Legos!

LEGOS!
My friend went to a conference a few years ago where she learned about Legos being used in the classroom as non-linguistic representations.  Loved that idea so much I decided to create my own set to use!

So the first step you need to do is go to the Lego store and get their $15 buckets and fill them to the brim with a variety of bricks.  The thing about making your  classroom set is that all of the tubs have to have the same exact Legos in them.  That's why you can't just go to town on Craigslist and hope for the best.  If your tubs aren't all the same, the kids will fight over that one container that has the wheels in it.

Stack your legos so that you can really cram 'em in!

Now that you have brought home a ridiculous amount of Legos, it is time to enlist your trusty husband or family member to help you sort through all of this nonsense...

You may (like me) start cursing at your packing method which at the time seemed like a great idea which quickly evolved into something that looks a little like a murder scene. In order to separate these tightly compacted bricks, you need a rather large sharp knife and a handy dandy little Lego plastic separator.  I used the knife just to start the separation and the used the plastic wedge (around $2.50 at the Lego store) to fully separate the bricks.

You could use Legos for so much in the classroom and even though it is an investment (I spent around $65 for everything), you won't need to purchase them again. I used to use party favor sized Playdoh a lot for non-linguistic representations and still like to use them, but they dry out so quickly and the students are somewhat limited in what they can do.

Just be sure to write your name on the buckets in case you lend them out and number them that way you can hold your students accountable.

I plan to use these in a professional development coming up as well as in classrooms to model lessons.  I can picture these being used to represent their understanding of a concept, definitions to vocabulary words, metaphors, fractions, probability, you name it!

What would you use Legos for in the classroom?

A Few Things - Back to School Version

It's Back to School time!!! Or if you live where I live, it's been Back to School time for a few weeks now, but better late than never, right?  I love a good theme so get ready!

Here are some of my favorite Back to School ideas that I have seen floating around.

These are too perfect. I wish I was more talented in the art of cake decor.

Gift wrapping idea for back to school (or Christmas, or birthdays, or Hanukkah, or Tuesdays...) Mine would not look this cute if I tried it, but I am going to pretend that it would.

Why don't they make this desk in my size???!!! This is from a children's store, The Land of Nod, and I LOVE it!! It even has a cup holder for my wine.

I love everything on here, but I think my favorite is the chalkboard cake. I didn't even know you could do that!!  I don't know how appealing it would be to eat a black cake, but who cares? It's too cute to eat anyway! Plus I am a little partial to this because I used those library cards in the #1 spot for my wedding.

The Teacher Wife is AMAZING!  I love these!!!

Those are just a few of the wonderful things that I have seen.  Happy back to school!

Monday Made It - Parking Lot Board

I'm baaaackkk! 

Wow you guys, this summer went by like a blur. Where did all of that time go that I was going to be super productive and create these creative crafts to post on this good ole blog?  

For Monday Made It, I made a Parking Lot board over the weekend for a training I am presenting today. This could be used in your classroom too as a formative assessment, a ticket out the door, or just for good old fashioned questions.  Do any of you use parking lots in your classroom?  I would love to hear your procedure for it if you do!

Let's address the questions on the board, shall we? Haha! 

Good question! 

Tri-fold board (Tarjay aka Target)

Scrapbook paper

Rubber Cement

Silhouette Cameo (car shape cutouts are from here)

I purchased this scrapbook paper from Stampin' Up. I don't see the designer series paper package that I used for this board but here is one that looks really cute and is similar.

Well, there are a couple of reasons. I was on vacation for three weeks visiting my sister and her family as well as a road trip up to Nova Scotia, Canada! It was beautiful and I can't wait to post pictures on here soon as a memory for me and to show you all. 

Another reason is that I started my new job as Instructional Coach last week and it has kept me really busy! I am still adjusting on being out of the classroom and hope that this blog will still be alive and kicking. 

In the meantime, I hope you all can use the parking lot board idea in your classroom! 

Be sure to link up to Tara's Monday Made It to post your creations!

End of School Countdown Day 7 - Remembering Our Best Moments

I just love Graffiti Walls! I decided to put one up in the hallway and let the students "go to town" remembering back on their favorite moments throughout the year. Well, "go to town" might be a relative term, there are four magical rules that go along with our graffiti wall...

I have loved seeing what stuck out most to our students throughout the year. Of course, everyone is picking the most recent event which was field day, but some students have been reaching for the stars a little more and going back in time more than 3 weeks.

Here are some of my favorites...

This student wrote about when we mummified hot dogs in the science lab. It was totally disgusting but fascinating to see how the baking soda preserved the hot dogs much like natron preserved the mummies in Ancient Egypt.

This girl cracks me up! I am not sure why this is her favorite moment, but it just fits her personality so well. I am also not sure why her nickname is "Hobo" - just go with it and don't ask questions, I do.

Of course the teachers need to take part in the festivities. Here's mine.

Quite a few students need to still complete their square and it has been a little difficult to find the time to have them go out in the hallway to finish.  It's been a cute end of year bulletin board and a fun activity for the kids.

What would you write on your graffiti wall from this school year???

Choice Menus

Who doesn't love choices? I'll take the tart frozen yogurt with strawberries, kiwi, raspberries, and yogurt chips, please! Oh heck, why not throw a frosted animal cracker on there while you're at it - it's too healthy as it is now! You know you have done this; half the reason why we love those frozen yogurt self serve places is because of all of the choices! Kids are the same way too, the more choices you give them, the better off everyone is! 

This idea came to me via a professional development that one of our instructional coaches presented to us.  I did this for our state testing writing part to help out the Language Arts teacher. In order to cover as much material for them as possible, I had them choose a variety of tasks to complete while I conferenced with students about their writing. Normally I would do this more as a "fast finisher" activity or for those gifted students who need more stimulation. :)

I filled out the following form with activities that I wanted them to complete.  I assigned how many I wanted them to complete and what day I wanted it done by.  The link to download this template is at the bottom of the post.

Then I created a system so that the papers were organized and easily accessible for my students. I have these cubbies in my classroom which are nifty, but kind of useless in middle school. Finally it hit me that I could be using them for this instead of just textbook storage!! Duh!

If you don't have nifty difty cubbies, you could always use plastic trays to organize the assignments.

I made signs for the different menu options as well as numbers for the different assignments within those categories. I also laminated these signs because they are in a heavy traffic zone.

This has been a great tool in my classroom and I hope it can be in yours as well. You can really customize it to any subject area or ability level!

Want to download the free goodies???

Click the pictures below to download the TWO different freebies!

Let me know if you plan on using these and how it works out in your classroom. Enjoy!

State Testing Bulletin Board Idea

Don't you just love state testing?? The stress, the pressure, ah, just exhilarating! We just finished up our state testing a week ago and I am SOO glad it is over.
This is a little bulletin board that we whipped up last year and reused this year.  It looked a lot cuter last year because it got a little torn while being stored (note the sad little plate corner on the bottom left hand side).
You could easily recreate this, all you need is some butcher paper, die cut letters, aluminum foil, cotton batting, and some will power.

This has also been hung crookedly. Look past all of the imperfections. :)  Our parent volunteer made this for us last year and I love how huge it is. The kids were so excited to see it up and some of them had remembered it from last year.

On the fork is our team's last names which I thought was such a cute touch.

The cotton batting is just glued on to the butcher paper for a 3D effect of the whipped cream.

Last year, we made sprinkles and had each kid write a test taking strategy on one. So in the end, the top of the cake, whipped cream, and plate were all covered with words of wisdom. Some examples were like "eat a healthy breakfast the morning of the test" or "skip a question if you are stuck and come back to it later". It was really cute. I wish we had the time this year to have done that so I could have a picture for you.

Below is a template you can use for the sprinkles, however, I would recommend cutting them out of a cutting machine (like a Cricut or a Silhouette Cameo) other wise you (or your students) might be cutting for days depending on how many students you have. They are pretty big "sprinkles" but you have to remember that your cake should be HUGE! The bigger the better!

Click here to download the free sprinkles template.

What do you do to motivate your students for state testing? I hope you all can use and enjoy this idea!

January Favorite 5

I am so glad I have gotten back into the swing of blogging this past month. I have really missed the blogging community and am so happy to be back!

I was thinking every month I would do a little walk down memory lane to look back on some of my favorite posts from the past month. Sometimes I think I post too many posts and people miss them. Do you ever do a "look back" on your past posts?

Here are my January Favorite Five:

My Affirmation Bags! Love them and use them every day!

I loved all of my honeymoon posts, but the most special was probably the first one. I loved sharing my memories with all of you!

My favorite vintage finds - this post just makes me happy...

My Etsy finds for the wedding - I just love Etsy, don't you?

And finally, my absolute favorite post from January, was my paper flowers DIY post for the arch from my wedding! I loved making these and I think they looked absolutely adorable, not to mention they disguised the ugly white lattice arch beautifully. <3