Monday Made It: I've been building!

Ok, so for some reason, I thought today was Monday Made It!  Obviously I'm a little behind.  Oh well, It's my Monday Made It time!!!!  I'm so excited to be linking up today with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for her monthly Monday Made It linky party!

So my made it's are mostly for home.  I've been in a very organizing place lately.  I'm trying to pair down and organize what's left.  One thing I've been trying to do is get rid of all the "stuff" on my kitchen counters.  We had tons of spices on the counter and so I decided that I needed to make build this!

There are awesome directions over at Ana White's website and there is a picture tutorial over at Shanty 2 Chic (which is one of my new favorite non-teaching blogs).  I had a few hiccups along the way and needed some major help from both my hubby and my mom.  I had to make several trips to Lowe's and got a few new tools in the process. In the end I am very proud of how it turned out!

Empty spicerack

Full Spicerack

Then I decided that I wanted to make another holder to hang on the pantry door to put all of our plastic baggies and tin foil type stuff.  I made two and that let me clear out another drawer.

Then I was able to create a "junk drawer" and get rid of the mail organizer turned junk holder that was on the counter!  I'm trying hard to keep it organized!!!

The last MMI is probably the project I've been most proud of in a very long time!  My sweet teaching partner has 3 kids who are all in school now and she has been going through and cleaning out their old toys.  She asked me last week if I wanted to have an old playhouse that was in rough shape for free! Here it is before and during the cleaning process.

  Of course I said yes!!!!  I had seen several playhouse makeovers on Pinterest and knew this was a project for me.  I picked up the playhouse on Friday and finally got it finished yesterday afternoon!  I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

It's not perfect by any means, but I love the way it turned out and my sweet little girl loves to play in it!

Please excuse the messy onsie!  She had an orange that went EVERYWHERE!

What have you been making?  Don't forget to head over to Tara's blog to check out the rest of the Made It's!

Peek at my Week: 4-14-14

After two weeks of unusual class time - test prep and actual testing- I am very much looking forward to getting back to a normal week!

I'm linking up with Jennifer over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her Peek at my Week linky party!

We are wrapping up our unit on fractions this week before we start delving into decimals.  My kids will be working on this bakery project and these fraction task cards from Teaching with a Mountain View to make sure they are ready for their unit test on Friday!

I've mentioned before that I alternate teaching science and social studies each quarter.  For the last quarter of the year, I will be teaching social studies.  I bought this Weekly Science pack from Science Penguin in one of the last big TpT sales and I haven't had a chance to use it yet!

We are starting at the beginning with matter.  I'm planning on doing the stations whole group this week, so my students get the idea of how each station will work and what is expected from them at each station.  Everything you need is laid out for you in this resource with a teacher resource page for each week.  I worked on getting everything put together in the afternoons after testing was over last week.  I'm super excited to use this resource!  My kids love science and hopefully using this resource will ensure without a doubt that I will get to science every day. 

Last but definitely not least, I have parent/teacher conferences this week!  Report cards went home last Tuesday and this week I will be meeting with all my parents.  I've got all of my conferences scheduled and I should get done in 4 days!  It's going to be another long week!  

Five for Friday

WOW!!!!  It has been such a LONG week, but isn't testing week always super long?  I'm so glad it's Friday and that I am headed towards a relaxing weekend.  It's been awhile since I've had my act together together to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday but today is that day!!!!

TESTING IS OVER!!!!!  

Last year's test released items!  I have no idea of course what was on this year's test

We have 4 days of testing here in Arkansas over reading, writing, and math. My kiddos finished testing yesterday and boy does it feel good!  I ripped down all the chart paper covering my classroom as soon as we finished the test. My feet and back are tired from all the walking, too!

I've been working hard on my reading over the past few weeks.  I've read two more of the Charlie May Simon books and now I'm reading Junonia by Kevin Henkes. 

After I finish this book, I'll only have 3 left!  They've already put out next year's list, so maybe I'll get started earlier! 

 My kids have started giving me books to read now, which I love!

I wrote about completing the Hour of Code with my students here back in December.  Well since we didn't really have much of an afternoon any day this week, I decided that we would code with our extra time.  My kids LOVE it and it's so good for their problem solving skills!  I also got back into code, because the kids were getting ahead of me and I couldn't have that! 

Tuesday, was my hubby's birthday!  He's 6 months older than me and I love to rub it in his face!!! He's OLD!!!! And by old I mean 27!!! LOL!  We had a chill night of Chicago Style pizza and a movie at home.  

My sweet little girl had her 15 month check up yesterday.  I can't believe how big she is getting or how long her hair is getting!  She's in the 9th percentile.  Dr. says she's in perfect health and was impressed by how many words she knows, that she uses sign language, and that she can walk on her tip toes!  I love being her mommy!

Tried it Tuesday: Graphite Field Notes

WOAH!!!!  Can you believe it?! 3 posts in 3 days!!!!  I was very busy on Sunday! Ha! Oh and Happy April Fools Day!

I love Tuesdays because I love getting to see what all my blogging buddies out there in blogland are trying over at Holly's Tried It Tuesday Linky Party!

Have you ever gone looking for an app or website with a specific content, purpose, or task in mind only to be overloaded with all of the options out there?  I can tell you that this has happened to me many times and I often just choose the app/site that pops up first.  I can also tell you that just because it's listed first, doesn't mean it's the best product for whatever is I'm needing.  I like being able to look at reviews.  It's how I decide on most of my purchases, like my new iPad mini, by reading the reviews.
Well to solve the problem of the app/site overload, I would like to introduce you to Graphite by Common Sense Media!

This site has TONS of reviews of apps/sites by real teachers!  What's even better is that you can review apps/sites by creating "Field Notes" on a review.  These field notes tell other teachers exactly what you think of the app/site.  You can say what you like or don't like, how you use it in your classroom, and what your students are able to learn by using this app/site.  So really this "Tried It" is writing Field Notes for Graphite! There was also a little incentive I came across that if you wrote 2 field notes before March 31, they would send you a thank you gift in the way of a $25 Amazon gift card!  Who can't use free money for telling what you think about apps that you use in your classroom! I'll let you know if/when my free money arrives!  I'm so excited to explore this site more and have my 4th graders complete their digital citizen passport!

I found this little gem from Jenny at Sun Tans and Lesson Plans!  I was so inspired by her that now I'm working on becoming a Certified Education in Digital Citizenship!  Thanks Jenny!

Make sure you head over to Fourth Grade Flipper to see what everyone else is trying!