Guest Post @ April's Blog - The Idea Backpack!

Hi y'all! I'm over at April's blog, The Idea Backpack, today guest blogging! I've collected a few bulletin board ideas and anchor chart ideas that I love and put them into a single post! Go on over and check it out - hope you like what you see!

I also added something new to my store - it's red, silver, and blue word wall letters and numbers - or calendar numbers - or whatever you want to do with them letters & numbers! Go check it out :)

Have a good day!

Endless Pinabilities BTS Party!

Hi y'all! I'm guest blogging over at Endless Pinabilities today for the Back to School Party! Make sure you stop by and see all the great teacher bloggers that are participating in this week long party! GO NOW!

Have a good day!

Monday Made It & Vistaprint Order

Hi y'all! It's that time again... Monday Made It with Tara @ 4th Grade Frolics!

My first project was inspired by Amanda @ One Extra Degree. She made a BRAINSTORM BOX and I decided that I just absolutely loved the idea. So, I made my own! Mine looks a little different, as it has a closed top and is black with white lettering... but it's a similar idea!

MATERIALS:
Wooden box (Hobby Lobby)
My Cricut machine
White cardstock
Black paint
Paint brush
Xyron sticker maker

TO MAKE:
To make this, I started out by painting it black. It was wood colored, but I wanted something that would stand out! After I let it dry, I cut out the words "brainstorm box" using my Cricut. I used the Makin' The Grade cartridge and I think it turned out great! Then, I put the letters through my Xyron sticker maker to turn the backs into stickers, and stuck them on the box. Tada!




These are the little wood cutouts that I started out the day with... they go with my ocean theme I'll have for my classroom eventually! But then...

I went to Hobby Lobby because I ran out of sticker maker stuff AND I bought 44 more wooden cutouts! I grabbed one of each there and decided that they would all make great story starters or story characters.

Students will be able to use this box when they have finished their work and this box will also be stationed at a writing center. This hopefully will encourage students to be creative in their writing!

My second project was inspired by Kristin @ iTeach 1:1. She made a COMPLIMENT BOX and I decided (again) that I had to make one. Mine (again) looks a little different, as mine is a red painted box with red lettering. I'll be using my box in a similar fashion, though!


MATERIALS:
Wooden box (Hobby Lobby)
My Cricut machine
White cardstock
Red paint
Paint brush
Xyron sticker maker

This box will be used for my students to leave their friends some notes throughout the day. Amanda created a freebie for compliment notes on her site (click the blue link above this picture) so if you'd like it - go pick it up! I plan to have little strips of white paper where students can write their name, who they are giving the compliment to, and the compliment. At the end of the day, we'll read a few of them and the students will all get to take their compliments home! This is just a way to build community in the classroom and to make everyone feel as though they belong (because they DO belong!).

I also created the freebie below, too! These are the comment cards that I'll be using for my Comment Box above!

If you like what you see, you can have it for free! :) Click the picture below to be taken to my TPT store where it's located!

Finally, my Vistaprint order came! I borrowed a lot of different ideas from various people. Those who I took examples from are Tiffany @ The Learning Effect  and Katie @ Dirty Hands and Lesson Plans - there are a few other things I made that I had ideas from through people, but I cannot remember who! So, here's what I got!

This will be my birthday magnet that goes on the board - it's a small car magnet so it's plenty big enough! It's dry erasable, too, or so I've heard - yay!

 This will be used on the board where students' papers go without names. I absolutely love the design :)

These are the business cards I've made for my classroom. The top card is an exit ticket style card. This idea came from Katie. Students will write what they learned in order to move onto the next topic. The happy birthday card is obviously for birthdays. The computer style cards are for my students to put their username and passwords on cards in order to remember them (I will probably use some of these myself!). Finally, the last two are punch cards - the students will punch out their cards when they've done what it says - complete homework 10 times or move up the behavior chart 10 times. The last two cards were inspired by Tiffany!

 I made two stamps - they're both much smaller than I thought, but I like them! One is for a signature and one is for finish for homework. I also created these conference cards off Katie's choices - I absolutely love the style of them and they are very professional if you ask me.

Finally, I created these return address labels for my books - I'll probably order a stamp with my name on it to print on these eventually (since I don't have a classroom yet so I didn't want to put my name on them yet), but I absolutely LOVED the style so I had to get them!

LOOK at how much I saved on this oder - overall, it was a total of $35.88 - I used my Vistaprint Groupon $17.00 for $70.00 worth of products, but I obviously got more! I didn't want to spend $60.00 on shipping, so I went ahead and added at least $25.00 worth of stuff, and came out paying a total of $35.88 + $17.00 (for the Groupon) for a grand total of $52.88 - where I SAVED $237.07. WHOA.

I cannot wait to place my next Vistaprint order... I've joined a group on Facebook for teachers about Vistaprint - click here to be linked to the group! So, I'll have plenty of different ideas by then. But, that's all I've got for ya!

Have a good night, y'all!

127 Yard Sale Finds & Sunday Social

Hi y'all! I'm back with a definite picture overload! Just a forewarning :)

I'm linking up with a different kind of linky party... called the Sunday Social! It's hosted by Ashley & Neely at their blogs, Ashley's Carnival Ride and A Complete Waste of Makeup - make sure you go to both of their blogs & check them out... link up while you're there!

With this linky, there are questions you answer. The topic for this week's Sunday Social is FALL! I absolutely LOVE fall and it's my favorite season out of all the seasons. You'll see why :)

1. What is your favorite fall activity?
My all time favorite fall activities are watching football games, snuggling under a warm blanket watching movies (especially holiday movies!), Trick or Treating, and all kinds of other fall things!

2. Do you follow a football team? If so, which one and why?
I surely do! For pro, I follow my Vikings - always have, always will. Why? I'm not sure... I guess when I was little, I really liked the horn on their helmets and they just stuck! For college, I follow my Bearcats. Why? That's my alma mater (so weird to say that!).

3. What is something fun about Fall in your area?
In our area, there's LOTS of different haunted houses. Kings Island is our big one - they've got the Halloween Haunt where you can still ride many of the amusement rides, but there's also scary stuff!

 

4. Favorite fall outfit staples?
I looove big, comfy, oversized sweaters and my sweatpants. I love being able to curl up in the big clothes on a cool, Fall night! I also like my boots and my jeans.

5. Thing you are looking forward to most about this coming Fall season?
I cannot wait for the holiday movies to start in November! I love that time, and I love the smell of fall. The bonfires, the leaves falling, the pumpkins. I cannot wait to be able to taste some delicious pumpkin pie! I'm also going to carve pumpkins this year and put them on the porch with candles inside. And I'm going to decorate our house since I'm home for it this year :)

6. Favorite fall holiday? Traditions?
I absolutely LOVE Thanksgiving. The time where you can pig out with no regrets because you want everything anyway! :) I also love seeing the little ones dress up for Halloween. We don't have many traditions besides going shopping on Black Friday and having Thanksgiving at someone's house!

Go link up with these ladies - such a cute idea for a linky!


127 YARD SALE
Sorry I lied - I didn't post yesterday about my 127 Yard Sale finds, BUT today, I am posting about them! They're probably not real huge deals to you all, but I absolutely love what I bought and I am so happy with my purchases!


First up, I bought two different stools! Why two? Well, the green one is going to be sanded down and then painted black with all sorts of bright, fun colors - on the top (the stool part), it's going to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY! This is going to be my birthday stool in the classroom. Special stool, basically! The blue stool is going to be painted over with a similar blue, and turned into my teacher stool. I'll sit on it for various things, but it's going to be decorated to suit me! These were a total of $18.00 for both.


And then I bought this basket for some reason - what am I going to use it for? The possibilities are endless! I'm not exactly sure.. I just really liked it! This was $1.00.

Then I found these two festive things! I love the holidays... especially Christmas. If it was in the Fall rather than Winter, I would absolutely, 100%, no doubt love Winter simply for that fact. Anyway... I bought the Happy Holidays to hang on my classroom door when it comes around to that time - I bought the Santa starfish ornament for my first Christmas tree. Plus, how could I pass him up? He's WAY too cute. This was a total of $1.00 for both.

I also got these craft sticks... not sure what for, but I'm sure I can use them for something! I also bought the beachy sign... I think I'll hang it up by my desk when I'm teaching so that way I can think of the beach when I get stressed! This was a total of $5.50 for both.

I bought the shutter (first picture) to do some sort of art project. I REALLY liked the flag I found on Pinterest (that links to Mamie Jane's site here), so I may try to duplicate that! 

So, that's what I bought!! Below are just a few extra pictures from the trip...

We drove through some CRAZY rain. On the way into Florence, KY, there was this rainbow in the sky! I had to take a picture.. of course.

 We also drove past this HUGE castle. Momma said they hold Renaissance Festival type things here.. but I'd prefer to live there :)

The 127 Yard Sale is SUCH a long yard sale, and there's a TON of junk... but I recommend everyone do it at least once. You never know what you'll find!!

MONDAY MADE IT
Below are two things for my Monday Made it Tomorrow - I haven't done anything with them.. so they're very plain - but, what do you think I'm making them into?!? Guess you'll have to come by tomorrow to see!

Remember to check out my Giveaways page up above - I update it every day!

See y'all tomorrow!

August Currently & 127 Yard Sale

Farley's got her Currently out for the month of August! Click on her bloggy button below to go link up :)

I found a few cute things on the 127 yard sale today! I'll be back tomorrow to show pictures of what I got and what I plan to do with them - I also took a harmless trip to Hobby Lobby and have some cute ideas (I think anyway!) - I'll post some hints about that tomorrow because it'll be my Monday Made It for this week! :)

See y'all tomorrow!

Vistaprint & May Books Groupons

Hi guys! I've been grouponing a lot (yes, that's now a verb) along with Pinteresting, so I've got some deals to tell you about if you don't already know about them!

TWO different Vistaprint deals! (Click picture above to explore Vistaprint) Both deals are $17.00 for $70.00 worth of Vistaprint stuff. Click on either link below to be taken to the deals. One expires on October 31st (Halloween!!) and the other on November 7th. Both have the cities I use (Dayton & Cincinnati) but you don't have to live here to buy either one!

Vistaprint expiring on October 31st
Vistaprint expiring on November 7th

May Books deal! (Click picture above to explore May Books) If you haven't had time to explore May Books yet, they are AMAZING. There's lots of different customizable things to do with May Books. You can choose your cover (there are a TON of styles to choose from) and you can choose what type of monogram you want on the front cover. BUT, that's not all! You get to choose the insides of your book, too! There are things from a 2012-2013 Academic Calendar from August to August, or a 2013 Agenda from January to December, Wedding Diary, Baby Diary, Bump Diary, Graph paper, Lines, or Blank! This is NOT all the styles, so you'll definitely have to go check it out for yourself. Anyway, the deal is for $15.00 for $26.00 worth of May Books (aka 1 May Book for $15.00) OR $25.00 for $46.00 worth of May Books (aka 2 May Books for $25.00). This deal expires September 5th, so hop on the deal!


May Book expiring on September 5th

In other news:
I OFFICIALLY FINISHED MY ENDORSEMENT FOR 4TH/5TH GRADE!! Woohoo... I cannot tell you how happy I am to be done with these classes. I feel as though they were pointless... but I'm sure if I dig deep, I can find something that I learned! Now to just wait on the grades and the Praxis test scores!

Tomorrow, Momma, Jeff, and I are going on the 127 Yard Sale! Cannot wait to see what little treasures I find. This weekend is dedicated to organizing my life, so I'll likely not be back to post until next week!

BUT, next week, I'll hopefully have more things created by then and I'll also be guest blogging at two different blogs:

April's blog, The Idea Backpack

Endless Pinabilities for our Back to School segment!

Be on the lookout for these things going on! Have a good day and weekend, y'all! See ya soon :)