Monday Made It for June 29

I'm linking up once again with 4th Grade Frolics to share my Monday Made it! I've been beating the heat around here by staying inside and dreaming and crafting for school! So, today, all of my made its are classroom related.  After a few weeks of summer, it does feel good to be a bit productive.

Classroom Made It(s)

I made some ribbon tassels during one of my big craft days. I also wrote a tutorial about how to make them. They are very simple. You can find the tutorial here.

I also did a washi tape makeover on some small chalkboard easels I picked up at the Target Dollar spot (it's a lie to call it that-they were $3, but still a great deal, of course). I'm pleased with the finished product! I worked on some new pennants, but I am not finished with them quite yet!

My sister would like to point out that I have said "I only work on school projects for one week during the summer". Yes, I said that. I guess that is not true for this summer. Oooopsie. There's nothing like a new classroom to inspire you to do more work than you meant to, I guess!

 

My big project for this past week and the coming week is to complete my Math Quizzes for 2nd grade and get them ready to sell in my store. We started using these weekly in my grade level to track our students' progress leading up to our tests. Of course, this was before I started selling on TPT so most of them are on Word, and most of them involved clip art I "borrowed" from a Google search. So I'm reformatting and updating and making sure everything's legal. I am still writing them with the goal to keep them to a half sheet and include open ended, rigorous tasks. You'll notice that the TOC I included here is JUST for the OA strand. So, this is going to be a huge file. There will be at least one, if not more versions of a half sheet quiz per standard.

When my team gave these quizzes, we also had some written with standards mixed up based on EXACTLY what we were studying, which won't work for TPT world. This is because we never worked on the NBT addition and subtraction standards without also working on an OA.1 story problem type. Or, we may have included a special story problem type with a graphing standard. You know how it goes

With that said, here are some other things I'm hoping to include in addition to the quizzes just by standard. Got any other ideas for me?:
-Some Mixed Standard Quizzes (expecially with NBT & OA)
-A Checklist

Let me know if you have any ideas for my Quizzes!

Camp GoNoodle!

I don't have kids of my own, but Camp GoNoodle sounds like a really fun thing that families can do together this summer. My students love GoNoodle and I love GoNoodle, so I'm sure that whatever the team has up their sleeves for Camp will be super fun! It starts tomorrow! Check it out by clicking the CampGoNOODLE logo below!

In honor of Camp GoNoodle, I'm linking up with Kindergarten Connections! Here's a fun summer questionnaire:

Five for Friday

On Saturday we had a double date night to see Jurassic Park! It was super fun. A great summer movie, for sure. I thought this was a cute picture of us, so I just had to share!

Then on Sunday, we finally put up our curtains! Yay! It was pretty much the last thing we needed to do. I think the apartment looks a bit homier now. We're definitely ready to take a break from settling in and merging our homes. Dill, the cat, approves from his couch-throne.

I visited the main campus of the Atlanta Ballet Education Centre on Monday night. It was beautiful and huge, and even better, the class was a great fit for me. Unfortunately, it's further away for me than the Buckhead campus, but I'm sure I can make the trip over there when I have the chance.

I found a nearby Hobby Lobby on Tuesday. Actually, who am I kidding, Google found it for me. Anyways, as a result, I had a big crafting day on Wednesday. It was fun! My favorite new find was burlap scrapbooking paper. I also made some really cute tassels and write a tutorial on how to make them here.

So one very special advantage (among many, of course) to my Big Move is being closer to my sister! So even though I visited last week, I got to visit again this week! I baby sat Tate for Jessica (my sister) while she taught music at VBS. He now says my name! He calls me "Sssss". And I love it! He is such a sweet little boy-my sister does such a great job with him. She's 37 weeks pregnant now with baby Cora and we are all anticipating her arrival! 

Happy weekend, everyone! 

A Tassel Tutorial

Tassels seem to be all the rage right now! I made some this morning, and thought I'd post a little tutorial about how I made mine. They were easy and quick. Now I have a cute little touch to add to my bulletin boards next year. 

Step 1

Gather your materials. These include a hot glue gun, scissors, twine, and ribbons of your choice. Go ahead and plug in your hot glue gun. An optional material would be a needy and judgemental cat who refuses to look at you because you are busy not snuggling with him, but you don't have to have one of those.

Step 2

Cut your ribbons. Decide how long you want your tassel (mine are going beside a pennant title on a bulletin board, so I measured it against that), then double the length before cutting. Go ahead and cut all the ribbons you need. I knew I was going to make six tassels, so I cut six in each ribbon style. 

Step 3

Gather, pinch, fold, and twist. Gather the ribbons for one tassel-I used one of each style. Find the halfway point, and twist the ribbon there as you fold it in half. At this point, you may think about how you need to redo your manicure-but don't get too distracted! You may want to go ahead and put a dab of hot glue where the sides meet. 

Step 4

Wrap it up. Put a dab of hot glue on the tassel and begin wrapping the twine around. Twine may not work for your style, so you could just use a small ribbon that matches your color scheme! After wrapping it a few times, finish it off with another dab of hot glue and cut off the excess twine.

Step 5

Voilà! You are finished. I am going to attach my tassels to pennants later. My pennant isn't complete because I can't find the box in my storage room where my paint brushes are. I need to do some mod podging for the titles! Some people make a whole garland of tassels, which I think is pretty cute too! 

Alright, manicure time for me! 

TPT Seller Challenge: Dare to Dream

I'm continuing to link up with the TPT seller challenge. This week, we are all sharing our goals and dreams for our TPT business.

This blogging, selling, and connecting is HARD WORK. I knew it would be, which is why it took me so long to finally jump on the TPT and blogging train. Because it's such hard work, it's easy to see that the teachers who are joining up must be doing it for a reason!

So, here are a few reasons I am on this journey:

1. Sharpen: I want to improve and sharpen my own practice. When I create products for TPT, I am creating well designed and fully thought out products that I use in my classroom. They are organized, beautiful, creative, and include things like real life connections and differentiation. In addition, blogging and being in contact with other teachers has helped me learn more about what is going on in the world of education while also reflecting on my own practice.

2. Save: I'm getting married in October, and I want to save money for our future dreams. We hope to buy a house soon, and who knows what we might need some extra money for: a down payment? A renovation of some sort? Just a fresh coat of paint? Or hiring people to come move us (and by us I mean my massive pull out couch)? I want to contribute to our dreams with the extra income from TPT!

3. Supplement: This is sort of a long term goal. At some point down the road, I would love to grow my TPT business enough to be flexible with my work as a teacher. Ok, actually writing that down seems kind of scary...Anyways...my sister works part time right now as a school speech therapist so she can be at home with her babies, and I think I would love that option when the time comes. It's been really neat to see some of the teachers I've "met" online be able to supplement their income with TPT.


I can't wait to hear about everyone else's dreams! Happy Monday, y'all!

Monday Made It for June 22

I love to let the creative juices flow in the summer time. So, this week, I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics to show some of the projects I've been working on!

There is so much going on for me this summer to inspire me to be creative! A new school, new apartment, a niece on the way, a wedding in the distance...so having the summer to work on projects has been a nice way for me to unwind and enjoy all of these things! Today, I'm sharing a few highlights from all of the projects I've been working on!

HOME MADE IT

When my nephew was born, I made a star mobile for his nursery. I am a little obsessed with cool geometry and had learned to make great stellated dodecahedrons out of card stock. With a niece on the way, I knew I wanted to make a mobile again. This time, it would have a softer feel to it to match her more feminine room! Ribbons, felt, and embroidery thread was all that was needed for this project! I'm happy with the way it turned out and can't wait to welcome Miss. Cora to the family in a few weeks!

FOOD MADE IT

I made this great dish when I visited my sister last week. They are Chicken Casesar Sliders. They were delicious and would be great party food! I love having simple and light meals during the summer. We paired this dish with some fresh squash from friends. Click here for the sandwich recipe. 

CLASSROOM MADE IT

I have been rocking a Team + Black and White Polka Dot + Aqua + Lime Green theme in my classroom for probably four years now. While I still love it, I am feeling ready to make a change. I'm going to move more into the direction of a chalkboard feel, so I tweaked some letters for bulletin boards and labels for book boxes. I also created a custom name plate to match my team theme! 

That's it for Made It Monday! Have a wonderful week!

Five For Friday: A Little Catch Up

I've been a busy girl, and therefore have completely abandoned the blog, the store, and the Facebook page. But, I have some things I hope to be creating and topics I hope to blog about this summer. For this week's linky party, I'll pick a few highlights from the past two weeks!

We had VBS at my church and I led the rising Kindergarten crew. They were so cute! But I don't think I'm cut out to be a PK or K teacher. I only had at most 12 kids, and they exhausted me! These little fellas did a great job of learning new Bible stories and songs. 

During the day of VBS week, I packed and cleaned up my house. I moved out that Saturday and spent the next couple of days getting unpacked and moved in to Arman's place. I closed on my place a week later and now I've become obsessed with looking at real estate listings in our desirable neighborhoods here, even though we are not in a big hurry to buy something new!

I'm so excited about the person who is moving into my condo back in Athens: basically she is me. She is a 25 year old (like me when I bought  it) with a twin sister and a "912" phone number! As silly as it sounds, it makes me happy to know my little home is getting a sweet new owner. 

We had our first celebrity selfie with comedian Jo Koy!

I have never painted pottery before, and I got to paint with some of the ladies of my church. It was super fun and relaxing. I've already figured out what I'll do differently when I do something like this again (which I hope is soon). I can't wait to go pick up the final product!

This week I was so happy to spend a few days with my sister. We did all the important things, like: entertaining her toddler Tate, going to Chic Fil A and ordering ice cream, wearing the same outfit for two days, watching RHONY, napping when the toddler napped, and the like. Some of her sweet friends threw a baby sprinkle for the new one (doesn't she look great in this picture?) and she got some precious little girl gifts!