Monday Made It

Hello everyone!  I had a couple of days off to celebrate my son’s 7^th birthday.  We were lucky.  He had a pool party at our house.  It started raining 10 minutes after the last child was picked up.  Couldn’t have been any luckier, huh??
So today I'm linking up with Tara for the Monday Made It linky party. 




Click here to go to her site (LOTS of great ideas today!) 
http://4thgradefrolics.blogspot.com/

I’m going to share a couple things I’ve been working on.  First up are my crate seats.  I wanted my seats to be sturdy so that they would last.  I asked my dad’s advice on this one since building and cabinets is what he does.  I asked his advice and the next day he comes in with 8 of them done and ready to be padded!  He made these VERY sturdy.  He put the squares in the corner so that the top would sit on the crate so I could open it easily.  The tops don’t just sit inside the crate; it sits on the lip of the crate to lift up.  I can’t believe how well made these turned out…thanks Dad!  

Then I went to JoAnn Fabrics to find the material.  This was a group project as my mom, my son, and I all argued about which fabric we should use.  We found this print, and luckily….we all agreed!  It has a black background with polka dots.  This pattern I knew would go with any theme I used.  I went to Target to but black crates.  This also will match any color scheme I use.  Once again my parents save the day.  I mentioned to my mom that I need to figure out how to put fabric on these and she said she would show me how.  The next day in walk 8 completed seats.  My parents rock!

 

Sorry about the red crate.  I already took the black ones to school to drop them off.  I am really proud of how well these were made.  I’ll have them for a looooong time!

The next project I did was my “Don’t Forget” board.  Here is a picture of what it looked like before.  Yes, that is a chicken!  Its a chicken on the top and a chalkboard on the bottom.  It was 80% off at JoAnn’s and I couldn’t pass that up.  I mean it wound up being like $3.00 with the discount and the teacher discount.

  

My son and I brought it home and painted it blue.  I’ve created a monster with him.  He wanted to paint it blue and green.  He wanted the green to be an accent color.  Wow!  Can you tell he and I have been doing a lot of projects this summer!!!!  After we painted it blue, we decided (okay he decided) that the blue was the perfect color and we didn't need the green.

We then added some fun dot stickers to give it some color.  It is a chalkboard, so I can write on it and erase it easily.  Yes, my school still has chalkboards, so I still use a lot of chalk.  I will hang it by the door.  I think it turned out cute.  And he is so proud of it and can't wait to hang it up in my classroom.

And the last thing is not something I made…it is something I bought.  If you teach third grade or higher and you have to teach cells, check these out. 

I got them at Dollar Tree.  Part of my first unit is teaching plant and animal cells.  This is hard for my kiddos.  I have them label cells so they have the parts, but it is always black and white. I don’t have a color printer at school.  I also review, play games, label the parts, etc…but come test time they still struggle.   Can you believe this find??  There are 24 sheets in the pack.  I bought three years worth, just in case they don’t have them again.  So excited over a cell?  Boy am I a teacher!

Have a great Monday and tomorrow I’ll be sharing a vocabulary project I do.

Tracey J