Monday Made It: July 11

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Recently, I finished reading The Book Whisperer, by Donalyn Miller. I really enjoyed it! I was inspired to create my own Reading Inventory for my future 3rd graders. When I sat down to create, I was immediately struck by the idea of gamify-ing it a bit by using the arrows, yes/no paths, and emojis. I hope the kids will enjoy it, and I hope you will, too! It's free in my store. Click here!

Guys, I don't know if this really counts as a made-it, but I made my favorite boxed brownies for a little Independence Day shindig! If you haven't tried Ghiradelli's Double Chocolate brownies, you simply must! So delicious.

My husband asked me if we had any left on Thursday. Um, is he crazy? Of course there aren't any extra! It's Thursday-I already ate them all!





I've probably said it before, but this is my favorite link up. I can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to! Time to get lost in blog-world!

xoxo,
Stephanie

Tuesday Made It

Oops! The days are getting away from me. Last week was spent on a family vacation with my hubby, parents, sister, and her family. And by family vacation I mean that we enjoyed our time at a beach house and on the beach between bouts of the stomach virus. We passed that stuff around like nobody's business and the only person who didn't end up sick was my hubby! A little disappointing, but we will get over it and laugh about it one day. Hopefully soon.

So now for Monday Made It! It's my favorite! Please excuse my tardiness. If you would like to see the rest of the link up, click on the Monday Made It icon below. But don't do that until you read my post! 

I have been recovering from the above-mentioned sickness and doing some work this week, and my TPT project is what I am most excited about! You must check it out! It is a collection of Task cards to introduce the Seesaw App to your classrooms. Each card has a fun getting to know you (or getting to know the classroom) task on it plus some step by step instructions. If you have the App already and know how to use it, the only prep you need to do is to print these Task Cards out! If not, you will have some downloading and exploring to do, but I think this product can help you with that.

Ok, I didn't make anything yet, but I scored these signs from the Dollar Spot at Target. Any ideas of what I should do with them? Other than "stop buying stuff that you don't have ideas for already"? Ha!


XOXO,
Stephanie

May Pinterest Linky!

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When I found out that our final MAP tests of the year were beginning on May 4th, I just knew I had to connect that to Star Wars. May the 4th Be With You. Each day when we get back from testing, I will serve them a little themed snack (made by a parent) and we will do a fun activity. This was a great pin to get my juices flowing! 

I was inspired by this pin for our Family Gifts this year. Each student will choose how to incorporate their handprints into a design for a reusable grocery bag. I bought some really beautiful blue ones on Amazon. 

I made this ice cream already, but I just had to share! My Kitchenaid mixer ice cream attachment had its maiden journey on this recipe. It was delicious! 

April Pinterest Linky

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Click on the pic for the link! 

I just found this on Pinterest last night and I love it! I really hope to get this together as an End of the Year gift for my students. What an uplifting keepsake it would make for them. Just beautiful!

Click on the photo to link to the pin.

So first of all, this blog is one of my new favorites to explore. It has such a nice collection of activities and ideas for Math and Science. So even if you don't need to teach arrays, you should go explore this blog! I am excited to use this Multiplication City idea when I introduce arrays to my 2nd graders. I am even contemplating adding a possible 3D component to the city building. Living with an architect and city planner has rubbed off on this 2nd grade teacher! 

Click on the photo to link to the pin.

I have been working on being frugal and more chemical free by replacing some every day cleaning product with simpler and natural options. These dryer balls are on my Spring Break project list. 

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February's Monday Made It

YAY! Monday Made It! Let's go!

P.S. 3/4 of these have nothing to do with school and I am ok with that!

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I finally made something with all of the beautiful cards we received during our season of engagement and wedding. I bought a square paper punch and then simply glued on one line at a time until I filled in the mat. I love it! It has such good memories and good wishes attached to it. I am hanging it in our bathroom, where it will repeat the scheme of small square tiles like in our shower area.

My sister and I attended a workshop on Protestant prayer beads this past weekend and we got to make some of our own! We are both excited to use these as prayer tools during the Lenten season and hopefully into the future. Check out Prayerworks Studio on ETSY for more info abut using prayer beads and to purchase prayer beads or prayer bead kits.

 

Last week was all about cooking with new ingredients for me! For this recipe, my new ingredient was rice noodles. Let me just say, this was such a delicious, refreshing, but also filling tilapia recipe. Check it out here! If you love tilapia and coconut milk as much as we do, you will love this recipe!

I made some read aloud guides for books which address homelessness and food insecurity. This is for an upcoming expedition for my students, but it includes this year's Newbery award winner. Check out this free, albeit simple, resource to ramp up your read aloud time with higher order questions! Fun fact: I made these resources on my school computer, which crashed just last week. So I will get to make them all over again soon! Yay! Luckily, I had sent all of the resources as PDF to my team before this, but I just can't stand not having things that are editable (and let's face it, I will admit to needing to edit a few typos). 

Happy Valentine's Week, everyone! 

Monday Made It: January

Monday Made It may very well be one of my favorite link ups. I'm feeling excited to see what everyone's been up to. I actually just unpacked my crafting and cake decorating supplies (which have been in various storage locations since June)-so I'm ready for a new project!

We threw a sort of last minute New Year's Eve party, but last minute always seems to really make the creative juices flow, right? I made the things pictured above for about $4! I used the bulletin board from the seating chart at our wedding, and made everyone create a hashtag for their 2015 and for their hopes for 2016 (this picture was taken early in the night). It was super fun! I used paper and paint I already had, but I did have to buy some new thumbtacks that were a simple color. I also went to the dollar tree and bought gold frames to decorate the table with. I tried out my own hand lettering and design. Again, I had gold paint left from the wedding. It was super easy! I even made the dots just using my fingers! 

 

This was a project I made to display in our home. I printed out photographs and a map of our city (Atlanta) and neighborhood. I traced around the letters and mod podged over them. Voila-they look super fancy but were really simple! I think the most difficult part was finding a photo or drawing that had high resolution and also fit the letters just how I wanted. The letters are just lightweight cardboard from Hobby Lobby. I would have preferred wooden, but I couldn't find the sans serif look I was going for. 

 

I was inspired to begin a new series of products for my store. Teaching Math and encouraging higher order thinking has my heart. A few years ago, I began developing tasks that my old district would have referred to as "Constructed Response" for different topics. These were tasks that would have different steps building upon the ones in front of them, and just would require students do some deep thinking, and often, writing.

So I have begun putting them on TPT-tasks and assessments for each task. I use them with my kids and they are doing great! It's good for everyone, but especially my kids who need a challenge. I've been using them whole group.  I will keep creating new sets as I try them out and tweak them in my classroom.

Reflections of 2015 Linky Party and Countdown

Today I am linking up with for a 2015 Reflection. Let’s do a little countdown, shall we? Here is my Top 10 for 2015!

10. TPT

In February, I decided to start trying to sell some of the things I have been creating these past eight years as a 2^nd grade teacher on a pretty cool website called Teachers Pay Teachers. Do you know it? Jk. My coworkers have been nagging me to do this for ages, but I knew it would be a lot of work. I wanted to do it right. I had to check into the legalities of my creations, clip art use, etc. If you’re reading this, you probably know the drill. So I finally took the plunge and got creating! I am pleased with how it is going so far, but hope to add more and really make a name for myself in the TPT world.

        

9. Starting The Blog

At the same time I began TPT, I knew that having a blog was going to help me sell products. Furthermore, it was going to help me share ideas. I think that in my own classroom, my best work does not happen in a way that I am able to market through a product, so having a blog is a great way for me to reach out and share! My then boyfriend-soon-to-be-fiance helped me create a logo. Soon after beginning the blog, I knew I was going to need some design help, so I found and hired Alexis at Laugh Eat Learn to do the work for me. Check her out!

8. Engagement

In March, I got engaged to the love of my life! Read about it in this post.

7. TPT Seller Challenge

In June, I took the TPT Seller Challenge. Or, I started to take the Challenge. I think I participated in 3 out of 4 weeks. It was a good experience because it got me reflecting on my work so far and helped me hone some skills. Read about what I learned and did through this challenge here and here.

6.  Baby Cora

I got a new niece! This was basically the highlight of my summer. She is super sweet, and loves to smile and squeal. I’m glad that I have both a nephew and niece to spoil and I’m so thankful to live a little bit closer to my sister now than I did in the past.

5. The First Day

Yes, the first day of school was a momentous and important occasion in 2015. It was my first new school since my first year of teaching. In the week leading up to it, I felt like seven years of first days did not adequately prepare me for the first day of year eight. I was so nervous! But it went beautifully. And it was only the first of many beautiful days.

4. Moving Again

In September, we bought and moved into a dream condo in a great location in Atlanta. We love working together to make this place a true home. Most recently, we finally got a sofa!

3. A New Place

I could dwell on the past and get all sappy, but I already did that here. As 2015 comes to a close, I could not be more thankful to have found a teaching position in a wonderful new school. The Lord certainly answers prayers. Finding a new school to work in is about so much more than location. It’s about finding your place. A place among a community, coworkers, and children. We all have a place, don’t we? And right now, mine is really lovely.

2. Getting Married

In October, the best day of the year happened. Our wedding day. Check out this post for some more pictures and details.

1. Jamaica

Our honeymoon was a huge highlight of our year together. We waited about a month after our wedding to go to Jamaica (had to take advantage of Thanksgiving  break) and it was so amazing. Ah, I can close my eyes and almost feel the warm tropical breeze right now…oh wait, that’s just December in Georgia!