it! If you're interested in NOT making crate covers, go check out the ones I made. There's pretty much anything you could want in the pack AND some blank templates!

This one HARDLY counts as a "made it," but it is something I did this week to make the school year go a little more smoothly. I saw someone on IG washi tape their weeks (trimesters) in the Erin Condren Teacher Planner. I thought that was a great idea, so I did mine for our four quarters. I love how it turned out! It looks really nice when you look at the planner from the side. Nice and colorful!

Don't forget to link up with your Monday Made It!

Monday Made It #6

Whew! I'm FINALLY linking up this summer for Monday Made It from Tara at Fourth Grade Frolics. I have been making things all summer, but with two little ones and a husband that works quite often, it's hard to get one project completed in one week's time. 

Does everyone else out there look forward to MMI like I do? The summer before my first year as a teacher (a few years ago) I found this linky and it helped me connect with other teachers and get ideas and freebies for my classroom. It also helps hold me accountable for getting some work done while relaxing in the summer. In the words of Sally O'Malley "I looooove it!"

My #1 would be those great whisper phones you've seen all over Pinterest! Are you following me on there? Here's a link to my page. I love Pinterest and all the amazing classroom ideas and resources I find on there. Who doesn't? 

I'm calling these Fluency Phones, because that's what my big kids will be using them for in 5th grade. A colleague let me borrow her set last year in 4th and my kids LOVED THEM. Hey, they like hearing themselves talk. They are MY students after all. :)

I used the tutorial found here, got all of my supplies from Home Depot and finally got these puppies finished. 

Next up was that amazing Mini Anchor Chart Stand that I've been seeing everywhere. I found a couple of different options for them out there, and in the end, the one I made ended up being slightly different than all of the others. You can really do your own thing here. Here is the one I liked most from Head Over Heels for Teaching and here are some pictures of the two I made! I love how they turned out, but I love what I'll use them for even more! 

Nicole Shelby makes these amazing CCSS Notebooks that we started this past year in 4th grade. My kids LOVED them and I picked up the 5th grade set to do this year. I kept a teacher binder filled with my pre-made journal pages for the students to reference all year. I will still do that this year, but I'm planning on taking it to the next level by storing our weeks pages on the stand for students to reference during class. I may even use both of the stands for this... We had a lot of frequently absent students last year. I'm hoping this will help cut back on notebook make-up traffic!

The notebooks in action this past year:

I can't wait to use these notebooks again this year. Right now I am planning out daily {possibly weekly} mini lessons using picture books: to teach the concept, then a hands-on portion and then these notebooks for independent practice. I'm hoping that it will transform them and make them even more meaningful this year!

This last one is actually available as a FREEBIE in my store! Have you read The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate? I have and I LOVED it! There are so many great quotes from the story and I have quite a few written out to display in my classroom this year. This one is one of the quotes from Callie Vee that really stuck with me. If you like this quote too {I'm sure you will} then head to my shop and become a follower, download the freebie & be sure to leave feedback! It's just polite to leave some nice feedback on free products {on all products... for that matter!}

Head over to my TPT store to get the nice looking version without the "preview" written over it.

Remember, don't forget to leave me some love.

That's it for me, folks! Thanks for stopping by!

Ramona Recommends July Book Club

So, I have a really fun Book Club for you to check out! Courtney from Ramona Recommends has started a great summer book club for teachers. This is our second month and Lessons Learned is the blog where July is being hosted!

This month we're reading Wonder by R.J. Palacio... This has to be one of THE books of this past year. You've seen it everywhere. Have you read it?? Here's my confession: I haven't read this book yet.

Back before my maternity leave I used some of my (extremely coveted) Scholastic Bonus Points to purchase a beautiful Hardback copy of Wonder for our 4th grade class. I come back from leave and it's missing. I asked and asked and asked the kids, and no one would admit to reading it, borrowing it, stealing it, losing it, whatever! GONE! SAD CITY!

This is my second chance with Wonder. I'll be buying this book soon and checking it out. I've heard great things and our counselor actually used this as a read-aloud for our fifth graders last year. I'm excited to get started, but it will probably take me all month to finish as a good friend of mine are also starting the Divergent series together ASAP!

Join us and then link up! Follow us on Instagram too to keep up with the reading!

IG: riedmillersroom

July Currently

This is the first time I've linked up with Farley for Currently in a year and a month. WOW!

I've had a lot going on, but have a smackerel of time on my hands, so here we go!

Listening to Sid the Science Kid. L is trying to fall asleep so we are watching a rerun that we have probably seen A MILLION TIMES. Oh well. It's almost over. :)

Loving Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller. Have you read this book yet? It is really inspiring me as a NEWISH teacher. I think my reading block will be looking very different this Fall. I'm getting a ton of great ideas and I can't wait to see up our reader's notebooks with more of an independent reading focus for the school year. My only regret? Not having this book sooner. I've been with the same group of kids going on year three and I feel like these practices really could have made a difference in their time with me. Better late than never, right?

Everyone is sick in my house, and I am HOPING that I don't get it. I've got too many things on my to do list for a virus to slow me down!

I really need to get out of this house. Like I said, everyone is sick and it's been since Friday that I've really gotten out to do anything. I have made two trips out to stock up on Lysol wipes, Laundry Detergent, paper towels and what not. I really would love a nice long Target trip. Maybe even a hot chocolate from Starbucks since I don't do coffee.

Hopefully everyone will be back to their normal selves in time for the 4th. We usually go and watch Fireworks at the same place every year. This year I'm kind of hoping for something more low key and a little less crowded... We'll see how that pans out for me.

Have you linked up for Currently??

CTP Giveaway

Wow, shall I knock the dust off of this blog?

That's better.

Creative Teaching Press is doing an amazing giveaway for 10 lucky teachers to win $200 to spend on their classroom. The best part of this giveaway? You don't have to be on Facebook to enter. I'm not on Facebook, I have no interest in being on Facebook and I find that a GAZILLION teachers and companies use it for giveaways. Kind of annoying since I can never enter. This giveaway does involve Instagram and Twitter, which are my two favorite ways to connect to other educators anyways, YAY!

Head over to Inspire in Style to learn all about the giveaway and to enter!

Here are some great products from CTP that I would get if I won this giveaway.. Some are on my list to buy anyways. :)

These letters are the first thing on my list. My local United Art & Education had the uppercase letters in stock, so I still need to order the lowercase! These sets are stickers, even better!

This border would be PERFECT for my Genius Hour area!

The InspireU posters may be my favorite thing that CTP has out right now... I almost snagged this one at United also.

Here are some other borders I love! These colors would fit right in with my class decorations:

Lime Green Chevron Border

Turquoise Chevron Border

Mini Hexagon Border

So many great products. What would you use in your classroom??