Monday Made It

This is the first time I have participated in Made it Monday. I have been working like crazy in my classroom to get things organized.

 Last year, I made all these really cute clothes pins with tacks for my jobs bulletin boards and they continually broke throughout the year. I knew I had to do something different. So I created a Jillian Starr inspired iHelp jobs poster.  It was fun trying to find apps that corresponded with my classroom jobs. I found a 30% off promo code and had it made into a 2' by 3' poster.  My kids are just going to love it!

 The second thing I made this week was number pebbles/stones/ circles magnets. (Whatever you call them!) I wanted an easy way to change jobs and have something that was super easy to use with my iHelp poster.  I download these amazing numbers on TPT from Fourth Grade Frolics for FREE. I reduced the numbers by 50% and the size was perfect.

I didn't actually make it but I finally put my IKEA cart together. Check out the before pictures from small group area... at TOTAL MESS! I found solo cups in my favorite color to help organize all the supplies I need at my U-shaped table!

Jillian Starr from Starr Spangled Planner did an awesome blog post about using Kaboom! as a center game.  I was at my parent's house a month or so back and saw all these Crystal Light containers and I got super excited to make a set of Kaboom! center games.  I told my mom to continue her Crystal Light addiction and to save all the containers for me! 

Makeover Madness: TPT facelift

I have a really bad confession... I normally work really hard on a TPT product and then just put together a "blah" cover. I have teamed up with some inspiring TPT/ bloggers to complete weekly TPT challenges.

Week One challenge consists of choosing one TPT product and giving it a facelift.  I designed these sentence starters because I realized it was something that was needed to help my third graders develop their academic discourse.

I really like how bold the new cover is.  I know when I am looking at TPT products, I like to see examples of the product on the cover.

Comment below about what you look at when buying a TPT product and I will choose a lucky winner!

Tell All Tuesday: Two Truths and One Lie

Tell All Tuesday has started today!!! A bunch of wonderful bloggers are linking up to tell two truths and one lie to introduce ourselves.  Here I go...

1) While an arm robbery was happening, I drove between the cops, with drawn weapons and the robber in a small rural town in Northern California. ***Truth
2) I have completed a full marathon (26.2 miles), a century (100 miles) on my bike and a triathlon.*** Truth
3) I have traveled to every European country. ***Semi-Truth (okay... it was a little white lie!) : All European countries except Portugal

The first one who comments which one is the lie will win something from my TPT store.
Go check out the other truths and lies!

Update: Year One with Whiteboard Tables

I have gotten tons of emails asking for an update on my tables, that I painted at the beginning of the school year. Check out my original post here!

I was out on medical leave (due to a broken leg) from November to April and when I returned my tables looked horrible. I literally bought all different cleaning products to try and clean the tables. I even tried the Expo spray and NOTHING worked!!

So I decided to try one last thing.... Magic Erasers! Yes... Mr. Clean came to my recuse. On the last day of school, my students used a little Dawn soap, a splash of water, a magic eraser, and some elbow grease. My kids really enjoyed cleaning.  Here are the tables later in the day, as we were playing Minute-It-To-Win-It.  THEY ARE BEAUTIFULLY WHITE!!!