Monday Made-it: Bucket seats, fluency strips, and a back to school freebie!

Well, the time has come... the first teacher work day! Based on the schedule we received last week, it looks like we will have quite a bit of time to work in our classrooms before met the teacher on Friday.

 

 I was hoping to have my classroom finished for my post today, but I clearly underestimated the amount of time it would take. It will definitely be ready for next Monday's post though!

Before I show you my made-its, I have to mention what I got in the mail last week...

 

this beautiful sign from TallahasseeSunday! They customized it to match my classroom colors and it looks absolutely amazing on my classroom door!

 

 

 

 

I just finished putting together the gifts that I am giving my students as a welcome present.

 

 

 

I made a couple of cute tags to go with the bubbles and the glow bracelets and put them in these pretty bags.

 

 

Naturally, the bags had to match my classroom colors!

 

You can grab the gift tags freebie here!

 

Next up, I have my new way to store the fluency strips I bought from the Moffatt Girls last year.

 

I originally had them hanging on magnetic hooks on the side of a metal bookshelf, but that was when I only had 10 sets made. There was no way all 30 were going to fit!

 

I ended up cutting some foam board to fit in my library windows, adding some cork board to the front, and covering both with felt.

 

 

I added some pushpin hooks and voila! I love how bright and colorful they look!

 

 

This next made-it was a quick update to an old project.

 

 

I made this ribbon wreath a few years ago (see the original how-to post here), but it didn't really match my colors any more.

 

 

I ended up adding some new turquoise loops so that it would tie in better with the new color scheme. Nothing big, just a quick fix. :) 

 

I am VERY excited about this made-it... bucket seats!

 

I started with some plain 5 gallon paint buckets from Home Depot.

 

The first (and hardest!) part was to get these gigantic safety labels off the sides.

 

 

I used nail polish remover to get the top layer off, then got the remaining adhesive goo off with WD-40. It took a big chunk of one afternoon and was a pretty smelly process!

 

 

My mom was kind enough to cover the paint bucket lids with the foam, batting, and fabric.

 

Naturally, a bucket with a fabric top wasn't enough for me, so I added a band of the fabric with a flower.

 

 

 What do you think?!

 

 

 

That's it for this week! Make sure you check out the made-its at the 4th grade frolics link-up!

 



End of Year Gifts and Summer Review

 

 

Well, we are finishing up another year here, only 2.5 days left! We are having our building repainted this summer, so the last week or so has been very hectic with packing, moving furniture, etc.

 

Luckily, I managed to carve out some time to put together my end of year gifts for the kiddos!

 

 

I am giving each student a green or pink bucket filled with summer goodies!

 

Each bucket includes:

 

Polka-dot water bottle

Popsicles

Book

Bubbles

Play-dough

Fancy Pencils

Smarties

Lei

 

I have also been working on putting together some summer review items. I printed/copied pages from my Summer Reading Comprehension set and my Summer No-Prep Math and Literacy printables to make these booklets.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

My kids this year were very interested in free-writing, so I made some labels and gave them some of my extra notebooks to use as journals this summer.

 

 

 

 

 

I am really looking forward to giving the kiddos their gifts on Wednesday and hope they will enjoy them!