Monday Made-It Full of Freebies!

Get your printer ink ready, friends, and get comfy... this is a long post full of printables for you to show off what I've been doing this past week!

First of all... last week Krista at Stellar Students shared her RAK jar and I LOVED it!  However, we're a Bucket Filler school so I wanted to do something like her, but more Bucket Filler-y.  So, this was born...

Inside of this jar are lots of little cards with things students can do to fill a bucket!  I'm thinking we'll pull one a day during our morning meeting and the challenge will be for each student to do that task at some point during the day.  If you want a copy of what I made, click the picture below!

Krista was kind enough to allow me to share my file with you all.  If you want to see her original file (which also has free printables!) click her blog button below!
I also updated my class schedule cards.  I made some last year with Scrappin' Doodles graphics, which I love, but I felt like they were still kind of little for my 3rd graders.  So, my true graphics obsession is KPM Doodles.  I just bought my 80th graphics set from her... that's right friends... EIGHTY! sets and I LOVE them!  So, I made new schedule cards for my class...

I displayed them on my front door, much to my hubby's dismay!, so I could take a picture to show you...

The good news is... you can click the picture below to download the cards!  I added a few that I thought might be needed by other teachers too.

I know you've seen the inserts for the 3-drawer containers that are all over Pinterest.  My building is being cleaned so I can't go in to show you what I'm talking about, but I also made some drawer inserts!  Most of them say "Copy", "Grade", "File", but I wanted some because I store stuff for my reading groups in these drawers too... see?

Right now they just have stickers with the group numbers on them, but soon they will have these gems on the inside!

I also made cards for my writing area because those drawers just have labels on them too!  If you click on the picture below, you can download my group cards, writing area cards, AND I made "Copy", "File", and "Grade" cards too!

Phew!  Can you believe there is ONE MORE THING I have to share?!

I've been seeing printable for teacher binders everywhere online and on Pinterest and I had to make my own!  My current binder looks like this:

And the talented Ashley Hughes has a paper pack that is perfect for this binder... and her pack is free on TpT!  Click the pick to check out her paper pack.

So, anyway... here are some snapshots of how my binder pages turned out...

 

So there are something like 13 different sections in my binder for grades, AR, parent contacts, Success Time (which is our RTI time), schedules, etc...

I also added a section for subs...

It is complete with a packet of information to answer any question a sub might have...

 and a page of sub rules that found on Amy Lemons' blog... (this is Amy's pic, btw)...

Here's what I put in my binder.  It's laminated and says at the top that the sub can put it up on the board and go over it with students.  I love my 3rd graders so much but we had some real issues on sub days this year.  My favorite was when I got a glowing note from a sub and as I was praising them up and down for it, one of my girl's eyes were bugging out of her head and she was frantically shaking her head "NO!" because they had actually had a horrible day!  Gotta love their honesty... and how they tell on themselves all the time!  Anyway, I think this will be a big help this coming year!

I also updated everything for my 100 Club for Reading!  I LOVE this "club"!  If you didn't see my blog post about it, click the picture below to go see what all the fuss is about.  If you want to motivate your kids to read, this is the thing for you!

  
So, that's what I've been doing!  My printer is tired and my little laminator is too... not to mention the billions of miniscule pieces of laminating that are in my carpet!

If you download any of these freebies, please leave a comment.  I'd love to know how you plan to use them and that you love them too!  I love hearing from you ladies and gentlemen!

I can't wait to check out what everyone made this week so I can get busy on some new items inspired by all of you!  So, link up with Tara and show off what you've been making!
 

Last thing- Michigan blogger meet up!!!  It's THIS Saturday!!!  Patty from 2ndinline and I are getting together this week to work on some surprises for our friends who attend!!!!  Hope to see you there!  Please please please RSVP- just click that blue and white button over there on the top, right side of my blog.  See it?  Feel free to spread the word on your blog too!  The more the merrier!

Ask And Ye Shall Receive...

I had a request for a set of fillable class grids that were NOT monthly themed... and... hot off the presses, here it is!

Find it on TpT!

This set has 30 themed grids that range from subject areas to gnomes to s'mores!  What a fun way to get organized!

The file itself is a zipped file- inside is a PDF file that isn't editable and a Powerpoint file that IS editable... down to adding your own page headings too!

They'll be on sale for $5.00 for the weekend!  If you need to get organized or want to create your own grade book, this might be just the thing for you!  Check out the preview file to see everything that is included.

I also have a monthly themed one that I LOVE and use for checking off homework, Reading Response Journal completion, and AR points!

Teacher Books... how to keep 'em organized!

I'm not here today!  I'm guest blogging over at the famous Holly @ Crisscross Applesauce in First Grade!





Head over and find out how I turned this:

Into this:

And to grab yourself a great freebie!

Here's a hint...

Go see me at Holly's!

Stuff-date: An update on STUFF and a spelling FREEBIE!

I posted a few weeks ago about organizing community supplies and table caddies... and got tons of helpful suggestions. Well, I thought I had it figured out... but after filling my future students' seat sacks today with mini-offices, white boards, and math books there was virtually no room left for folders, notebooks, or anything else!

I went online to Lakeshore Learning and found these:


So... way too much money later, I am the proud owner of four of these supply stations- one for each table group. I think they will be perfect... and white boards, mini-offices, and science journals can fit snugly on the rack at the bottom!

Second Stuff-date:

I also asked for some advice on spelling and running a *potentially* student selected list. I'm feeling really crunched for time to organize something new, so I am going to start the year using my old system- running a 1st grade list, a 2nd grade list, and a 2nd/3rd grade list. But *hope* to do some tweaking and implement a new, improved system later in the year in which students will have some ownership over their words. To start, I'm going to have students complete this page for homework during the first week of school. I *may* use these as spelling words for them (one or two a week)... or I might just put them in their writing folders for use during that time. As yet, I'm undecided... what do you think? How would you (or will you!) use it?

Ok... that's it! Have a good week! :)

Giveaway Time!

I haven't done a giveaway in a while so I thought this would be the perfect time to get one started! I'm getting ready to head back to school but Michigan schools don't start until the Tuesday after Labor Day... but I know lots of you are going back any day now and some have already started!

This giveaway is the PERFECT item to help you stay organized in the classroom. It is for a set of class grids you can use to check off who has done what in your room each month. I use mine for homework... but if you printed off a few sets and grouped the months together, it would make a great grade book too! The cover and left hand columns on each page are fillable in Adobe and, to make it even easier, the names duplicate on each page so you only have to type them in once and... viola! Your pages all have names on them!


This giveaway is going to run until Wednesday night and then I'll choose three winners who will each get a copy of my "Check Please!- A set of monthly check off grids" for the classroom! This file is available at my TpT store too so if you don't win and think you'd like one, you can head over and pick one up!

All you need to do to enter is leave me a comment and (if you have a blog) spread the word about this to others... if you blog about it, leave a 2nd comment to be entered TWICE!!!! On Wednesday, I'll choose three winners by random number generator.

Good luck and happy class gridding!