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!

{What Works for Me}

I wanted to talk about some things I do in my classroom that happen to work for me.

I always like when people share things like this because it's nice to see what everyone else is doing. It also helps knowing that if it works for someone similar, maybe it will work for you! Here a little list of things I love in my room:

Posting my Objective:

Why: Because it helps me target my students' learning AND it's on our new teacher evaluation so I'm getting in gear before that starts next year.

I actually started doing this and can't imagine NOT doing it.

Currently: Looking for a way to make it better and more compact. I'm designing something that doesn't take up as much precious whiteboard space.

Information Station:

Why: Because it is where everything is kept that would normally be tossed on a teacher's desk. I keep my desk neat, unless I miss three days of school in a row, my desk always looks presentable. I just don't want it to be messy.

I have a Drop Box, that is where everything goes that students would want to throw on my desk. Our lunch count clipboard is there, that moves to the kidney table in the morning for easy use. My bins for my switches, one for my homeroom and one for the other class I have in the afternoon. If they turn it in, it goes in the bin!

Also included: school calendar, lunch menu, special schedule and Gold Medal behavior chart!

Reading Log Incentive:

I have a handful out of 40 students that have trouble being consistent with their homework. Not too  bad, but it's also not okay with me. I wanted to do some sort of program where students get rewarded for doing their reading log every night for a week. At the end of each week if they did their log each night, they get a sticker. I plan on some cool prizes when they fill it up, but a lot of times the sticker itself is a big deal on Fridays!

Writing Process Bookmarks:

My kids are sort of obsessed with these.

I made a bookmark that my students can use all school year by letting them decorate them and laminating them for long-term use. First off, the power of laminating something for third graders is phenomenal. It was a HUGE DEAL.

They keep these in our bin or in their writing folders when we're working on a writing project. We use dry erase markers to check off each step, they actually do pretty well in the folders after the dry erase check marks.

I am obsessed with these because I can say "show me your bookmark" for a quick check to see who is almost there, going super fast or in outer space. ;)

My bookmarks can be found here.

And how about a freebie?!

This REALLY works for me. You just plop a post-it right over each section with what you need to grade, copy, create or plan. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do. Head to my shop to download this for free.

What works for you??