Monday Made It and Disney Dreams!

Hey there friends! I am back from a whirlwind vacation... Myrtle Beach, then Disney World, a few days with in the in-laws and now back into the swing of summer things!  It's our first full day back and I'm already sucked into the teacher summer stuff.  Walmart, the dollar store, classroom labels, SPRAY PAINT... it's been an adventurous day! (And hubby isn't even home yet!)

Today, I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It.  I remember coming across her blog when I was first hired for 4th grade and her blog became a great resource!  Thanks Tara for your great ideas! :)

My first made it is from Disney!  As most of you know, Frozen is THE movie of the year!  And it's allll over Disney World in EVERY park.  At Hollywood Studios, the cast members were handing out these fun cardboard Olaf's for people to take selfies with (hehe)! The hashtag to use was #OlafSummerVacation- there are some great pics on Instagram!  Anyway, I befriended a few cast members and explained that my 4th graders ADORED Frozen and that I would LOVE to have a few extra for a bulletin board.  Well, I quickly accumulated about 30+ Olaf's- WOOHOO! I plan on printing out "books" to put in his hands and have the kids use them to record their AR goals and current number of points on a bulletin board.  Now to think of a clever title... warm up with a good book, outstanding olaf readers, reading with Olaf.... gotta think of something!

My second made it involves discarded furniture and spray paint in my favorite color!  These are some pieces that I found that needed some TLC.  With new walls in my room, I knew I needed more bulletin boards to put up stuff.  One will be for our AR goals (with the Olaf's) and one will be for the new "Assess Yourself" board. The bookshelf will hold all of the kids data collection folders.  I haven't figured it all out yet, but I want the kids to each track their own growth over the year.  I'm thinking about having them take a mini 4 question pretest before each unit and then rate themselves with the "Assess Yourself" board. After  the unit, they answer the same questions and re-rate themselves.  We may even graph the results along the way and "reflect" about growth. (Lookey there Bridgewater, teaching PDP reflection skills!) The Assess Yourself posters are further down :) (Thanks Mom for letting spray paint your yard!)

Before...

...AFTER! Love the color!

Assess Yourself Posters for one of the bulletin boards for Data Collection. This idea came from Pinterest but I couldn't find the exact location.  If it's yours and I missed it, please let me know! I would love to give credit where credit is due! :)

You can get a copy of my posters in my store here. :)

The last Made It for today is actually from my husband! He let me work on school stuff (my assess yourself posters) while he put our new furniture together last night! My grandma blessed us with her old furniture when I moved into my own apartment but it wasn't serving much purpose.  With my husband going to law school in the fall, and with my endless amount of projects in our small apartment, we desperately needed more space!  So we went to Ikea and bought two pieces.  Both replaced our current furniture but provided more storage.  The sofa table is perfect for Joel's books and supplies while the coffee table/my desk has a bottom shelf perfect for my laptop and other things. I plan on getting a few baskets for both.  Please ignore the messiness :)

And oh yeah, I would LOVE to Ikea hack theses pieces to look like this:










Well friends, that's all for today! I've got to bring in the sprayed stuff before our next storm hits!  Happy days to you all! Here are some photos from Disney! :)

farren

My handsome husband and I on my birthday at Belle's Cottage- she's' my FAVORITE princess! 

Do you want to build snowman?  Hollywood Studios had snow you could play with!

Meet my in-laws! My mother in-law and I share a birthday :)

Anna and Elsa! 

Classroom Colors and Sweet Summer Time!

Hello friends! The past week I was in Myrtle Beach with my mom, sister, and husband.  It was GREAT! I absolutely LOVE the beach... the ocean, pool, food, krispy kreme donuts (with the red light on...) and of course, the shopping! Outlets, little boutiques, the mall.... but the best store of all was the TEACHER STORE!  We don't have one of these around us where I'm from so I've been waiting patently to go to this store for literally months. When I walked in, I almost fainted. I mean, LOOK AT ALL THESE BORDER OPTIONS!  We left my sister and husband at the condo so my mom and I ventured out.  She walked in, saw a rocking chair, popped a squat and let me fill up a basket with brand new borders!

Here are my colors, or inspiration for my new room with real walls!  Paisley, chevron, and bright colors! I'm going to stick with teal because it's my favorite color and I LOVE paisley. This year, I'm going to add in some poppy red and orange- two colors I NEVER thought I would ever LOVE.  I also bought some matching letters, (in both paisley and chevron), some fun giraffe paper, a frog eraser, some sand timers, matching pockets, and two 12 sided dice. I love using dice!  While sitting on the floor with all the borders, my mom came by and asked what I was thinking.  I told her, "Mom, I can't get these beautiful borders because they won't match my crate seats and I have mostly teal, bright green, and pink things in the room!" She looked at me very confused and goes "It's okay Farren, we can take care of all of that..." I Love my mom, she knows me so well and is a huge supporter! :) She's a crafter too so I love having her on board to help me out!

Check out my aweomse family- that's my husband Joel who is going to law school in the Fall. My fun loving sister, Ashlynn, who just graduated high school (she's a huge reason why I wanted to teach!) and my lovely momma. It was a great vacation!

This week Joel and I are off to DISNEY WORLD with his parents for the week! Joel's mom and I share a birthday so we're going to spend it in the happiest place on Earth! This Princess is super excited! And when we get back, we're going to Ikea to get some furniture for our place. I bet we'll even see some classroom deals I'll have to snag up!

Happy days!

farren

PS: We LOVE America and the Red, White, and Blue. God Bless America!