MANY Monday Made Its!

Oooooohhh, I am SO excited to share my Monday Made Its with you this week!!  I have been incredibly busy!

Thank you, Tara at "4th Grade Frolics," for hosting this always fun linky party!

First up, we have... pennant banners!  I know these are old news to some of you, but I had never made them before.

If you have been following my blog lately, you may have noticed that this banner does not match my classroom colors.  These are actually the colors in our school shield.  I am making a banner for each classroom door and the banners are going to have each classroom's anticipated high school graduation year.

If you are interested in learning how I went about making these, read on!  The materials I used are pictured above.

First, I ironed fabric quarters, so they transformed from this wrinkled mess to...

...this!  (I highly recommend spraying water on the fabric as you iron.  It really helps to get the fabric flat.)

Since the sides on a quarter (of a yard) are not the same, I wanted to make sure I was folding the fabric over correctly each time.  So I checked to be sure I had 21 inches horizontally.  Then, I folded the fabric over "hot dog" style (top to bottom), so the opening was on the bottom and the crease was on the top. 

I wanted to get 3 pennants out of each quarter of fabric, so I measured and cut 7 inches.

I used some scrap cardboard to create a template so that I was able to cut the same-sized triangle shape out each time.  My template is a 60 degree angle.

Annnnd...there we go!

Next, I opened up the pennant, squirted some hot glue on the inside of the crease, laid a string of twine in the hot glue, and repeated with 3 other pennants on the same string.

Last, I ripped off pieces of Stitch Witchery, laid them on the edges of the fabric on the inside of the pennant, closed the pennant, and ironed over it to create a finished look.

Like I mentioned, I will be putting each homeroom's anticipated graduation year on the banners.  During my first attempt, I tried iron-on adhesives and it was an ultimate FAIL as you can see!  Since this picture was taken, I have gone back to JoAnn Fabrics and purchased black felt and number stencils.  I am going to trace the numbers on the black felt, cut out the number, and use the Stitch Witchery to attach them to the pennant banners.  *fingers crossed*

Next up, I made an activity that my Kinders can do during Literacy Centers.

I am really proud of this Made It because it is made of all recycled materials - well, almost all.

I bought these letter stickers at JoAnn Fabrics for super clearance, super cheap.

I stuck uppercase, green letters on the black tops (from Lipton iced tea bottles...one of my drinks of choice) and lowercase, black letters on the green tops (from Lipton green tea gallon-sized bottles...my husband's drink of choice).

I ended up applying some Modge Podge to the green caps because the letter stickers were not sticking well to those caps, for some reason.

I wrapped bright green duct tape around recycled containers (Gerber toddler puff snacks) and used the same letter sticks to identify each container.  I wrapped some fun washi tape around the base and  I also spray painted the blue lids to black.

My Kinders will match uppercase letters to lowercase letters by placing the green caps (which are slightly larger) over the black caps.

The materials to make "I Spy" bottles have been sitting in my loft for MONTHS, so I decided it was about time to do something about that.

Making colored rice is super simple!  You just add food coloring and vinegar (1 tablespoon + a little extra, I think) to a plastic bag, mix it up, add the dry rice, then mix it up again.

Lay the rice out on wax paper for at least one hour and then you are ready to rock and roll!

I bought letter beads to put inside of my "I Spy" bottles.  (I also want number beads, but have been unsuccessful in finding any so far.)  I am going to - eventually - make a recording and extension sheet to correlate with this activity.

Love!

I just love my new "Pick Me!" sticks.  :)

I placed whole bean coffee in a flower pot ($1.97 at JoAnn Fabrics)  to make it look like soil.

I spray painted wooden sticks (flowers and butterflies) to match my classroom colors.  After the "flowers" get picked, they go in a flower vase, of course, with "water" (blue ribbon).  I am going to add a "Pick Me!" label to the pot, after I print the mass amount of stuff that I need to print.

I used wooden sticks in the past, but made the mistake of writing the students' names directly on the stick, which meant I had to repaint, if I wanted to reuse the sticks the following school year.  This year, I decided to stick a piece of tape on the stick and write the students' names on the tape.  I hope he stays on!

I made a talking stick that we will use during Sharing Time (which is a part of Morning Meeting).

I took a spray painted wooden dowel (leftover from my son's birthday party over a year ago, hehe) and wrapped washi tape around sections of it.  Then, I layered it with Modge Podge.  After it dried, I nailed some curly ribbon (TJ Maxx) to the top.

(I ran out of Monday Made It number symbols.  Is there an unwritten rule that I should stop now!?  Hmmm...I cannot wait until next week, so here I go again!)

My school's professional development week is coming up.  We wanted a place where staff could stick Post-It notes of reflections, questions, concerns, suggestions, comments, etc.  So I quickly whipped up this "parking lot" that has yet to meet a laminator.

If you have read "About the Authors: Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers," then you might be familiar with the "I am not afraid of my words!" chart.  Here is mine!

In case you are not familiar...basically the chart is used as a way to motivate reluctant writers to be brave and try to spell words they do not know.  When you notice a brave writer, you bring the kids together during "Sharing Time" (a part of Writers Workshop) and have the kid write his/her name and his/her kid spelling.  Then, you write the conventional spelling, talk about it, lead the class in celebrating that student's bravery.

I will be using these to help me organize my Guided Reading groups.  I think I got this idea from Deanna Jump, but I could be wrong.  I found colored plastic plates at Big Lots and stuck some Velcro squares to them.  After I take the students' pictures, I will print them on card stock, cut them out into circle shapes, double-laminate them, and stick Velcro on the back.  This way, my students and I will easily be able to see who I am meeting with during Guided Reading and the photos will be easily interchangeable.

I am going to use these mounting squares to attach the plates to my classroom wall.

I found this sun cut-out at JoAnn Fabrics for like $0.10 or $0.25 (I cannot remember).  I am going to hand it near our "Rise and Shine" binders.

It is hard to tell from the picture, but these are my fun curtains that will go over my built-into-the-wall shelving units in my classroom. I so love, love, LOVE them!  Thanks to my mom for helping me...I apparently am not made to sew.  I did some of the sides, but my work turned out not-so-pretty.  (P.S. - There are 3 more curtains not pictured that are already at my school.)

Oh my word...that was yet another LONG post.  I am off to bed.  It is now 1:46am here and I have a headache.  Boo hoo!  Be sure to hop over to "4th Grade Frolics" and check out all the other awesome Monday Made Its!  Thanks for stopping by!