Monday Made It meets Harry Potter

Hi Friends!

Happy Monday!!! Can y'all believe how quickly time is flying... I feel like I just graduated and now I'm running around like a chicken without a head (true story!) because "by the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes!" Back-to-School is literally just around the corner! So, I'm on hyper-speed as I scramble to get everything in order for my favorite part of the school year... decorating the classroom! I can't wait to get in there and get started, until then I am living vicariously through all of you lucky ladies who have already crossed the school threshold.  In the meantime, here is  a simple, yet oober cute and chic, Monday Made It! For all of you Harry Potter fans out there... I hope you enjoy my little project as much as I do!

Making Memories History: The idea, as is explained in the post where I first saw the image {pictured below} of the jar, is that each week you're supposed to sit together, as a class, and decide what activity was most important and memorable for that week.  Then, whatever the activity was (albeit a field trip, new skill/concept that was exciting and interesting, something new they learned or discovered, etc.) you jot it down on a paper, fold it and stick it into the jar.  Then, at the end of the school year {the last week} you can read a couple each day and remember the "good times".  I plan on using different colored paper to also help to trigger memories in addition to drawing a small freehand picture to go with our writing.  For example, if what they want to remember for the week of March 17th is the crazy Leprechaun that came to visit our classroom then I would write it down on green paper and draw a small picture or add a St. Patty's Day sticker. 

So, here is my take and background story for this projects existence... I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Harry Potter and whenever I can concoct some type of project to include in my classroom that holds true to the whimsy and magical world that is Hogwarts I dive in full throttle! Anywho, I've been racking my brain trying to re-create this little gem because I wanted it to look different (so I'm not Pete the copy Cat) and every time I glanced at this picture {above}, in my "Projects to Make Over the Summer for the Classroom" board on Pinterest, for some odd reason I always kept getting images of Dumbledore and the pensieve in my head.  So, I did what any teacher would do... I sat in front of my computer and made it happen! Here is what I came up with:

My Version

I don't know if any of you out there are fans of Nonni's Biscotti but I am a *HUGE* biscotti lover and had this jar lying around so I decided to use it, but you can use any plastic jar that you have handy.

Original Version

I couldn't trace the original creator of this fabulous idea on Pinterest so if you see this and know who it is then please leave a comment so that I can give credit where credit is due!

For those of you who are new to my blog and are wondering why I made it this way... I can explain! My school is doing a "Superhero" theme this year hence the SUPER pensieve and the background polka-dots are my classroom color scheme plus the pensieve holds liquid in it hence the "bubbles" Ha! I hope that some of you can find a use for this in your classrooms.  Enjoy!

Click Professor Dumbledore Rocks! to snag! Ha! :)

Happy Pinning!

Monday Made It: Boggle with The Cat!

Hi Friends!

Hope you had an amazing weekend... I'm sure a lot of you took the time to spend it with your families {enjoy it while you still can because back-to-school is already creeping up on us... according to Staples, OfficeMax, Wal*Mart, Target, etc. of course}.  I've been pretty busy myself doing the same thing everyone else is doing, which includes: family, blog-stalking, pinterest, cinebistro, shopping for my classroom and pinterest (I mention it twice because I do more of that than anything else...ha!)  Speaking of Pinterest, I know that the Boggle board has been making appearances in everyone's classroom ever since Rebecca over at Create.Teach.Share came up with it! (Click on the link to see her version).  Anywho, while blogstalking I came across Mrs. Heeren's Happenings and absolutely fell in love with her FREE printable Boggle board letters (click on her link to get those) so I printed those babies out, laminated them with my Scotch Thermal Laminator {best thing invented since sliced bread! If you don't have one... you need one! Trust me!} and bazinga! (love, love, love Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory) and then put my Boggle board together.  Now, if you've read some of my previous posts... you are aware of my school dilemma. So, since I have no idea whatsoever what school-wide theme will be used for this upcoming school year I wanted to make a Boggle board that I would cherish and love for eons and eons to come.  I am a HUGE Dr. Seuss fan and when I first decided to create a Boggle board for my classroom all that kept popping into my head was this:

and then it hit me... Lightbulb! When you play Boggle you have to look left, right, up, down, frontways, sideways, backways and every which way... so what is more perfect than Dr. Seuss for a Boggle board I ask you?! So, here is my very first Monday Made it Project {I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for this awesome weekly Monday linky since I have been making tons of projects and plan to continue making more the rest of the summer for Back-to-School} for the 2012-2013 school year, it is my Boggle Board!

I plan on purchasing the Cat in the Hat bulletin board set (I only need the Cat though!) so that I can put him up next to the Boggle board and I will also be making a sign with the quote from Dr. Seuss! I think its going to be a HUGE hit in my classroom no matter what my theme is... you can't go wrong with The Cat!

I wanted to mention, that I passed 130 followers! I feel the love, I feel the love, I feel the love its really real! {Walkin' on Sunshine song}.  I have a Back-to-School Icebreaker that I created to sell on my TpT but since I'm so close to reaching 150 followers... I'm thinking that I will offer one as a giveaway (with the materials needed to do the activity... can't divulge the information just yet!) so I hope that y'all will continue following and let your friends know so that I can make it to the 150 mark and do the giveaway before July ends!

Also, do you remember my post about the Wooden Utensil Carrier... I promised that when it was finished I would share with you the finished product.  Well, here it is... can't you tell how much I love animal print?! I think that it came out awesome and I'm excited to see how it will look in my classroom Guided Reading table. 

BEFORE

AFTER

Front View

Side View

Happy Pinning and Creating!

By Our Powers Combined...Pickles and Ketchups Unite!

I want to say a BIG 'thank you!' to some of my bloggy friends who had nothing but positive and kind words for me in regards to the trials and tribulations that teachers, especially first year teachers, face as they take their first leap of faith to try to establish themselves in the teaching world... thanks to your kind words and loads upon loads of prayers (especially on my part) I should be getting called in either this week or next week to sign my paperwork to teach this coming school year.  That I am aware of, there are 2 teaching positions available at the school (Kindergarten and 2nd Grade... my *preference* is 2nd, so hopefully they place me there) but nonetheless I will be in my FIRST classroom and experiencing my FIRST year teaching Elementary!!! I am "to infinity and beyond" excited!!! So, be on the lookout as I post the rest of this summer and upcoming school year.  I might even need to revamp my site to match!

Anywho, in other news... as I stated in a previous post, this is definitely turning into a "Pinterest Summer".  I gotta start getting the ball rolling (especially now that I have a job sorry I just love saying that it is still very surreal that after all my hard work I am going to have my very own classroom!) and going into overdrive making all of the amazing things that y'all have posted on the internet to get my classroom ready.  This is going to be overwhelming, stressful, blissful, exciting, nerve-wracking and any other adjective you could name to describe my excitement and nervousness all at the same time!

Sorry, I guess I ramble a lot... but on to the post for today.  Pickles and Ketchup! So, I am sure that many of you have seen this amazing idea online and I traced it back to Callie over at Teach-a-Roo.  She offers it as a freebie {so go and print them out HERE if you like the idea for your classroom}.  Below is my version of her fabulous idea... maybe it will give you some inspiration to create your own, just as Teach-a-Roo inspired me! :) So, here's the low-down on what this is... basically, on Fridays you put these up on your board and you or the students can come up and write their names themselves under the appropriate heading and if they have no missing/incomplete work they go under the "pickles" heading {which means they can 'pick' from various options (depending on what choices you want to offer for them) like: games, tubs, stations or activities that they can complete while the "ketchups" catch up (pun intended! Ha!) on whatever work they need to finish! Genius I tell you... just genius!

Here's the original that has been making appearances all over Pinterest...

And here is my version... I used the Cricut: Accent Essentials cartridge to do the cutout of the frame on some pink and green design paper cardstock that I had lying around; then I pulled out a pencil and a sheet of red and green paper and got to drawing my ketchup bottle {didn't like any online} and pickle {again, didn't like any clipart online} and then made the headings and labels on microsoft word using the font MTF Cutie Patootie, which can be downloaded HERE  for free-99! {P.S. while you're on her site, browse around cause there are some super-duper-ooper cute fonts that are also free on her site}.  Now all that's left is to laminate these babies and attach some adhesive magnet to the back of each and they will be ready to make their debut in my FIRST classroom!!!

Happy Pinning!

It's a Pinterest Summer Ladies!!!

If you follow me on Pinterest then you know that I have a board for practically everything that you could possibly think of  including the kitchen sink! except for the kitchen sink! So, in anticipation of my first year teaching and because of my O.C.D. tendencies I created a board titled "Projects to complete over the Summer for my classroom"... well, I am here to say that I have officially checked one of those "pins" off my list and I have ONE very talented individual { from: Create*Teach*Share}to thank for this fabulous and extremely organized Teacher Toolbox.  Considering that this will be my very FIRST year teaching I figured that it couldn't hurt to make my classroom as organized as possible so that while I'm running around like a chicken without a head teaching in my beautifully decorated classroom I can find everything I need with ease.  So, it is with a GIANT thank you, thank you, thank you... for this amazing idea that I check off my very first Pinterest project of the Summer.

P.S. Even though I have absolutely NO IDEA what subject/grade or even what school I am going to be teaching at yet I have decided that my color scheme will be: black, white, raspberry/watermelon pinkish and turquoise... so, with that in mind, I hope you like how my Teacher Toolbox turned out and be sure to look for more projects that I will be posting this summer.  And if you'd like to follow me, The Teaching Bug, on Pinterest you can click on my "Follow Me on Pinterest" button at the top of my page.

Happy Pinning!