DIY Hair Elastics inspired by Pinterest & the Blogs!

I bought a set of ribbon hair ties over a year ago from one of my favorite online shops. I adore them and they lasted me a little over a year, however they were $8.00 for eight elastics!!! I stumbled upon about a zillion versions of these on Pinterest and I was intrigued! Then I saw them on several of my favorite blogs and websites (Oh So Pretty The Diaries, Love U Madly, and Simple Medicine.) These lovely ladies made it look so fun & I easy that I decided to give it a try!

I got my elastic from the Sunshine Shoppe - I purchased a yard of four different colors (turquoise, hot pink, eggplant and black) for a little over $8.50 including shipping and I was able to make 16 elastics!!

Step 1: Fold the yard of elastics into four parts, cut in half once then cut the remaining two parts in half again.

 Here we have all my colors chopped into fourths and ready to go!

 Step 2: Fold one of the pieces in half.

Step 3: Twist and tie in a knot - then hold the looped end and gently tug the knot towards the open end to tighten it up.

 Step 4: Cut the excess elastic at an angle.

Step 5: Lightly burn the edges to prevent fraying - I only had to pass the flame over them for about a second before they sealed up. (Notice I have no picture of this as I am a bit too klutzy to attempt to take a picture whilst burning something!!)

Presto! Finished elastics!

They were so easy! I was done in a matter of minutes!! I ended up with twice the amount of elastics for just about the same price. You cannot beat that!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I hope you and your families have a wonderful and relaxing holiday!

Word of the Day Posters with Definitions and Context

This resource has been updated with a clean new look - click here to read about the changes!

This pack includes 200 Words designed to help boost your students vocabulary. Each word has a definition and a context sentence included to increase your students understanding of the word.

Sight Word Wall

My first grade Intervention group is working on increasing their sight word recognition, so I wanted to create a word wall that would catch their eyes!

I included the Pre-Primer and the Primer sight words in this set. 

 

For the word wall headers, I used pink for the background on all the consonants and green for the background on the vowels to help my students with isolating the vowels visually on the wall.

My students were very excited about the wall when they came in today, a few of them even used it already! 

This set is available in my Tpt shop. Click the pictures above for more information!

Thanks for stopping by!

Updating a Necklace Flop

This necklace is one that I made about 3 years ago. It was Gossip Girl inspired and I was so excited to make it! I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like - so I went to Michaels (and spent about $30ish dollars on it) and voilà my necklace!

Or not..you see this thing is heavy and by heavy I mean ridiculously heavy! The clamps would dig into my neck leaving pink dents after a long day of school. In fact it even broke twice! Once last year whilst I was standing in the hall waiting for Intervention to start. (It is not at all embarrassing to have your necklace fling itself from your body for no apparent reason when you are talking to your coworkers!)  And then again this year when I wearily sat down to eat my lunch. That was the moment when I decided that it need a facelift!

Step 1: Disassemble the offense necklace.

Step 2: Realign the necklace into two smaller - and less heavy necklaces!!

Step 3: Gather beads and clasps (from my fabulous bead drawers courtesy of Kristen!)

                 

She even got me this awesome bottles! It is so much easier to find all my bead pieces now! She is the best sissy ever!

                               

Step 4: Mangle and force wires to cooperate, stick new clamps on and presto! Two new necklaces!

A close up of necklace 1:

A close up of necklace 2:

                              

Step 5: Cleanup the mess! (The least fun part of beading) But at least I have two fabulous new necklaces to wear this week!

                  

Beading is definitely my most relaxing hobby, even more so when my results are successful!  Does anyone else make their own jewelry? I would love to hear all about it in the comments below!

Computer Lab Word Walls

In the past I had a word wall in Computer Lab, but this year I decided to revamp it. I wanted it to tie in more with my color scheme and to stand out more on the plain walls. I was thrilled with how it turned out and my students seem to enjoy it too! One of my fifth graders was absent for a few days when I made these changes. When she came back she told me that she loves how all the signs and colors go together. I adore comments like that - it totally made my day! The other teachers that use the Lab like the Keyboard Shortcut wall a lot, a few have said they will be coming by to study it! 

The Keyboard Shortcuts are available for both Mac & PC (command + or ctrl +). I went with the bulletin board this year, instead of my usual word wall.  This is the first thing everyone sees when they come to Computer Lab, and I do see my students reading it and using it a lot!

This set includes the Keyboard Shortcut Sign and 10 shortcuts, 30 computer terms which can be used for a Word Wall or as a bulletin board.

I also included reminder signs for shutting down the computers, putting away headphones (something that is forgotten a lot in my room at least!) and an End of the Day checklist for the person who leaves the room last. 

The Computer Lab is also used by the after school program and these signs have been a great way to remind whoever is in charge for the day about what needs to be completed before leaving.

I put all these items into a pack which is in both my TpT shop!

This set is also available with a white background in both my TpT shop!

I hope everyone had a great Monday and thanks for visiting my blog!

Looking for more classroom decor? Check out this blog post!

Onset & Rime Game Short Vowel Game

This game has 6 rime boards: 1 for each short vowel & 1 mixed vowel board for reviewing. It also has two sets of onset cards.

The flowered  cards are for single consonants and the blue cards are for blends & digraphs.

To play this game the students will roll the dice & read the rime they land on. Next, they will choose two onset cards and blend each sound together with the rime. If they land on "ack" they will read the rime and then turn over two onset cards (ex: s and bl) they will then say "sack"&  "black."

I also included grayscale versions for all of the game boards and cards.

The bright and beautiful backgrounds are digital papers by Maree Truelove.

This game is available at my TpT store.


Have a great night!

Things I Love October Edition

Black Crackle Polish, pretty much over any nail polish, but definitely over these China Glaze Neon colors!

Theses are a teeny bit chipped, I forgot to take a picture before school and very rarely do my manicures stay chipless for a day!

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting! I made these lovelies on Friday night...they were utterly delicious! Sadly many were, well, tossed for lack of a better word, due to soggy tops and sliding frosting. I definitely prefer a non-soggy cupcake! I think I may have been a bit hasty and frosted a wee bit too soon!

My newest -thus most favorite - purse! It is rose gold and sparkly - and it came with an adorable wristlet! I am so smitten with it!

My new Madden Girl boots to replace my boots from last year that only made it one season. (I have a bad habit of tapping my heels when I am sitting - which is detrimental to my shoes!) 

My adorable Sam & Libby Zees! I have four pairs of these darling shoes now! The first three I was able to snag for $19.99 apiece. However the last pair sadly cost me $29.99! I could not find a better deal and I could not risk missing out on these black leopard print flats!

I hope you are all staying safe if you are in Sandy's path!

Simple (and Cheap!) Writing Notebooks

We go through notebooks at a rapid rate in my classroom! I work in the Computer Lab for Intervention in Grades 1-5. I usually have about 15 students per grade in the room for each Intervention Block. We tend to switch groups every 6-8 weeks, but oftentimes sooner based on student needs.  In the past I have felt that the very moment I made up a notebook for a student was when they either moved or switched groups! I decided to find a cheaper, easier and less wasteful way to give my class their own personalized Writing Notebooks that will not go to waste when their time in Computer Lab is up. 

I have piles of scrapbook paper that I have either bought or been given over the years. Now there are lots of crafty things that I love to do, but scrapbooking has just never become one of them! I think I lack the patience one needs to do all that cutting and gluing! I decided to round up all my paper and use it for the notebooks.

These are my first graders notebooks. I used five pieces of paper and one scrapbook piece for the cover.  (I let them choose their own covers and I never bother with a back cover, they work just as well without one.) For my older students I do the same thing - but with eight to ten pieces small lined paper stapled on the long side.

I used these notebooks all last year and my students adored them! They loved personalizing their own books and I loved how they actually filled up the whole book! (I always find half filled notebooks annoying - it is such a waste of paper!) Some students preferred to add new pieces to the same book and some wanted to take their notebook home to their family as soon as it was filled. They were actually such a hit that I gave a fresh notebook to all my Intervention kiddos at the end of the year and they were thrilled!  I think I will end up running out of scrapbook paper soon but I know that I can get a great deal on one of those giant packs when that time finally comes!

What are some money saving tricks you use to supply your classrooms needs?

R Controlled Vowel Games

I always feel so bad early readers who are just beginning to gain confidence with decoding when they come to one of the dreaded R Controlled Words!! The reader follows all the rules, but it just does not make sense - no matter how they sound it out! I wanted to create a game that would help them to see, and memorize, the various combinations of letters that make up each R Controlled sound.

There are seven gameboards included in this set:

2 "are" boards (ex: yarn, jar, charm, tarp..)

2 "or" boards (ex: short, cord, fork, torch...)

2 "er" boards (ex: blur, skirt, fern, stir..)

and 1 "air" board (ex: pair, mare, bear, fair...) 

I also included a grayscale version for each board. I like to send these copies home with my students for extra practice.

This set is available in my Tpt shop!

Thanks for stopping by!