Monday Made It 8-4-14

Monday Made it Part 3!

I know I showed the desk earlier as part of a Wordless Wednesday, but I'm including it since I finally finished the matching Mailboxes to go with it!

Before

After

The matching Mailboxes! These mailboxes are going on their 16th year. My mom bought them her first year teaching, and last school year got a new set. I had a different set that I inherited from somewhere before I even had a classroom, but they were in really, really bad shape. I wish I had taken a before picture of my current set, there were layers and layers of old name tags that refused to peel off, and since I used 3M hooks on the side to hang my passes the paneling on the sides was peeling in spots. I LOVE contact paper!

Chevron contact paper for the sides and on to the back, Whiteboard contact paper for the rest of the back with a cute Lime Green polka dot border and some Lime Green masking tape for the front plastic and they are like all new mailboxes! I just need to decide how I will attach the kids names. I'm thinking about using the number system this year since labels do not easily come off book bins, so maybe I'll spray paint some binder clips and add numbers that way. Besure to check back in a week or so to see what I decide!

 I forgot to take a picture of the finished back, and I need help deciding what I will use it for, so when I stop into school tomorrow I will update the post and would love ideas!

I didn't make this the Awesome Lindsey from http://lpaulldesigns.blogspot.com/ did.  My Blog got a new design this week!  I am so excited about the way it looks, and she even made me a matching cover photo for my soon to exist Facebook and a banner for my Brand new TPT store.

I made my first product for TPT this week! I have made so many of my own things for my classroom I decided to share my new Birthday board.  I have also started going through all of the things I have made over the last 2 years I have been teaching and the 2 years I was a reading tutor (and hadn't discovered TPT) so see what else I can share.

School starts again for Teachers on the 25th so I know I will have a lot more Monday Made Its to show in the next few weeks!

Hot Mess Classroom

I saw Myshoestringlife.com idea for a linky party on IG to show off our hotmess classroom, and decided to join. 

http://www.myshoestringlife.com/

 I have dropped by my school a few days, but today is the first time I started trying to make my room look like a classroom again.  In June when we check out for the year, the entire floor is emptied.  I am lucky that I have cubbies and a counter in my room since there are only 2 rooms in the building with them!  Anything on the floor; shelves, tables, file cabinets, etc. are taken out so our floors can be waxed every summer.  If shelves are one wheels they can be left full since they can be rolled out of the room.  Mine of course are not so I take my library apart every summer.

I took some pictures when I stopped by when the room was still empty.

As empty as it looks, it has so much more stuff than the very first time I walked in 2 years ago on the day I was hired.  The room had 1 kidney table and 19 kids chairs and that was it!  By the time I went in again 2 days later other teachers "donated" things they didn't want any more.

Today I felt very productive, but looking back at the pictures I took, I'm pretty sure all I did was make a mess!

And I took these pictures before I decided to try and organize my library!

Take some pics of your class and link up with Myshoestringlife.com to show how much work you have done.

Kelly

Monday Made it

Yesterday I spray painted plastic tubs for the first time and discovered I am a very messy spray painter!

Green fingers!

How do you get paint off of rings?

I should have had my husband take a picture for me to show that I was these colors from my knees down, my feet looked like Smurfett.

I am pretty excited about how everything came out.  I initially planned on painting only my math tubs.

I inherited these from my aunt and uncle with the wooden stand!

My room is mainly Lime greens and teal so the primary colors really weren't working for me at all.  I used them this way last school year and was going to just continue to ignore the color until I learned through fellow bloggers on IG that Rustoleum 2 in 1 paint and primer works on plastic.

Then I found the tool box while buying my spray paint, so that was added to my list.  And while wondering Target the other day I found the 3 drawer file drawers on sale for $7.50 (usually $8.99) and decided they needed some paint too.  I thought I was all done finding things to paint, when I went to visit my parents this weekend.  They had cleaned the garage earlier in the week and found a bunch of directors chairs a family friend had given them.  I couldn't take them all since my mom is a teacher too, but 1 chair was a tall one and didn't match the rest so now I have a directors chair that of course needed to be painted!

The teal and lime green I planned to start with.

All of my goodies to paint!

I ran out of paint part way through the process, 2 cans is not enough for all of the things I added to my list to paint.  When I went to buy more paint I decided to add yellow to the mix.

This is the only pic I took before running to get more paint.

I want to mention a few things I learned, other than don't stand where the paint will get on your feet or hold the bucket in your hand when painting! 

First, DO NOT spray paint on plastic!  I thought I was being nice to my husband and protecting our grass, but I think I got so messy because of the plastic, and the things were sticking to the plastic.  When I lifted them up, some of the paint around the tubs peeled off the plastic and stuck to the tub. Fortunately my husband had something delivered from amazon partway through this adventure so I was able to steal the huge box. 

Second, if you are going to spray paint a bunch of stuff like I did buy one of these.

It makes it much easier on your fingers, and helps you to move more smoothly back and forth.  It hooks right on the top of the spray paint and can be moved from can to can very easily.

The finished products!

New Math Tubs

Teacher tool box, and 1 of the 3 file drawers for my Monday-Friday bins and Copy/File/Grade bins

Ok, most the way finished.  I need to add the drawer covers I have already made to the toolbox and file drawers.  

All projects are kinda like giving a mouse a cookie.  Now I want to paint the wooden stand for my math tubs, I just need to decide what color, and I want to paint the canvas for the directors chair, maybe even add my name!  My goal is to have them done by next Monday I can post the 100% finished products, in addition to a few other things I started today!

Kelly

My new planner

I am one of those people who has carried a planner literally since I was in 2nd grade.  At that time it was not my idea or plan, but one that my parents and teachers agreed on since I tended to lose things.  This was also in 1992 so kids did not yet carry assignment books for school, or at least at my school they didn't.  I have carried one ever since, having one place to write down everything I need to do and remember is a life saver.  As a teacher this is even more important.

My first year teaching I used a similar format to a few of the other teachers in my building, with 1 page per day.

I found it to be very cluttered, and I am the type of person who needs to see more that just one day.

My 2nd year teaching, last year, I splurged and got a Erin Condren Teacher Planner.  I LOVED this planner, except that it wasn't in the order that I wanted, and I couldn't add pages.

Sorry about the other random clutter

This year I scoured TPT and all of the planners for sale by some amazing teachers until I found one that matched my style and what I was looking for in a planner.  And I bought more than one, but the one that best fit what I was looking for was the Flamingo Planner from Tayna Rae Designs.  She has a few different designs, I just liked the tropical feel of this one.  Initially I planned on having it bound like my EC planner, but since I wanted to be able to move things and add to it I decided instead to use the Arc Notebook from Staples (This is not a review of the notebook system, just one that I felt would fit my needs).  I wanted it printed on a heavy quality paper so it wouldn't pull out too easily so I sent the complete file to Bestvaluecopy.com 

Whats inside?

I decided to take pics to walk through my newest planner. Sorry there's a lot, I just wanted to make sure to show all of the parts to what I consider to be my brain for 10+ months.

Plastic cover from Staples.
I think I need a Monogram or some stickers.

Clear zip pouch with my website address book,
labels, note cards, etc.

Custom cover with planner printed on
heavy paper.

The first few pages have my info
and school procedures. 

I used some blank pages in the planner
to make my seating chart for each month.
My room has 4 hexagon tables these same colors.

Student info pages, and there is a birthday
page I didn't take a picture of.  I love how easy
pages come in and out (class list in my hand)!

Each section has a cover like this, I just need
to add tabs that I made already.

Year at a glance for long term planning.

I love this monthly lay out, it is one of the main reasons I chose this planner.  Each month
has an inspirational quote, a section for notes and a small previous and next month calendar.

Between each month there is a spot for notes
for the month.

I use this section for the year long curriculum
our district created.

Districts ELA year long plan broken down
by week.

The section I use the most.

My daily schedule, and a page for schedules on short day, 2 hour delay and 3 hour delays.
We don't get our schedule until teachers start back in August.

This is my other favorite page, I love that the day goes down rather than across.
Once we get our schedule I'll use labels for subjects rather than write them each week.

Our district gives DRA's 3 times a year,
along with a few other assessments.

I used this section in my EC planner much
more than I expected so I included a bunch
of checklist pages.

I included a ton of these too since I ran out
in my EC planner fast.

Cover for the CCSS.  The standards are
all on the cute flamingo paper too!

A few plastic pockets, already filling up with
projects for the new school year.

My district calendar in a sheet protector,
I put about 5 in for now but since I can add
pages to the rings not sure if I will need them.

The quote was part of the Planner pack, I decided to print it on heavy paper for the back cover.

I hope you found some new ideas, I are inspired to set up your own planner!  

Kelly