Monday Made It: August 3, 2015

Hi guys!

Today I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics again to share my newest Monday Made It. Read on to check out what I've been hard at work on.

This is my newest creation and I'm super excited about it!

These are called Random Grouping Sticks and they are an awesome grouping tool that foster collaboration and learning how to work with different people. I love them because they're quick, simple, and totally random! There are also so many grouping options within this one set. Basically you pass out (or let your kids choose) one of the sticks. Every stick is different but there are some similarities throughout them, which is precisely what allows you to use them for grouping purposes. Call out an attribute and students can group themselves accordingly. For example, you can say, "we're going to get into animal groups. All students who have owls should get together. All students who have jellyfish should get together, etc..." Students won't know what you're going to group them by until after they pick a stick. This is helpful because it decreases the likelihood that they'll end up with the same kids every time.
 
In my packet, I have included a page of suggested grouping options that can be used with these sticks but there are many more. Here's a peek at that page:

Another thing that's great about these sticks is that you can also regroup students again and again without even passing the sticks out again. Let's say you had already grouped your kids by the animals on their sticks and wanted to mix up the groups again. Well, your students can actually use their same sticks and regroup by something else. You might say, "now get into groups by your number. All ones go here, all the twos go here, etc..." You can see how versatile the grouping choices are with these. And that's great because it keeps this tool fresh and exciting every time you use it!

There are 3 template pages (36 sticks in all) as well as directions for making the sticks using jumbo craft sticks. If you don't have a need for that many sticks, you can just eliminate a number or color set altogether to bring the number down. Do what works best for you and your kiddos. As a side note, (I realized this after I was done with mine) you could actually just print them out on card-stock and laminate them instead of going the whole craft stick route. Truthfully, that's probably much quicker but I prefer the durability of the Popsicle stick method. Either way you make them, they'll still work the same.

As an added incentive, I'm going to have these on sale in my shops for the next 2 days! If you act quickly, you can also take advantage of the TPT back to school sale and you'll save even more! Clicking on the picture below will take you right to my TPT store:

Alright, that's all for now. Be sure to check out Tara's page to see what other awesome Monday Made-It's have been posted!
Kindly,

Monday Made It! July 6, 2015

Welcome back folks!

Today I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics to share my Monday Made It. Read on to find out what I've been working on.

Every year, I always have a handful of students that need a little extra guidance in using proper spacing in their writing. Last summer, I painstakingly stupidly hand-painted a set of 30 adorable Spaceman Sticks. (I wish I had taken a picture of them!) They took quiet a good amount of time to complete but I was SO pleased with how they turned out that I honestly didn't think too much about the amount of time that I had invested in them! As it turned out, these Spacemen proved to be such a great tool for all of my students to have access to during the school year. I let my kids keep them in their pencil boxes all year long so they would never have an excuse for incorrect spacing in any of their writing and they worked like a charm!

Fast forward to the end of the year and they were (not surprisingly) in pretty bad shape. Worn and chipped (maybe well-loved is a better word?) they certainly showed their age in just one year's use. Despite their wear, my kids loved using them and I couldn't bear to take them back from them so I just let them keep them and made a note to make more this summer.

While I really did love my old ones, when I really thought about it, the time it took me to hand-paint each one was just not practical or a smart use of my time. I couldn't in good conscience invest that much time again this summer. I still wanted my kids to have these tools next year but I needed a faster way of creating them. In response to this need, I set to work on designing a more efficient set of Spaceman Sticks:

This time, I sketched the little spaceman by hand ONE time, traced him digitally ONE time, and then used this graphic to create a template of 12 strips that I could print out over and over again. This was definitely WAY more efficient than my efforts last summer! Seriously, I don't know why I didn't do this last year! Haha! Oh well... In any case, I'm SO jazzed about how these new ones turned out and they really were pretty easy to assemble. From printing to completion it probably took me about 2.5 hours to make 36 of them. Keep in mind that this time frame also includes the "waiting/drying time" during which I was also working on other things so it really took me even less time! (I'm not even going to tell you how much time I spent hand painting my sticks last year...)

What follows is the assembly process in case you are curious about how they came together:

1. After printing out the template out on full sheet label paper, I used my paper cutter to cut out the strips and then attached the strips to jumbo craft sticks.

I opted to print them on full sheet label paper instead of plain printer paper. The label paper really helped streamline the process and made it less messy than it could have been if I had just used plain paper and glue.

2. After applying the strips to the jumbo craft sticks, I used scissors to trim the excess around the edges. (You could also take it a step further and use sandpaper to neatly file the paper down but I realized that step a little too late!)

3. Next I brushed on a thin coat of Mod Podge over the front of the stick.

4. When the Mod Podge dried, I went outside (for proper ventilation) and applied 3 coats of Glossy Acrylic Sealer. You have to wait a few minutes between coats but according to the can, it's more effective to do 3 thin coats rather than one heavy coat. Also, before spraying anything, I always like to put whatever I'm spraying into a box lid. It keeps the mess a little more contained and makes it easy to transport it all too.

After all was said and done, these were obviously a LOT less labor intensive than individually painting each one. I still love my hand-painted ones, but happily these are equally as cute and a heck of a lot easier to make. Most importantly, they will be equally effective in helping my new class this year and I won't have any regrets about letting my kids hold on to them at the end of the year since I know how easy they are to make.

After making the sticks, I decided to put together a little packet to complement them. This mini-packet is in my shop and is on sale for the next 48 hours.

The mini-packet includes:

• the Spaceman Stick templates
• assembly directions
• anchor chart
• 2 practice pages
• printable certificates

Here's a preview of some of what you'll find inside:

I wanted to make this packet a little bit more than just a Spaceman template so I designed a matching anchor chart that can be displayed in the classroom as a gentle reminder. There are also two practice sheets for students to complete. The practice sheets include a few sentences that are written with incorrect spacing (some places have too much spacing, some places there is not enough). They can rewrite the sentences with correct spacing and use the Spaceman Sticks to help them do it! I also added a blank writing sheet that has an editing checklist at the bottom. The checklist includes: capital letters at the start of each sentence, ending punctuation and of course, spaces between each word! Finally, I have included a page with printable certificates that can be awarded to students who master the convention of proper spacing! If this sounds like something you could use in your classroom, head on over to my shop while it's still on sale!

You can click directly on the preview picture or right here to go see it in my TPT shop.

Alright friends, that's all I've got for you today. Thanks so much for reading! Be sure to head over to 4th Grade Frolics to check out what all the other Monday Made-it linkers have been up to today!

Currently in September!

Happy Labor Day folks! I...CANNOT...believe...it is already SEPTEMBER! This year has truly gone by with such a quickness. I'm linking up with Farley at Oh, Boy 4th Grade to bring you my CURRENTLY update.

The start of the school year has kept me quite busy (and away from my blogging...sigh) so I thought a CURRENTLY post was the perfect way to update everyone on the current happenings in my life. Before we get started, can I please just take a moment and say that I seriously LOVE my new class?! I have only known them for one short week and they seriously just melt my heart each day! They are all wonderful and I'm truly excited about the awesome year we have ahead of ourselves! Alright, on to my CURRENTLY post:

 LISTENING: I love the Talking Heads! My husband may or may not cringe when I put this CD on repeat but I just can't get enough of their music and this album has so many awesome songs. Listening to this album just picks up my mood and makes me happy!

LOVING: Oh...my...stars!!! Have you tried these chips yet?! If you have not, it is time to head to the store and buy them. Like, right now! And after tasting them, you MUST vote for them to win because they are the clear winner in the current LAY's flavor contest. Seriously, they are THAT good. I promise!

THINKING: I have already developed my To-Do-List for the day and blogging was definitely on the list! One check done...now on to the other 5 million things I have listed for myself to do...Whoever said that Labor Day was a day to celebrate by not working, couldn't have been a teacher!

WANTING: The fall season is my absolute favorite. I feel like it always goes by so quickly though. I can't wait for it to cool down a bit (although I must admit that this past summer seemed fairly mild compared to other years) so I can start wearing turtlenecks, long pants and vests!

NEEDING: I have had scheduling an eye exam on my to-do list for several YEARS now. Yep, YEARS! I've been using the same prescription (glasses and contacts) for about ten years now and I know I'm long overdue for a visit. I know, I know... stop reading this in absolute disbelief...I'm going to get to it...

3 TRIPS: With the start of the new school year, I don't see me going to any of these destinations anytime soon but they are still on my wishlist! Up first: Ireland. I'm part Irish, so I figure a trip to Ireland is a must on my list! New Zealand is on there because my husband spent a month there after getting out of the marines and fell in love with the country. We would honestly move there if I agreed but I couldn't bear moving so far away from my family. After seeing his pictures and hearing about his trip though, I would definitely love to visit! Finally, London has always caught my attention and I just think it would be fun to go there and experience it with it's rainy weather and all! Besides, rain is just a reason to sport a cute umbrella and I'm totally up for it!

Alright, that's it for me. Be sure to head over to Farley's post and read up on what other bloggers have posted!

I...LOVE...Stickers!!!

No, seriously. I do! They are just plain fun and kids are so easily amused by them too! Hence my newest sticker writing resource: Stickers, Stickers & More Stickers!

For the past few days, I've been hard at work on this sticker writing activity packet and I'm pleased to announce that it's finally done and up for sale in both of my shops. (I am also notably excited that some of the illustrations that I have been working on this summer actually make an appearance throughout this packet too!) The packet includes 25 pages of sticker writing fun that can be used during Work on Writing time, for homework practice, as a creative writing activity or just for fun! Because each page relies on using stickers, I know it will keep my budding writer's engaged and truly motivated to write.

I will admit that I have used the plain sticker story stationery before (which my kids always loved) but I often found myself wishing I had other sticker activities to spice things up as well. I'm pleased to announce, that this packet finally addresses those wishes! Read on to get a peek at a few of the other activities you will find inside:

Describe-a-sticker is a fun twist on the traditional bubble mat because with this one, you get to use...yep, you guessed it: STICKERS! Students choose any sticker to be their topic and write words to describe it. It's simple, but totally fun!

The Sticker Picture Sentences page was designed for truly emergent writers who may not be ready to write a full-blown story just yet. Students can use this page to create two pictures and write sentences to tell about their illustrations. (I know many first graders come in still struggling to write one complete sentence so I think this page will be a good starting point for them.)

The Stick-A-Story rebus writing prompts are easily my favorite pages in this packet. Keeping in mind that not all kids are ready to write a whole story on their own at the start of the year, I came up with a way to still give them the chance to practice writing with story structure. The prompts are essentially simple sentences with two missing words that introduce the characters and setting. Some even introduce a plot. Using 2 stickers, students can fill in these blanks and then they must write the rest of the story to tell what happens next. Depending on the stickers that your students select to complete the blanks, your students could easily come up with some really varied stories even though they all begin the same way. (This packet includes six different Stick-A-Story pages).

Like I said, these are only some of the activities you will find in this packet. There are a few other ones that I did not mention here but I promise you they are awesome too! I have placed this packet on sale until Sunday night in both of my shops. Hurry up to get it on sale now while you still can!

Teacher's Notebook

TPT

And now friends, I'm beat! This lady is going to bed! Good night!

~Theresa