Monday Made-It Preparing for School Style!

I have been in "school mode" at home, making sure I have everything ready for our first day of school tomorrow.  I'm linking up again with 4th Grade Frolics' now MONTHLY Monday Made-It! :)

Classroom Made-It #1
I got everything together to make my "Ready Confetti" for my students to take home with them at Orientation last Thursday.   This was inspired by Heather at Heather's Heart, but I changed it up a bit b/c I didn't want to parents to get TOO mad at me for making their little ones' beds all messy with glitter.  I just used confetti instead and changed the rhyme a little bit.

 







Classroom Made-It #2
I finished up my "1st/Last Week of 2nd Grade" picture frame.  I always took pictures of my students at the beginning of the year and the end of the year for their writing portfolios, so this will help THEM to remember it in the future, too. :)

Classroom Made-It #3
First Day Snack--I just put a label on a snack bag and filled it with animal crackers.  3 bags of animal crackers later, I have enough for all 22 of my students, plus a few extra.

Classroom Made-It #4
Kiss Your Brain Jar--I saw this on Teaching Maddeness, so I knew I needed to try to make one!  Our very sweet Guidance Counselor retired last year, and her big thing was giving Hershey Kisses, so I thought this would be a great way to continue her tradition in the classroom. :)  We are definitely going to miss Mrs. Owen A LOT!

Classroom Made-It #5
Laminated fun--These are just a FEW of the things I have laminated in the past week.  I have my little Oliver Button that I will use with the story "Oliver Button is a Sissy," as well as a few activities from Fourth and Ten--a citizenship poster from her Character Traits Unit and a time capsule cover from her School Time Capsule Unit.

I also have the Bucket Fillers and Bucket Dippers headers from 3rd Grade Thoughts for a chart we will make together in class after reading "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?"  The descriptions are Cara Carroll inspired from First Grade Fanatics.

Classroom Made-It #6
Nametags and such GALORE!  How many times do we write our students' names before we even meet them?!  ;)  I always give my sweeties a little certificate on the first day of school that they can color--it's from Mailbox.  I make each student a nametag to wear the first day because many of our students are new to the school due to our military population.  The red cards are actually nametags that I have stuck on construction paper, laminated, then put student ID numbers on them.  This is what they use for their lunch number--an 8-digit number!  Needless to say, it takes a few weeks for these little sweeties to remember their lunch numbers, even if they were with us last year.  This really helps.  I keep them on a ring, then pass them out when needed.

I also write names on popsicle sticks if I need to call on students randomly.  I use this coffee mug that one of my sweeties got me during my FIRST year of teaching. :)

These are all ready for names!!!  I took all the permanent marker off of everything---finally!  Crayons are for my classroom helpers (although I only have 22 crayons--so I think I might have to come up with something else, just in case I get a new student!), Monkeys are for my behavior palm tree (green, yellow, red system), and the trees are for my Lunch Choices (students move them each morning to their lunch choice for the day).

Classroom Made-It #7
Well--this isn't made just YET, but I've got everything ready to make "Jitter Juice" tomorrow. :)

Classroom Made-It #8
My sweet hubs helped me with this one.  He used an electric saw (don't ask me what kind...) to cut my composition notebooks in half.  This is QUITE a messy project, so make sure you're not cutting inside your house!  We will use them for Science and Social Studies Vocabulary.  I put a little name tag at the top of each notebook.

Shew!  I'm tired just looking at all that stuff I have done.  A lot of it was finished just within this past weekend!  Now, I just need to go over my lesson plans about a million more times to make sure I'm comfortable and confident enough to start incorporating WBT (Whole Brain Teaching) techniques right off the bat!  I'll let you know how it goes...wish me luck!