July is just flying by! I go back to school on August 10th, so I am down to four weeks of Summer left! I don't think I will be able to get into my classroom until the first week of August, so I am getting a bit antsy!
As much as I love my summers, I always feel a little bit uncomfortable knowing how much work it is going to take to get my classroom ready again!
I have three made-its this week, so here we go!
My first made-it this week is my new calendar. I found this magnetic chalkboard calendar at Walmart for $8 last week and couldn't resist!
I have been wanting a new calendar for my classroom for a few years, but all of the classroom ones are so big. This one is pretty small and will fit nicely on the board by my desk.
I added the turquoise ribbon and made an extra set of the number magnets from last week's made-it to be the calendar numbers. I like how they are like polka dots!
I used hot glue, but the frame is very smooth, so the ribbon has popped off a couple of times. I am going to go back and add a bit of my favorite adhesive, E6000. I actually used it for the first time when I was working at Michael's. We used to use it to attach styrofoam to glass pots/vases where hot glue wouldn't hold. We would have to prep the containers the day before, but once the E6000 had dried, the styrofoam held up really well for floral arrangements.
Next up I have my guided reading notebooks. I haven't made any of my notebook/folder labels yet, so they aren't much to look at yet, but they work wonders!
I started making my own notebooks for guided reading a few years ago when I realized that we just weren't using enough of a notebook to make it worth buying a class set. Our extension activities aren't always something written, so I wanted a notebook that had fewer pages for less waste.
To make these, I counted out about 45 pieces of notebook paper, put them in a file folder, stuck a couple of brads in, and voila! Notebook!
One of the things I like best about these is that I can take extra pages out at the end of the year, so no paper gets wasted.
My last made-it this week is a continuation of my labels from a couple of weeks ago.
I have been working on materials for my word work center, which I would like to focus more on this year.
I made these letter cubes with foam counting cubes from the dollar store. They came in packs of 4 colors, so I split them up into four boxes. It took a while to write all the letters and my fingers were stained black for a few days, but it was well worth it!
Well, that's it for my made-its this week!
Make sure you check out the great projects on the Monday Made-it linky at 4th grade frolics!
