Back to School Freebies

I'm keeping it short today because I'm heading over to TeachersPayTeachers after this to take advantage of The Lesson Cloud's dollar days sale. Have you made your wishlist yet? I'll probably add a few more items before I check out. =)

I was the featured teacher over on Teaching Blog Addict yesterday. I know Saturdays are slow blog days, so I wanted to point it out in case you missed it. I shared my back to school freebie kit. I'd love it if you clicked on over there. Be sure to leave a comment when you grab your free items. I am so excited that it's back to school time! 

Just one more thing... April over at The Idea Backpack is having a giveaway to mark her 300th follower. I really enjoy her blog so I added an item as one of the prizes. There are LOTS of great things up for grabs though so hop over and enter to win. Hurry though, it ends tomorrow!

Dollar Days Sale on TpT!

Pssst... are you ready for some great deals just before the back to school rush? The Lesson Cloud authors are teaming up to offer tons of items for $1 and $2 each. I have 70 items at those prices every day because I try to keep my prices really low for you so that it's a win-win situation when you buy from my shop, but I'm still discounting many of my items. Here's a sneak peek at some of them.

7 activities for the first week of school

Learn to use poetry for reading and writing.

Printable clocks with labels for math instruction and classroom decor.

A variety of cute newsletter and calendar templates.

23 different sets of frames and borders in primary and pastel colors. This is just a sample, there are more if you click the link.

Level One math game for addition and subtraction

Level Two math game for multiplication and division

I plan to hop around the sneak peek items today and make my wishlist over on TpT before the sale. Then I'll only have to checkout and download my goodies when the sale starts. Woohoo!

Blog Design Giveaway Winner!

It's been a long day, but I had to do a quick post to announce my blog design giveaway winner. Michelle of Mrs. G's Kindergarten in Heels had her number pulled using Random.org. Congratulations, Michelle! Please email me to get started on your design.


I love and hate giveaways. While it's always fun to win, I've found that I'm not very lucky and usually lose. So as a thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway, I'm offering $5 off any of my Blogger Packages through September 1, 2012.  Be sure to include the link to your entry when you email me so I know to give you the discount.

Finally, on a personal note my nephew was born this morning! I am so excited to be an aunt to the cutest little guy in the world. He kept us all waiting and his poor momma in labor for over 16 hours. The fact that he was 10 pounds, 12 ounces might have had a little something to do with that. Everyone is healthy and happy. Look at those cheeks! He looks just like his daddy, my brother. Babies are such blessings. I have a feeling I'm going to love being an auntie. =)
 

Monday Made It: Magnetic Board and Accessories

It's Monday again. I've been a bad crafter and haven't linked up with Tara for a couple weeks. I'll show you why at the end of the post, but let's get to the goods.

First up, a magnetic board for reading group assignments behind my desk. I had planned to go the decorated cookie sheet route, but stumbled across these boards that were the perfect shape in Hobby Lobby. Unfortunately, they weren't the perfect colors for our room. 

That was easily fixed with a little sanding and paint, but first the magnets. I wanted to make glittery magnets, even though I'm not a fan of the mess glitter can make. It's literally as easy as a pool of glue covered with glitter. Once they dried, I added mod podge to keep the glitter in place.

I'm pretty pleased with the finished product. I turned the vertical board into a horizontal one, so the ribbon isn't perfectly symmetrical. My husband offered to drill new holes, but I think I'm good with it.

I also had to pretty-up a couple of room basics. We're required to have an emergency binder by our door in these little wall paper holders, but the binders are really ugly and don't match my decor so I used scrapbook paper to dress it up. I had enough leftover to do my paperclip cube too.

And... here's the reason I haven't linked up with Monday Made It the last couple weeks. I've been sewing items for friends!

What are you working on? I can't wait to see it!

 

Fabulous Find Friday: Decorate Your Desk Edition

I'm linking up with the awesome Elizabeth from Fun in Room 4B for her 4th edition of Fabulous Finds Friday. Woohoo! First of all, let me tell you... I love to shop. Period. But shopping for cute school supplies? Hello?? I.Die. My husband has learned to not-so-casually stay between me and the school supply aisles of all my favorite stores. Unfortunately, that little trick of his didn't work so well today. =)

First up, cheap but bright little accessories from Walmart. At 88 cents each, I don't even think these count toward the whole "don't spend a lot of money on your classroom" rule. My husband asked what I was going to put in the box (um, stuff) and what the decorative tape was for (um, more stuff?). I had to have them because they fit right in with my classroom makeover. We'll worry about the pesky little details of how to use them later. 


After that I moved on to Marshall's so second up, a purple glitter desk organizer-thingy. Yes, please. I love glitter (especially the not-real-glitter-so-it-won't-stick-to-everything kind) and I was wanting to replace my desk organizer anyway because it doesn't match my new theme. Sold! The hubs didn't even try to put up a fight on this one. As a bonus, I must have totally broken his will to disagree at this point because he even volunteered to make me a few extra little dividers for the larger end sections. What a guy!

Finally, another Marshall's find: contact paper. Which, to be completely honest, was actually what we had gone out in search of today. I keep seeing those decorated filing cabinets on Pinterest. I'm not really a read directions kind of girl so I didn't save one, but I'm sure you could easily find them with my friend Google too. PS, do you know how much ugly contact paper is floating around out there? If you find cute stuff, buy it in bulk.

I know I said finally up there, so you're probably thinking this post is finished. Nope. We have a new teacher-friend on our third grade team next year. She's decorating her room with a rock star theme in bright pink, blue, and zebra. She has a guitar and lighting truss and everything (don't worry, I'm totally taking pictures to share when she's finished) so I had to grab her a couple items too. Shhh, don't tell. I'm pretty sure she's too busy frantically trying to get her classroom together lovingly arranging her classroom to read this, but if you did by accident... just act surprised, k? =)


Okay, enough of my stuff. Go link up with Elizabeth so I can see all your scores too. 

Blog Makeover Giveaway

This weekend will mark the one month anniversary of my other site, Design by Christi. I've sold twenty designs in my new little adventure, and even took a week off to go to the beach with my husband for our first wedding anniversary. I don't know about you, but I think I'd count that as a success for my little summer side project. The best part really has been working with newer bloggers to get them a cute home that they're excited to fill up with ideas.


As I think back to this winter when I first launched Ms. Fultz's Corner, I remember celebrating each new follower and getting excited over each new milestone. I loved doing the giveaways and limited time freebies in my shops as a way to say thank you for taking this journey with me. I think it's only fitting that I do the same thing for my new site. 


So... if you're a new blogger who wants a custom design or even a veteran blogger who just wants a makeover, here's how you can enter to win my "Cutest" design package with animated add-ons.


1. Blog about my giveaway to describe your "dream" blog look and why you want to win a new design.
2. Leave a comment here with the link to your contest blog post.
3. Sit back and wait for a random.org winner to be drawn on Wednesday, July 25th. Be sure you're following me so you know if you're the winner!
 

Facebook Fan Freebie Alert and New Blog Address

I don't know about you, but July has been my busiest month yet! I thought things were supposed to slow down during the summer. ;) I've updated my blog addresses to my own domain instead of Blogger's. If you follow my posts in a reader or by email, you don't have to make any changes. But if you have my websites bookmarked, you'll want to update those: www.msfultzscorner.com and www.designbychristi.com. My design site is really growing, so if you haven't checked it out yet you might want to!

I also updated my Facebook Fan Freebie for July. Better late than never, I guess. Sorry about that. If you aren't already a Facebook fan of mine, you'll have to like my page first. Once you're a fan, just click on "Freebies" under my picture to grab yours. This month, I put my cute classroom calendars up. They match my cute classroom newsletters that have been pretty popular in my TpT store, so I thought you might want a matching calendar set if you've already purchased the newsletters. Even if you don't use newsletters, the calendars are great for so many things in the classroom as well as communicating with parents. If you have Adobe PDF software, you can even type into the calendars.

On a personal note, we're also on baby watch in my family. My first nephew, Luke, is due Monday. I'm so excited! My brother lives in Louisville, Kentucky, so we have a baby plan in place to race down there when we get the call. So, if I disappear that's where I'm at. =)

Pinterest Addiction, Party of Me

Have you seen this article on 25 of the most interesting academics to follow on Pinterest? Shockingly, I didn't make the list. What's up with that? ;) 

I am really loving Pinterest this summer though. I mean, I love Pinterest all.year.long, but during the summer I have extra time to peruse the pins, think them over, and try lots of them out. Earlier this summer, I was focused on classroom organization and décor pins because I was giving our classroom the makeover. I never would have double-bordered our bulletin boards if I hadn’t seen them in one of Schoolgirl Style’s pins and I never would have made my own magnetic board with glittery magnets for reading group organization if I hadn’t seen a similar idea on Pinterest first. 

Now that our classroom is pretty much ready, I’m focusing on technology pins and looking for ways to get the most out of our new iPads. {Sidenote: keep YOUR iPad ideas coming, thanks!} It makes me wonder what on earth we did before Pinterest. Sure, all of the ‘stuff’ was out there on the Internet before, but it’s so much easier to find and organize now.

Plus, I love seeing what my friends are pinning. Here’s my Pinterest page if you aren’t already following me. What are your favorite Pinterest boards to follow?

Dwarf Hamsters in the Classroom

TBA's linky party gave me the perfect excuse to blog about our dear class pet, Pebbles. She is a Campbell's Russian dwarf hamster. Because she is nocturnal, her cage is her favorite place to be during the day. We do get her out sometimes though. The students love to watch her roll around in her plastic ball or eat a snack. Sometimes we pass her around, though she tends to leave a "surprise" or two when we do that. =) They love her anyway.

Having a classroom pet can add a few extra tasks to your day, but for the most part the students are able to help. In fact, one of our room jobs is to be the zookeeper who gets to feed Pebbles at the end of the day. It's always the first job to get picked and I can promise you no one forgets to do their job when it's their turn as the zookeeper. Several students also make saying good morning to Pebbles one of their first stops during our morning unpacking routine.

Sometimes class pets also teach us the hard lessons of life. I still remember the day we lost our first class pet, Meeko. He was also a dwarf hamster, and he was the friendliest little guy. I'd take him out each morning and he'd crawl around my desk while I prepared the room for the day. One morning he didn't come out to greet his favorite student, and I later found him curled up in the corner of the cage. We had a burial, said our goodbyes, and wrote poems in his honor. For some of the students, it was the first time they had experienced losing a pet.

Just as there are sad memories though, there are also the funny ones. Our second class pet, Greta, was quite the handful. After Meeko, I tried a Roborovski dwarf hamster. I had read that they were a little more active and playful. After looking at them in person, the man at the pet store convinced me to give one a try. Never again!! Greta was definitely more playful... and way too fast to hold. She quickly became a "look at" only class pet. 

I guess she decided that wasn't the life she wanted because she managed to escape one night. That little booger climbed up and out the ceiling of cage by squeezing between bar gaps skinnier than a pencil. I'm still not quite sure how she reached them. Again, it was a student who discovered she was missing. We had a small rodent problem at the time so I was just sure we'd find her in a trap if she hadn't managed to escape through the vents. The students made "missing" signs and we had announcements made over the morning intercom. Two short days later the night janitor found her sitting in the corner of our room under the computer table. That little rascal put up quite the chase, but he caught her. We heavily reinforced her cage after that. Needless to say, when it was time to pick out Pebbles I went back to the Campbell's variety. =)

Do you have a class pet? If so, you should link up with us. I'd love to hear about it!

Monday Made It: Toy Chest and Crate Seat Makeovers

It's time for another project and you're in luck because this one doesn't involve any sewing. I have an old toy chest in my classroom that was actually part of my brother's bedroom set when he was little. It survived a flood in my classroom a few years ago and is great for storing my junk supplies so I just couldn't get rid of it. It needed to be recovered though, so I picked fabric that matched my curtains. Unfortunately, I just updated my curtains so it was also time to update the chest. This is what it looked like before.

I decided it needed bright colors and polka dots too. The first step was to pop the lid off by unscrewing it. Then I just laid it upside down on top of my fabric and stapled the front edge.

You're going to need a helper for the next part to get your corners nice and tight. I would suggest picking one that has opposable thumbs and not my furball.

With help, fold the corners of your fabric in like a present and staple in place.

Pop the lid back on, screw in place, and inspect it to make sure it's on tight and won't slide when a child sits on it. I had more help with this stage, as you can see.

I love it! You could easily do this with other piece of furniture too.

While I was at it, I updated a few of our crate seats too (using the same process). You can see that original tutorial here.

Need Reading Minilesson Ideas?

As many of you know from Facebook, we were at the beach last week celebrating our first wedding anniversary. I think I'm just now getting back into the swing of things at home again, but I had to take a little trip down memory lane and look at a few of our wedding pictures. Aww... memories. I can't believe it's been a year since we were married. I also can't believe I hiked up the east coast's biggest sand dune in my wedding dress for some of the pictures. It must have been pure adrenaline because it seemed so much harder this year. ;) The week certainly flew by too. It was so nice to get away and have a schedule-free week with lots of sand between my toes and salty ocean air in my lungs. As much as I love teaching, I live for our week at the beach each year!

My husband loves to play in the waves, but I'm more of a read-on-the-beach kind of girl. I finished several just for fun books, but also read a couple professional ones too. Several of you asked about the Notebook Connections: Strategies for the Reading Notebook picture I posted on Facebook. It's Aimee Buckner's reading version that follows up her earlier writing version, Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer's Notebook. I loved the writing one, so I was hopeful the reading one would give me several new ideas too. 

You can definitely tell Aimee is a real teacher working with real students in a real classroom. She talks about the different ways to use a reader's notebook, other than just writing letters back and forth. I found some of her ideas very fresh and can't wait to try them. I love writing the letters with my students, but I like to sprinkle in other ideas to keep the notebooks from becoming stale. Aimee gives several suggestions (which would make great mini lessons) and shows actual student samples from her class too.

One idea that I can't wait to try is having my students sift through their sticky notes/thinking marks after they finish a book. They'll only keep the notes that are still meaningful and can be explained. Those go in their notebooks to be used for letters or other written responses and the rest are recycled. I love that this teaches them to monitor their own comprehension and really learn to focus on only making meaningful sticky notes as they read more books. So many times I have students who finish their books with a pile of sticky notes, but then they still have trouble remembering/writing about the book. It's because their sticky notes aren't meaningful or they don't have enough "meat" to them. I like the idea of actually having students sort through the notes one-by-one at the end of the book in an effort to prioritize them. In the past, I've encouraged my students go find a "good" note to use for their notebook, but I need to spend more time teaching them what makes one note more meaningful than the next.

I could go on and on. If you don't already have the book, I'd recommend picking up a copy. Her writing one is great too!

Psst...Did you find me as a gust poster yesterday? Some of you guessed from my hint. :) I was over at Laura Candler's Corkboard Connections blog. Here it is if you missed me. Click over to grab your writing freebie and leave some love. Be sure to sign up for her newsletter while you're there too... tons of good stuff in there!