Monday Made It! and a freebie

This will be the first time I am doing a Monday made it. If you are interested in this linky party click {HERE} to go to 4th grade Frolics. I am always making things, I just am too tired to post about it. However, It's Monday and I've had my coffee so here goes!
My Co-worker Kim used to be a decorator in Life before she was a teacher. She convinced me it was not hard to make pillows for my classroom. She came with me to the store and helped my pick out my first sewing machine!  She gave me some instructions and ideas for putting the pillows together.  And here we go...
 

 Here is a shot of the bottom of my sewing machine and the edge of the pillow. I sewed on velcro (loop and sew, not sticky) to the edges and made a flap, so the covers could be taken off and washed.

 Here are 2 of the pillows, I used square foam inserts that I found at Walmart. I am not going to tell you I did this very professionally. I laid the fabric out on the floor and laid the pillow on top. I left space on either side for the seam. As you can see above the blue polka dot is slightly big. I went back after and made it smaller.
You lay the fabric nice side to nice side. (so when you are sewing you will see the back side of the fabric) I sewed three sides then flipped it right side out. That is when I sewed on the velcro. I used straight pins to hold it in place. The edge over laps, one over the other.

Teacher Apron

 I have desperately wanted a teacher apron for a while now. I scoured ETSY to see if I could somehow manage to make one.
Again, I didn't really measure, except to hold the fabric up to me. (ahh, bad idea) First I sewed 3 sides of the chevron fabric and turned it right side out. I did the same on polka-dot pocket. Then I ironed the fabric so it would be flat and you could see the seems and edges are crisp and neat. I folded and ironed down the top of the fabric, then sewed and closed the seem. Next, I pinned dow the pocket and sewed around the sides and bottom. AFter I sewed down to create 3 separate pockets. Finally, I made the straps. I fold the fabric over on itself and sewed the end and all the way down 1 seem. I then had to very carefully pull it out to see the fabric correctly. Lastly I attached these to the back of the apron, sewing a good 1 1/2 inches of the strap to the apron. Now I have an apron to protect me form glue and who knows what else, and it can hold, expo markers, post=its and whatever else I may need :0)



 

Here is my daughter's room before. She just turned 11 and has had this room since she was 2. She asked for a blue room. Originally, there was a floral wall paper border going around the entire room, and she had a Garden theme. Alas, she is getting older and wanted some new decor.

 While she still has some purging to do, I think the transformation is astounding. Her room seems much larger using 1 color on the wall. Her white furniture really pops against the soothing blue color.

 As you can see the baskets in the tower and bookshelf need changing out. After this picture was taken I found blue baskets at target to replace the pink and polka dots. The basket liners will have to wait for another day.

Last but not least is a little freebie. I am making all these pillows, so when My kiddos are doing Daily 5 they can have a comfy spot to sit in the room. Here is the pacing guide I have used the last few years. I have taken the 2 sisters launch and typed it up in a user-friendly format for lesson plans and teaching. You can download the Daily 5 Pacing Guide in my store on Teachers Pay Teachers.

The "Write" Stuff--FREEBIE!!!

So my daughter is in 4th grade in Florida and if you are in 4th grade then you know that you WRITE ALL the time.  I decided to make her class a little treat bag for all of their hard work before the BIG Test!!  Can you guess the inspiration?  umm, yes I did listen to NKOTB and they were the first concert I ever went to. (cough, cough)


Below is a little flag I made for the pencils in the goodie-bag. 

Also in the goodie bags are a cap eraser, a smartie (candy) and 2 of the soft-sweet mints.  My pharmacist told me peppermint helps stimulate the brain, so why not? Here is how my goodie bags look. 

My daughter has been working her little fingers off this year, and I just want her and her friends to know they don't need to worry or be nervous. Hopefully, there are some of you out there that might find this useful and enjoy a little NKOTB!!
Click Here to Download

a Sale, a giveaway and a Freebie!

Happy Monday?!  Might as well be--right?  I'm having a birthday sale at myTpT store for the next 3 days in honor of my birthday on Tuesday the 10th!! Head on over and pick up some labels, fall writing or something you may have had wishlisted everything is 20% off!
 

Right now my class is working on their school leaders and workers book.
More to come when we have some finished products!!  But the covers sure look cute! :0)
Have you entered the pencil sharpener/ editable label giveaway yet?  Click HERE --the giveaway ends tonight at Midnight EST.  Don't forget to come back and grab your Sunny days Clock #'s freebie!!! Download HERE

Beach themed Freebie and Getting Ready for Earth Day

I'm getting ready for Earth Day with my Earth Day Fun-damentals. I've cut up all the "I's", hearts and Earths for our I {heart} Earth Book. We sent in the packet of writing and activities to the Print Shop and it's all PRINTED!!!  Do you have that in your district? I love that as a grade we can send in what we want copied and it's done for us. (Granted there is a fee, but it's actually less than what it costs to run copies on our photocopier).

This will be the cover of the book. The inside will look just like this in a black line master. I added lines to the I and the Heart. In the Earth students will draw themselves taking care of the Earth.

I made some long strips of the same "I {heart} Earth, for the kids to make into bracelets or book marks.  I have some boys with big wrists so I made them long enough that it would not be too tight. In all actuality the students could actually cut it in half and make both.

I mounted this on construction paper to make it more bracelet like.

There are a few more activities in this unit as well that will keep us busy all day long.

Our school has also put up a sign up sheet for our classes to go around and clean up our campus. We will walk around and pick up litter and so forth. Does your school do anything for Earth day?

I'm also sharing this rubric I made for a friend of mine in 3rd grade. I'd love to know how you have your students rate themselves.
Beach themed Student Self-Assessment rubric Freebie

Lesson Freebie!

I uploaded my lesson to TpT here if you would like to download.

Geometry Introduction Lesson Freebie

Here is Miss Poly Gon all ready to meet my class on Monday.

Can you name all the shapes on her?

Snowman Glyph Freebie

This is a super quick post, because I'm taking my kiddos to sign up for Basketball.
I know, I know, It's not even Thanksgiving yet and I'm posting about snowmen.
We don't get snow here in Florida, and I really do miss it. My kids especially want to see snow. It's a magical thing and they wonder about what it looks like, feels like, tastes like... you get the idea.
I love doing this snowman glyph, It makes them think about things they would love to do if it snowed.
When we get to the part about "how many snowfalls"  I tell them to think about how many snow falls they wish we had.

You can check it out here on TpT:  Snowman Glyph Freebie

Here's a sneak peek:
And I know it's never too early to plan ahead, check out my Writing in a Winter Wonderland Common Core aligned Writing Unit. I'm not kidding when I tell you, that you will be writing from The day after Thanksgiving to the end of January!

Fun and a Freebie!

Ok, I just couldn't help myself.  Seriously, raise your hand if you ever wore pants like this?  Ok, so there's my little FUN moment.  I thought I was going to be saying this today and may have this song, but my class was super awesome with one of my favorite Word Work activities. I broke out the shaving cream for shaving Cream words, yes, you heard me correctly.
Take a look.

First you smear the shaving cream around (not too much, or it will start evaporating) Then scrape off the excess with your finger.

I call out a sight word or spelling word. I say each letter. The students write the letters into their shaving cream.

Notice all the shaving cream on her hands...see what I mean about "Can't touch this!"

Fun!

Usually, someone is always coming up to me with shaving cream hands, and getting it all over me, but I have to say I stayed pretty clean.  Some of my little goof-balls, decided they may need a shave and created some mustaches and goatees, but  it was all good.

After this we did math as usual, but since the new common core states that first graders need to be able to solve problems, using addition and subtraction I created Monster Problems.

These are not in the unit right now...however my class liked them so much I will be adding them in within the week.

I have taken 1 of the anchor charts and 2 of the problems to offer as a Freebie, to all my readers. 
Click the link if you would like to download.
I love feedback, so let me know what you and your little kiddos think of Monster Problems.
If you want to grab the whole book, you can pick it up at either 1 of my shops. (There is also a 2nd grade version available with 2-digit addition and subtraction problems)

Monster Problem Freebie