Projects Galore!

For 6 years now I have been drawing elkonin boxes and handwriting lines on the board while I teach my small groups or RTI rotations.  But I always felt it was distracting for the kids to have to wait in between each word we segmented for me to draw the boxes.  I could have used chart tablets but I'm know to be pretty frugal so I save the chart paper for super special anchor charts ;) So, I determined this summer to make a board that would be so much more time efficienct. And fun of course!

First, I looked for a board that was a perfect size and double sided.  This was a challenge so I found the next best thing at Hobby Lobby.  I grabbed a plain 18" x 24" white board (with the 40% coupon!) and went to lowes and had them cut it in half.  They were a little scared at first but it was a great job!  I didn't even have to sand it.  

Then I went to my local Auto Zone and grabbed a pack of pin stripe tape.....

I had my sister help me out a bit to make my lines straight-ish!

I needed my sisters help peeling the tape....I'm a nail biter, don't tell anyone!

Now I don't have to draw the boxes or lines again!!!!! I am doing the happy dance just thinking about it!

Now I'm just going to glue them together with some E6000 and TA-DA! 

It was a fairly cheap and easy job! 

Getting back into the Groove!

Used the new school laminator today!!!! Had so much fun I thought I should make a freebie!

Go to my TPT store to get my cubbie numbers for free! I'm going to also make a second set and put in on a ring for my student helper of the day.  

 

Number Cards Freebie!

Changes are coming!

Just a little tip, I am working on changing up my blogger layout!  If things look a little different, I will have it done ASAP! 

Reading Challenge, Coast to Coast

Our school participates in the Accelerated Reader program and we decided to be a part of the "Coast to Coast" challenge on February 28th.  We read and tested ALL day long.  (With the exception of taking our weekly assessments.) In order to make it fun I called for "Flashlight Friday". I came up with the idea Thursday after school so I emailed as many parents as I could and asked them to send their child with a flashlight if they had one.  Then I stopped by my favorite supply resource store (a.k.a Dollar Tree) and bought glow stick bracelets.  Talk about the CHEAPEST way to motivate a student to read and track!  They LOVED it!  I will for sure bring "Flashlight Friday" back to the classroom often!

Our school even gave out prizes to kids participating in the AR challenge.  (These were randomly draw but the kids got some good gifts!

 

I think this fella is still surprised at his awesome football! I kinda wanted it!

Mr. President

I have always done an informative writing with Washington and Lincoln each year but I wanted to be extra cute after we made our MLK Jr. Writings.  So I did a little research (a.k.a Pinterest stalking) and got a few ideas for these president studies!

First we start with a few NF books and Unitedstreaming videos then we make a simple bubble map for each president.

 

Then we used Washington and Lincoln to talk about analogies.  I was able to get a lot of out of the presidents!

Won't you be my Sweetheart!

Well, now that school is out and my brain can slow down and think I decided to share the rest of my pictures before I deleted them off my phone! I had every intention this year to be a better blogger but reality set in and I got totally distracted! Until right now I always wondered how people like Mrs. Carrol could keep up.....and then I discovered blogger on my phone! Bahaha- I've had it on my phone all year but never sat down to use it! Until now....

So - here is our valentine craft that we love to do each year! I've done it in kindergarten and in first grade and it's always a hit! 

I think this was a cat?

So there you have the cheapest craft ever! Paper and 1 box of sweet hearts :)