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!